Innocent Darkness (5 page)

Steven looked out his bedroom window, sitting at his desk doing his schoolwork. The gas lamp on the wall flickered softly, scattering ghostly shadows across his books and papers. Out of the corner of his eye he watched through the window as Noli ran out the back door of her house, heading straight for her faery tree. Well, no faeries actually lived it in. Not anymore.

They needed to talk. This would be a good time—his father occupied by business, his nosey little sister asleep.

He crept down the stairs, through the kitchen, and grabbed the knob of the back door.

“Where are you going? To go talk to her in your tree house?” James rolled his green eyes. “I don’t understand what you two talk about.” His younger brother looked like a man, where he was still all arms, legs, and feet. They stood nearly the same height. James wasn’t much younger and reminded him of that—often. Curly blond hair drove the girls wild.

“I’m going to talk to her now.” He’d miss their chats, but they were nearly grown now.

“Good luck with that. Flying figs, I’m glad it’s you and not me.” James’ eyes held sympathy. He, too, was fond of Noli.

Steven let himself out, walked across the backyard which still resembled a warzone, climbed through the broken fence, went past the crashed remains of the Pixy, and scaled the tree.

Her cries reached his ears, the sad sounds stabbing him in the heart like an iron knife. Safe in the canopy of oak leaves, he made his way to the tree house. He had many memories of this place and how they scoured the neighborhood for months to find the wood, sheets of brass, cogs, gears, and such they’d built it out of. Neither of them could stand up inside it now.

Letting himself in, he drew her into his arms, even though he shouldn’t do such things anymore. “Noli.”

Pressing her face into his shirt, she sobbed so hard her whole body shook.

“Why the tears? They’re not sending you to a detention center, are they?” he asked. She hadn’t cried this hard since Jeff left.

“Worse.” Lifting her head, she looked at him with those amazing steel-colored eyes. Incredible eyes, currently watery and red-rimmed, her face tear-streaked. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her.

“They’re sending me to boarding school,” she sniffed. “A school called Findlay House. My mother says it’s a school for strong-willed girls from difficult situations. They’re going to make me into a productive member of society, maybe even a lady.” Her tone became dry, eyes dull and lifeless. For once, she looked utterly and totally defeated.

A school for strong-willed girls where they’d make her into a lady?

His blood ran cold. They were sending Noli to reform school where they’d suck out her individuality, vibrancy, and joy. Everything that made her special, beautiful.

Relief washed over part of him because he no longer needed to tell her his bad news. Part of him didn’t want to believe they’d send her to such a place.

Couldn’t they understand how incredible she was?

But they didn’t.

Not the police.

Not her mother.

Not his father.

“Everything will be fine.” He rocked her gently in his arms as they sat on the floor of her tree house, both aware of the lie.

“I leave tomorrow. It’s in San Francisco.” Voice a whisper, her eyes shone with fright.

He paused, face scrunching in confusion. “She’s sending you to San Francisco?”

It made no sense to send your child to the place where your husband disappeared.

Noli’s face contorted in pain. “She says it’s safe. They gave her no choice, but still … ”

“You’re afraid because your father disappeared there.”

“They say the aether did it.” Her words held the feeling of rhetoric.

“Too much aether can be unhealthy,” he replied. Aether fostered both creation and destruction. The release of aether spurred many an era of renaissance—or devastation. Los Angeles held a higher concentration than many cities, a reason why the blossoming moving picture industry excelled. Since the earthquake, San Francisco held dangerous levels of aether, high enough to attract unsavory types.

“I’ll write you often and send books,” he added. Even if he must defy his father. “Maybe I can even concoct a reason to visit. If you do really well, perhaps you can get into a university and study botany, just like you’ve always wanted.” He forced a smile. If she left the school with her sanity intact, she wouldn’t be his best friend anymore. She’d be a society clone. Sometimes he wished her family would have tried to meld into a lower class after her father’s disappearance. That would have meant she wouldn’t have continued to be his friend and neighbor, but at least she might have had a chance to achieve her dreams. In this new century, post Civil War and with all the American Renaissance had brought them, classism and elitism still ran rampant, even out west.

“I’d like you to send me letters and books.” She smiled shyly, face lighting up. Noli hadn’t inherited her mother’s classic beauty. But she was pretty, especially when she smiled.

