When Stars Are Bright

by Amber R. Duell

  “I’m sure.” We weave around a few men sitting on milk crates and join the line of people waiting for the train to roll up. “We’re almost there.”

  A gaze digs into my back whether we see anyone or not, making it impossible to stand still. It doesn’t feel angry, so it can’t be Chamberlain himself but one of his employees might be a casual observer. Maybe we’re drawing attention for other reasons.

  But it feels familiar, unnerving.

  Nik leans his face down into my hair and sings. His voice is low, barely audible even to me. I don’t understand the language, but I feel the vibration of his abdomen against my shoulder. I close my eyes tight, trying to focus on the song instead of the person behind us. He isn’t using his magic, but the melody still soothes me.

  “What does it mean?” I ask when he’s finished.

  He shrugs one shoulder, a smirk on his lips. “It’s just a song I remember from home.”

  The train chugs into the station, sending puffs of smoke into the air. Nik smiles and I can’t help matching it with one of my own.

  Next stop, Pittsburgh.

  A piercing whistle rips me from a sound sleep. I clamp down on Nik’s leg, my fingers digging into the rough fabric of his pants, before I remember we’re on a train. The car rattles up to the Pittsburgh station with the sun high in the sky and smile. We did it.

  My feet don’t quite reach the floor and the hard bench digs into my spine, but we did it. Slipping out from under Nik’s arm, I inch forward and roll my ankles to help get the blood moving again. “We’re here.” I laugh. “We’re really here.”

  Nik stretches his back with a yawn. Sleep tugs at his eyelids and I know he didn’t sleep a wink. He gives me a sly smile and leans closer. “You twitch in your sleep.”

  “I do not.” I scowl at him before laughing. “Why didn’t you get some rest?”

  “I wanted to keep watch.” He peers out the window as a large brick station rolls in front of our window. “I will on the next train.”

  I stare at his bloodshot eyes and move the loose hair from his face. “You should’ve slept on this one. Even if we’re being followed, there’s nothing they could’ve done here.”

  He stifles another yawn. “We can both rest after we make our connection.”

  I lean back, my shoulder brushing his, while the other passengers in our car scramble to their feet and clamber toward the exit. If it means avoiding the crowd, I’ll wait to be the last one off. I don’t want to be jostled around and get lost or separated.

  “Do we have to stop at the ticket counter for our—”

  Walter slides in beside Nik and I slap a hand over my mouth to muffle the scream. The shock erases all thoughts from my mind.

  Nik twists around and inches back until I’m pressed between him and the window. I grab his shirt beside the suspenders and hold tight. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asks.

  “We need to have a chat.” Something clicks softly and Nik tenses. “Outside. Now.”

  Nik grabs the back of our seat and the one in front of us, creating a barrier. “Walter,” he says slowly. “Let’s be calm about this. There’s no need for a gun.”

  A gun? He has a gun? Stars litter my vision and my blood drains to my feet.

  “I’m perfectly calm.” Walter slides off the bench as the last passenger steps out of the train car. I see a flash of silver in his hand before he hides the weapon inside his jacket. “Get off the train. Transmitting all of us at once could be messy so do as I say and no one gets hurt.”

  “Okay.” Nik speaks slowly and takes my hand, stepping into the aisle. “Okay. We’re coming. Relax.”

  Walter motions us in front of him and we move toward the exit as the whistle blows a second time. I risk a quick look over my shoulder. The same anger lines Walter’s face as the day I made my second escape attempt on the ship. One wrong move and this time I’ll get hit with a bullet instead of a fist. I cover my ears against an internal ringing and I stumble forward, knocking into Nik’s back. He steps aside, pulling me in front of him.

  “Faster,” Walter says. “If you’re not off the train before it starts moving, I’ll do it. I’ll blow your brains out.”

  There isn’t a doubt in my mind he’s telling the truth so I clamber down the iron steps to the platform with Nik close behind. The urge to run rips through me like fire but there’s no outrunning a bullet. Hundreds of people bustle around the station. It makes testing Walter’s aim both tempting and horrifying. If he misses us, he’ll almost certainly hit someone else, but with so many witnesses, he may not be daring enough to try.

