Afterworld

by Lynnette Lounsbury

  She is one of his lackeys, he reminded himself. Still she was waiting for him and smiling and even among the jaded population of the Necropolis, she turned many heads. He felt a tiny stab of disappointment that she wasn’t waiting for him outside the basketball gym at his high school. He walked over.

  ‘What do you want?’

  She smiled innocently. ‘What makes you think I want anything, Dominic? I was just checking you were okay. I heard you had a little . . . fun, with some of ours last night.’

  ‘Fun?’ He snorted. ‘Yeah, maybe.’

  ‘You defeated Nephilim, Dominic. Humans are not physically capable of doing that.’ She turned her head slightly to the side. It was a gesture manufactured to make her appear quizzical or naïve, but simply seemed calculating.

  ‘Obviously you are wrong about that,’ he said carefully, ‘but I’d hardly say I defeated anyone. One of your guys broke my neck. If my Guardian hadn’t been there, they might have smashed every bone in my body.’

  She smiled casually at the violent reference. ‘Yes. Your Guardian. I knew you were special, Dominic, but an Angel? I’ve never seen a human allocated an Angel Guardian before. I do not believe even a Nephilim has been partnered with an Angel.’ She spoke as if her race was naturally superior.

  ‘What exactly do you want, Deora? I’ve got things to do. Training. Ten days, remember?’

  She sagged suddenly, and he thought he caught the first genuine expression on her face since he had met her. It was weariness. ‘I’m supposed to find out how you can fight a Nephilim. I am to do whatever it takes to get you to tell me.’

  ‘Satarial sent you.’ He had another thought. ‘Whatever it takes? What does that mean?’ He realised as he said it how stupid he sounded and blushed. ‘Oh – don’t answer that. I get it.’

  She smiled and hooked her arm through his. ‘Yes. I see that you do. Let’s pretend neither of us “get it”, and let me show you something special, as a peace-offering.’

  ‘I can’t. I have to get back to my sister. And Eva will be looking for me.’

  ‘There is still an hour until dark. They will be fine. They have an Angel after all.’ It was said with gentle sarcasm, but he heard the hint of fear behind it. The Nephilim felt about Angels the way humans felt about the Nephilim. It was like some sort of food chain.

  They walked quickly through the City; most people were too busy at this time of day to give them too much attention, but Dom still felt eyes twisting towards him on every street. Deora had her arm hooked through his and he was constantly aware of her cool skin on his. How could he be so unnerved by someone he didn’t even like? She said nothing as they walked a short distance towards the park in the centre of the City. It reminded him of their first meeting.

  ‘Don’t you have a person to be Guiding?’

  ‘I imagine he is wandering through the flowers talking to himself. He isn’t missing me.’ She moved more quickly. ‘Here we are.’

  There didn’t seem to be anything special about the market stall she pointed towards. A tiny cart serving drinks, there were hundreds of them dotted around the City, selling water, fruit juices and cider. The man behind the counter had swarthy skin and a long plaited beard. Around his head was a turban of thin fabric that hung down the side of his face. His face lit up a little when he saw Deora. She raised two fingers to him and he nodded, pouring a hot liquid into two wooden cups and pushing them across the small countertop. Deora poured a handful of minutes out of her hourglass and handed them to him. Dom looked at her in surprise. It was at least a day’s wage.

  She took the cups, handed one to Dom and ushered him behind the cart into a small opening in the wall. They squeezed through and found themselves in a compact dark dining room. The tables glowed slightly, giving them an indication of where to sit. Ushering Dom towards a corner table, Deora ignored the seat opposite him and sat uncomfortably close. He glanced around. There were a few people, talking in low tones, but they ignored the newcomers completely. It seemed to be a place where people went for privacy. Concern seeped through him. Deora had brought him someplace Eva and Eduardo would never find him. The Nephilim had a plan.

  He took a deep breath and started to ramble, trying to fill the silence. ‘So. Satarial. What is he to you? Why do you jump through his little hoops?’

