they have nothing much to fight with.”
“So you’ve always stayed away from each other?” I ask. “What about the people who live here?”
“Well, they’re afraid of us because of the power that we hold and the legends that haunt the land. The Gentlemen have always stayed to their side of the tracks, but they’ve never bothered the people here either.”
“Are most towns this—strange?” I find myself saying absently, while looking out the window.
“This is nothing. Wait until you see Perdita…” Tillie grumbles. “Which, by the way, you also own half of.”
I ignore her, the information too much. Too soon and too much. I’d heard of Perdita through distant talks from Brantley and the boys, but at the time it passed over my head. “What’s going to happen when the school is back open next week?”
“Mmmm,” Elena says, leaning forward and reaching for the handle to the door. “I guess that’s the big question.”
We spill out of the limo and make our way into the lobby. The vast space of it is nothing I’ve ever felt before, but once we reach the small theater room, I find my lungs expanding again. There are chairs and small tables scattered around the front, with a little makeshift stage in the middle where a piano is set up.
My lungs turn ablaze now, my fingers twitching to skate over the keys.
“Ahhh, you noticed,” Scarlet purrs in my ear. It’s a Steinway & Sons, there was no way I wouldn’t notice. “Hector thought it’d be nice if you played, and maybe sang, a couple of pieces throughout the night. Of course, you can decline. We have someone on backup if you decide to pass.”
I shake my head. “No, it’s fine. I’d love to, for Bishop.” I drive home why I would do it, and when our eyes connect, elation bathes her features.
“Thank you for caring about him.”
“He’s worth caring for,” I mutter, squeezing her hand reassuringly. “Do you mind if I go and practice a little?”
She shoos me away. “Of course.”
I reach the edge of the stage and the light that shines down over me reduces to a warm sepia. I run my finger over the sleek gloss case. “Wow.”
Taking a seat on the bench, I lift the case up and move the microphone away from my mouth. Placing my clutch down on my lap, I pull out my phone and hit dial on Madison’s name.
She answers instantly. “Is he done?”
“No.” I press my hand over my heart to make sure it’s still there securely. “Not yet. I need to ask you something. I have to play two songs tonight on the piano for his ceremony. I know one that I’m going to play, but do you have another that is significant to you both? Maybe a song that you—”
“—yes,” she says softly, and I hear her sniff. “God, I wish I could be there.”
“You should have…” I fight the urge to once again scold her for her poor decision.
She clears her throat and tells me what song she wants me to play.
I hit the speaker button and place my phone on top of the sheet stand. “Let me see.”
“Am I on speaker?” she whispers harshly.
“Yes, but it’s fine. They’re out on their hunt, or phase, or whatever it is that they’re doing.”
Madison pauses.
I breathe out through my nostrils while playing the tune over in my head before finally running my fingers over the keys. The keys hit all the notes I intend, and it’s the exact tune to the song.
“Wow.” Her voice is quiet, a notch above a whisper. “That’s perfect.”
I start humming the song with the notes.
“That’s going to sound beautiful. Can you get Tillie to record it?”
I pick up my phone and take her off speaker. “I will.”
She sighs. “Thank you, Saint.”
We hang up and I spend the rest of the next hour practicing both songs that I’ll be playing.
Brantley
The first thing everyone should most definitely know about all of us is that ending someone’s life comes as easy as one, two, three. We were dropping bodies when our friends were dropping alcohol shots in the club. It doesn’t affect any of us, and it never has.
Not when we’d watch the life of someone slowly bleed from their eyes.
Not when we’d know that person had a family to go home to.
I wish I could say that everyone who has met the end of our blade deserved it, but truth is, at least for me, that’s not always the case.
“You know who’s going down?”