  “Don’t,” Nik whispers in my ear. He holds my hand so tightly my fingers go numb.

  That’s easy for him to say. I can’t let Walter kidnap me a second time. I just can’t. I’ll bite and claw my way to the nearest security personnel and have him arrested. It’s what I should’ve done the day I arrived but I was stupid enough to believe Augustine.

  I may not be able to escape Walter’s gun, but I can make it so he can’t use it. Just like in the barn back home, I sing softly, testing the magic. My voice wobbles with fear as I sing a bit louder. The people need to hear it for this to work.

  “Don’t sing,” Walter hisses.

  Instead, I sing louder. Heads turn and people slow to a stop. Slowly, they press closer. A small, victorious smile touches my lips as dozens of eyes burn into me. If Walter fires now, he’ll have to transmit to safety which, with any luck, will give us a chance to get lost in the crowd. If we’re not shot…

  A hand clamps down on my arm. Before I can turn my head to see who grabbed me, the world tilts. I’ve felt the sensation before on the ship when Walter transmitted us. My stomach wretches when we land hard. We’re still in the station, but the crowd is gone.

  “Glad that worked,” Walter mumbles to himself. He jabs his elbow to the left. “Walk. Look casual. If you try anything else, I’ll take you out.”

  I plant my feet and turn to face him. “Walter, please.” I cringe at the desperation in my voice. I was past this with him, past the begging. “Let us go. You don’t have to do this.”

  He steps closer, pressing the gun to my hip. “I said, walk.”

  Everyone at the station continues about their own business as if my world isn’t crumbling. They pay us no mind, swerving around us without a single glance at my face. Help sits on the tip of my tongue, but the metal digging into my flesh holds it back. Besides, there’s no guarantee anyone will listen. They didn’t last time.

  Nik propels me forward but I’m not giving up hope yet. It’s possible to lose Walter in the crowd if we move fast enough. It can work, I know it can. It would’ve worked on ship too if there was anywhere to go, but Nik holds tightly, forcing me to move at a steady pace. Tears splash down my cheeks and drip from my chin.

  Outside the station we walk beneath a giant open dome with red brick pillars. Cars both unload passengers at the doors and line either side of the parking area. “That way,” Walter says. He motions to the right where the sidewalk slants down before turning into stairs.

  “Where are we going?” Nik asks.

  Walter doesn’t say a word. He simply shoves us into a nearby alcove, grabs Nik and I by the upper arm, and his magic flares to life.

  It could have been five minutes or five hours that Walter transmits us through the city. The magic is making me physically ill now, and each stretch of walking makes my legs wobble worse than the last. All I know is, with each new secluded spot we find to transmit from, I’m about to lose any chance of getting my life back. Possibly of having a life at all. Why won’t Walter just shoot us and be done with it? But torturing us first is more his style, I suppose. A quick kill won’t give him much satisfaction, but watching us squirm will.

  When we reach a jumble of rundown huts with scraps of metal for roofs, a pipe reaching up from each, and assorted wood patched together for walls, Walter stops. The smell of waste is so overwhelming, I gag. We stand on a giant patch of dirt with wire
s overhead and the cries of a baby in the distance for what seems like ages while Walter looks for something. I reach over and squeeze Nik’s hand for support. He squeezes back.

  “It should do,” Walter announces. He slips the gun from under his jacket and points it in our direction before peeking in the window of the first shack. He backs up a few paces, looking into the second. His aim never falters.

  “In.” He pushes the door open. I know without a doubt if we go in there we won’t be coming out again. If, by some miracle, I have an opportunity to escape, I won’t leave Nik behind. This thing with Walter started with me and it should end with me. “Move it.”

  Nik guides me forward with a hand on my lower back. I buck against him at the threshold. We can’t go in there. Can’t. If he wanted to talk, we could’ve done it on the street.

  Walter points his weapon at my forehead. “Behave.”

  I won’t cry over Walter. Won’t, won’t, won’t. He doesn’t get to break me a second time.

  Enough morning light filters through the doorway to know someone lives here. Two plates sit on an uneven table and a moth-eaten blanket is folded neatly on a bed, but no one’s home. I choke back a sob and scan the room for something to use against him. A pot. An iron. Anything.

