The City of Crows

by Bethany Anne Lovejoy

  “Leo,” he replied amusedly. “Leo Hoang.”

  “Leo Hoang,” Autumn repeated, speaking a bit too loud. There was a jumble in the way that she said it, whether it was her accent or a mistake on her part was hard to tell. Still, she grinned as Leo flinched.

  “Just call me Leo,” he requested, “no last name.” His tone practically begged her not to say it again.

  “Well, mister, ‘just call me Leo,’ you are in luck, because you just gotta meet my Landon; as do you, Lyra,” Autumn demanded, already reaching for the two of us. “Landon knows everybody, and he has just been dying to meet Lyra since Rowan mentioned her name.”

  7

  Love is Blind

  Hazy, heavy clouds filled the air and clung close to the ground like fog after a long thunderstorm, drifting from the butts of rolled cigarettes and into our lungs without a second thought. Men, because men always filled the spaces they sat in, sucked at the ends of their cigarettes, inhaling various herbs and oils for god knows what purpose, unthinking of the inhabitants of the room because they were behind one of the illustrious cherry doors, and therefore immune from social pleasantries. All were crowded into a rounded booth, a party of eight sitting atop royal blue velvet and smashed shoulder to shoulder so that there was no escaping the smoke.

  My side was crushed against Leo’s, our thighs and shoulders pressed into each other as the man beside me made another dramatic motion, the hot ash of his cigarette sizzling dangerously close to my hand on the table. To Leo’s side, another, older man spoke animatedly as well, his hands flying about wildly to the point that Leo felt the need to tilt his head in my direction, out of the way of the flying fists. Across the way, Autumn all but beamed at our situation, murmuring something into the man beside her’s ear that read like, ‘I told you, head over heels!’ One look up at Leo and I could tell he’d understood it as well, his jaw stiffened and his shoulders straightened. The man beside Autumn, however, had little to no reaction.

  Landon was short, the kind of short that’s far too notable when it comes to a man. A firm five feet and not much else, Autumn had to stoop to talk to him, even when he was at a far more even playing field like a table. He had an upturned nose, a curled up lip, and unfortunately small eyes that only seemed to get smaller behind the lenses of his cokebottle glasses. He didn’t look like he belonged anywhere near a girl like Autumn. Landon looked like he’d stepped in something foul and was expecting someone else to pick it up. With his greased back black hair and the deep caverns pitted in the skin on his face however, one could argue that he was the foul thing. But Autumn? Autumn looked at him different than that. Love, love was a far too blinding force.

  “Right, well, you tell me again when I care a bit more, huh, honey?” Love made you deaf too.

  I’d never been her largest fan, but I couldn’t help but feel myself soften for Autumn. Even Leo spared her a pitying glance; she was annoying but, she didn’t deserve to be treated badly. That was the dangerous thing about love; you put up with way too much for it. I didn’t get it anymore but, I used to.

  “She’s right, though,” Leo chimed in, his voice cutting through the conversation of the table if only to validate her. It was strange but not unfamiliar; when a man talked, all seemed to listen. With a simple sentence, Leo brought the attention back to Autumn. “About us being head over heels, madly in love,” he clarified, and I shot him an unamused glance. “I mean, Lyra? I’m just crazy about her. Met her one day and then it felt like she had my whole future in her hands.”

  The joke wasn’t lost, I held back a laugh as the whole table went silent. I thought that we’d be done then, just an awkward statement and people would move on. Surprisingly, that’s not what happened. Instead, Landon spoke.

  “You said Lyra Wynne, right?” Landon asked Autumn, who eagerly nodded in turn. “Rowan’s girl.”

  “I’m not Rowan’s girl,” I interrupted before the conversation could move any further. “New boyfriend, new me,” I said, though I really didn’t care to. It was terms that they could understand, though.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Landon replied, greedily reaching towards one of the silver cigar boxes that his neighbor had opened beside him. He twisted a cigar between his fingers as if toying with the idea of picking it up. “Good on you,” he said decidedly, plucking the fat roll from out of the box. His companion sighed but did not argue, likely not wanting to cause a scene. “You got a good job, boy? Good life? Nice bloodline? Ain’t heard of the last name before, but if you got that, then that’s all you need.” He snapped his fingers, a flame climbing up from the surface of his thumb. “You watch yourself with her, you want to treat this one right.”

