The City of Crows by Bethany Lovejoy (great books to read .txt) 📕

for him, another face amongst the crowd. He takes their form as he pleases, curses them beyond belief, and in exchange, he gifts them with powers beyond their wildest dreams; the ability to defy death if that’s what they want.”

I couldn’t move, I couldn’t fight. Something about his words felt so ominous, that it was practically paralyzing.

“I put my name in the book,” he admitted. “I signed it in my blood, alongside Pat Lobdel’s, Tommy Marklebee, Angie Summer, and half the city. Your mother’s name was there, but it was crossed out, the only woman who has ever beaten the devil.”

My blood ran cold, the hair on the back of my neck standing up. “What are you talking about? Rowan, that’s--”

“That’s why everything is perfectly aligned,” Rowan explained. “That’s why the human found you, even though he’s not supposed to have. I bet the old woman told him too, you were never meant to have met him, you were supposed to be mine. But the devil works in strange ways, and if he can’t have Lydia Wynne, then he’ll have you. Even if it means he has to kill a human on the way, even if it means that he had to tempt you with a hopeless pawn, use some sad man’s hope to lure you into the same realm as us.” He leaned forward further, whispering into my ear with near ecstasy, “and when you sign your name in the book so that you can save him, he’ll take it all away. The human won’t even be able to look at you, knowing that you’ve sold your soul, your sacrifice will mean nothing. That’s the nature of humanity.”

My hands knotted, eyes clenched shut as I tried, to the best of my ability, to remind myself that Rowan was capable of lying. It wasn’t true, things like this couldn’t be true, not even in the world of wizardry--

“I know you Lyra, you won’t let him sign his own name. If he did, you wouldn’t even be able to look at him.”

“You’re lying,” I hissed out of my clenched jaw, eyes so tightly shut that I saw white. “You’re lying to me because you’re mad, you’re jealous. You’re upset that I could do it, that I could love someone who is so different from you. You want him to die--”

“Ah,” finally, he withdrew from me, his vocalization like a sigh of relief. Something he’d long suspected confirmed. “I bet you wanted to save that for him, didn’t you? You always had these romantic ideas, Lyra. Of course, you wanted Leo to hear it first.” My eyes flew open, an indignant response on the tip of my tongue beaten to the chase by his words, “Don’t worry, I’m sure once he’s back from the Lobdel’s he’ll be happy to hear it.”

All the air left my body, my heart stopped. Through strangled lips, I managed to murmur, “I didn’t say he was at the Lobdel’s.”

His mouth grew wide, stretching in a way that was almost inhuman. In his forest green eyes, there was a glint, a momentary look of glee. “It’s crazy the sort of things that get around, isn’t it?” His head cocked at me; his eyebrows slightly raised. Danger, that was the word that came to mind. “Hopefully, he doesn’t get so desperate as to sign while you’re away, though I have a feeling that he won’t be able to.”

“What do you mean--” I began, but it was too late.

A single blink of my eye and he was gone. Only the cawing of the crows responded to me, flapping wings and throaty calls sounding like the echo of a jeering laugh. My eyes drifted to the sky, as if I could see him go, however he managed to do it. I was met with the spread-out wings of a crow as it soared through the sky.

18

Pain

“Leo?” I called as I entered the apartment; the key Leo had lent me slipping into the lock despite my shaking hands. It was strange, entering without him and yet… No sounds were made upon my entrance, not even the whir of technology or the dripping of faucets. It seemed eerie, too eerie. I stepped into the apartment, kicking off my shoes instinctually as I entered the space, head turning nervously side to side.

And yet, as if I was afraid of what might come, I avoided the window.

“Leo,” I called again, finding both the kitchen and livingroom empty. Every step into the apartment seemed too long, too uncomfortable. I knew that the second I entered, there was a risk that Leo would be there. So, I moved slowly in spite of the part of me that wanted nothing more than to run. I crept noiselessly, and I kept my eyes away from the window, in case a stray crow might threaten me out of doing far more sensible things.

The urge to call his name once more was immense, I knew that once I did it, I would want nothing more than to keep calling for him. Rowan was crazy, that was what I had to keep reminding myself. Rowan was crazy and Leo was fine. He didn’t have the brightest ideas, but he would be safe. Pat Lobdel wouldn’t attempt anything, she was a politician first and foremost. No, he would be here. He had to be there, there was no where else to go, nowhere else for him to go.

I listened carefully as my eyes scanned the room, listening for the slightest noise, the smallest sound that he could be there. I was rewarded with the slow, languished sound of dripping, far enough away that I had to strain to hear it. It didn’t put my mind to rest at all, and my body jerked in the direction of it. A single line of light, white and cold, came from underneath the bathroom door. My stomach sank. I wanted to call out, but I was too afraid that there would be no answer.