Fading Light

by Nick Cook

  I stared at him, my mind going blank.

  Ethan jumped in. ‘I’m sorry. This my younger brother, Jake. We got separated in the fog and he didn’t hear because…’ He tightened his gaze on me and added, ‘Because he’s deaf, you see.’

  Surely the guard wouldn’t buy this. But when I looked at the Beefeater, he looked as if he’d just run over a puppy.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said.

  ‘And we’re meant to be meeting our friends, but we’re late. With this fog coming down they’ll be worried that something serious has happened to us.’

  I played my part by holding up my phone and shaking my head.

  The Beefeater nodded, somehow looking even more mortified now, if that was humanly possible. ‘And, of course, with the mobile networks down you’ve not been able to ring them either.’ He ducked into a hut nearby and re-emerged with a massive set of ancient-looking keys. He crossed to a nearby door, put the largest key into the lock and turned it. With a well-oiled click, the gate opened.

  The ravens’ cawing grew even louder above us.

  The guard stared up at the walls. ‘Blimey, I don’t know what’s got into them today.’

  ‘This fog must have spooked them like the rest of us,’ Ethan said.

  ‘Probably.’ The Beefeater swung the gate open. ‘Look, if you have any problems finding your friends, feel free to come back here till the fog clears and we’ll sort you out with some tea.’

  ‘We will, thanks,’ Ethan replied.

  We both stepped out into the fog, the ravens’ calls deafening around the Tower. As the fog closed in around us, we both broke into a sprint.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ethan stopped dead and cast a worried look towards the passageway that ran beneath Tower Bridge along the side of the Thames. He gestured towards it. ‘This is the fastest way to the dock.’

  I glanced around us. ‘Where’s Domino? Shouldn’t he have caught up with us by now?’

  Ethan tore his eyes away from the archway. ‘I wouldn’t worry – probably just got distracted by a rat. He’ll find us when he’s good and ready.’

  I nodded, but my thoughts were already rushing ahead to whatever awaited us at the dock. I cast a silent prayer that the others had already got Waverider up and running.

  I took the lead and entered the short tunnel. A wave of relief washed over me as I spotted the sign on the wall opposite the exit: ‘St Katherine’s Dock’.

  ‘I wouldn’t have made it here without your help, Ethan,’ I said.

  No response came.

  ‘Ethan?’ I turned to see him staggering through the tunnel, his eyes darting left and right.

  I doubled back. ‘What’s wrong?

  He stared straight through me as though I wasn’t there.

  I reached out for him. But as my fingers wrapped round his shoulder, the world around me air rippled with balls of light. One by one, they coalesced into a ghostly phantoms.

  ‘What’s happening?’ I tried to say, but my words came out silent, as if someone had hit a mute button on the Real.

  The crowd around us all wore Victorian clothes. They craned their necks, trying to catch sight of something that was happening in an adjacent archway to the Thames. All of it played out like a silent movie as two old-fashioned policemen appeared within the crowd. With their backs bent, between them they heaved something heavy up the steps from the river. Shock slammed into me as I saw them lower a young woman’s body to the floor.

  The crowd separated as a man, his coat-tails flapping, ran straight through Ethan. He wrapped his arms round himself and shuddered. The man reached the woman, fell to his knees and pulled her to his chest. He threw his head back, stretched his mouth wide, and let out a long and silent scream.

  The ghosts faded and I gave an audible gasp.

  Ethan grabbed my shoulders. ‘You saw them too?’

  I nodded. ‘That woman…she was dead.’ My brain tried to draw the fragments of the vision together. ‘That man had to be her husband or boyfriend…’

  Ethan pointed a shaking finger towards a plaque on the archway wall. It read: ‘Dead Man’s Hole. This site was formerly used to retrieve the many corpses thrown into the river from the Tower and surrounding districts. They were stored in the mortuary below these steps until removed for burial.’

  I stared at Ethan. ‘You mean that the ghosts you see everywhere are from events that happened in the past at those locations?’

