by Sean Easley
What I’ve wanted. Not what she wants. That’s what she’s always trying to tell me. She’s happy being her. This is her life. She’s the girl who wants to travel the world. The girl who’s braver and stronger than I will ever be, and who values freedom above all else. And I love her. She is who she is. She doesn’t need fixing.
“I choose freedom,” I say. “Let them go.”
Stripe smiles wide. “And you’ll sign a binding contract?”
The sickness returns to my stomach. “I will.”
“Wonderful. Nico, get some paper. I’m anxious to see what Cameron draws up.”
31
Forever in Perpetuity
Stripe leans against the trunk of the Vesima tree as I burn out a contract in my scratchy handwriting. My fingers tingle as Nico’s sliver sears the words onto the page, drawing the binding from me as I write.
“Let’s see it,” Stripe says as I finish.
I pulled a lot of the language from the blood-brother contract.
I, Cameron Kuhn, freely give all rights to myself, and everything I have, to the Curator, Mr. Stripe, in exchange for the freedom of Cassia Kuhn and Nico Flores, and everything they have, forever in perpetuity.
I made certain to include the “forever in perpetuity” line to ensure he’ll never bother Cass or Nico again. If I’m going to sell my soul, I’m going to do it right. I just hope this buys Rahki the time she needs to save the others.
Stripe scans the contract, then kicks his cane up and flicks a corner of its knotted head to produce his own sliver. “Very good,” he says.
He holds the paper against his leg and signs on the line.
A crackle of energy pulses through me as the magic takes hold. It’s different from my handshake binding with Nico, or the coins. I feel out of place, as if my brain stopped to reboot.
Images flood my head. Memories of an enormous tree—bigger even than the Vesima. An ancient city burning. Waves crashing through brick streets. A man with a quill, hunched in a dark cell.
“Cam?” Cass says. She’s directly in front of me now, but I can’t look at her. It’s not just sadness I feel. It’s shame. “Are you okay?”
No, I’m not.
More images flash. An army on a hill. A steel ship cutting across the ocean. And children . . . so many children.
The images are Stripe’s. I’m seeing his mind, experiencing his memories, like I did with Reinhart. Only Stripe’s mind is so much darker. I look at the man I’ve just bound myself to. I can’t see what his goal is, or where he came from, but in this moment I know so much more about him. There’s something ancient and terrible and greedy in Stripe’s twinkling eyes. He’s like the spirits Oma always warned me about, hungry to own all the things that don’t belong to him. This is what she worked so hard to keep us safe from all those years.
“What a sad boy,” he says, glimpsing my mind as well. I wonder what he sees there.
Cass wraps her fingers in mine. I’m glad she’s here.
“What happens now?” I ask as Stripe’s memories dim and the crackling in my blood fades.
“You say goodbye,” he replies.
I look to Cass, still holding my hand. When I left for the Hotel, I knew I’d come back to her eventually. This is different. I might never see her again.
“Don’t you dare tell me goodbye, you jerk,” she says, eyes wet as I kneel in front of her.
“I’m sorry, Cass.” And this time I know what I’m sorry about. I’m sorry I won’t be there. I’m sorry I left.
I’m sorry I felt like I had to change everything.
“You can’t do this,” she says. “You’re my brother. You can’t belong to Stripe. You belong to me.”
“No one makes me be who I don’t want to be, right?” It takes all my strength to hold my fake smile. “Take care of Oma.”
She shakes her head. “I hate you.” But her look tells me she really doesn’t. She just hates that I’m leaving.
I feel a hand on my shoulder. Nico’s hand. “Thank you,” he says. I can tell he means it.
When I look at Stripe, I feel a tug on my chest. A connection. But when I look at Nico, my connection to him pulls too. It’s not the same, though. Stripe is my master, but Nico . . . he’s my brother.
“Will you watch out for Cass?” I ask him. “Take care of her like she’s your sister?”
He nods. “Everything we have?”
“Forever in perpetuity.” No matter how many lies he’s told me, he’s bound by our contract to take care of her. I only hope that’s enough.