  “Right,” Leo nodded, confusion coating his features. “I mean, that’s the plan. No worries there.” He half-smiled, voicing a joke that no one else was in on. “Good job, though? Huh.” Mumbling under his breath, he turned to me, “Do witches consider art to be a good job?” I held back my laugh, Leo’s voice suggested he was serious.

  “I’m serious,” Landon said with a snort, raising the cigar to his lips. “Real pedigree on this one, her mother’s just about as famous as it gets. Real treat too, if you ever meet her.” He snorted, and I couldn’t help but snort as well. My mother was anything but a treat. Not a bad person but, not one you wanted to meet either. “Of course, she’s not the one to worry about. Fucking Rowan.”

  “Rowan,” Autumn agreed beside him with a tone of exasperation, much too ladylike for nasty f-bombs. My eyes flickered up to her, my head brushing against Leo’s arm as I tilted it to the side. “She doesn’t know, honey,” Autumn raised her voice once more. “It’s funny, I just keep forgetting that she’s been gone so long. Spending time with you, Lyra, well, it feels like you’ve always been here,” she explained.

  “She should count her fucking blessings in that,” Landon scowled.

  Autumn’s elbow jerked sharply into his side, prodding the man forward. Whatever he knew, she wanted me to know as well. Landon didn’t disappoint.

  “In my opinion, he’s been real funny recently. Real shady. You got out at a good time; a pretty little thing like you doesn’t need to get messed up in any of this shit. Right, Leo?” He nodded at the man beside me, taking a fat cigar and biting it between his stained teeth. “Square like him, it’s better for you. Just gotta learn to stop taking him to all of your old date spots. Not the best idea if you get my drift.”

  Leo opened his mouth to protest but then, looking at his cream-colored sweater and khaki brown pants, thought it better to close it.

  The long-limbed man beside Leo, I think I’d heard someone call him Auden, perked up in interest, leaning over the table. “Yeah, I heard about that. What has that guy been up to? The guys seemed to be real worried when he shows up these days, they don’t want to deal with a guy like him. Shame, he used to be such a cute kid.”

  I blinked, surprised that anyone would engage further. Beside me, Leo let out a muttered, “oh, so that’s who he is--” that I quickly cut him off by hitting my shoulder against his. People didn’t often talk of Rowan, at least, not around me. Not anymore.

  “He’s hanging with a higher crowd now, I’m afraid,” Landon scoffed in a sort of brush off tone of voice. However, when he noticed the way that the others’ curious eyes took him in, he sighed, knowing that he couldn’t just leave it at that. “The Richie rich folks and uppersiders, you know, the ones from the good neighborhoods with nice family names and not a drop of magic in their bloodline. Or at least, I think they ain’t got any. He thinks he’s real tough now that he’s got them, too good to hang around places like this.” He withdrew the cigar from his mouth, tapping it against the edge of the table so clumps of ash fell against the oak wood. “You know, he threatened Curly, called him out even though Rowan’s about as burly as a sheet of paper. I thought the brat was dead then and there; it was raining so hard that nothing was standing in Curly’s way. But then… I don’t know how he did it.”

  “How he did what?” I
asked, my eyebrows narrowing, alarm bells ringing in the back of my mind.

  Landon looked back to his lighter, then back to me. For a moment, it seemed like he was weighing whether or not to tell me. Likely, your cousin’s ex-girlfriend wasn’t the first choice when it came to talking about events that should not be spread around. Even Autumn’s insistent elbowing didn’t urge him forward; it appeared we had reached a brick wall. But then his eyes traveled to Leo, and that was his mistake.

  I didn’t want to look at Leo; in fact, I’d tried to avoid it as I was smashed against him. But there was something about him, and maybe it was the hint of the determined frown I saw out of the corner of my eye. With one look at Leo, Landon felt like he had to speak.

