Chapter 15
Cillian
We landed in the seaside town of Amaria just a few minutes later. The scents of salt and sea tickled my nose, and I breathed out a sigh of relief that this had worked. I’d actually convinced the cat to help me.
“Where’s my fish?” Meera asked.
I gestured to the ocean sprawling out before us, the sun rising over the horizon. Here, on the other side of the continent, it was just now morning, with a warm breeze blowing past us. “The world is your oyster, Meera. Go catch some of the freshest fish on the continent.”
Her lips peeled back, and she flashed shiny white teeth at me. “And what are you going to do?”
I smiled and shoved my hands into my trouser pockets. “Just meet me at the dock in two hours.”
The cat huffed but thankfully asked no further questions as I turned and walked toward the town lining the shore. I liked this little town with all the buildings—tall and wooden, on stilts to avoid the high tide, colorful and fun.
The sleepy village had yet to wake up, all the businesses closed, and shutters not yet opened.
Sand covered the roads that wound between the buildings, and I basked in the warm breeze.
I might have come here for a specific purpose, but it wasn’t the only thing that made me want to leave Fairwitch so often.
I also loved the anonymity of it all. Out here I didn’t have to be anybody.
I didn’t have the weight of a kingdom on my shoulders along with the weight of my failures.
Nobody knew me. I could just exist.
I passed colorful shack after colorful shack.
All the buildings were painted so that the town looked like a rainbow.
Maybe later I’d stop by the butcher, who sold fresh fried fish in the mornings.
For now, I had my sights set on that little green building at the end of the road.
Palm trees and jungle spread out behind it, and as I came closer, I glanced around to make sure no one noticed me.
Even if I wasn’t recognized here, I still tried to be careful when visiting these apothecaries.
I had a few towns around the continent I liked to visit so that I wasn’t reliant on just one place for the tonic I needed.
It also made me less recognizable if I wasn’t coming to the same village every month.
To these people, I was just a poor drifter who stumbled into town every once in a while and played cards, drank, and flirted shamelessly with the women.
I came to a stop in front of the little green apothecary, a closed sign hanging over the door. I wouldn’t be going in the front. Not for this.
I wound around to the back, where a thick jungle of palm trees, vines, and knotted tree trunks spread out as far as the eye could see.
A set of stairs led up to the back door, and I walked up each creaky one, then knocked three times. Exactly three.
After a moment, the door opened, and a squat woman with grey hair and a scowl answered. “What are you doing here at this hour? Only after dark, sir.”
I held up my hands. “I didn’t have a choice. No one saw me, though. Extra for your time.” I held out a handful of gold coins, and the woman eyed me warily.
“What do you need?”
I pulled out my empty vial and shook it. “The heartstopper’s tonic.”
My throat dried up as I waited for her to take my vial and give me a new one, the same way it did every month.
A few times, the apothecary I’d visited hadn’t had any in stock, and I’d scrambled to get Fargus to take me somewhere else.
I didn’t have that option this time. Meera wouldn’t be so malleable.
She stared at me for a minute before giving me a curt nod, and I blew out a breath of relief as she waddled away, then came back with a full vial of the blue liquid.
“Next time, come after dark.” She slammed the door in my face.
I uncorked the vial and took a sip, the effects almost immediate as the tonic coursed through me, and all my anxiety, my joy, my anger, my sadness, faded away until it was nothing but a faint pulse. I sucked in a lungful of air. Already it was so much easier to breathe again.
And I was starving.
I shoved the vial into my pocket, and re-emerged on the main road of the town, where a few people were now out and about. Fishermen dragged their nets toward the sea in the distance, the sun rising over the horizon.
I was just about to make my way toward the butcher when I saw a flash of a maroon cape and hood dashing around the corner of a bookstore.
I stilled, something in me screaming that I’d seen this before.
“Wait!” I yelled. “Just wait a minute.” My legs started moving before my brain decided to follow.
There was only one group of people I knew that wore maroon hoods and cloaks.
The Brotherhood of Magic. The last time I’d seen that cloak and hood had been the day of my wedding, and I’d been in a completely different town on the opposite side of the continent.
It could be a different member of the brotherhood . . .
This had to be some odd coincidence. I rounded the bookstore, that maroon cape fluttering in the wind as the brotherhood member fled. This person was running from me, which meant they didn’t want me to catch them—and that was all the reason I needed to break into a run after them.
“Who are you?” I called as I sprinted, pumping my arms and legs faster, an ominous feeling settling over me. “Why are you running from me?”
I gained on them, even though this mystery person was taller.
A hood still covered their head, obscuring their face from my view, but I’d catch them and demand answers.
