“No. It doesn’t, actually.” He crossed an ankle over his knee, all casual, as if he weren’t a shark circling everything I held sacred. “Don’t look at me like that. I’d prefer not to have to do this, but it’s unavoidable.”
“Like hell,” I hissed. “Is this some sort of sick revenge for leaving you?”
He tilted his head and shot me a disappointed look. “Kate, please, we’re not children. I understand your anger. I know you must hate me.”
I nodded eagerly, which earned me another censoring grimace.
“But the ends will eventually justify these unavoidable means. I’m sure of it.” He smiled reassuringly, as one would to a child who didn’t know how to see through the bullshit. “In the meantime, I just need you to warn me if the MEA decides to dig in my sandbox.”
“This isn’t a fucking game.” The words were delivered in a diamond-hard tone I’d never heard come from my mouth before. Guess I’d been saving it for a special occasion.
John chuckled. “When are you going to learn? Magic is always a game. What was it Uncle Abe used to say?” He cocked his head and quoted the man he’d just threatened a couple of minutes earlier: “You either cook or you get burned.”
Considering the rage smoldering in the center of my chest, I had a pretty good idea which category I fell into.
My left hand lifted before I made a conscious decision to slap him. His hand caught my palm before it made contact. “I’m sorry.” Raised my fingertips to his mouth. Planted a kiss there while he stared into my angry gaze.
I ripped my hand away and cradled it to my chest. “Get the fuck away from me.”
He smiled tightly. Paused and regarded me with a look I couldn’t identify. I just knew it scared me a little. But finally, he nodded. “All right, I’ll go.” He glanced down at his watch. “But I’ll be talking to you real soon, Kate.”
In shock, I watched him walk away. But before I’d taken two breaths, I realized I couldn’t sit on that bench and wait for Morales and Danny to come find me in that state.
I stood and walked away on wooden legs. Away from the grating racket of the carnival. Past the clearing where the community center would stand next year. Toward the gate that used to lead down into the Arteries.
Since the raid, the mayor had had every entrance to the tunnels sealed shut with cinder blocks. I placed a hand over the red paint that spelled the words KEEP OUT. Behind me, the screams of joy from the carnival-goers mixed with the noise from the freeway and the melancholy horns of the riverboats.
I climbed up a grassy rise to the top of the road that ran over the old tunnels. From this higher vantage point, I could see most of the Cauldron.
I looked around. Really looked. The sun was setting in the distance over Lake Erie. That massive body of water was filled with mutated fish, dumped chemicals, and more bodies than the Babylon Eternal Rest Cemetery on Highway 52.
Closer, a tenement down the road was lit up like a faerie dwelling, but no mythical faerie-tale creatures lived in there. Instead, its walls were thin prisons that barely contained the despair of its residents. Magic was the least of their worries. Instead, poverty, addiction, and abuse were more abundant than clean water, fresh produce, and a decent education.
I wasn’t sure how long I looked around at the fetid landscape before the sounds of sirens echoed in the distance. Before the mom walking by with her toddler screamed and knocked the kid upside the head because he tripped. Before the gaunt, blond junkie stumbled out of the alley and offered the teenaged Adept who worked that corner a blow job in exchange for a diet potion.
Eventually I watched the immorality play long enough that my shoulders slumped and what was left of my optimism seeped out like a leaky balloon.
The future John Volos had promised the citizens of the Cauldron was a mirage. All those families who gathered to listen to his pretty words wanted to believe he was offering them a dream come true. Instead it was more like a hallucination fueled by dirty magic and his own ambitions. Ambitions he’d see realized no matter whom he had to fuck over in the process.
I pulled my gaze from the urban landscape to see Morales climbing the hill toward me.
“Where’s Danny?” I asked, suddenly afraid for him to be alone.
“He’s throwing baseballs at a clown with Pen and Shadi.”
I nodded and sighed, my gaze on the lights of the midway.
“What did Volos have to say?” He fell in next to me, his eyes scanning the horizon.
I shrugged but wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Just wanted to know how Danny was doing.”
He turned to look at me, a brow raised in challenge. “Sure that’s all? You didn’t look too happy.” I could tell by the tightness of his tone and the anger in his eyes that he’d seen me try to hit Volos and what happened after.
But telling Morales about the conversation wasn’t an option. So I just shrugged.
Morales let me have my silence for a few moments. When he finally spoke again, it was on the heels of a sigh. “You know, I didn’t really like this town when I first got here.”
I glanced at him. Wondering at the pensive tone and the rapid change in subject. “Oh yeah?”
He nodded and looked at me from the corner of his eyes. “But now I’m glad I’ll be sticking around for a while. This place is a mess. All sorts of fucked-up history and complicated issues to navigate.”
I snorted. “Yeah, sounds like you’re thrilled.”
He laughed. “But the Cauldron’s also got lots of secrets. Makes me want to understand what makes it tick.” He turned toward me fully. “And there’s good here, too.” He nodded toward the carnival. “Those people? Their dreams are worth fighting for.”
“You think?” I swallowed.
“Yeah, I do.” He nodded. “Even if it means we’re the ones who have to take on the bad guys to make it happen.”
I sucked a deep breath into my lungs. It smelled like ozone and car exhaust, but there was also the smell of fried fair foods and the crisp, smoky promise of autumn. I blinked and instead of looking at the bad, I tried to focus on the good. The lights of the carnival. The children skipping through the midway. The tired, indulgent smiles of the parents. The way the sunset’s reds and oranges and purples shifted over the surface of the lake like a kaleidoscope’s colors. The pale crescent moon overhead cupping the evening’s first stars in its embrace.
“Maybe you’re right.”