  She looked at him mildly, the empty expression gone from her face. ‘Drink.’ She lifted her own cup to her mouth and closed her eyes as she took a sip. Pleasure visibly washed over her. Dom considered the dark brew, concerned. He shouldn’t be drinking anything he didn’t recognise while he was with her. He sniffed it. The smell soaked through him and in an instant he was alive again, sitting with his friends in the crowded, laughter-filled cafeteria of his boarding school, or with his mother in the sunroom of their Indian home, or with Kaide in the car, driving to the beach. He put the cup to his mouth and drank.

  ‘It’s coffee.’ He laughed and drank again. ‘Oh my God, it’s so good.’

  Deora seemed surprised. ‘You have had this before? I thought it was something Imrad had created himself.’

  Dom smiled, his lips warm. ‘No. Just coffee.’

  ‘Caffay.’ She tried the word. ‘Not just caffay though, Dominic,’ she chided. ‘This is the only good thing in the City.’ She drank again and Dom saw she was serious.

  ‘What do you want?’ he asked.

  She sighed and her face loosened. ‘I wanted to talk to you. Alone. There are very few places in the City where we can do that. Many people earn minutes reporting to the Nephilim. This was the only place I knew of that we could come to have this conversation.’

  ‘And what is this conversation?’

  ‘I want you to help me, Dominic.’ Her icy blue eyes were flecked with the first hint of uncertainty he had seen. ‘And in return I will help you, too.’

  ‘Well, I don’t doubt there are dozens of ways you could help me, but what on Earth am I able to help you with?’

  ‘What on Earth?’ She smiled tightly. ‘I like that. I haven’t heard that before.’ She paused, looking down into her coffee. ‘I want to leave Necropolis. I want to do the Maze.’

  ‘Then do it. You have a full hourglass, I saw it. Walk up to the gate – and just do it. I’m not sure what I can do to help with that.’

  ‘Satarial does not want me to leave.’ She smiled wryly.

  ‘Oh.’ Dom understood immediately.

  ‘I loved him once. A long time ago. He was different.’ She looked at Dom’s dubious expression. ‘Okay, maybe not too different. He never liked humans, but he wasn’t bitter. We went through the Maze together. I never made it through the Maze, but he did. He crossed the River and was judged. And then he was sent back here. It destroyed him. Humiliated him. He was so angry. The Trials were once a way to help the Nephilim train for the Maze. They were a good thing. There was a school, the Guides, even the human ones, worked together. But he kept seeing others going on and he kept being sent back. You can’t imagine what it’s like. To see the Awe. To see the future and the possibilities and to close your eyes, ready for anything . . . and open them at the gates of Necropolis again.’

  Dom didn’t know, but he could imagine. It would make him sick, physically, mentally, psychologically sick.

  ‘He became so angry he started the collection. Using people to fight Nephilim, and then caging them when they inevitably failed. I think at first it made him feel better, then it became a kind of angry revenge against the system. He caged the best, the most admired, the most heroic. Satarial has lost control of his own anger and has transformed the City into a place of fear and desperation. It was never good. At best it was a place to prepare for the Maze – the real test. But now? I can’t be part of this anymore. I have to get out of here.’

  ‘Couldn’t you make a run for the gate? Escape at night?’

  ‘I did. Once. I got lost in the Maze and I found myself back at the gate. They were waiting for me.’ She was distraught and her hand gripped her own throat.

 
‘What did he do?’ Dom was afraid to hear the answer. There were some things he just didn’t want to know.

  ‘He put me in a cage.’ She looked at him. ‘If you can imagine that it is worse than death or pain, then you have still failed to understand what it is – it is horror.’

  Dom put his hand on her arm. ‘How long?’

  ‘I don’t know. A hundred years maybe. A long time.’ She stared down into the cold dregs in her cup. ‘He let me out not long ago. He thought I might be . . . useful again.’

  ‘To get to the humans?’ Dom felt sick. ‘That’s twisted.’

  ‘Whatever it was, I’m out now. And I need to get out of here. I heard about the way you fought the Nephilim and about your Angel. Some of them knew of him in life. He is very powerful. If you have him to help you, you may just win the Trials. People used to win as much as they lost, but Satarial is ruthless now. Despite what he might have told you, he rarely lets anyone win. There are hundreds more cages below ground. Hundreds. If he displayed them no one would ever enter.’