“Always look for the opportunities.” Nico winks and pats his leg. “It’s the key.”
That word jolts me back to my senses. Nico’s not done. He’s got another card up his sleeve.
Stripe gives a dismissive wave. “Take the girl and get out, Nico. Your service is concluded.” He grips my shoulder. “Cameron and I have a lot of work to do.”
After a glance back at Reinhart—who’s still staring into space—Stripe guides me toward the doors on the opposite side of the Greenhouse. It’s too late to argue. The deal is cut. All I can do is walk and wish. Wish I could leave with Cass and Nico. Wish I’d never joined the Hotel. Wish Reinhart had never left us twelve years ago.
“Hold on.” Nico gives me that mischievous smile. “I haven’t taken care of the business I came here for.”
Stripe sneers. “You and I have no more business.”
“Try again.” Nico’s smile widens. “And check your pocks.”
Mr. Stripe releases my shoulder and pats the pockets of his pinstriped suit, slowly at first, then faster, until he’s shoving hands in pockets he’s already checked in a panic.
Nico reaches into his own pocket. “Looking for this?” He pulls out a key. But not just any key. Stripe’s black iron key, the one he used to conjure the fragment tree in Honduras, and to destroy the doors.
Nico stole it. He deceived the deceiver.
Stripe’s eyes burn with hatred. “Give it to me.”
“This key’s special, isn’t it?” Nico traces the metal with his finger. “It’s your key to unbinding the world.”
“Give. It. Here.”
“You signed it away,” Nico says, his tone playful and light. “It’s mine now.”
At first I’m not sure what he’s talking about, but then it hits me. The contract. The words I copied from my binding with Nico, almost word for word. I say them aloud from memory. “In exchange for the freedom of Cassia Kuhn and Nico Flores, and everything they have.”
“Exactly.” Nico shoots me a wink, and then focuses on Stripe. “You gave up the rights to everything I had on me when you signed Cameron’s contract. That includes the topscrew I swiped from your pock earlier.” He looks the key over. “It’s a shame. . . . I’m sure you’ll miss it. Your prized possession.”
Stripe growls and steps toward him.
“Nuh-uh-uh,” Nico says, wagging a finger. He waves his hands, and the key disappears. “Come any closer and I’ll destroy it. Who knows what that would do?”
The look on Stripe’s face tells me Nico won’t be able to keep the key long. Knowing Nico, though, that’s all part of the plan. He must have a way out.
Or . . . I’m his way out.
I check my jeans, and for once, Nico’s coin isn’t there. He called it back. If he managed to move the key to join with the coin . . .
Stripe marches forward and throws Nico to the ground.
I pat my leg and feel an added weight drop against it.
“Give it to me!” Stripe yanks Nico to his feet by his collar and searches through his suit.
I slide my hand into my pocket and feel the coin. And the key.
“I don’t have it,” Nico says as Stripe rifles through his clothes. “I magicked it away.”
If Stripe figures out I’ve got the key, it’s as good as his. My contract with him encourages me to give it to him even now. I feel the thoughts pulsing through my mind, my fingers, urging me to hand it over. This must be
what Nico felt. What Reinhart felt. Their deals with Stripe were made by choice, of their own free will. Even though they weren’t bound as docents and forced to follow him—like Orban was—the binding still influenced them, like it’s influencing me now.
If I break my contract with Stripe, he’ll gain control over me like he did Dad. I’ll become just another docent. That’s why Nico followed his orders—so Stripe wouldn’t control him. Nico’s only able to disobey now because I freed him.
I have to resist these urges long enough for him to see his plan through. And I can, because the blood-brother contract gives me what I need to do just that. Mom used her binding to give Dad the strength to resist Stripe long enough to save us and the Greenhouse. Now Nico’s given me the strength to defy Stripe, too. Stripe may be my master, but my bond with Nico is greater. Because we’re family.
Stripe drops him to the ground and bares his teeth. “What did you do with it?”
Nico dusts himself off. “I’ll tell you after we make the deal.”
