In measured words, Russ replied numbly, “Dec, there are bigger things at play here.”
We were at a stalemate. The wind picked up and blew Russ’s coat, black as the night, around until he resembled some old movie vampire. He was so, so still. I felt a flash of awe and fear, not necessarily fear of Russ, but for him.
“What bigger things?” I asked. “Is it about Ian Mackenzie?”
Russ turned, his mouth opening with an answer he swallowed and left unspoken. Instead, he said, “You’re leaving, Dec. But my future is here in St. Hilaire. I have something I’m good at doing. But I could be great at it, and that means being hired by the Guild, because there is nothing else here. At least then, Dad wouldn’t have to work himself to death every night.”
“But the Guild? The Mackenzies? Is that what you want to be? Do you want to paired up with some girl to have super spawn?”
Russ pulled back as if I’d slapped him.
“Or,” I whispered, “do you want to be the next Ian Mackenzie?”
Russ hesitated for an impossibly long time. “Of course not. I want to change it. All of it. Make it better. I agree with you that the Guild is out of touch. Disturbing even. Do you think I want what happened to you and your dad to happen to anyone else? Between this whole bloodlines thing and…” Russ shook his head, at a rare loss for words. “Look, to change the Guild, I need to work from the inside. And to do that, I need your help.”
My chest constricted. Sure, I’d been there for Russ when he and his father had first moved to St. Hilaire. But Russ had always been there for me too. And in all that time, I’m not sure he’d ever asked me for anything. Not directly.
I reached out and grabbed his wrist. I could swear I felt the white owl tattoo flutter against my fingers, but perhaps it was just Russ’s pulse racing. “Promise me. Promise me you’re not going to get sucked in. That you’re actually going to fight against this shit and not just become some Guild pawn.”
Russ raised his eyes to mine. “I swear to you, Dec. I swear if I can get in, I will do my best to make sure that none of this happens to anyone else again.”
I swallowed hard. I either needed to believe him or… There was no choice, really. “What do you need?”
Russ steadied himself against the car. “This is going to sound strange, but…I need to borrow a string from your piano. I’ll replace it, I promise. And I’ll tell you everything as soon as I sort things out. Please?”
The piano again. I wanted to know what was going on, but Russ was asking me to trust him. Asking. And so I said the only thing I possibly could to make the anger in my stomach uncoil. I said, “Fine.”
Chapter 34
Dec
“It isn’t the house, Daniel. I realize that now,” Tristan said.
I’d been fighting against my lack of sleep and running through some algebra equations for the GED, two things I pretty much hated, so Tristan’s appearance wasn’t entirely unwelcome.
I spun and leaned back against my desk, folding my arms across my chest in the posture that always seemed to work for Russ when he was trying to look both bored and intimidating. “So, what it is?”
Tristan swung his legs a little, clearly proud of himself. “Well, me actually. I think I’m the reason she’s here.”
If there were any part of my stomach that already didn’t feel suspended on a tightrope, this pushed the last of it over the edge.
“What?”
“I think what I was feeling wasn’t Annie, and it wasn’t the house. It was the piano,” Tristan said as if he was proud to have finally figured it out. “Well, the piano now that Annie is here.”
“The piano?” Again?
“My piano. Yes,” Tristan replied.
“Your piano?”
Tristan got up and went to the window. He turned, pulled a bidi out of his pocket and lit it. Then he went back to the photo of Annie and stared at it, eyes wide open and wanting.
I couldn’t take it anymore. “Oh for god’s sake, sit down.”
Tristan sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m starting to remember more things, Daniel. From before.”
“Before?”
“Well, I haven’t always been here, have I?”
My shoulders tightened with a sense of foreboding. Or maybe it was fear. Somehow, growing up in St. Hilaire hadn’t immunized me to either. “So, where were you?”
“Well, I remember camels. And monkeys. And there was a place where I used to walk through lemon trees,” Tristan said, wearing a proud-of-himself grin. It was too much.
“What does this have to do with the piano?”
Tristan crossed his arms, his voice apologetic. “I’m not entirely sure. I’m not actually comfortable being in the same room with it. Have you noticed? I just realized that was the thing. Anyhow, it doesn’t matter because I know it’s important. And it’s important to Annie.”
The way Tristan said her name as if they had some secret connection was the final straw. “Well, your piano is about to lose a string. Russ needs it.”
“A string?”
“Pianos have those, right?”
“Yes, but.”
“Well, Russ needs the…” I racked my brain trying to remember which string Russ actually needed. It was possible he hadn’t mentioned which one. “One of them. Something to do with Alex Mackenzie.”
Tristan paled. “No. Daniel, no.”
It was hard not to feel smug. “Sorry, it’s a done deal.”
“You have to let me speak with him,” he pleaded.
“With Alex?”
“No.” Tristan shook his head. “Russ. I mean, with all of you. Of course.”
“I’m not stopping you. Go talk to him if you want. I doubt anything you say will make him change his mind. This is Russ we’re talking about.”
“What if he can’t see me anymore?”
It was hard to imagine Russ not being able to do something. “We’ll find out, I guess. I think he’s coming by this afternoon to grab the string.”
“Oh.” Tristan’s face fell. “Well, then.”
It almost made me feel sorry for him.
Chapter 35
Russ
The steel string was cold. It was such a small thing, a bit of cable wrapped around an ivory piano key, but it was putting up a large fight. Once we pried off the back of the piano, it was easy to see the screws that needed to be turned in order to release the peg that held the string. A few turns, and it should have released.