The Blue Bird Theatre comes into view and I clear my throat as I guide Lonesable toward the entrance. Wordlessly, I dismount from him and help Birdie down. Her belly has begun to protrude, rounding with the growth of our child, our boy.
“Would you like to stay outside with the men?” I ask.
Birdie’s brow arches as she looks up at me, obviously not wishing to be outside at all. Smiling, I dip my chin and touch my mouth to hers.
“Okay, come with me,” I rasp against her lips.
Placing my palm on the small of her back, together we walk into the Theatre. It’s oddly quiet, not a soul is around, not even the bartender, my body jerks to a halt.
This place should be and typically is bustling no matter the time of day. Birdie stops beside me, her head moving from side to side as she looks around the room.
“Where is everyone?” she asks.
I don’t answer her, mainly because I don’t know and I’ve got the same question. Deciding to just walk farther into the building, I apply pressure against the small of Birdie’s back and together we make our way toward the staircase.
“Can you sense them?” I ask her as we begin to climb.
“I can’t, not like that,” she whispers.
Each step that we take, I can feel an impending sense of doom and gloom come over me. It’s a heaviness that I’m not able to completely understand. Bessie’s room is at the end of the hall, not that I’ve ever been inside, but I have seen her come and go from it in the time that I spent here in the past.
I don’t bother knocking. Reaching for the handle, I push the door open and I’m not surprised to see both Bessie and Daisy sitting at the small table in the corner. Their gazes lift to mine and their eyes widen in surprise.
“Where are all your patrons?” I ask coolly.
Bessie opens her mouth, then snaps her lips closed, then opens her mouth again as I stand there and watch her, waiting for her to speak. Her gaze flicks from me to Birdie, then back to me again.
“Logan did not succeed, though I would have thought that you’d have at least figured that out when you didn’t receive his letter of confirmation that his duty was completed?”
Bessie stands to her feet and tries to take a step backward, but I shake my head a couple of times making a tsking sound.
“Stay right where you are, both of you,” I warn.
Birdie takes a step toward them, tilting her head to the side, her eyes searching theirs before she speaks. “You thought that you’d be on the Assembly and that Daisy would be in my bed perhaps with Colt, but maybe without, it didn’t matter, right?” she asks.
Bessie gulps, lifting her hand to her throat as she pants heavily and watches us, not saying a single word. Daisy jumps to her feet, holding her hands up in a surrendering motion.
“It wasn’t me. I was being manipulated,” she cries.
Birdie and I both laugh at the same time. Neither of us buying her shit. She wasn’t being manipulated, she knew exactly what she was doing and is only panicked now that she’s been caught.
Fingering Blue Lightnin’ on my hip, I think about taking it out and ending them quickly. Birdie holds up her hand, obviously knowing my next move and shakes her head once.
“You weren’t. I heard it all. Who else is in this with you?” Birdie asks.
Bessie’s lips curve up into a grin. “We won’t ever tell you, may as well end us now,” she snaps.
Birdie holds up her hands, her palms facing the two women, I hear her exhaled breath and then I see the shots of blue streaming from her hands toward Bessie and Daisy. I watch in awe as both women are brought down to their knees and let out screeching sounds.
I don’t know what is going on, but I’m mesmerized by my wife and the power she wields. I don’t move, frozen at the sight of the two women as their bodies begin to twist and morph, they change and then it happens.
A black mist begins to escape their mouths. “Shoot them, Colt,” she cries out.
Lifting Blue Lightnin’, I point it at Bessie and with my aim true I pull the trigger, then turn to Daisy and do the same, on Birdie’s instruction alone. Each woman falls to the floor almost instantly, but Birdie doesn’t take her hands away, she continues to pour the blue light from her palms right toward them.
The black mist starts to escape again, then it just dissipates, maybe dies, fading back into their bodies and everything goes completely still.
Birdie’s knees tremble and I watch as her entire body goes limp as she falls toward the floor. Before she hits the hard wooden flooring, I wrap my arms around her and pull her against my chest.
“What was that?” I demand.
Birdie tilts her head back, her eyes looking up into my own. “Black magic,” she breathes. “It was inside of Florence, Logan, and them. I didn’t know for sure, but I suspected they had it. With Logan, when I killed him, I’m pretty sure that I killed the dark magic as well.”
“Had they succeeded in their plans?” I ask.
Birdie shakes her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know enough about it to know what would have happened. But whatever it is, I know it isn’t good and I didn’t want it coming after us.”
Dipping my chin, I slide one of my hands up her back and tangle my fingers in the back of her hair before I press my mouth against