  Ethan gave me a grim smile. ‘Yes, especially anywhere there are strong memories mixed in with powerful emotions. Tragedies are the clearest of them all. There were plenty of suicides at this particular spot. It’s why I normally try to stay away from places like this.’

  He looked emotionally shattered as he staggered towards the exit.

  ‘Are you going to be all right?’

  ‘Yeah, the effects never last that long.’

  But something wasn’t making sense. ‘Hang on, if this is part of your Awoken gift, why is it still working?’

  ‘What are you on about?’

  ‘I have abilities too, Ethan, but they’re being blocked at the moment.’

  My screen lit up with a text message. It may be that Gemma can only shut out certain abilities.

  If that was true, did it mean some of my own powers might still work?

  Ethan gestured to the screen. ‘Do you have a phone signal again?’

  ‘Unfortunately no. Let’s get to the yacht first and I’ll explain everything when we’re safely on-board.’

  Ethan cast a last wary look back at the archway and nodded.

  We rounded the corner into St Katherine’s Dock. I could just about see the vague silhouettes of boats through swirling fog, candlelight glowing faintly through some of the cabin windows.

  I turned on to the jetty where we’d moored Moon Dancer. ‘The yacht is just along here.’

  The mist thinned as we approached the mooring. But then my stomach lurched – the boat had vanished.

  ‘Where is it then?’ Ethan asked.

  My mind spun. ‘Something must have happened. They wouldn’t have just abandoned me.’

  Ethan grimaced. ‘Maybe these things that are chasing you got here before us?’

  I stared at him. ‘No, no, they can’t have!’

  The calls of ravens cut through the fog, shrill and louder and coming from the direction of the Tower.

  Ethan shook his head. ‘Those birds sound really panicked now…’

  A mind-storm full of Gemma’s hatred smashed into my brain. My legs buckled and I fell sprawling to the ground.

  Ethan was already writhing on the floor, clutching his head.

  Almost blind with nausea, I ground my words out. ‘They’ve found us.’

  Wings hissed towards us through the fog. This was it. There was nothing we could do. We had nothing to defend ourselves with. Nothing that would protect us.

  I rolled on to my back and pulled my night-vision goggles on. A tight ball of shadow crows was spiralling down towards us. Carried within them was the white-heat signature of a young woman, her hair moving in slow rippling movements. Gemma!

  I tried to haul myself to my knees as her eyes burned into mine.

  ‘You killed them!’ she wailed.

  Her thoughts of pure anger hammered into my mind and I slumped back to the ground.

  Gemma landed on the quayside and turned to face us, her eyes blank and staring. The shadow crows flowed away from her, spinning and wheeling, and started to carve a figure from the darkness. A moment later, Mathews stepped out of the flock.

  ‘You have led us on quite a chase, Jake Stevens,’ he said.

  I forced my words through my clenched jaw. ‘Gemma, don’t help him.’

  She just looked at me with unblinking eyes.

  Mathews walked up to her and placed a finger under Gemma’s chin. She didn’t react at all. ‘Such a useful little plaything, and, as you can see, now totally in our power.’

  Ethan forced his head upwards.
‘I would so like to thump you in the face right now, mate.’

  Mathews laughed and looked down at him. ‘You are forgetting your manners. Shouldn’t you properly introduce yourself?’

  ‘Ethan Daniels, your worst nightmare.’

  ‘You certainly have spirit, I will give you that.’

  We had seconds left at best. If only I could break through to Gemma and get her to stop this. Muscles screaming, I reached out a hand towards her ankle. ‘Stop this!’

  She stared blankly at my gesture and moved out of my reach.

  ‘I would not waste your breath. Gemma is in a deep trance – she cannot hear you, Jake,’ Mathews said.

  I glowered at him. ‘So you hypnotised her.’

  ‘Just so.’ He stroked her hair as if he were petting a cat. ‘And of course it was so easy to bend Gemma to our will once she believed it was you, the Awoken, who had murdered her parents.’

  It might be too late for us, but maybe… ‘Let her and Ethan go – you can have me.’