  “Why?” I ask.

  “Why?” Walter shuts us inside with stiff movements, not turning his back on us for a second. “I want everything I was supposed to have.” Spit flies from his mouth. “A profitable act in the troupe, a place for me and my mother to sleep at night, and food on the table. Everything you stole from me.”

  I blanch. The only one of us stealing anything is him. He should be glad he’s still walking free and if he’s living on the street, good. It serves him right.

  “Watching you earn the crowd’s applause week after week, laughing and enjoying time with him.” He shifts his aim to Nik. “After seeing you all over your man back home, and how quickly the two of you became attached, I think I misunderstood your character.”

  “How dare you bring Christian into this?” I lunge forward but Nik wraps an arm around my waist, holding me back. I pry at his fingers but he holds tight. “Put me down. I’m going to claw his face off.”

  “Does the truth hurt? You’re on your third relationship in the few months I’ve known you. Engaged to a coal baron now, I hear. Impressive.” He laughs bitterly. “Lucky for me, Theresa hates you as much as I do. She knows I’ve been employed to follow Nik around and when she saw you two sneaking out, was kind enough to send word.”

  “You’ve been watching me?” I ask. Whatever he thinks of my reputation is irrelevant as long as I survive long enough to see each of them behind bars. Walter, Augustine, Chamberlain, and anyone connected to them that played a part in this. “This whole time you’ve been watching me because Chamberlain hired you to?”

  “He hired me to follow him, not you. Mostly.” Walter rubs his chin. “Don’t act like you didn’t suspect it. I saw you looking over your shoulder every time you walked outside. Besides, I had to earn a living somehow.” He turns to Nik again. “Speaking of money, where is it?”

  Nik squeezes his arm around me, and his breath hitches. “That’s what this is about? The money Charlie stole? I’ve told him a million times, I don’t know where it is.”

  “Yes, you do. Chamberlain’s tired of waiting.”

  Nik’s eyebrows rise. He drops me back to the floor and moves to block my body. “I have no idea. I swear. If I knew, he would’ve had it a long time ago.”

  Walter steps closer and Nik presses his back against me. “Do you really expect anyone to believe that?”

  “Stop.” I inch around Nik. “He’s telling the truth. What does Chamberlain need it for? He has more money than he could spend in two lifetimes.”

  “Sharing secrets with your lover?” Walter wags his brows at us. “Maybe I should be asking her where it is?”

  “No,” Nik shouts. He tries to push me behind him again, but I dig my heels into the dirt floor. “Leave her out of this, Walter.”

  He smirks and lowers the gun to my chest. Black spots dance in my vision. If my choices are to die now, fighting, or die a slow, painful death married to Chamberlain—and I would—I choose the fighting. I refuse to be anyone’s prisoner again.

  “I don’t have the money,” Nik repeats. “I looked everywhere to get Chamberlain off my back, but I don’t know where Charlie hid it. I can’t ask him; he’s dead.”

  “Too bad.” Walter shifts the gun away from me. “That makes you useless. Step away from the girl and we can get this over with.”

  “You can’t shoot him.” Panic skitters along my spine. It can’t end like this for Nik. He has to find his sister. “He hasn’t done anything.”

  “Shut up.” Walter’s face turns a violent shade of purple. “If you speak again, I’ll ignore the fact that I’m supposed to bring you back unharmed.”

  “What are you going to do, Walter?” I step toward him, my anger making me too brave. “Shoot me?”

  “Lina, stop it,” Nik says through his teeth. He pulls me next to him and holds me there. “No one’s getting shot.”

  A loud bang echoes off the bare walls and the blood drains from my face. I wobble on my feet, but then I see it. The makeshift door barely clings to the entrance, the bottom of it swinging into the room, knocking over the table.

  A large figure leaps inside, knocking Walter off his feet. The gun falls from his hand, skidding across the floor, but it doesn’t stop him from elbowing the man in the face. The cracking sound grates on my ears, and he falls back with a grunt.

