by Lucy Inglis
‘Shame. I quite like him. Although he’d probably be a bit more easy-going if they weren’t out there.’
Lily rolled her eyes.
Downstairs, half the class were already taking up three wooden tables amongst the monuments and tombs. All the seats were taken. Regan leant against a marble sculpture of a woman reclining on a stone coffin and pulled Lily between his boots so her back was against his chest, his hands crossed over her waist at the front. Lily’s friends were all watching again, looking at his coat and his tattoos and his angular, impassive face as he stared at the busy doorway. After a few moments, he frowned and leant to the side, looking at Lily’s face.
‘What’s the matter?’
She shrugged, gnawing on the inside of her lip.
He turned her round to face him. ‘What is it? I won’t let them hurt you. Ever.’
She took a shaky breath. ‘No, I know. It’s not that.’
‘Your mother?’
She nodded, tears in her eyes. He put his arms around her, gathering her up against him like something fragile.
Her friends crowed encouragement and insults from the chairs and tables. Someone threw a screwed-up piece of paper that bounced off Lily’s shoulder. Regan caught it and bolted upright, turning on them. The cafe fell silent.
Lily grabbed his arm. ‘They’re only joking,’
But he was already looking away, towards the door, distracted. ‘We have to go. They’re here.’
Lily turned, trying to find Sam. She and Matt were sitting a little way away. Lily pulled Regan over to them. ‘We have to go.’
‘Oh, right,’ Sam said, not looking too impressed.
Matt scowled. ‘What, you’re going, just like that? Because psycho says so?’
‘It’s, uhm, complicated.’
Regan was already moving, pulling her after him. Lily waved apologetically. Sam raised her hand in surprise.
‘Where are we going?’ Lily hissed as he pulled her into a service storeroom, dragging over an enormous set of metal shelving and pushing it up against the door. ‘My entire class now think we’re . . . in a cupboard!’
‘We are in a cupboard.’
‘But—’
‘But what? Did you see their faces? They think I’m a freak, and they don’t even know what I really am.’ He kicked a mop bucket out of the way and knelt down, tugging up the grating in the floor. ‘In you go.’
‘What?!’
‘In. Now!’
Lily sat down on the edge of the square hole and looked down. ‘How far is it?’
‘Put your hands on either side and let yourself drop. It’s not that far.’
She eyed him dubiously.
‘Go.’
She pushed off and hit the ground below. It wasn’t far, but the blood rushed painfully to her toes. ‘My God, it reeks down here.’
Regan landed like a cat beside her. ‘I know. It’s the dead stuff in the walls.’
‘Grim.’
Reaching to his left, he flipped a switch and lights illuminated the tunnel ahead of them, stringing away into the distance. He pulled the grating back over their heads.
‘Come on.’
A short distance down the lit tunnel there was a massive iron grating in the wall. Regan moved it, seemingly without effort. They climbed through the hole into a stone chamber with pillars and grille-covered gateways ranged along the walls. Regan replaced the grating. Lily looked around. ‘What’s this?’
‘Underground network. Helps me get around at night.’ He lifted a metal portcullis between a pair of grand pillars, straining a little to hold it as Lily scrambled beneath. She looked up at him as he boosted it up, ducked beneath to the other side and then caught it and let it drop back into place.
‘What do they weigh?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know. They’re pretty heavy – they’re supposed to be. Saved my skin more than once.’
They kept walking. At the end of the passage was a short flight of steps and a door. Regan unbolted it and opened it for Lily, flicking the switch off as they walked out – straight into another church, this time small with a black-and-white marble floor. Lily looked around in amazement.
‘Another church?’
He nodded. ‘This one is particularly handy for our purposes. You’ll see why.’
They crossed the floor. In contrast to St Paul’s, the place was deserted and filled with scaffolding. Almost a ruin. Regan opened the wooden outer door and checked outside. ‘Coast’s clear,’ he said.
They went out on to a set of stone steps. Their breath steamed in the air.
‘St Nicholas Cole Abbey. It’s disused. Handy for me.’ He pulled the huge door closed behind them. Lily’s phone buzzed an alert. It was from Sam. U OK? xx
Lily typed a reply. Y. Explain l8er. xx
Huh, explain, she thought. Like I could.
He watched her. ‘So they’re your friends?’
‘Yes.’ She pushed her phone into her pocket.
‘But they were laughing at you.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Duh. They were messing around. Well, maybe not Laura, but you can’t have everything.’
‘Your friend is very pretty, isn’t she?’
Lily frowned. ‘Sam? Yes. She is.’
He looked thoughtful. ‘Not like you. But pretty.’
