Chapter 28 - Marella
Lucas was at the door. I watched him through the peephole. He fidgeted beneath the sleeves of his robes, looking side to side as if worried someone might be following, wiry gray hair sticking out in all directions.
He knocked again, more forceful this time, but not like he was angry. He hit the door like he was desperate, frantic even.
"I know you’re in there," he said softly, just loud enough that I was able to hear through the heavy wood. "I have a spare key, but I’d really prefer it if you let me in. I just want to talk. I think I figured out how to break the curse, and—"
I opened the door so quickly that he nearly fell to the floor. Before he could right himself, I had ahold of him by the collar and was pulling him inside, letting the door slam shut behind him.
"Speak," I snapped, shoving him up against the wall. I'd had enough of these men and their self righteousness.
He looked down at my hands on his chest before shaking his head. "This is basically how your sister and I met." His voice was distant and reminiscent.
I loosened my grip on his cloak but didn’t respond, raising my eyebrows to encourage him to continue.
He cleared his throat. "As you know, I was basing my research on the idea that the Stone Witch thrives on drought.
" His eyes cut to the window, where the sun was now high in the sky and beating down upon the piazza.
"But I was wrong. We figured that out together.
Drought is only part of it. Ridding the city of its waterways, of your family and the other merfolk who protected the water, was just one way of creating what she truly craves… "
He trailed off, and I shook him slightly. "Continue."
"We were right. It’s hunger," he said, voice growing low once more.
"Desperation. Greed. She wants the city to crave water, for the people within it to crave power and money.
And when she created you, she created monsters that could spread eternal desperation: the everlasting desire to be free and to feed.
And subsequently, she created the Fratelli, an organization desperately trying to destroy you.
She created a cycle of violence, revenge, and hunger that poured into her dried-up heart, making her ever stronger. "
I felt my mouth pull into a deep frown. "How did you figure this out?"
He chewed his lower lip. "There was a man, centuries ago. One of the original members of the Fratelli. I don’t think that it ever sat right with him what was done to your family."
My mind wandered back to the day we met with the original Fratelli. To the man who warned us about what was coming and urged us to leave the city. I couldn’t recall the exact details of his features, and so my memory superimposed Garrett’s face where his should be.
"He kept a diary." Lucas was still talking.
"It mostly discussed the changes made within the city, how the leaders diverted water and moved the canals underground.
But he also mused on the Stone Witch. It never made sense to him why the Fratelli dedicated themselves to hunting the cursed and not the curser.
In fact, the original Fratelli used to invite her to meetings. She was a collaborator.
"And in those musings, he noted how she seemed to thrive on the energy in a room when fights for power took place.
That she seemed weaker, more tired, when it would rain.
" Lucas looked sheepish for a moment. "He was clearly far smarter than either Garrett or me, because he figured out the truth about her much faster than we were able to.
And he devised a plan to destroy her, thus freeing the city from her influence. "
He fell quiet again.
"And?" I demanded, shaking him once more.
"And she destroyed him," he whispered. "Or, if she didn’t, she had him destroyed. It’s difficult to say. The last entry in the diary was him writing about his plan. He never wrote again after that. I had to look him up in the Fratelli archives to determine what had happened to him."
"What happened to him?"
"The official records indicate that he was exsanguinated. By a member of your family."
I shook my head, and he nodded. "I thought not. And so, it had to have been her. Either way, he was killed, and his plan never came to fruition."
We were both quiet after that. Lucas stared at me while I let his words roll over and over again in my mind.
"She thrives on yearning," I finally said, finally understanding the motive behind her bargain with me. "In any way she can create it, she wants the people to feel like they are lacking something."
"Exactly."
I exhaled a long, slow breath. "Then tell me," I whispered. "What was the original plan?"
But before he could begin to explain, the door to the apartment burst open, flying off its hinges and sending us both tumbling across the room.
I felt my head crack against the cold stone floor and then I remembered nothing more.