“I’m not trying to hurt you,” he says. “I’ve known you a long time. You’re a nice girl. But this is much bigger than you and your little family. You have seen for yourself what we are up against.”
I inch back, deeper into the darkness, the illusion of myself only a few feet from Agni.
“You’re not fooling anyone,” he says. He shakes his jacket, which jingles with glass and metal clacking together. “I had charms made to counteract the effects of your illusions.” He takes a step forward, and I take another back, keeping him at least ten feet away. Even if he can see through my illusions, there’s still the safety of the darkness.
“The Up-Mountainers need to pay for what they’ve done to us. We can put an end to the way they’ve treated us for centuries. Don’t you want to help, Sorina? You were a slave once. Where would you be now if Villiam hadn’t freed you?”
I don’t answer. I’m sad for Agni’s loss, truly, but I’m now terrified of being alone with him. Terrified of the way he looks at me, as if my past is etched on my skin. I might share pieces of Agni’s story, but I cannot feel the way he feels. Maybe I should. But however justified his ends, the means will only see more innocents murdered.
“I’m curious,” he asks. “How did you find out about Luca?”
I don’t answer. I don’t owe him any explanations.
“You’re rarely this quiet. In fact, Villiam can hardly get you to stop chattering on.” He shakes his head and then the flame over his hands goes out, and we’re in nearly complete darkness. All I see is the outline of his body coming closer. “Answer me, Sorina.”
Still, I say nothing.
“I haven’t wanted to hurt you, but you’re forcing my hand. If you don’t make the Up-Mountain boy reappear, I’ll kill you in order to kill him.”
Then his fire returns, all at once, but ten times as large and ten times as bright. It glows pure gold, and the entire room is illuminated as if we’re within the core of the sun.
Hellfire.
I dash for a tunnel and make it into the main circus room, where I trip on a balance beam. Agni sprints toward me, and I look around frantically. I need to get away, out of the reach of him and his fire.
Hawk appears beside me before I even call to her. Just as Agni is an arm’s length away from burning me, she grabs my leg with her talons and flies me up to the high trapeze. I dangle upside-down and scream as the entire perimeter of the tent becomes engulfed in golden flames.
All except for Agni, who must be wearing charms like Luca’s. The Hellfire parts for him as he walks.
“We need to fly out of here,” I tell Hawk.
“The doors are covered. I don’t think we can fly low enough to get out without getting burned,” she says.
Agni twists the flames into something else, sculpting it like melted glass. He makes a bow and then points one long shining arrow at us. He doesn’t even need to hit us. The Hellfire will consume the entire trapeze in moments.
But if Agni is gone, the Hellfire will disappear, too. I need something to get rid of Agni, and I need that person to be quick and sudden about it.
I call to Tree, and he appears several yards behind Agni, already prepared to run. He lets out a growl loud enough to shake the Menagerie and then charges at him.
Agni doesn’t have time to react. He falls under Tree’s weight and is crushed in a medley of screams and the crunching sound of breaking bones.
Hawk grabs me and takes off, cheering for Tree as the flames disappear. I’m too disturbed at the sight of the Menagerie floor, which is a mess of blood and Agni’s broken body, to echo her enthusiasm. But I murmur my appreciation for Tree’s efforts and return him safely to his Trunk.
We soar out of the tent and over Gomorrah. There’s a battle raging not far outside the Menagerie, to the tune of screams and swords clashing. Even from upside-down and far away, it’s easy to see that Gomorrah has the advantage because of its jynx-workers. Shadow-workers clutch the shadows of the officials and toss them dozens of yards away, and all of our weapons carry some kind of strengthening charm.
I don’t think Hawk is thinking about where she’s flying because she’s taking us north, beyond the burning Skull Gate. “We need to find Villiam,” I tell her. The cold wind up here slaps against my skin.
“You still haven’t told me what the hell is even going on.” Her face is pale, and obviously all of this has shaken her as much as it has me. I told Nicoleta and Unu and Du about Agni, but I didn’t tell her. I simply brought her out when I needed her, right in the middle of danger, which wasn’t fair. Yet she acted fast. She saved my life. And, by doing so, saved all our lives.
I’m suddenly reminded of how very young she is.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“I just need to be in a tree somewhere. Three dead mice in my hands. And then I’ll be good.”
But we don’t fly to a forest. We turn around and fly back to our tent, beside Villiam’s. Once we land on the ground, we rush around the path’s corner toward our home. The guards who usually protect us are gone—probably dealing with the battle at Skull Gate.
“I’m not a jynx-worker,” someone says nearby. “I’m not. I swear.”
“I can see your shadow twisting.”
Hawk and I creep closer, careful to keep ourselves hidden from sight. It’s Jiafu, cornered by an official. They stand in a clearing surrounded by caravans and tents with their doors sealed and shut, including Villiam’s.
“Who is that?” Hawk whispers. She has no idea who Jiafu is, or that I work with him. I shush her so the official doesn’t spot us.
“Everything’s lit by bloody torches. Of course my shadow is moving,” Jiafu says. Though even as he denies his jynx-work, his shadow twists into a spiral on the grass, as if trying to give away its master.
“If your shadow comes near me, I’ll put this sword through your gut,” the official says.
I’m frozen. I don’t know what I could do at this point. Any illusion I could create to scare the official away would probably only make him retaliate.
Jiafu takes a step closer to a tent, farther away from the nearest torch. His shadow dims and doesn’t twist so much. But it still flickers. He puts up his hands. “I’m just trying to get back to my home,” he says. “I know the proprietor. He personally—”
The official stabs his sword through Jiafu’s neck.
I bite my tongue to keep from screaming and cover Hawk’s eyes with my hand. When he pulls out the sword, spurts of blood follow. Jiafu collapses on the ground, and even from far away, I can see that he dies within moments. The official wipes off his sword on Jiafu’s shirt.
Nausea races through me. I should’ve done something. I shouldn’t have been frozen. But I didn’t expect this to happen. Jiafu always squirms his way out of trouble.
“He just killed him,” Hawk whimpers.
“We need to get inside.”
I am almost too shaken to maintain even the simple moth illusion. I don’t bother to conceal the sound of our footsteps as we run.
I collapse on our living room floor and bury my face in a pillow. My clothes reek of smoke and sweat, and my heart pounds erratically. I feel like my chest could burst, and I breathe in the comforting, familiar scent of the kettle corn kernels that litter our floor.
I open Luca’s Trunk. Maybe he’ll wake now.
He appears lying down, his head resting on my lap, unconscious. “Luca. Luca,” I plead, but it doesn’t do any good. I also open Nicoleta’s Trunk, because I need someone to talk to who can keep a level head through all of this. Hawk has already left to find food in the next room. I hear the wooden bowls clunk together as she rummages around for dead mice.
Nicoleta doesn’t stumble when coming out. She’s gotten used to coming and going between my head and the real world. “What happened?” she asks. “You smell like a cigar shop.”
“Agni showed up and attacked me. Tree trampled him, and Hawk flew us to safety.”
“You’re saying Agni’s dead? And that he was behind all of this?”
“Yes.”