Black Bird of the Gallows(43)

“So in the meantime…”

“I don’t know what to say.” He spreads his hands, lets them fall to his lap. “The only way I know how to live is to enjoy good moments as they come. I don’t think about the future, because my future is never enjoyable.”

“I get that.” I do, but it doesn’t stop the growing hollow in my chest. “I don’t want to feel something for you only to have you leave.”

He thinks for a moment. “This is why I usually avoid close relationships with people outside of my group. The leaving is awful. But you know, people leave relationships when neither member is a harbinger of death, too.”

“Sure, but in this case, it’s likely neither of us will want to leave. It’s not usually like that in breakups.”

“I know.” He lowers his gaze. “This is all I have, Angie. I’m sorry.”

The car falls into silence. The rain-streaked windshield casts his face in gray. His gaze rises past the weedy edge of the parking lot to the distant college. I close my eyes, press my hands into my thighs. “We should get to homeroom.”

“Yeah. Okay.” He unclips his seat belt and leans over. Fingers on my cheek turn my face to his. Lips brush mine, and my breath catches. Every kiss with this guy feels like a first kiss. And the last. “Walk in with me?” he asks.

I draw in a breath. “Yes.”

We both sense someone standing in front of the car, watching. I look at the same time as Reece.

Rafette. I would recognize him anywhere. His face may change, but his clothes are the same: puffy coat. Wool cap.

Fear uncoils in my gut, even though the Beekeeper isn’t so menacing in sunlight. There is a weary solitude to him. A desolation that bleeds through his shifting mask of features. It doesn’t matter whose eyes he wears, they are tight with a despair that makes my chest ache.

My crow lands on the curb across from the car. Its one white feather gleams like an opal in the morning light. It puffs out its feathers and lets out a long, warning cry at Rafette.

Reece reaches for the door handle. “Stay in the car.”

“No.” I unclip my seat belt. “I want to talk to him.”

Reece frowns but nods. “Don’t get too close to him. And if you see any bees…run. Whatever happens, don’t get stung.”

We get out of the car. I edge my way to the front. Reece’s body is long and taut. His eyes are hard and black and undeniably birdlike. Never before has he appeared less human to me.

The Beekeeper lightly bows in my direction. “I have not properly introduced myself.” His voice lilts with an accent I don’t recognize. “I am Rafette, although I imagine you know that. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Angelina.”

Tension radiates off Reece. “You agreed to keep your distance,” he says to Rafette in a deceptively calm voice.

The Beekeeper addresses Reece with a sigh. “You do not direct me, scavenger.” The Beekeeper opens his mouth and a bee escapes to buzz aimlessly around Rafette’s head. I try not to stare at it.

Every nerve in my body is on alert. Sweat slides down the small of my back.

“Why are you here?” I ask. “Why are you hurting so many people?”

Rafette looks at me. “It is my nature, my dear. I create chaos.”

“But bees are orderly creatures,” I say. “They sting only in desperation.”

His eyes, currently heavy-lidded and lined, blink. “Have you known desperation, Angelina?”

My breath is shallow, my palms slick and cold. “Yes.”

“Remember that, and multiply it by ten thousand. Only then could you know my desperation.” He tilts his head. “It’s interesting that you see my true face so easily. The curse I bear is designed to prevent that. The others in this parking lot—those who are looking—see the two of you speaking to a perfectly forgettable young man.”

“I don’t care,” I whisper.

“It doesn’t matter to you that only those whose bodies hold traces of the lost magic can see me?” He smiles, wide and terrifying. “You would resist the venom of my bees longer than most. But never forget, the queen’s venom is deadly to all.”

Reece pulls in a sharp breath through flared nostrils. “Don’t.”

“I don’t care why I can see you,” I tell him, heart pounding icy blood through my veins. It’s hard to pretend you’re not scared when you are. “I care that innocent people are doing sick, terrible things because of you.”

Rafette’s features turn distinctly feminine. I hold my breath, afraid I’ll see my mother’s features again, but it’s another woman’s mouth, another woman’s eyes.

“No one is innocent, least of all those chosen by my bees. They target unbalanced minds, those already edging toward darkness and madness,” he says softly. “People have always done terrible things. They always will. With or without my involvement.” His eyes narrow. One side of his mouth curves upward. “I cannot help but think we have met before, Angelina. You look so familiar.”

Reece’s hand slips around my arm. He angles me slightly behind him. “She has one of those faces,” he says.

Rafette gives Reece a slow, knowing smile. “No, she does not.” A mustache briefly appears on the Beekeeper’s upper lip before folding back into its skin. “And neither do I, yet she can see it. I see you have found someone worth saving, scavenger. Eventually, all of your kind will find something, someone, you want to save. And we will be there. To help, of course.”