Chapter 10

"A chaos piper sews chaos wherever he goes. When he plays his pipe, few are immune to the draw. Like a war piper, he brings out wrath, but unlike his war brethren, a chaos piper weaves that wrath into instability. One may react with hatred. One may react with sadness. But all react. Only the strongest can withstand their draw, and thus, all chaos pipers must walk alone."

—A history of Pipers; A.A. Wesen

The first notes of the music echo throughout the air. I don't break eye contact with my father as I play a melancholy tune filled with every ounce of betrayal I've felt, filled with every bit of shame he'd forced me to wear. And for what? I'm more powerful than even him. I've been chosen for something greater than even him.

Finnian lays dead at his feet now, his golden child. He couldn't even listen to me long enough to wait. None of them have helped me. None of them have dared to save me. None of them gave me a chance.

Pipers can't usually infect other pipers. Those are the rules. But there is little known of chaos pipers and so I'm surprised when Finley sways under the music I begin to play that I nearly stop. She turns toward the townspeople shifting on their feet nervously, their eyes wide as the music fills the air. She pulls her knife from her hip and throws herself at them without warning, cutting at those still standing. They immediately pull their own weapons if they have them and start to fight her and each other. Some of them simply start crying, sitting down on the ground and screaming their pain when my music reaches them.

Mother stumbles back from the onslaught, her eyes wide, but seemingly not influenced by the chaos. Father pulls out his own pipe and starts to play, as if he thinks his influence can beat my own. My once strong and proud Father shudders under my influence as I continue to play, as the pain comes tumbling from my music to influence those around us. Chaos. This is what chaos feels like.

And I like it.

Father grunts under the influence, trying to fight it, desperate to keep control. "Fenwick!" he shouts, shaking with his effort. "Stop this. We were wrong."

My eyes narrow and I play louder, uncaring of his pleas. Of course now he wants to treat me with respect. Of course now he wants to give me kindness. I'm an asset, a very powerful one. And he wants the Bonaventure name to carry on. That's all he wants. What an honor that the Bonaventures have the first chaos piper in centuries. What a fucking honor!

They'd treated me like trash when they thought me weak, when they thought I was nothing more than a comedy piper. They left me to rot out on the streets and denied me my home and my name. I will have no mercy for my father just as I have no mercy for my sister as she slaughters the townspeople. The humans never saw me as anything either. They don't deserve my care. When Finley gets cut along her side, I don't stop playing. She could have spoken up. She could have helped me. All these years!

"Show them all," Giselle coos in my ear. "Make them pay for what they've done to you. To us."

My mother is the only one who wanted to be kind, the only one who might have loved me, but her weakness had gotten in the way. She'd feared my father when she should have just loved me instead. But I can save her now, at least.

I meet her eyes and gesture for her to run, to get away. She hesitates. . .

. . . and Father loses his battle to my music.

He roars so suddenly, it makes me jump. His pipe drops to the ground, and he instead pulls the sword he always carries at his side. I assume he'll run into the fray with my sister, that he'll go and cut down the townspeople who already feared him. Instead, he turns around and sees my mother.

I stop playing. "Run!" I shout. "Mother, run!"

But she's frozen in fear and I'm at the top of the cliff. Father rushes forward and slams the sword into her gut, all the way to the hilt. I scream for her, my heart shattering into a million pieces as Father twists his sword and guts her, taking away any chance of recovery. I watch in horror the chaos I created, the loss I just felt. All by my own hand.

"You don't need her," Giselle coos. "You have me, Fenwick. You have us."

Rats begin to pour from every crack, every orifice, all streaming toward the cliff I stand on. They begin climbing up the sides to reach me, to follow me, all while my father roars below. He rushes into the crowd of townspeople, leaving my mother's body on the ground, her eyes still open in shock and horror.

I stare at her, at what I could have had, and realize it was never mine. She would have feared me, just as she feared my father. She could have never loved me, not like I yearn for, not like I need.

"You have all of us," Giselle whispers. "Always. We're all you need."

I take a deep breath and know that she's right, that I don't need anyone. The magic in my blood is powerful, and I can't trust anyone, not anymore. Only Giselle. Only the rats.

I start to play again, the notes ringing out over the town that shunned me. I watch as Finley rams her knife through Father's shoulder, before he turns and slices across her chest with his sword. Someone else attacks him and he can't compete against their numbers. Chaos echoes around us as he roars before going silent. He won't raise his voice again. He won't ever yell at me again.

He"ll never control me again.

"Yes," Giselle purrs. "Fenwick, the Chaotic. Fenwick, the Strong. Fenwick, the Powerful."

I grin. "Fenwick, the Powerful," I repeat. "I like the sound of that."

And so, I leave normalcy behind. I play my pipe, and I let chaos fucking reign.

After all, Fenwick, the Powerful has risen.

And I will not be weak.

I will not be nothing.

Instead. . . I will be everything, all at once, forever more.