The City of Crows by Bethany Lovejoy (novels in english .txt) 📗

out to old friends, go and see my mother, start doing typical, normal human things. Before all of this, I used to like going to the beach with my friends and spending the whole day on the boardwalk; I’d like to do that again.” He cleared his throat, straightening up from the couch, “There are other things, of course, but… I want to wait and see on those.” His tongue ran across his lips, voice full of want, “but the second I know that I can have them, I’m taking them.”

A pause, the air was heavy with silence.

“I think I wanted him to be someone who was really romantic,” I rounded back to our previous discussion, somehow, it had become the easiest thing to speak about. “Someone who I could have fun with, someone who always interests me, and someone who I know cares about me more than himself.” There was something more there, something that I just couldn’t say. “I really wanted him to be that person, I really wanted to be normal, and I thought that maybe if he were like that and I was with him--”

“Lyra, you could never be normal,” I blinked up at him, and he immediately realized his mistake. Rounding the couch, he plopped down beside me, voice apologetic as he attempted to explain, “I mean that in a good way. I just-- Not to me, you wouldn’t be just normal to me. I mean, you’re so--” He sighed, his head lowering. “I guess I barely know you in a lot of ways, so I can’t speak about it but, I think that what I do know, the little things, magic or not, those are pretty amazing.”

“You actually believe she’ll help you?” I asked for the umpteenth time, standing beside Leo as he waited for the bus a few feet beyond the stop. It was ironic, he would be going to the mayor’s house in a city bus instead of a fancy car. But it was just another thing in line with who he was. Leo didn’t want her to drive him or pay him any favors outside of this. “I mean, you think she’s going to know what’s going on and reach out to help you?”

“Dalia said she would,” Leo explained with an air of impatience, his toes tapping against the concrete as he waited for the bus to come. “I have faith that Dalia wouldn’t lie to me.”

“You just met her,” I complained.

I didn’t need to see his face to know there was amusement on it. She wasn’t the only person he’d just met, only to trust entirely almost immediately. And yet…

“Leo, she really told you to trust Lobdel with this?” I said in a half murmur, casting a wary glance in his direction. “Again, I don’t know if you’ve missed your city history lessons, but Lobdel’s family has hated witches for as long as they’ve existed. You can’t walk in there and ask if there’s anything fishy going on in the magic department--”

“Lyra, I trust her.”

“Leo, politicians are known to lie.” What was it my mother once said? Oh, right, “a politician will tell you that you’re not drowning when you’re eyes deep in the Atlantic ocean.”

Leo bit back a laugh, “You worry too much.” He shook his head, watching once more for the bus to come. “I’ll be back, I promise. And when I am, we’ll have another place to go, another thing to do, and we’ll plan accordingly. I’m not scared of seeing her.” And there it was, contact. Warm, soft fingertips against my hand, “You just wait for me, Lyra.”

Why did it feel like I was waiting for so much more than just him coming home?

The bus came into view, screeching brakes and a rattling engine announcing its arrival. I needed those cues, my eyes were far too busy taking in Leo to say anything else. It was then, the softest of breezes and the smallest of smiles on his face, that I knew—his skin against mine, the promise that he would return. There were words to the excitement, words to the comfort, and words to the desire. They almost formed on my lips; a whispered don’t go, a need for him to stay there with me. But it was selfishness, and I couldn’t let it overcome me.

“You take the day off,” Leo said, “stay home and stay busy.”

He pulled away from me, walking to the bus like he was boldly charging into the future. I suppose, to him, he was. He spared me only a single glance back, and I wondered if he felt it too. Did he desperately want to stay?

It didn’t matter. The second his foot stepped onto the bus, I knew. I couldn’t leave things up to Pat Lobdel, I couldn’t trust her.

Withdrawing my phone, I opened my messages. A secret, one that I didn’t tell Leo hiding amongst them. The only change was that now, I knew the reason for it. I looked up just as the bus began to depart if only to make sure that he stayed on it. I couldn’t have him get off, I couldn’t have him know. When the tires screamed once more and the bus lurched forward, I was relieved to see that Leo was not there.

I stepped into the bus shelter with only a single glance back at the vehicle he rode in, knowing that if I looked more than once, then my resolve would falter. I couldn’t risk it, not when Leo’s life hung on the line.

The sign to the left of me flashed just as my phone vibrated. I didn’t bother to check it, I only looked at the timetable to reaffirm where I was going. Henley to Magictown, five-minute wait. I wouldn’t change my mind in those five minutes.

Rowan was waiting.

17

Not Who You Think

My feet hung over the edge of a glittering skyline, the city turning on its lights as the evening sun began to set. The lights