  And so he did, even though his throat had grown hoarse and his voice was strained. “You know how sometimes when you’re out in the rain and you just try to make it go, you can get a flicker like you get with a lighter? It wasn’t like that, not that time, not any time since then. I’d heard rumors before, but I’d not thought they were true, not anymore. You know, I was just standing there waiting to back him up, scrape him off the sidewalk if Rowan took a fall. But he didn’t need me. He got that god damn stick out, and I thought, what the fuck are you doing? It’s gonna be useless.” Landon grimaced, his eyes showing a flash of memory. “And then just like that, it happened, more than I’d ever fucking seen. One minute Curly’s there, and the next minute he’s halfway across the fucking alley. Damn near broke his back as he hit the wall. I ain’t ever seen anything like it, not in this lifetime.” Landon shook his head, his eyes following the grain of the wood on the table. “So I told him, you know, you get your ass out of here, I don’t give a shit what you do. Get gone and don’t come back, cause when Curly wakes up, whatever fucking circus trick you did is gonna make you wind up dead. And you know what he did? The fucker laughed.” His nose wrinkled, fingers pressing the end of the cigar hard into the table. “And he ain’t the only one who has been acting fucking weird.”

  “What do you mean, weird?” Leo countered.

  “Well, you been around here, you fucking know,” Landon replied. He leaned back in the booth, spreading his arms and legs like if he took up more space, then he could stop whatever information he knew from leaking out of the gaps. “You got two eyes, pretty boy, figure it out, even the normies have.”

  “You said I was a square,” Leo said. “Jokes on you, I am. I don’t have a clue what’s going on, but you?”

  Landon ignored him, turning to me with knitted brows. “You been here before, ain’t you? Why are you bringing these fancy boys round these parts?”

  “Listen, I--” I began.

  “There’s more like him,” Leo concluded, looking at both me and Landon. “There are more people doing magic in the rain.”

  “I didn’t say there’s more people doing magic in the rain,” Landon grumbled, twisting his cigarette. “I said there’s more people doing weird shit. Do you think I’d go into the Green Man if suddenly everyone and their mother is doing magic left and right with no repercussions? I’m no idiot, I know better. You should too. Don’t sound so fucking excited about this shit.” Finally, he was done with his cigar, flicking it to the side as he leaned forward on the table, declaring, “It’s a fluke, you ever heard of one? Weird shit happens all the time. What I’m saying is there’s more sellouts, more people lining their goddamn pockets and hanging out with the rich, just like him. I mean, look at Marley Macabee, walking around with Pat Lobdel like she owns the place, something isn’t right there. And the way she’s been lately… The girl practically coughed up a god damn lung the other day in this room, and there ain’t no reason for it,” he proclaimed, eyeing the man beside him’s box once more, his fingers aching for another cigar. “You shouldn’t be concerned, you’re weird as shit too.”

  Weird didn’t begin to cover it. Beside me, Leo’s lips were moving soundlessly, repeating the name Marley Macabee like a prayer. My eyes widened, drifting down to my lap because then, at the very least, I could pretend not to have seen him. Marley Macabee… I knew her, not well. A better option than the formerly mentioned person, however.

  “How long you two been seeing each other?” Landon asked, his eyes narrowing at the strange display.

  “A week,” Leo offered mechanically, the tapping of his fingers on his thighs signaling that his mind was elsewhere. His honesty was amusing, but this wasn’t exactly the time for it.

  Across the way, Autumn’s mouth fell.

  “Love at first sight,” I supplemented, my arm wrapping around Leo’s, fingers threading through his as I provided an uneasy smile. “Can you blame me?”

  Awkwardly, as if he weren’t the one with heavy sweat dripping down his forehead and piglike nose, Landon stated, “Yeah, well, love is blind.” My fingers tightened around Leo’s as he continued, “real fucking blind.”

  My jaw tightened, back straightening up so tightly that none of it touched the seat. Around the table, there were raised eyebrows and searching glances. Not good. “Yeah, well, Leo… You know what time it is, right, honey?” I said, kicking the back of his calf to bring him back to reality.

  He blinked, nodding dumbly beside me. His mouth pulled thin, the expression on his face telling me that he was trying to hang onto every word. I nudged against him once more, prompting him to stand at the same time I did.

