“My favorite part of Fallowmoor,” Felix replied. “It’s where I lived for most of my life, until we got the pub.”
From up here, August could see where the city shifted—tenement buildings and factories giving way to the domes and spires of the Crestwell District to the north, and the modest brownstones of Conaeld to the northwest. At their meeting point lay the open sweep of the market square. Beyond Crestwell, faint against the dark sky, rose the silhouette of the castle.
He forced his gaze from his home and looked down at the street below. A cat lounged lazily on the edge of a low building. Curtains billowed from a dark window, thrown open to let in the cool night air. Soft piano notes drifted from another. A man walking by stumbled, shouting something slurred and incoherent as a cart creaked past. Somewhere nearby, metal clanged loudly, the sound echoing down the narrow lane, followed by laughter that floated above the buildings. The harsh tang of tanneries and factory smoke curled together with the smell of food cooking, and beneath it, the faint scent of incoming rain.
“I love it,” August said softly.
When the food was gone and their stomachs full, Felix crumpled the papers and tossed them aside.
Something moved in the shadows of the massive room, and August startled, his eyes snapping toward the shape. The man’s arm was twisted at an unnatural angle, half his skull caved in. An anchored. Not surprising in a place with heavy cargo and high drops. Violent deaths led to tethered souls.
“What’s wrong?” Felix asked, watching him closely.
“Nothing. Must have been a pigeon or something.”
Felix studied him another moment, eyes narrowed, before he scooted forward, his leg brushing against August’s as he joined him in the windowsill.
The anchored man didn’t acknowledge them, only paced the length of the floor, then dragged himself down the stairs at a creeping pace.
“So, you’re afraid of birds,” Felix said, “but not heights.”
“It’s a perfectly reasonable fear,” August retorted. “Heights won’t peck your eyes out, but a bird certainly will.”
Felix laughed. “Any other perfectly reasonable fears I should know before I plan our next outing?”
Warmth spread through August at the ease with which Felix spoke of a next time, and he decided in that moment therewouldbe one.
“I hate enclosed spaces.”
With an enthusiastic nod, Felix said, “Me too. We’ll avoid that one. What else?”
Ruling, August answered silently.The anchored, someone learning my secret, being sent to Fallowmoor prison for a power I never even wanted.
None of those fears he could share, so he simply said, “My mother.”
Felix gave him a searching look. “Is that why you’re staying with your cousin?”
August regretted opening his mouth. He didn’t want to lie to Felix more than he had to. “I just needed to get away for a while, that’s all.”
“Do you plan on going back?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
Felix must have sensed his discomfort, because he turned back to the city and said lightly, “I suppose it’s my turn then.” He paused, thinking. “I’m afraid of dying before I’ve donesomething that matters. I’m afraid of being forgotten, and that my life won’t count for anything.”
A twinge of guilt stirred in August at the raw honesty in the words, and for a moment, he wished he could tell Felix the truth.
Then Felix added with a smile, “And those damned little ceramic gnomes they leave in their gardens in the Crestwell District.”
The answer was so bizarre, such a sudden, jarring shift in tone, that August choked out a surprised laugh.
“But you think my fear of birds is strange?”
“Blame Marlow,” Felix said. “She stole one once, and I woke to the cursed thing in my bed.” He winced. “Its awful little face wasrightthere, staring at me. Don’t think I’ll ever be over it.”
As the rain fell, the conversation drifted to the upcoming summer, and by the time they climbed back down the stairs and started toward the market square, August had all but forgotten the banquet and his brief meltdown.
Felix offered to walk him home, but August, of course, declined, and they parted ways with their plans for the coming weeks already in place.