  ‘Oh, I have no intention of doing that. And, in the end, we will throw Gemma into the new portal to feed its expansion. But first, we have developed a new technique for absorbing the matter. I would be most delighted to demonstrate it on both of you.’

  I drove my fingernails into my palms, trying to blot out Gemma’s mind-storm. I forced myself up on my arms, ready to throw everything into attacking Mathews.

  He whispered something into Gemma’s ear.

  At once, she clenched her fists and a demonic creature began to materialise around her. She spread her arms and the thing stretched its wings to mimic her gesture. As she opened her mouth wide, the demon’s voice screamed out with hers.

  It was like the weight of a car had been dropped on me, forcing me flat to the floor.

  ‘Excellent work, Gemma,’ Mathews said, giving a slow hand clap.

  I heard a loud groan from beside me and then, impossibly, Ethan staggered to his feet. ‘This stops now, you bastard!’

  Gemma turned to face him, screaming, as the demon around her joined in, flapping its wings.

  Ethan staggered backwards as if he’d been physically struck, but somehow he kept his balance.

  With his muscles quivering and nostrils flaring, he stared across at Mathews. ‘Whatever she does to me, I’m not going to let you kill my friend.’ He raised his fists.

  Mathews smiled. ‘An impressive but futile gesture, human. And I find myself growing increasingly bored of this. We have so many things to attend to, specifically the destruction of this city and the vermin within it.’ He pointed his hand towards Ethan. ‘Now, I was talking about that demonstration of our new ability…’

  Through my goggles, I could see dark vapours shoot out from his fingertips. They looped around Ethan’s head like serpents and tried to push into his mouth, eyes and ears.

  Ethan clutched at his throat.

  Pinned to the floor helplessly, I watched in thermal vision as Ethan’s body heat was leached away by the Shade attack, a dimming hot spot of light in the grey and black palette of the world.

  It was over. We’d both die soon and the others must have already been killed before we’d even got here. There’d been no Waverider to stop the Shade, no Awoken army. First London would fall, followed by the rest of the world. We’d lost.

  Then, from the corner of my eye, I caught a black-and-white shape streaking along the jetty towards us as Mathews started to turn to it.

  Domino launched himself at Mathews and the man shattered into shadow crows. But the dog’s momentum carried him forward through the flock and he crashed straight into Gemma who stood further along. Without even a cry, she tumbled off the quayside and into the water.

  Instantly, the mind-storm in my head hissed into silence. As my senses started to clear, I heard Gemma splashing and gasping in the harbour water beneath us.

  Ethan, his face pale, sank to his knees as Domino leapt up at him and started licking his face, but already the shadow crows were swirling back into a man’s form. We only had moments.

  I hauled myself to my feet and looped my arms round Ethan and Domino. I pulled my goggles up as I shifted into the Light Web and instantly the fog disappeared around me as energy patterns sparkled into existence.

  Ethan stared around us. ‘Where are we?’

  I clamped my hand over his mouth, but it was too late. Mathews’s gaze had already snapped to where we were standing.

  I pulled Ethan and Domino away as Mathews’s hand jerked up as if he were firing a pistol. Dark vapours shot out from his fingertips, speeding through the spot in which we’d just been standing.

  In the Light Web, I held my finger to my mouth and Ethan nodded. He closed his hand round Domino’s muzzle as we crept past Mathews and away along the quayside.

  We’d almost reached the exit of the harbour when Gemma’s scream filled the night behind us.

  I turned to see her still floundering in the water, her expression now twisted with terror as her head disappeared beneath the surface. Then it hit me. She couldn’t swim.

  I ducked round the corner with Ethan and shifted us both back into the Real. ‘Get yourself to safety.’

  Ethan stared at me. ‘Why? Where are you going?’

  ‘To save Gemma.’

  I pulled the goggles off and handed them to him. Before he could stop me, I took a running jump, grabbing a large lungful of air as I dived into the harbour.

  Icy water slammed into my chest as I dropped beneath the surface. Gemma was spiralling away into the gloom beneath me. Kicking hard after her, I followed the line of streaming bubbles from her figure.

