January Black

Chapter 1 - Part 3

“Please!” she begged. The guardian wrapped his uniform jacket around her. While he helped her back to her feet, Iris grabbed his shirt in both hands. “Conrad!”

“He broke the law.”

The so-called “Janus Law” was the kingdom’s oldest royal decree. It compelled Columbia’s high court to pass a death sentence on anyone who trespassed in the Lost Garden. The Regent Assembly couldn’t abolish royal decrees. For the king, pardoning violators had consequences. It had been more than two hundred years since Janus Steer locked that door, and by all accounts, no one had ever been willing to pay the price for its secrets…until Matty realized he had the key.

Iris wailed. “It’s a stupid law!” She saw compassion in Conrad’s eyes and whimpered, “Help him.”

“There’s nothing I can do,” he said firmly.

She heard a commotion from the garden and whipped her gaze toward it. The police agents dragged her handcuffed lover back across the threshold. He was covered in pollen. Sweat streaked his face. Each holding an arm, the agents lifted him high enough that his dirty boots barely touched the floor.

“Matty!” she screamed, pulling against the guardian’s grasp in vain. She opened her mouth to beg forgiveness, but her aching throat betrayed her.

His eyes were wide with defiance and fear as he stammered, “January Black, Iris!”

She thrust herself at him and growled through her teeth in frustration when Conrad’s grip on her arms held firm. Wrenching his body backward, Matty nearly broke himself free of the agents.

“January Black!” He screamed as his captors regained control of him.

Iris glanced back down the hallway to the open doorway, to a vague shape silhouette against the dusk sky. I hope you found what you were looking for.

Conrad laid his hand on her shoulder and gently pulled her toward the Steer Gate. “Stay quiet. I will speak to the King. He will pardon you.”

She didn’t care if he did. The Regents were going to condemn the man she loved for opening a door.

Struggling with the slip-cuffs to flash a sign with his bleeding right hand, Matty extended three fingers from his fist, keeping the third and fourth curled. She remembered the first time she saw that sign. They were at a café. A photograph of a man and woman hung near the beverage bar. The woman made that sign at the camera. Iris had mimicked it and rotated her wrist to view it from all sides.

Matty explained, “It means….”

“I love you!” Iris cried. His head bowed forward. His body seemed to relax. He stopped fighting the agents as they pulled him toward the Steer Gate.

She felt sick. What use was love to them now?

Matty wasn’t done misbehaving. The fingers on his left hand counted down. Three, two, one. His left hand closed into a fist. The curled fingers of his right opened.

Something dropped.