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

earth. Naturally, with every generation the expectation to fulfill that role becomes less and less, therefore power wanes. The demons these days may look different, some cultures may not fear them, and perhaps they are even kindly; but that doesn’t change their identity or the fact that they only bestow powers upon their familiars. My blood is far removed from the pact our ancestor made, as is Lyra’s. To renew the pact would strengthen the bond, but it would only lead to heartbreak later on as everything comes with a price. Unless you know of an extraordinarily old witch, I do not see any way out of this.”

“But you’ve signed the book,” I began.

“I signed the book when I was young and stupid,” my mother informed me, “and the things that I wanted fell out of my grasp.” She played with the band of iron around her ring finger, twisting and turning it. She refused to remove it, despite her divorce. I’d once tried to ask her about it, about if she knew how dad was doing, where he was; she always shut me down. It was as if he was still with us, still in favor, and yet he was so far away that we didn’t know what happened to him. “I was only freed from my union with the devil when I learned a harsh lesson, that the world is not mine to have. I refuse to let my daughter learn that same lesson, just as I refuse to let her make the same mistake I did.” She glared, her eyes taking me in in entirety, her mouth moving quickly to state, “I will admit, you are not everything that I have desired, but you are mine, and I will not let you do as I have done.”

“I wasn’t planning to sign the book,” I insisted, feeling the heavy weight of Leo’s eyes joining hers.

“You were,” my mother said, “I can tell, Lyra. Just as I knew with my lamp, just as I knew when you told me you would never return to Magictown; you have always been an awful liar.”

“Maybe I could sign it,” Leo said, his head resting atop mine as we waited at the bus stop, voice breaking the quiet calm that I’d enjoyed just moments prior. His hand drew circles on the back of mine, the slightest frown playing upon his lips. “Maybe that’s how this is supposed to work, maybe if I don’t take the power then he’ll feel bad for me and give me a reduced cost.”

“Maybe you could get into a fiddle fight with him,” I mused, half awake. Words scrolled across the sign beside us, there was half an hour to go before the bus from New Haven would arrive.

He laughed, his voice deep and familiar as he turned his face to my hair, pressing his lips against my scalp. “Do you think he’ll still let me have a fiddle of gold if I win, or is that offer off the table these days?”

“Well gold’s not worth as much as it used to be,” I yawned.

“Does it hurt, having your soul torn from your body?” He asked, his voice sounding innocent.

“I don’t know, we should ask Rowan.”

“Do you think if I really beg,” he smiled, leaning back into the bench, “Rowan will heal me?”

“I think if you really beg, he’ll kill you instead,” I snorted, patting his leg in mock sympathy.

“You know, I have a life insurance policy,” Leo noted, “and if you’re willing to fight my mother and her four sisters…”

My pats turned into a slightly harder slap as I pulled away from him completely unamused, face set in a deep frown. “We’re going to figure it out, Leo. Don’t talk like that. I’ll do it if I have to, in a heartbeat, I’ll—”

“But I don’t want you to, Lyra,” Leo said, pressing his chapped lips against my forehead. “I don’t want to die, but I don’t want you to trade your life for mine either. I’ll figure it out, I promise you, I’ll figure it out for us. If figuring it out is just accepting that I’ll be gone, then I’ll do that instead.”

“But you heard my mother, she said it could possibly work, you don’t have to go—” My voice was louder than I intended, more desperate. My eyes fought back the tears as I nestled closer to him, wishing that I could fix this. I would do it. I would trade everything, I would—

“It should be me,” Leo declared, “I’m the one who came into your life, I’m the one who crossed the stars. I should be the one to sign my soul away, if that’s what it takes. I’ll pay the price, whatever it is.”

I turned to him, unable to think of any other way to convince him otherwise. My hands adjusted his coat, pulling his lapels downward so that the woolen jacket would lay upon his shoulders once more and accidentally wrinkling the front of his beige turtleneck in the process. “Give me longer,” I said, “just another few days to figure it out, to fix things.” I smoothed the front of his top underneath my hands, feeling the pounding heart that laid just beneath his chest with the lightest pressure. “Maybe there’s a potion, or a spell, or something my mother didn’t think of. I mean, she’s a professor, but she can’t know everything.” I sighed, inhaling the sweet scent that followed Leo wherever he went, placing my forehead against his chest so that I could still feel his beating heart. “And just give me tomorrow to be with you, Leo. Just tomorrow, and then we’ll figure it out.”

His hand rose to the back of my head, smoothing down the mess of blonde hair as he cradled me closer. Once again, his head rested atop mine, chest rising and falling beneath me. His hand slowly wrapped around my waist, holding me closer, as if this would be the last time