‘I’ll be sure to tell her.’
He glanced at her, brows drawn together. ‘I was just saying.’
‘Right.’ Lily felt her chin sharpen.
‘What?’
‘Absolutely nothing. Where are we going?’ she asked as they arrived on the river path and Regan headed east.
‘Back to the Rookery.’
‘Why?’
‘There’s something I need to do there.’
‘Oh, right, of course. Very mysterious,’ Lily muttered under her breath.
He hauled her after him by her sleeve.
‘Okay, okay! I’m coming!’
‘Can you check your phone for news?’
‘Yes.’ Lily pulled it out and checked the updates.
Oh, no.
Rioting had broken out in Islington again, and in Deptford. A man in Mayfair had killed his family, then himself. The canal in Little Venice had flooded dozens of gardens, then frozen solid, turning the area into a skating rink with lethal railings sticking out of it. There had been sightings of a huge black hound on Hackney Marsh. A man found dead from terrible injuries.
She passed the phone to Regan. His face became increasingly set as he read the screen. Then he found a number and dialled. ‘Lucas? Yes, me. Look, the Agency – they know about us. About all of us. Across London. Probably everywhere. You need to put the word out. Get everyone out. No, all of them. There’s going to be some sort of round-up. I know. It’s hard to believe, but believe me.’ They spoke further, discussing practicalities, then Regan handed Lily her phone.
Back at the Rookery, they banged into the flat and Regan shut the door behind them. He dumped his coat over the chair and turned, arms folded, watching her. ‘Are you okay?’
‘With . . .?’
‘Your mother. With all this.’ He swept a hand towards the window.
Lily blew her cheeks out. ‘Short answer? No. But for now I’ll just not think about it. Focus on the plan. Er, what is the plan?’
He put his hand against her face, his thumb stroking over her cheekbone. ‘Well, it’s two hours until nightfall, which will be the earliest we could hope to get into the power station with any kind of cover. But I’ll have to try to hold the Wall until dawn. I have to at least try. So, dawn. That’s when we’ll go in. That still leaves us time to get everyone out before the meeting with the Ministry.’ He took a breath. ‘If we can hope to get everyone out.’
Lily was staring up at him, mesmerised. After he stopped talking, she shook herself. ‘Out of London or out of the power station?’
‘The power station. The rest, they stay or go, their choice. I can’t decide that for them.’
�
�So what do we do until nightfall?’
He let his hand drop, looked away and sighed almost imperceptibly.
She blushed. ‘Oh! Right. Yes. Sorry, was still in plan mode. I just . . .’
He kissed her, gentle at first, then less gentle, catching her waist and pulling her up against him. Lily slid her arms around his neck, adoring his mouth and the scrape of his stubble. She stumbled slightly as he pulled her into the bedroom and on to the bed, his body breaking her fall. Kneeling over him, sitting on his hips, she shoved up his Henley. With a careful finger she traced the path of one flame over his ribs, then ducked and kissed the curling black shape. His chest heaved as he hauled in a breath.
She laughed. ‘So that’s your weakness? You’re ticklish?’
He smiled. ‘I am, but that’s not my weakness.’ He traced the edge of her lip with a fingertip.
She sat up, sobered. ‘Me? I’m your weakness?’
‘You know you are.’
‘I’m sorry.’
Reaching up, he touched her face. ‘Don’t be. Today, tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. I’ll never be sorry.’
She caught his hand and pressed her lips to his palm, closing her eyes for a second. Then she grabbed his other wrist and pinned his hands above his head. He looked up at her, letting her hold him down, eyes full of light.
‘Got you now,’ she teased. Leaning down she paused, her mouth an inch from his.
Without effort, he rolled her into the rucked bedding, still unmade. ‘You had me anyway. From the moment I saw you. Close your eyes.’
Less than a second later, the key turned in the lock outside the bedroom door.
‘No!’ she yelled, scrambling from the bed to the door, twisting the old iron handle. She rattled it in fury. ‘No! You utter, utter bastard. You let me out of here right now!’
‘Felix will come for you. I’ll arrange it. You can go with him, get your dad, then leave the City. Go, Lily. Go for me.’ His voice, calm and resigned, came from the other side of the door.
‘No!’
‘I can’t let you come with me. I was never going to. I have to keep you safe, remember?’
Lily shook the handle. ‘What about you?’
‘This is my fight. I have to stop the Agency. Whatever comes afterwards, I know you’ll be amazing.’ The door creaked slightly, as if he were pressing his hand against it. ‘Maybe I’ll be there to see it, in one way or another.’
