“What’s bugging you, teach?” John piped up.

  Logan looked back to his three students. The crowd of Six-Guns and Plaidshirts gave off a fairly consistent rumble of voices. He tuned it out, like the sound of rushing water in a creek. In that moment he felt alone with his team. With Smallmouth gone, it was now or never for him.

  “Boys,” His voice was low, stripped of the rough tone he normally spoke in, “I wanna tell you something before you go through this. We have some time.”

  The three Six-Guns and their witches listened intently. This was unlike the Bootknife.

  “I know that I am the way I am. I wasn’t always like this. I am hard on you boys, because I want you to survive.”

  His eyes flicked about, beginning to tremble. The words weighed heavy on him, it was difficult to open up about his experience. He had half a mind to stop speaking and leave it at that. However, Logan continued.

  “A while ago, before you were born, Grady’s Posse broke. The Gunslinger Grady vanished, nobody knew where, and we had to figure out who would run the show. Now, the Posse already had a real divide. With Grady gone, the Council decided on sending a whole bunch of Guns off to the War in Europe. Most of them didn’t come back, ones that did were… well not so great. It was horrible, and a great many Guns thought the Posse had just gone too far.”

  Watching their eyes on him, Logan decided to light up a cigarette. He led the morning breeze tousle his face and blow the smoke away from him.

  Logan puffed out and started again, “Some of them didn’t like running around for the Covens, a lot of them. We have a better relationship with the Green Coven than others. But all of it came around in force when it was time to figure out who would replace Grady as head man around. Some people wanted his grandson, Marshal Grady, to lead us. Most people accepted that. But there were others. The turncoats, led by Black Hand Benoit.”

  “Why are you telling us this…” Calvin felt uncomfortable with this information. They hadn’t taught this to him in school.

  “Just listen.” Logan sighed, “The selection hearing for the new leader of the Posse was being held in St. Louis, Missouri. It was there where Benoit staged his revolt. So many Six-Guns were there. That day Benoit declared war, and the Posse fractured, back in ’19 that is. The city was a battlefield, so many of our Posse lost their lives.”

  “I heard about St. Louis.” John crossed his arms. “I heard the Black Hand lost.”

  “Benoit had control of the city while the fighting went on. He had staged it carefully so that all of the biggest names were on opposite sides of the country. There shouldn’t have been any strong Guns to get in his way. He had been planning this for months. The fighting was crude and cruel, the only really powerful sorcerers there were aligned with Benoit.”

  “You were there?” John asked, voice warm.

  He nodded, his eyes wet with tears. “I was there. I fought and killed a lot of my brothers. I had to. It was kill or be killed. No escape. I never prepared for this, so it was too hard. I changed after St. Louis. My partner witch left, because I couldn’t be there for her. She had been there, she had seen it all too. It was tough on her, and I became hard. I loved her, but I wasn’t what she needed. I never want young Guns to have to go through that, so I’m hard. I flunk them because I don’t want them to die, like so many people died in St. Louis. I’m sorry boys.”

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  “You don’t have to apologize.” Buster punched him in the arm, “We love you, teach.”

  Logan looked to him, his eyes lacking all the usual roughness. He hadn’t expected that response.

  John grinned at him, his head held high. “Logan, you’re the best trainer in this Sanctuary. You will see when we take the test. You did everything right, and we all love you.”

  Logan wiped at his eyes, quieting himself. He met them with a soft smile. “I know you’ll do good.”

  “Wait, what happened in St. Louis?” Calvin looked between them, “How come I never heard of all this? What happened to the Posse?”

  “You… don’t know?” Buster tilted his head.

  His teammates looked at him quizzically, and the witches cast their eyes aside. It was clear they knew something important about the event, which he didn’t. Moreover, they all looked at him with what he interpreted as a level of shame and discomfort.

  “Wha…” Calvin let out a nervous chuckle, “Guys! What’s the deal?”

  “Calvin,” Logan regained his steady breathing. “It was actually your father who stepped in. That’s the main reason everybody knows him. Benoit hadn’t prepared for him, because he really wasn’t well known at the time. I knew that your dad was strong; we both came up here in the Smokies, but even I had no idea what he was capable of. Your father arrived at the eleventh-hour to join in the fight. He killed the traitors by himself and took on Benoit in a three-on-one fight with him and two of the strongest sorcerers Benoit kept with him. In fact, it was your father who performed a Heavenly Pillar technique in St. Louis.”

  Calvin’s eyes went wide. “What…”

  John and Buster remained quiet, the Rodeo Clown lowering his head. Both of them knew about St. Louis. Everybody knew about how the Sunshine State Southpaw tore through Benoit’s forces like a knife through paper. The story had elevated Baird to national fame.

  A breeze blew petals off some of the flowers in the Garden, throwing bits of all colors across the crowd. Calvin watched Logan closely as petals of purple and white passed by.

  “Calvin,” Logan put a hand on his shoulder, “Your father saved the Posse in its darkest hour, but it was damned horrifying to watch. He single-handedly massacred a whole Sanctuary worth of Six-Guns and destroyed the city in his fight with Benoit. In all my years, I have never witnessed such a display of sorcery. Countless bullets, countless spells. His Heavenly Pillar was…” Logan found he simply didn’t have the words to describe it properly. “The rubble and debris were everywhere. The currents of magic were lit up like the Fourth of July with Baird and Benoit’s Resolve. I never looked at him the same after that.”

  Logan refused to tell the boy how his father truly looked that day. There were things that a child should never hear about their parents. On that day, Billy wasn’t angry at the Traitors. He wasn’t moved to bravery by the sacrifice of so many Six-Guns. This was not a necessary battle for him. Billy wanted to fight; he was happy, giddy to take on a real challenge. Logan had seen it all over his face, heard it in his voice as he laughed at the cruel deaths of the enemies. Billy Baird had the time of his life slaughtering the traitors to the Posse. He deeply enjoyed the lopsided duel with Black Hand Benoit and his sorcerers. This was the truth about St. Louis that nobody but its survivors would actually know.

  John looked over to Calvin. He remembered what it was like to meet the Southpaw, on the day of the Barn Fire. He seemed so polite, so relaxed. It baffled him that this was the same man who had conquered the traitors in St. Louis. He wondered how a person like that could actually be real. Seeing Baird, hearing him talk about dissecting and analyzing magic, he understood just a little better.

  Logan pulled Calvin into a hug. “I care about you. I care about all of you. That’s why I am the way I am. I have seen too many men just like you laying dead on the ground. But I think that you three will be just fine.”

  He let Calvin go, turning away from them. “Let’s go up there with the others.”

  Logan felt like a hefty weight had been taken off his back. He had wanted to tell them about his experience in St. Louis for a long time, but it wasn’t easy for him to speak on it. Whenever he saw the new Guns coming up, all he saw were the faces of the dead boys that day. The time they had spent together had left a deep impact on him. For the first time since St. Louis, he felt he could look past all those dead boys to the future. The future looked like John Calhoun, Buster Haime, and Calvin Baird.