“I think he’s innocent.”
“How can you—”
“He’s an illusion, Nicoleta,” I say. “I don’t know how. My mind... I don’t remember creating him. It doesn’t make sense, I know, but he is.”
I expect her to argue with me, to claim that I’m breaking down under too much stress. For days now, we’ve all begun to believe that Luca is the killer, that he’s the Alliance spy. That he’s dangerous.
Nicoleta looks at me, wide-eyed, for a long moment. But she doesn’t argue.
“I need you two to be lookouts,” Nicoleta says to Unu and Du. “We’re going to figure out how to get Luca out of this cage.”
The four of us exchange glances. If Venera were here, this would be easy. Venera could bend through the bars and throw the charms out, and then I could make Luca disappear. But the situation isn’t entirely hopeless. Nicoleta has her strength, after all, even if her abilities come and go.
“I need you to bend the cage bars,” I tell her. “Please.”
“I don’t know if I can.” She holds her hands behind her back. “I... I messed up the last time. I failed you.”
“But no one else can get him out,” I say.
“But I’m not strong enough—”
“Please,” I beg her. “Please try.”
Nicoleta takes a deep breath, nods and then walks to the cage. She grabs two rungs with each hand and pulls. Nothing happens.
“Nicoleta—”
“Just give me a minute,” she snaps. “I’m not talented like the rest of you, I know. But I can do this. I can do this.” Her voice quiets, as if she’s only talking to herself.
She pulls again. The bars give a little, but not much. Not enough.
“Why is it that everyone else is special and I’m the useless one?” she says, nearly in hysterics. I’ve never seen Nicoleta like this. She always wears a mask of composure. The effort of bending the bars must be draining.
I place my hands on her shaking shoulders. “You’re the least useless of all of us,” I say gently. “You’re the one who holds us all together. You’re the one keeping everyone sane.”
“And who’s keeping me sane?” she snaps, tugging on the metal bars. They screech and bend some more. “Who’s taking care of me?”
“I...” I don’t have an answer for that. This entire time, I’ve been leaning on Nicoleta for help. While I’ve been gone with Luca, searching for the killer, Nicoleta has been repairing the mess at home. Buying food, even if no one eats it. Doing the laundry. Setting up and packing up. Ensuring that our lives go on. She has managed to simultaneously run our family and, when I asked her, to help me capture Dalimil. Maybe I have been asking too much of her.
She groans and pulls more on the bars. Slowly, they give way, barely enough for me to reach my arm through and grab the charms near the top of the cage. I reach inside and rip them off, and then I drop them to the dirt and grind them into pieces with my heel.
“Now what?” she asks.
“Now I make him disappear,” I say.
I return to the Trunks in my mind and reach for that last one, the one hidden within the haze of forgotten memories. I unlatch the lock and reach out for Luca’s Strings. They’re there, taut and binding him to me. How did I never notice them? I’ve never thought to look for them before, of course, but I can’t believe that they’ve been invisible to me all this time.
I gather the Strings in my hands and throw them into the Trunk. Luca disappears from inside the cage and enters the Trunk in my head. He’s safe.
I throw my arms around Nicoleta. “Thank you,” I breathe. “Thank you.”
She squeezes me until my chest hurts. “We’re going to get out of this. Even if it means leaving Gomorrah, we’re going to escape.”
If leaving Gomorrah will keep my family safe, then so be it. But it may not come to that. If Agni is the killer, then everything would be solved. The investigations would end, and my family could stay here.
But he might not be.
“Well, I guess this means Luca is definitely an illusion,” Nicoleta says.
“Yes.” It takes me several seconds to manage the word. Because yes means that something is wrong with my memory. Yes means that all of this makes less sense than it ever did. Yes means that I fell for someone I made up. Yes means I made up someone to fall for. And for him to fall for me.
The two of us walk to the doorway out of the room, where Unu and Du sit on the ground and wait, muttering to themselves.
“There’s been no one here,” Unu says.
“Not a soul,” Du echoes.
Nicoleta looks around the dressing room and then turns to me, her voice hushed.
“Your mind must have been tampered with,” she says. “A mind-worker.”
“I don’t know any mind-workers,” I say. I mean, I technically do. I know Tuyet, though her mind-working isn’t normal and might not be able to alter someone’s memories. And there are several other mind-workers in Gomorrah, but no one I associate with.
“That doesn’t matter,” she says. “There has to be a mind-worker involved.”
“Do you know any mind-workers? By name? Who would want to hurt us? Who would know anything about us?”
“No, but if Agni is involved, he can’t be acting alone. He must have a mind-worker answering to him.”
Footsteps crunch the hay somewhere in the next room. I act before thinking and shove Nicoleta and Unu and Du back into their Trunks. Unu and Du are only twelve—how could they help with an official? And Nicoleta, well, maybe I should’ve kept Nicoleta out, since she looks like an Up-Mountainer.
The tent flap parts, and there’s a flickering light, cast by a flame. The flame dances over the outstretched hand of Agni, casting an eerie mix of glow and shadows over his angular face.
“Sorina,” he says, a hint of surprise in his tone. Now that he’s seen me, it’s too late to use an illusion to hide myself. But maybe I could make a dummy to fool him like I did during my argument with Jiafu.
“What are you doing here when there are officials out? You should be safe in your tent. They’re causing quite a havoc.”
“I was out when they arrived. I came in here to hide from them,” I lie.
He raises his eyebrows. “We both know that you could hide yourself with your illusion-work. Why come in here, alone, in the dark?” At this, he dims the light of his fire until it is no bigger than a match flame. I try not to whimper. These are just theatrics to scare me. “Were you talking to Luca? Sorina...that isn’t a good idea. Not after what he has done.”
I am brave, I think to myself. I am brave enough. All I need to focus on is making it back to Kahina, now that I have Luca and the other illusions safe inside my head. I need to protect them.
“I think he might be innocent,” I say.
“Don’t let him trick you, Sorina. You can’t trust an Up-Mountainer. Look what they’re doing to the Festival just as we speak. Look what they’ve done to your family. To my son.” He shakes his head. “Don’t let your feelings for one boy ruin our crusade.”
I have known Agni my entire life. During every meeting or dinner with Villiam, he has been present, though silent. It’s difficult to imagine him trying to hurt me.
“I know he’s an illusion,” I say boldly.
The sympathetic smile on his face morphs into a scowl. He takes a step toward me, the fire above his palm glowing brighter. “I didn’t expect you to figure it out.”
My heart freezes into a hard lump of ice. I hold back a scream and force out an illusion of myself, so fast I don’t bother with the details. It’s so dark in here that all I need is a silhouette to stand here—so I can run.
Agni is the killer.
This entire time, he’s been watching from the background behind Villiam, learning about my abilities. Maybe he’s a mind-worker, as well. That would explain how he knew Luca could be killed with Hellfire and how I’d forgotten about creating Luca. Villiam usually helps me create my illusions, but Agni is always with him. He’d have opportunity to mess with his mind, as well.