“Here.” On an impulse, he pulled his medallion over his head, placing it around her neck. “For protection. Never remove it. No matter what.”

“To protect me from aether?” She laughed. “You’re such an old bodger, V.”

Her words made him smile sadly. He loved her laugh, which reminded him of bells. Would she laugh like this after or would she mindlessly twitter? Would she still call him
V
? It was a silly nickname, given to him when they were small and she couldn’t quite say his name, but he loved it.

“Tell them that if they try to take it from you,” he replied. People did wear amulets to protect them from aether; not that they actually worked.

“I will.” She tucked the pendant into her blouse. “You take such good care of me. Thank you. Did you get into a heap of trouble?” Noli bit her lip and twisted her hands like she always did when anxious.

Absently reaching out, he tried to calm her—and himself—by stroking her curls. Her thanking him always made him nervous. “Just the usual. Clean up the mess, fix the fence.”

She sighed, leaning against him, the gesture relaxed and comfortable. “I made such a dreadful mess. It will take forever to repair the Pixymobile. Do you think we get vacations in boarding school?”

“I have no idea.” When would she figure out she wasn’t going to boarding school? If he were older he’d steal her away to keep her from such a place. They could run off together and go to a university far away—though he had dreams of his own to attain.

Noli looked back towards her dark house. “Mama wants to send me to Boston afterwards, for a fresh start. Perhaps even find a husband.” She snorted in an unladylike way.

He watched her toy with the medallion, fingering the intricately woven gold wire, stroking the crystal the color of oak leaves in its center. It wasn’t supposed to leave his possession and his father would be displeased. But she was worth it.

“I worry about Mama,” she confided. “How will she get on without me? Or will she be better off?” Her eyes misted.

“Don’t think such things.” Gently, he tilted her face, wiping away her tears with his thumb. “James and I will check on her for you.” He knew how much Noli loved her mother.

“Would you?” Her whole being brightened. “Thank you.” She turned pensive. “Officer Davies said he didn’t want me to travel down the same path as Jeff. Do you have any idea what he meant?”

For a long moment he didn’t speak. Everyone else knew. It was time she knew as well. “Have you ever wondered why your mother hides the money Jeff sends, even though you desperately need it?”

“She says it’s for my dowry. But who’d marry me?” She shrugged this off as if it were the silliest idea in the world. “Noli, there’s someone out there for you and you’ll need it day.” It pained him to force out those words. Sure, she wasn’t the perfect society wife, especially away from the wilds of Los Angeles. But she grew flowers like few he’d ever met and created life from hunks of junk. For the millionth time, he wished things had happened differently.

No matter what, he’d lose Noli in one way or another.

But she was never his to have in the first place.

Her face contorted in puzzlement.

He pulled her close, savoring the scents of her—the soap she made from herbs in her garden coupled with auto grease and earth. “Jeff ’s money comes from the wrong side of the law. That’s why your mother doesn’t want to use illgotten gains. Instead, she saves it for you—her hope for a better life.”

“He flies cargo vessels.” The light in Noli’s eyes went out completely, her shoulders rounding in defeat.

“That he does—vessels of stolen cargo.”

“I can’t believe he’s an air-pirate,” she sobbed into his arms.

Noli was sheltered, naive. He often wished he still lived in an innocent world. But this way he could protect Noli and his little sister. It was one of the few duties he didn’t mind. Even here, in the wilds of Los Angeles his father insisted they uphold their ways.

He, too, was his family’s hope for a better life.

Finally, her sobs slowed. Putting her forehead to his, he looked into her amazing steel-colored eyes for what would probably be the last time. “Go on inside, it’s growing late.”

“I still have to pack.” She hiccupped.

“Be careful, please? Watch for aether and don’t talk to strange faeries.” He smiled.

She smiled back. “Faeries? You’re such a
fussy old bodger
and I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too. Goodnight, Noli.” Would she ever call him a fussy old bodger again? Would they sit in the tree house discussing philosophy, history, or her favorite—botany? Probably not. The idea both saddened and angered him.

“Goodnight, V.” With a wave, she climbed down the tree.

“Goodbye, Noli,” he whispered as she went inside. “May the Bright Lady keep you safe.” With all that lurked in San Francisco, she’d need it.