August didn’t answer. He couldn’t.
Marlow settled onto the ground near the entrance, and a moment later, Felix joined her, back pressed to the wall.
August closed his eyes. It took an eternity for his pulse to settle. He could feel the others watching, waiting for an answer.
“The anchored,” he said at last. He opened his eyes and met Felix’s gaze. “They push into my head. Make me feel their deaths.”
Something dark flashed in Felix’s expression. “Have they always been able to do that?”
August shook his head against the rough ground. “Only since—” he couldn’t get himself to finish the sentence.
Since he tore open the veil and murdered thousands of people. Since he ran away, leaving it to spread like a plague through his home. Ithadto be the tear. It didn’t explain the woman in the castle, but the anchored at the cottage, Lottie, the whispers and the imaginary deaths. The anchored must be drawing power from the tear.
Oh gods.What would happen when he entered the city?
You can make them stop.
August had to fix the veil. It was the only way they’d lose their hold over him. Then he’d never open another tear again. It would go back to the way it was. He could return to ignoring them. Pretending he was normal.
“How long before you’re good to move?” Felix asked, back to his usual indifference.
August scoffed. “Next year sometime.” He desperately needed to sleep.
“I’m wrecked, too,” Marlow interjected. She gave August a look that lacked her usual bitterness.
With a frustrated sigh, Felix said, “Fine. We’ll rest here until nightfall. Easier to get past the Watch in the dark, anyway.” He lay flat, facing the high ceiling, his arm folded beneath his head, trouser leg rolled up to his knee.
Quiet settled over them. Sheep bleated in the distance, and a few talkative crows cawed and clicked somewhere inside the tall barn. If August focused, he just could pick out the sounds of the city. His city.
Felix idly summoned Silas in a puff of smoke, startling the crows, who loudly voiced their complaints. The raven floated across the barn and landed beside August.
A flicker of warmth at the familiar sight.
It made him think of The Raven’s Perch, of sitting at the bar with Felix after the rest of the patrons had gone. He’d done the same thing back then, using his magic whenever he could, like he was making up for all the time spent having to hide it.
He shouldn’t have had to hide it.
“Oh,” Felix said suddenly. Silas dissipated, and he pulled something from his pocket, holding it up between his fingers. He gave August a tilted glance. “What is this?”
August recognized the round piece of metal instantly.
“I dug it out of Benjamin’s arm after I killed him.”
Felix and Marlow’s eyes both went round.
“Sorry, after you what?” Marlow snarled. And just like that, the hatred in her eyes was back.
“To be fair,” August said, “he tried to kill me first.”
Felix sat up. “Alright, I’m going to need a lot more onallof that.”
Felix balled his fists as August explained what had happened at the house in Haverglen, keeping his muscles tight and body perfectly still as he fought to keep the rage from bubbling over.
Benjamin had betrayed them. It had taken Felix so long to finally trust the man, and it turned out his initial instinct was right after all. But he couldn’t have been working for Ashcroft while they were in Bedwyck. He’d helped them.
No, this was recent. This was a coward making a play to save his own pathetic life. And it had gotten not only him killed, but everyone else in that place.
Felix was glad he was dead. He hoped he was burning in the lower hell.
