22. Syrus #2
I have to find out where she is, to know she’s okay.
Even just getting confirmation she left home and isn’t locked up in some workhouse would be enough.
I don’t need to see her, even if it breaks my heart to think of her going through pregnancy without my help and support.
It’ll still be worth it as long as I can get news about her once we get to Strata.
Once I get to Strata and send Syrus tumbling back into his body in Malice, that is.
He approaches me as Viz puts the final touches on the rift.
“May I?” he asks, checking—as he has done every time since the mirror incident—that he has my permission.
I give him a quick nod and shiver as the touch of his presence runs up my neck before settling into my mind.
Viz lights the runes, and the rift flares open. I pray Syrus can’t sense my nerves—the way my heart beats a little faster than usual and my stomach lurches as I step through the aether. If he does, maybe he just chalks it up to what he told me yesterday about needing to use force.
I emerge in a little back alley with no one to witness my arrival.
“Right,” Syrus says, no doubt about to growl some orders at me.
Before he can, I take a deep breath and shove his presence from my mind with all my might.
He obviously isn’t prepared for it, because he puts up almost no resistance, rushing from my body faster than it took for me to go through the rift.
I immediately start slamming down the shutters on my mind, building the strongest mental barriers I can muster—a steel shield, a locked set of doors, a high wall.
I use all those images and more. I’ve found I can keep them in place without using my full attention, a bit like singling out a sound in a noisy room while still listening to the person talking to you.
Then I stand there for a full minute, waiting to see if he’ll come bursting back into my consciousness.
When he doesn’t, I start to run.
I’m on the right side of the river for my father’s house, and that’s the fastest way to find out where Evie is. I’m glad my training with Syrus got me in shape in Infernum. It means I don’t need to stop for a break as I sprint through the familiar streets.
I slow to a jog when my father’s house comes into view, bracing myself for potentially seeing him and Ada again.
In some ways, I want to see them, if just to explain to them how colossally they fucked up trying to marry Evie off to Hathwell.
I want to see some contrition on their stupid, apathetic faces, even if that’s not the reason I’m here.
“Leah?”
I whip around to see an old neighbor peering over her garden wall.
“Mrs. Gavere,” I say, lost for words for a moment. I don’t know what people have heard since I left my father’s house, but she’s not looking at me like she’s seen a ghost, so it doesn’t seem people believe I’m dead, at least.
“Are you back from traveling with your new husband?” she asks, studying me from over her glasses. “Your father said you were taking an extended trip. Congratulations, by the way, although I must say I was a little disappointed not to be invited to the wedding,” she sniffs.
“Oh, well, it was a very small ceremony, Mrs. Gavere,” I say apologetically, trying to think fast. “In fact, I’ve only just gotten back this moment, hence my traveling clothes,” I gesture to the practical pants and tunic I’m wearing, nothing like the dresses she used to see me in.
“But I was desperate to see Evie and came straight here. Do you know if she’s in? ”
Mrs. Gavere’s always been a bit of a gossip, and I thank the goddess for it now as she barely contains her smile.
“You haven’t heard? But then I suppose you’ve been away—and Ada’s been trying very hard not to let it get around.
” She lowers her voice, clearly delighted to be the first to give me this information.
“Your sister left to marry that butcher’s apprentice who works on Famley Road. ”
My heart swells and contracts at the same time. Evie listened to me. She used the scavenging money to get out. But she also ran straight into the arms of a man I know almost nothing about.
What if this Jeremy isn’t what he seemed? Evie is so much more sheltered than me; he could have easily deceived her about his true self.
Not that having some experience of the world has served you any better…
The snarky thought stings with its accuracy, but it doesn’t do much to calm my anxiety. I have to see Evie. I can’t come all this way and not make sure she’s okay, and since my mental barrier still seems to be holding, I might have time.
“Do you know where they live now?” I ask.
“I don’t. Though if your stepmother isn’t forthcoming with the details…” She gives me a knowing look, and I decide that I’m very fond of Mrs. Gavere. “Then your best bet is asking at the butchers. Even if he’s not working today, they’ll know where their apprentice lives.”
I pause just long enough to thank her, and then I’m hurrying off again. Luckily, Famley Road is just fifteen minutes away—five if I run—and I’m in sight of the swinging sign shaped like a smiling pig in no time.
Except there’s a long line out the door.
I can’t wait. I need to push in, but I’m just weighing up how to do that without getting decked when I hear a voice carrying on the air.
It’s singing. A gentle, lilting melody I’ve heard a thousand times before as Evie brushed her hair or helped me in the kitchen. Heart leaping in my chest, I round the side of the butcher’s shop, spying a neat row of little houses beyond.
And inside one of them, standing by an open window as she intently kneads a mound of dough, is my little sister.