  Nik leaps on Walter’s back, reaching for the weapon, but Walter’s closer. Things happen so fast, my mind scrambles to keep up. One moment, Nik is straddling Walter. The next, Walter’s twisting around and a thundering pop rings in my ears. The world slows while I wait to see which one of them holds the gun.

  Nik rips himself off Walter and stumbles to the side. Red blossoms on his arm.

  “Nik,” I shriek. He can’t die. Not Nik. He has too much life left to live. He can’t. “Nik!”

  Falling to the floor beside him, all I see is blood. A bright red stream flows from a hole in his upper arm, staining his shirt and trickling around my feet. “Oh, God. Nik? Nik, say something. Please, please say something.”

  “Don’t move,” growls a man.

  I whip around expecting to find a firearm in my face, but it’s aimed at Walter instead. Somehow, the stranger wrestled it from him, or maybe he carried his own. As long as it kills Walter, I don’t care who it belongs to. Walter shifts, rising up onto his elbows.

  “I said, don’t move. The police are on their way,” the man says.

  That voice... I know it. My gaze travels from the gun to the man’s hand, then past his crisp cuff and up the sleeve of a black jacket. I already know what I’ll see before I get to his face.

  “Christian?”

  His eyes are hard as he stares down at Walter. “Are you hurt, Lina?”

  Hearing Dutch again jars me, the familiarity cutting through me like an arrow, and I almost don’t comprehend the words. Christian’s here. How…?

  “Lina?” he asks, softer this time.

  “Christian.” My backside hits the ground. “Wh… How?”

  “Don’t even try it,” he shouts when Walter tries to stand.

  Nik groans behind me. I turn, my hands shaking uncontrollably as they hover over him. I don’t know where to touch him or what to do. He’s white as a ghost, and there’s so much blood. “Nik?” I ask through my tears. “Hang in there.”

  “I’ll be fine.” He shifts to sit and falls back, wincing. “But I need a doctor.”

  “We’ll get you there as soon as we can. Hold on.”

  “You don’t learn, do you?” Christian snarls behind me. “Give me an excuse to shoot you. Please.”

  I don’t turn around to find out what Walter’s doing. The hot tears spilling down my cheeks don’t let me see much of anything anyway. Instead, I stay kneeling
in dirt and blood, between Nik and Christian.

  The police are on their way.

  The stench of disinfectant has stopped burning my nose, but my eyes still sting against it. The countless tears I shed aren’t helping the ache. The only reason I’m not crying now is because I have none left. Pressure rolls through my head, and I rest my cheek on the crisp white sheet. Nik’s hand is warm and still under mine. I focus on the steady rise and fall of his chest while I wait for him to wake up. He hasn’t moved since he lost consciousness on the stretcher. The nurses cleaned him up after surgery but I can’t say the same for myself. His blood flakes on my hands, staining my dress and stockings.

  “The doctor said you’ll make a full recovery,” I whisper to Nik. The bullet passed through his bicep, missing anything major. “But I won’t believe it until you wake up and tell me so yourself.” I sigh and stare over his head at the steel rungs of the headboard.

  Christian is here. It feels like a dream. A figment of my imagination. Because he can’t be here—not really. It’s too impossible. The police separated us for questioning and I haven’t seen him since we left the tiny hut hours ago. It’s entirely possible I imagined the whole thing due to stress.

  Nik’s hand stirs and I bounce up on my stool. His lids flutter, fighting to open. Then a sliver of green as he wins the struggle. “Where...?” He groans.

  I tighten my grip on his hand, relief bubbling through me. “We’re in the hospital. They said you’ll be okay.”

  “Yeah.” He winces. “I feel okay.”

  I fidget with the sheet, running my hands over it to brush out the creases. “It’ll take some time to heal, of coure.”

  He shifts with a grunt. “What happened?”

  “You don’t remember?”

  He rubs his forehead with his good arm. “I think so but I don’t understand it.”

  I don’t want to relive the whole ordeal again. The police already asked me a million questions. I’ll be happy never to talk about it again, but Nik deserves to know. “Walter was going to kill you. Christian tackled him, and then you wrestled Walter for the gun. He got it first, shot you, then lost it to Christian.”