The four of us strolled deeper into the square, bracing balletic snowflakes that leapt and twirled and performed pirouettes in our faces before they, almost affectionately, brushed our blue lips and lay to rest on our shoulders. We were quiet as we walked, the cold forcing my mind to drift to forbidden places.
As I thought of her, my gaze wandered to my left, past the storefronts, on the eastside horizon, among a slew of smoke-heaving chimneys puffing into gray cloudy skies, to where the Cantini Manor formidably cast its shadow.
For almost a week, my days had been spent helping Zephyr manage Goody Estate, care for the coven, and search for anything the others could have missed about the Shadows in the founders’ journals.
My nights had been spent with Adora in the tunnels, folding ourselves together beside a fire and reading chapters of Alec & Circe, pretending she wasn’t to be married, and I wasn’t a Heathen from an opposing coven.
I resented how fast the night passed. Each time morning arrived, I awoke in bed at the Goody property, her missing from my arms as though the night I’d spent with her had never happened. The wedding was fast approaching, and everything between us was about to change.
I ripped my eyes away from Cantini Manor and slipped inside Mina Mae’s Diner, following Julian, Phoenix, and Beck to a table in the back corner. Down parkas, cashmere scarves, and matching earmuffs occupied nearly every other table. Chapped faces thawed over a steaming cup of coffee, contemptuous gazes watching us as I slid into the booth beside Julian.
“We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore,” Beck muttered across from me in the corner, blowing hot air into his ragged cotton gloves that hardly kept his hands warm, then rubbing them together close to his face.
Mina Mae was granted a generator for the purpose of opening her doors to raise money for the less fortunate.
Julian had insisted it would be an opportunity for us to show our support for Mina and the town. However, by the nerves in their expressions, I could see that perhaps it wasn’t such a wise idea after all.
A girl approached the table. She was small, no taller than five feet high and sucking on a pen. Boy-like jeans thrice the size too big hung from her hips, dark hair hit at her chest under a baseball cap, andCleowas printed in the enamel pinned to her shirt on her breast.
“You’re new,” she said, staring at me with brown eyes that were much kinder than her tone. She took the pen out of her mouth. “What do you want?”
Julian nudged his chin. “Just four coffees will do.”
Beck gave him a stern, disapproving look. “What? No hotcakes?”
“No hotcakes,” Julian confirmed, his eyes scouring the restaurant. “I doubt we’ll be staying long enough to eat them.”
Then Cleo walked off, holes in her jeans running down the length of her legs.
“Hey, Romeo,” Phoenix barked across from me, throwing a sugar packet in my face. “Mina will have your ass if she catches you looking at her like that.”
“I was not ogling,” I explained, throwing the packet back at him. “Is she Mina’s daughter?”
“No.” Julian leaned back, crossed his arms over his chest, and hid his mouth behind his fingers. Beck and Phoenix exchanged glances, and Julian continued, “Mina took her in when she was six after both of her parents died twelve years ago.”
I scanned their ominous expressions. “What happened to her parents?”
Julian laid his hand on the table, looking down at his fingers.
“I killed them,” he said, tapping his thumb.
“She doesn’t know,” Beck rushed to say. “No one knows. Cleo’s just always been a grumpy pain in the ass. According to Cleo, Mina, and everyone else, her parents skipped town and left her behind.”
“Like how everyone else skipped town or disappeared,” I said, disapproval in every space between.
Julian leaned in. “I was thirteen. It was not long after my father’s execution. I didn’t want to kill them. I’ve never wanted to kill anyone. There’s a lot you don’t know, and a lot you weren’t here for.”
I raked my hair back. “I’m assuming these are secrets that stay between the five of us.”
Julian’s seriousness crowded his features. “If the town knew the truth of the things we’ve done, we would all burn for them.”
“I’m tired of sugar coating the truth, alright?” Phoenix leaned in with agitation stirring inside him. “Your mother did this,” he said in absolution. “She found a way to control Julian’s shadow-blood and used him to kill these people. That’s the truth, Romeo.” He fell back into the booth.
I’d read this in the journal, and I’d forgotten the lengths she’d gone to break the curse. “She visited me when I arrived on Bone Island. She wanted me to find a way to bring her back.”
Julian chuckled. “Not resting in peace in the afterlife, is she?”
Their voices faded as coffee arrived.
