I hear the footsteps as they approach. Agni nods at me, but I’m already standing. All at once, the numbness fades, and my mind fills with conflicting images of Venera’s body, of Luca’s lips, of my knees drenched in water and blood on the Freak Show stage, of Luca’s hand in mine, reassuring and steady.
No matter what Villiam said, this cannot be true.
Outside, the guards have forced Luca to his knees. His hands are bound behind his back, and he wears an impressive bruise on his cheek.
My stomach clenches in anger, both at the guards and at myself. “He’s been hurt,” I say to Agni. “This is too much. I thought you were just going to ask him questions.”
“He resisted coming. He tried to run.”
Why would he do that? Did he think I would stop the guards? Should I have?
Why would he run?
“Sorina,” Luca says. His brown eyes widen as I approach him. My instinct tells me to help him to his feet, clean off the dirt from his clothes, kiss him. But I can no longer trust my instincts. “You can’t possibly believe this.” His voice is panicked, and I turn away from him. I don’t want to see him like this.
“I don’t know,” I say.
“I wouldn’t do this to you. I would never hurt you. I wouldn’t kill anyone,” he says. I want to believe him. I want to trust him and walk away with him and never let him go. But I don’t know if I can, nor do I know if I’ve ruined any chance of the relationship that could have been between us. Either way, I have lost a second person important to me today.
“I don’t know,” I whisper.
“How could I have known about the charm-work? You didn’t even know yourself. It doesn’t make sense. You know this—”
“Haven’t you heard me? I don’t know.”
He flinches as if I’ve slapped him. When he opens his eyes again, they’re vacant. They don’t shine when he looks at me. He turns away. “Then I suppose my only guilt is being a freak.”
My lip quivers, but I don’t want to cry in front of the guards.
I clear my throat, prepared to apologize, to plead forgiveness. But at that moment, Villiam returns and behind him, Chimal. I leave Luca’s side and hurry to my father. He’ll question Luca, and we’ll prove his innocence. Luca will be free to go, and I will follow him.
“I heard you coaxed words out of Dalimil,” Villiam says, the surprise obvious in his voice.
“Prince Exander Kyrannos, of Leonita,” I say. “He’s the Alliance’s leader. Dalimil doesn’t know the spy’s name.”
“Exander is too young. That’s why we ruled him out before,” Chimal says. “How do you know Dalimil wasn’t lying?”
“He wasn’t.” Hearing my hollow tone, they don’t press me for more.
“These are the things he was carrying when we apprehended him,” Villiam tells me. He hands me a bag full of Luca’s belongings. His cane, with a blade concealed inside. His belt of poison vials. A handkerchief. Some copper coins. His golden pocket watch.
Hesitantly, I pick up the pocket watch and open it. I remember there being an engraving inside. It has been scratched out, as if someone purposefully tried to remove it. But the words are still visible. E. Kyrannos.
“This belongs to the prince,” I say in a shaky voice.
Villiam puts his hand on my shoulder to comfort me, but even with his steady grip, I feel as though I’m falling. Why would Luca possess something belonging to Leonita’s prince if he wasn’t working with him to murder my family? This can’t be coincidence.
I let the watch fall to the grass and wait for the closure to come. I have my answers, but my grief only feels heavier, and I’m suffocating in a truth I never wanted. In a truth that breaks my heart.
Luca doesn’t resist as the guards take him away a second time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
After the funeral, Gomorrah’s guards dismantle our tents for us. The Freak Show tent caves in on itself and sinks to the earth in a heap. I put my arm around Hawk’s shoulder as my family gathers in a circle to watch strangers pack our belongings away.
Agni supervises them, taking notes on his clipboard and occasionally introducing us to a guard who will be assigned to watch over us from now on. “Villiam told you that you could go buy food.”
The coins Villiam gave me for licorice cherries and kettle corn remain in my pocket. “We’re not hungry,” I say.
Agni nods, a knowing look in his eyes. He’s no stranger to grief.
Two guards work together and pull the Freak Show’s sign from the ground.
They’re moving our tents to be beside Villiam’s, where we’ll be under his watch at all times. I’ve been told there will be guards stationed at every entrance of our tent, from now until we are entirely certain of Luca’s guilt. It’s as if we are under quarantine. Though no one in the family cares, except for me. None of the illusions wish to participate in the investigation or even venture outside our tent. They sit inside—even Tree, who hates feeling so cramped—and watch time pass.
It’s only a short move. Still, I turn away to avoid watching my home fall apart.
The Gomorrah Festival’s Freak Show has been closed for twelve days during the height of the investigation and as we traveled from Sapris to Leonita. Over one hundred people who live in our neighborhood of the Uphill have been questioned and, under Villiam’s reproachful gaze, have detailed every person they saw that night, from the usual passersby to any particularly suspicious visitor.
“Are we moving there forever?” Hawk asks. “I like our neighborhood.”
“Only for a little while.” Until we are certain this nightmare is finished.
“Du said that Luca is the one who killed Venera, Blister and Gill,” Unu says.
“Where did you hear that, Du?” I ask, my voice sharp.
“I heard the guards talking. Why did you kiss him, then?”
“I don’t want to talk about this.” I walk away, half expecting them to follow me, hoping they won’t. My Strings gather like the train of a gown, and I begin gathering them to me as I walk. My family will be safer inside my head, where no one can reach them. Even if Luca, the supposed perpetrator, is locked away in the Menagerie in a cell beside Dalimil’s, I don’t want to make assumptions. It’s been over twelve days, and I still don’t want to believe his guilt.
Nothing has been proven. Villiam has reached out to his own spies to search for confirmation. We could learn the truth at any moment. After all, we are mere hours away from Leonita. He could still be exonerated.
But the truth might condemn him, as well.
“Hey!” Du shouts. “We don’t want to—”
His protests disappear as he and Unu vanish inside my mind. Hawk, Nicoleta, Crown and Tree follow. I’m not taking any risks tonight.
But I don’t want to wait for our arrival in Leonita alone. I don’t trust myself to play nicely with my mind, and Kahina already offered to have me stay with her. But, first, Villiam has invited me to dinner. Food has always been his favorite solution for soothing a grieving heart.
Once I arrive at his caravan, I pull the book he lent me from my bag. I spent last night poring over theories about jynx-work. “I have those books of yours,” I say. I slide the encyclopedias into his shelf.
“Did you find anything in those?” Villiam asks. He pours us each a glass of wine.
“No, but I keep thinking...” I say. “The killer could be the charm-worker, not me.”
“I thought you were convinced the charm-work is what gave them their lives?” He pushes the cork back in the bottle. “Or is it because Luca is not a charm-worker?”
“There was no motive behind this realization,” I say. “It was merely a thought. And I’m not really in the mood for wine.”
“You come from a long line of Gomorrah proprietors. Wine is one of our legacies,” he says, ignoring the tension in my voice.
“I’m not against wine, but your taste is so dry. I’d prefer something sweet.”
“The tastes of Gomorrah wine are bolder. They suit you.”
“I don’t feel bold,” I say. Maybe I once was. I remember the first night in Frice, before Gill died. My family had gone to the Menagerie, but the officials stormed the Festival. It was dangerous for anyone to be out, let alone a deformed jynx-worker. I should’ve gone home with them, not strayed away and left myself vulnerable. I shouldn’t have let my family worry, especially over something as useless as money.