“What deal?”
“The deal where you give me what you promised. My own House. The Museum.”
It was all true. Nico said he wanted to be master of his own House, whether the Hotel or the Museum, and now I’ve given him the opportunity. And the look on Stripe’s face says it just might work.
“Oh, and everything bound to the Museum, too,” Nico clarifies. “The docents, the kids and their contracts. Cam, Cass, Reinhart, every person and room bound to this House. I want it all.”
Stripe clenches his cane. “You greedy little—”
“Oh, you haven’t seen me be greedy.” Nico runs his finger along the brim of his hat. “You and I both know that key’s worth far more than I’m asking. You’re getting a steal.”
I can’t help but laugh at the joke, but Stripe’s hateful glare shuts me up.
“Fine,” he snarls. “I accept your terms.”
“Good.” Nico nods to me. “Cameron will draw up the contract.”
Stripe’s lip curls. We’ve won.
• • •
Another jolt zips through my body as Stripe signs the new contract and the weight of my connection to him lifts. I’m free.
“Now that’s done,” Nico says as Stripe hands back the contract, “Mr. Cam, if you’d please give Stripe his key.”
“What?”
I grin and pull the key from my pocket.
Stripe bares his teeth at me. “You had it.”
He marches toward me, cane raised, fire burning in his eyes.
I back away. There’s murder in that face. This was a mistake.
He draws back, ready to strike. This is it. This is how I die, beaten to death by a man in a pinstriped suit.
But it never comes. Before his cane makes it halfway to my head, a blinding flash forces me to close my eyes.
When I open them again, a shimmering, golden mist encircles my body. Glowing particles float like dogwood spores in the air, spinning around me, shiny as coins.
The light fades, gradually, and I realize it’s not just light—it’s roots, too. The gnarled, sickly roots of the Vesima tree curled up from the ground and twisted in front of me to weave a solid shield to stop Stripe’s cane.
The tree . . . it protected me. How? Why?
Mr. Stripe steps back and scans the branches overhead, teeth clenched. “So, you’re not gone after all, are you, Melissa?”
“Melissa?” I spin around to take in the enormous tree as the roots slowly twist and dig back into the earth. “Mom?”
The tree towers above us, shading us from the harsh sun. I can almost see those weak branches reaching for me, dripping with whatever sickness Stripe’s infected it with.
A strong, warm hand grips my shoulder. “She did this for us,” Dad says, gazing up into the canopy. “All the things I couldn’t do. Melissa bound herself to hide the Greenhouse, and ended up becoming a part of the tree itself. To watch over our family. To protect you.”
I can feel her. In the tree. Inside me. It’s an electric buzz with every beat of my heart that says, I love you, Cameron. I’ve always loved you. And I will always be with you.
I swallow the growing lump in my throat and turn back to Stripe. “I guess this is yours.”
The man in the pinstriped suit glowers as he takes the iron key from me.
Nico holds his head high. “Now, Mr. Stripe, I think you know the way out of my new home.”
32
Your Destination
Well, that turned out better than I thought.” Nico gives me a hearty pat on the back. “You had me worried for a minute. I wasn’t sure we could pull it off when you went rogue.”
Dad squeezes my shoulder. “You okay, son?”
I bite my lip and look up at him. He’s free of Stripe’s control now, and he’s . . . smiling. I want to say something to him, but what? I don’t even know how to feel. Am I angry with him for stealing Cass, even though it wasn’t his fault? Am I happy he’s finally free?
After everything that’s happened, can I . . . forgive him?
I glance over to see Cass staring at the tree roots, eyes glistening with tears.
I rush over to check on her. “What’s wrong? Did Stripe hurt you?”
“No.” She wipes her nose. “It’s just . . . ”
Nico places a hand on the arm of her chair. “Stripe never intended to heal you, Cass. Even if he had, it wouldn’t have been the kind of healing you want.”
“I know,” she sniffs.