  “Well, it’s been lovely talking to you, but, you know…” I trailed off, raising our interlinked hands for all to see. “The night awaits us.”

  “That it does, Lyra,” Landon responded. He’d remember my name, I knew he would. And, even though he was currently on the outs with his cousin, someone else would hear my name soon as well. Would he even wait until I’d left the bar to contact Rowan? “One of my boys can see you to the door, make sure you two don’t get into any trouble.” Translation: One of my boys will see you to the door, make sure you don’t talk to anyone else and cause me any trouble.

  “That’d be very nice of you, Landon,” I smiled innocently as the men beside us started to get up, making way for Leo and I.

  “And Lyra,” Landon said as Leo and I finally managed to stumble out of the booth, Leo’s hand on the doorknob. “Maybe think twice about the kind of men that you bring to this sorta place, alright? Don’t bring a newly sheared sheep into the fields, if you get my drift. Not unless you’re willing to lose it.”

  “Noted,” said Leo as he jerked open the door.

  8

  Avoidance

  The cold air of the night stung as it hit my skin, stabbing deep under the surface like pins in a dress form. In the distance, I heard the low caw of a crow. I didn’t care; I couldn’t care; my mind was consumed the second we exited the front door, stepping into an alley on the other side of town from the park that we’d entered. No sooner had Leo’s foot escaped the tangle of vines than my hands were on his shoulders, shoving him fiercely against the wall in a way that made his chest heave and his eyes grow wide.

  “Are you insane?” I snarled, glaring at him. My fingers dug into his shoulders, and I could have practically screamed at the man. “Leo, you don’t just say we’ve only known each other for a week, not in a place like that, not if we have to pretend to be lovers-- Which, by the way, I don’t even know how it came to that, it sure would have helped if you would have at least denied it instead of....” I faltered, sputtering, “whatever that was!”

  “I just spoke,” Leo began to explain. “I mean, you saw her. She was heartbroken when he ignored her.”

  “What Autumn does is none of your business,” I retorted. “You are my business, you made yourself my business.” I groaned, hand leaving his shoulder to grip the side of my jaw, panic setting in. “And now, he’s gonna call Rowan and tell him what a lovely, weird time he had with me and my strange boyfriend who I brought to the seediest bar in the whole city after only knowing him for a week--” Wider, if that was even possible, my eyes practically bulged out of their sockets as I realized something, hands fly
ing from Leo to dig through the back pocket of my jeans as I searched frantically for my phone. “God, Rowan’s going to call me,” I breathed, the air not quite filling my lungs. Finally, my hand wrapped around my smartphone, pulling it out of my pocket and almost immediately winding my arm back to throw it and get rid of it.

  “Whoa!” Leo lunged forward, grabbing my wrist. He was likely afraid of what me losing my main source of communication with him would mean. “Lyra, calm down!”

  I took another ragged breath, my fingers losing grip on the phone. Unfortunately, Leo seemed to be one step ahead of me, catching the device before it could fall to the ground.

  “Hey,” Leo spoke calmly, but the way he frantically shoved my phone into his front pocket told a different tale. “Lyra, you need to calm down,” his grip on my wrist loosened, the warm skin of his thumb rubbing a small, reassuring line across my veins. “You’re okay, Lyra. I promise you’re okay!”

  “You can’t promise anything,” I shrieked, “you’re a human!”

  Leo blinked, looking frantically side to side in case anyone was around to hear us. Thankfully, the alley was empty. “Lyra,” he tried again, his voice low and comforting. “Come on; you’re shivering, we have to get you home.”

  “Home…?” My mind went blank. Oh god, he’d be there, wouldn’t he? Talking to Yvie and acting all upset. Rowan would be there and he’d take it all away; take my job and my apartment away; ruin it just like he’d ruined Magictown. Then he’d drag me back into this fucked up world, the one that I didn’t want to be a part of; the one that he’d only made more fucked up-- And he would say it’s all for the better, that it’s all because he cared about me.

  Leo took in my expression, his face falling. Stooping down, he lowered himself to look me in the eyes, hand resting on my shoulder. Somehow, his touch dragged me back to reality, into those dark, almost black eyes. “You know what? I think I’ve been around here, Lyra,” Leo said.