  ‘But I don’t know what I can do to help you. I don’t know my way through the Maze, I’m not going to be able to do anything at all.’ Dom watched her face. In the dim light her skin wasn’t as pale and she appeared almost human.

  ‘There are Nephilim at the gates who will stop me if I try to go alone, but if I am with you when you leave, and your Angel is there . . .’ She let the idea hang.

  ‘What makes you so sure I will even get to the gate? I might end up caged for all eternity in the Arena,’ he said.

  Deora leaned closer to him and spoke in a whisper. ‘I have seen Satarial angry, bitter, cruel and empty, but I have never seen him scared until he met you. And this was before he met your Angel. The first night he saw you, he let me out of the cage. I saw his face. He saw something in you that he can’t control.’

  Dom took a deep breath. ‘Well, I hope I can come through for you, Deora, I do, but for all this expectation, I’m just a regular guy.’

  She smiled, disbelieving. ‘Don’t you want to know what I’m going to do for you?’

  He had forgotten that part of the deal.

  ‘I don’t have all the information yet, but I am working on it.’ If she had leaned any closer her mouth would have touched his ear. As it was, her sweet-coffee breath tickled his neck in a way that made him close his eyes. ‘I will find out what he has planned for the Arena.’

  ‘The Trials?’ He was instantly alert. She put a finger to his mouth quickly and continued her whisper.

  ‘If you know what will happen, you can be prepared. You can win.’

  Dom looked at her exquisite face, slightly lined with worry. ‘For that, I will do everything I can to help you.’

  Before he knew what was happening Deora brushed her face down his cheek and rested her lips on his. They were soft and wet and she kissed him gently, one of her hands gliding up to cup his face. He tried to be still for a moment, his thoughts instantly on Eva, but the mouth on his was so beguiling that he gave in and kissed her back, his own hands gripping her neck and sliding through her soft hair.

  3

  Dominic’s Hourglass

  47 Minutes

  When Dom and Deora walked back across the small courtyard the light had begun to fade. Some of the market stalls were closing down and others, those selling thick spicy-smelling stews, were just setting up. When they reached the middle Dom turned to Deora, ready to say his goodbyes and head back to his apartment, when he caught a glimpse of Eva running up one of the alleyways towards them. She skidded to a halt when she recognised him and her face wrinkled when she saw Deora. Instead of continuing towards him, she shook her head and turned back the way she had come.

  Dom ran after her, throwing a goodbye to Deora over his shoulder, and chasing his Guide down the narrow, darkening street. Eva saw him and quickened her pace, but Dom caught up with her quickly. Falling into step, his heart raced with the sudden fear that she somehow knew what he had been doing.

  ‘Why are you running away from me?’ he asked.

  Eva threw him a look he had come to know well. ‘I’m not running away. I didn’t feel like talking to Nephilim today.’ She paused in her stride and grudgingly let him walk beside her. ‘What did she want anyway? Another trap?’

  ‘She wanted my help.’

  ‘Sure she did.’ Eva’s voice dripped with sarcasm. ‘She is stronger than you, faster than you, smarter than you. And she needs your help.’

  ‘Well, thanks for that confidence boost.’ He snorted at her. ‘She may be. But I might be smarter than you give me credit for. What she isn’t – is stronger than Satarial. That’s what she wanted help with. She wants to get out of here.’

  ‘Then she should just pack up her white dresses and go. No one can stop her.’

  ‘Satarial won’t let her. He brought her back. She’s been in one of those tanks for years. He only let her out to try and trap me.’

  ‘That’s a complete lie, Dom, and you’re stupid if you believe it. She has been around the City the entire time I have been here. She has been through the Maze – how else would she be a Guide? She’s making this up to trick you into something.’ Eva turned to him. ‘What did she ask you to do?’

  Dom felt a twinge of doubt. Had she tricked him? Deora had seemed almost broken, desperate for help and full of fear. Could she be that good an actress? His skin felt hot when he thought about her kiss. Was that an act as well? ‘She will help me in the Trials if I take her with me when I leave.’