Dad squats down in front of Cass and speaks to her so softly I can’t hear him over the rustle of the leaves in the wind. My whole body tingles with warmth as I watch them. When I look up at the Vesima tree waving in the breeze, I feel like my heart’s going to explode.
It’s then I realize there is no breeze in the Greenhouse. The tree is moving on its own, silently communicating through its shivering leaves. What happens to it now? Can it be cured of whatever’s making it sick? Can Mom . . . come back to us?
Dad stands back up and looks at me with sad, wet eyes before placing his large hand on my head. “I am glad to see the man you’re becoming,” he says. “You and your sister will do well without me.”
“Without you?” I ask. “Where are you going?”
“I broke my agreement with the Hotel,” he says, looking up into the branches of the Vesima. Mom’s branches. “I endangered everyone. Melissa gave up her life to protect you and this place from my mistakes. Your Oma’s done a great job raising you both. You deserve better than me.”
“So you’re just leaving?” Cass says.
Dad shakes his head. “I need to go to a place where I can’t mess things up. Look what I’ve done to our family so far.”
I get it. He feels the way I felt. He’s afraid, and thinks he has no choice but to go somewhere he doesn’t need to be afraid.
But our destination doesn’t choose us. It doesn’t pick us up out of nowhere and lock us into a contract. It doesn’t determine who we’re going to be. We set our own destination.
“You belong with us.” I can’t believe I’m saying this, after everything. But even Cass showed Dad compassion at the Monastery. We’re bound. It’s why I always hoped he’d come back. That bit of magic holds our family together, no matter what. I’ve wished for so long that he was here to take care of us, but maybe that’s not the way it works.
Maybe we’re supposed to take care of each other.
“I want you to stay,” I say. “We’ll take care of you. Me, Cass, and Oma, one big family.”
Cass nods in agreement. “Unless Oma kills us first for giving her a million heart attacks in the last week.”
I smile. At last, our family is complete.
Nico stands next to me and bumps my shoulder. “You three should get going. Rahki found the kids, and she’ll need help leading everyone back to the Hotel.”
I give him a confused look. “How do you know?”
He taps his head. “This is my House now, and I know what happens
in my House.”
“You’re staying?” Cass asks. “You won’t come back to the Hotel with us?”
“I never really belonged there,” Nico says. “I think that’s why your mom led me to you.”
I blink. “She . . . what?”
“At first I didn’t understand. I knew Stripe wanted the Greenhouse, so it didn’t make sense that the Hotel would send me—its enemy—to follow you.” He shrugs. “Now I get it. It was her. She made the Hotel visible to you because she knew who you were. And the Hotel kept you because it knew who you could be.”
“How do you know what the Hotel wants?”
Nico grins. “Maybe one of these days you’ll find out.” He stuffs his hands in his pockets. “My ambition’s too big for that stuffy old joint, anyway. It’s time to start building my empire.”
Somehow, that doesn’t sound crazy.
“You know, Cam,” Nico says, his tone serious, “you’re the reason I was finally able to turn against him.”
“I am?”
He looks up at the branches still dripping with Stripe’s sickness. “For a long time, Stripe was my only family. Getting to know the Jimenez family made me realize what it would be like to be free of him. But you . . . When you bound yourself to me, I started to feel what you feel. The love you have for Cass . . . Stripe doesn’t get that. He never will. You showed me I couldn’t wait until he handed me his empire anymore. Every minute matters.”
“Tear it down,” I say. “Don’t leave a single person bound.”
“I won’t.” Nico holds up a finger, as if realizing something, and runs to one of the doors. He comes back a few seconds later and holds out two pins—one old and rotten, one fresh and new.
He raises the rotten pin. “This’ll take you back to the Hotel. Use it once you get outside the Museum—don’t want the MC trying to take what’s mine.” He holds up the fresh pin. “And this one leads here, to the Greenhouse. Wait a few hours for me to clear out some of this wood, then give it to Agapios.”
I glance back at the tree. With it, the Hotel will be able to grow its mission again, just like Mom wanted. Make new pins. Bind new doors. Change new hearts. “Thank you.”