If someone from the brotherhood knew who I was, knew that I was portaling out of Fairwitch Isle, that could be catastrophic.
Especially if they found a way to track me back to the top of Kiln Mountain.
But no. That shouldn’t have been possible.
I was close enough now to reach out, so I did, managing to grab the person’s hood. I yanked it off to reveal wavy shoulder-length dark hair that was far, far too familiar. I’d know that hair anywhere. I’d run behind that head of hair countless times as a child. Hadn’t seen it in two decades.
I stopped, unable to get my legs to move. “Lor?” I called to my older brother as a loud yowl sounded from behind me.
“We have to go,” Meera screamed, a fish hanging from her mouth and what looked like a butcher hot on her heels.
“My fish is floating!” He pointed at Meera. “It lifted from my table and flew right out of my shop. Magic fish!” he screamed, looking at me. “Do you see it?”
I turned, but Lor had disappeared.
“Uh—” I scratched my head, trying to come up with an explanation when Meera opened a portal that pulled me in. The last thing I saw was the butcher’s mouth dropping open as we tumbled through it and back into Fairwitch Isle.
I fell to my knees. The air was cooler and lighter here. I tried to catch my breath as I glared at the cat. “Why would you steal a fish? I dropped you off at the literal ocean.”
Meera lay down, munching on the fish without a care in the world. “Do I look like someone who goes fishing?”
I dusted off my trousers, coming to a stand. “You look capable enough to me.”
“I am capable.” She munched on the fish tail. “That doesn’t mean I want to. I was not about to go traipsing into the ocean like a common street cat. Stealing was much easier.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as we walked toward the castle. The entire town was quiet and asleep this late at night. “Yes, it was easier until the butcher saw a floating fish. Are you forgetting that you’re invisible to the outside world?”
“I could never forget our curse,” she snapped.
“I hope word of that floating fish doesn’t get back to the brotherhood.” Then there would be questions. An investigation. All it would take to get the apothecary owner to open up was gold, something the brotherhood had plenty of now that they were stealing so much magic and charging for its use.
Fuck. I hated myself. I hated how weak I was. I hated that I couldn’t function without this tonic.
Just missing one dose had almost undone me.
“Someone had a late night,” Tal said from the door to the castle.
The gargoyle statue sat on the left side of the castle door, his twin on the right side.
His stone wings spread out behind him, sharp talons sticking out from his fingers and toes.
I never could tell the two apart, but Tal was always on the left and Barty was always on the right.
I didn’t understand most of the items Castle chose to bring to life, but these two gargoyles were probably the most puzzling of all.
They didn’t exactly protect us. Mostly, they just opened doors and argued.
I personally thought Castle could’ve used its magic to make more useful things sentient—like weapons and doors that opened themselves, but no. We got arguing gargoyles.
I looked beside me to see that Meera was gone. She’d probably disappeared to polish off her fish.
“Was it that pretty little cat that kept you out so late?” Barty asked, his stone lips stretching into a smile, sharp incisors pointing out.
“She’s a cat,” I said. “I am a human. We don’t exactly mix.”
Tal frowned. “Why not? I like her silky fur.”
“I like her green eyes, so big and mysterious.”
“That’s a big word for you,” Tal said.
“No it’s not. I use big words all the time.”
“Like what?”
“Well you can’t just put me on the spot like that. I need time to think of the big words.”
“Uh-huh,” Tal said, raising a hand to inspect one of his talons. “That’s what I thought.”
I did not have the energy for any of this. “Attraction doesn’t work like that, okay? I am not attracted to those whose bodies are covered in fur. Let’s just leave it at that.”
“Someone’s testy,” Barty mumbled, but thankfully they’d stopped arguing and opened the doors for me.
I hesitated before stepping inside, not sure I was ready to go to bed after the night I’d just had.
“It would be nice if people respected our time.” Tal nudged his head toward the open doors.
Barty stared at me pointedly. “When someone opens a door for you, the correct thing to do is walk through it.”
I shoved a hand through my hair, barely hearing the gargoyles.
I couldn’t believe I’d seen Lor tonight.
It was him. It was impossible. What were the odds?
I was sure of it. Despite taking my tonic, I felt on edge, my insides vibrating.
I needed to tell someone, and there was only one person who came to mind.
I turned to walk down the steps of the castle landing and toward the little dress shop that sat on the cobblestone road.
“Is he serious right now?” Barty asked.
“Unbelievable. You know, I’m going to remember this the next time he needs a door opened for him. Just because he’s high prince doesn’t mean he can treat us like this.”
“No, you won’t remember. You don’t remember anything.”
“Hey!”
As I walked away , their voices faded, and for the first time tonight, I was finally looking forward to something.