  Eva stopped. Her face grew soft. Raw. ‘Take her with you?’ She shook her head and smiled. ‘You really are stupid, Dominic.’ Then to his complete surprise she leaned forward and kissed him hard on the mouth. She grabbed the back of his neck and held him tightly. The kiss had none of the practiced perfection of Deora’s, but it was hot and passionate and her body was pressed against him. It took her a second to realise what she had done, and she started to pull away. Dom sensed it and put his arms around her, pulling her back towards him. He kissed her back until he felt as though they were starting to melt into each other.

  There were footsteps behind them and Eva broke away suddenly, her hand pushing at his chest. A group of workers walked past silently, heading for the bars at the other end of the City. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  ‘Why isn’t Kaide with you?’

  ‘Uh.’ Dom struggled to follow the change of subject. ‘Oh. Kaide. She was tired and went back to the apartment around midday. She was going to sleep and wait for us there.’

  Eva’s eyes snapped back, the intimacy of the kiss gone. ‘She’s not there now. I just came from the apartment. It didn’t look like anyone had been there at all.’

  Panic rose from Dom’s stomach. He pictured his limping sister, the only mortal in a city populated by the dead.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘What? Of course I’m sure. She wasn’t there. Where would she go?’

  ‘Maybe she went looking for you, to buy her some food?’ He said it without any enthusiasm. All the pieces were falling into place. He knew where she was.

  Eva narrowed her eyes. ‘What?’

  He sighed. ‘She’s gone to find him.’

  ‘Oh, damn it, Dom.’ Eva turned in one swift movement and hurried back the way they had come, her feet only lightly touching the ground as she walked faster and faster. ‘Why did you let her go by herself? It’s so dangerous. The Nephilim are dangerous when you’re dead. Let alone . . .’ She let the thought hang, and both she and Dom broke into a run. They wove through the narrow dark streets of the City towards the open spaces near the river. As they sprinted over the stone bridge Dom saw the Arena, the huge trees moving slightly despite the stillness of the air, and he shivered. In only a few days it would be where he fought for his life. He glanced at the vastness of the City beyond the Arena. It seemed endless. It was clearly the area where the Nephilim lived. It was the lighter stone – it was far more beautiful than the rest of the City – the palatial houses with
large gardens, the wider streets.

  They slowed their pace a little after they crossed the bridge, and Eva spoke in a low voice.

  ‘We have to be careful. It will be mostly Nephilim and their servants. Other people only come over here when the Trials are on.’

  There were few people in sight and none of those scurrying past with baskets and bags were Nephilim. Nevertheless Dom walked as quietly as he could. He discovered his new angelic abilities extended to this as well. His feet were like feathers, silent. He even found he could stop breathing if he wanted to, making him even quieter. Eva noticed everything.

  ‘I wish he’d give me some of his skills. All the drunken brute gave me for months was moaning and complaints. An Angel. How did I miss that? There.’ She gestured up a wide paved boulevard to an enormous mansion. It was the same style as the others in the area only grander, and surrounded on both sides by large trees of the same type as the giant trees that formed the Arena stadium. The roof was several smooth domes, possibly stone or marble, and the building itself featured multiple archways and pillars. There were giant statues – similar to those Dom had seen in front of Egyptian temples – in rows along the front of the building.

  They tried to approach surreptitiously, which was difficult given the lack of cover. They hugged the walls of the buildings on the surrounding streets; long windowless houses of the same light-coloured stone.

  ‘Did you have a boyfriend when you died?’ Dom asked, hoping to catch her off guard.

  Eva hissed, ‘That’s none of your business. Concentrate on what you’re doing.’

  ‘It is my business when you grab me and kiss me. I should be able to ask if you have a boyfriend. Had a boyfriend, I mean.’

  ‘I didn’t kiss you. You kissed me.’

  He laughed suddenly. It was soft, but echoed along the empty street. ‘What? No way. I was attacked. I can’t believe you won’t take responsibility!’