  Allan had died like this. There was no way I was going to let it happen again. Too much grief, too much pain. Not another life tonight.

  The current grabbed hold of me and started to suck me down. But I ignored it as best I could and swam with all my strength after Gemma. She was thrashing her limbs around, a picture of panic. With a strong kick, I caught up and grabbed hold of her.

  Gemma stared at me with wild frightened eyes for a moment before wrapping her arms tight round my neck.

  In the rushing water, I couldn’t focus enough to try to levitate us out of the strong current. Instead, I swam out sideways and pushed for the surface, doing all I could to break free. But the flowing water was too strong and too wide. Despite everything I tried, we were still heading downwards towards a cave of darkness now dead ahead.

  I gripped my arms round her, just as unseen walls smashed into my back, ripping the air from my lungs.

  Her eyes had already closed as if she’d already given in. A strange calm reached into me as a thundering roar blotted everything else out and we vanished into the blackness.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The inky blackness pressed in on me from every side.

  Am I dead? I stared out into the emptiness and heard the faint sound of dripping water.

  No, not dead, just somewhere very dark…

  What had happened? My head still felt fuzzy, but vague memories were surfacing. I’d made it to the harbour with Ethan… Moon Dancer had gone… Mathews and Gemma appeared… I’d dived into the water when she was drowning… My memories crashed in all at once.

  Gemma!

  It was too dark to see anything, but my Awoken ability being restored completely changed everything. I quickly shifted my sight into the thermal wavelength. I was surrounded by the cool tones of a round brick chamber, a pool of deep water in the middle. I seemed to be lying on a small ledge that ran round the edge.

  Gemma lay on the other side of the chamber, too still, too silent, her body’s core heat cooling to dark tones already.

  Just like Allan before he’d died…

  I shuffled along the curved ledge towards her, the icy water lapping at my feet. I crouched by her and grabbed her wrist. No pulse. I put my face close to her mouth. No breath stirred on my cheek.

  ‘Can anyone hear me? Anyone?’ I called out.

  No answering cry came back.

&
nbsp; I fought the panic rising through me. ‘OK, Gemma, it’s just you and me.’ My brain was still threatening to spin out of control, but I forced myself to be calm, because her life depended on it.

  I pulled out my phone while making a silent prayer that it was still working despite getting dunked underwater. I pressed the screen and it glowed into life.

  ‘Sentinel, Gemma’s not breathing! Tell me how to save her.’

  OK, first you need to tell me if her heart is still beating, he responded in a text.

  There was no pulse, so I shifted to X-ray and saw her heart was motionless. I forced myself to stay calm as I replied, ‘No, it’s not, Sentinel.’

  Then you’re going to have administer CPR, Jake.

  ‘Right – can you talk me through it?’

  First, you need to check her airway is clear by opening her mouth, his message said.

  I shifted to thermal and used my fingers to gently prise Gemma’s jaw open. I couldn’t see any obstruction. ‘It’s clear.’

  Good. Now you have to open her airway up by tipping her head back.

  I did as instructed. ‘Next?’

  Pinch her nose. Then take a deep breath and gently blow into her mouth, breathing in through your own nose.

  I put my mouth over Gemma’s and exhaled. Her chest rose and then fell back as I drew my own breath in. ‘There’s no change, Sentinel.’

  Repeat two more times.

  I did it a second time…a third…

  ‘Gemma, come on, fight,’ I said.

  OK, now for chest compressions. Put one hand over the other and press down on to her chest ten times.

  I crossed both palms over Gemma and started to push. ‘One, two, three, four, five… Come on… Six, seven, eight…’

  Gemma jerked awake on nine. Her eyelids flew open and water spewed from her mouth. I wanted to laugh and cry all at once.

  Nicely done, Jake, Sentinel messaged.

  I shifted back into the Real and gazed at Gemma by the light from my phone as she vomited up more water. ‘That’s the way…’ I rubbed her back and helped her to sit up as her convulsions gradually slowed.