There was a scrape of a boot on the boards. Then silence. Lily kicked the door, hard, hurting her toes. She put her fingers to her kiss-bruised mouth and then thrust them into her hair despairingly. Think, think, think, Lily. She went for her phone, but her pocket was empty. He’s taken it.
She screamed in frustration, kicking the door again. Running to the window, she looked out at the sheer drop. A four-storey drop into the churchyard. Impossible.
She tried the window. It slid up, rattling in the old frame. Poking her head out, she looked down over the deserted graves. She looked back at the bed, with its rumpled bedding. Well, it works in the films . . .
Ten minutes later, she had knotted together two sheets torn into strips. Her teeth and arms ached from pulling and ripping. She only hoped it was long enough, and that the knots would hold. She tried them all again, then tied one end around the bed frame. Hitching her hip on to the window ledge, she climbed out and began to let herself down.
She knew before she was even halfway down that she wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. Speeding up, she slipped, her boots scraping against the plaster and timbers. Then, miraculously, her feet touched the churchyard wall. Cautiously, Lily looked over her shoulder. Still a good fifteen feet to go. She scurried down the rest and landed hard in the crisp white grass of the churchyard, heart thudding. Straightening up, she looked around and, seeing the metal gate, she ran for it, her only thought to get to the power station.
Her feet ground to a halt. No. That’s not the way.
Hands on the top of her head, she counted to ten, eyes closed, working through the possibilities in her mind. Then, she sprinted for the gate.
Three minutes later, she banged through the bookshop door. Lucas was at the desk, not reading for once, just spinning the globes and looking morose. Elijah was sitting on the top rung of the ladder again, reading.
‘I need your phone,’ she gasped.
Lucas looked surprised, but opened a drawer and took out a shiny new mobile phone. ‘Of course. But what for?’
‘I need to call the others.’ Lily searched for Lilith’s on the phone’s web browser and hit ‘dial’. It was answered on the second ring.
‘Hello?’ a voice said.
‘Is that Lilith?’
‘No. Who’s this?’
‘I need to speak to her. It’s Lily. The girl who came in with Regan.’
There was a click as the phone went down and another was taken up. ‘Yes?’
‘Lilith, he needs your help. All our help. He can’t do this on his own.’
A long pause. ‘Isn’t that all part of the prophecy? That he has to sacrifice himself to save you—’
‘He’s not saving me. Not like this. He’s just doing it because he thinks he has to. And as far as I know, there’s nothing in the prophecy about him not being allowed some help, is there?’
‘Well, no, darling, I suppose there isn’t.’
Ten minutes later, Lily hung up the last call. No one was answering at the Singhs’.
‘I’m going up there.’
‘Is that quite wise, Miss Hilyard? Colonel Amanvir and his guard are not known for their sympathetic natures.’ Elijah climbed down the ladder.
‘I think we’re beyond wisdom now.’
‘But the prophecy—’
‘Doesn’t say anything about me being wise, does it?’
‘No,’ Elijah conceded.
‘Didn’t think so.’
Elijah and Lucas stood side by side as she went to leave, manners still perfect. Lily headed for the door, then ran back, throwing her arms around their necks and hugging them.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
They both patted her back cautiously. ‘For what?’
She stepped back. ‘For looking after him.’
‘It was . . . a pleasure,’ they said in bewildered unison as the door closed behind her.
Lily ran to Artillery Lane as fast as her feet would carry her. She was operating on adrenalin and by the time she arrived outside the newsagent’s she was trembling. The door was closed, but the lights were on inside. The sign said ‘open’ but when she pushed it wouldn’t give. She hammered on the glass, knuckles ringing.
‘Colonel! Colonel Amanvir, are you there?’
A slim figure emerged from behind the plastic-strip fly curtain at the back of the shop. His eyes were dark beneath his red turban, but as he came closer Lily could see the narrow slits of his pupils, marking him out as a child of the Serpent King. He stared at her through the door, then unbolted it and opened it a little.
‘Be quiet! What do you want?’
‘I need to see Gupta. And Colonel Amanvir.’
His breath came out as a hissing sound. ‘No one wants to see Amanvir. Most people spend their lives trying to escape his notice.’
‘I want to see him.’
‘The council is sitting.’ He looked over his shoulder, towards the back room. ‘They are deciding the fate of Gupta Singh. His failure to guard our sister will cost him dearly.’
‘Let me in. Let me speak to them. Please. I know where your sister is.’
The man studied her, then pulled open the door and stepped aside. Lily came into the shop and hurried through to the weapons room. Inside, Gupta sat on a chair, the Serpent King’s guard ranged around him, all wearing beautiful navy suits, setting off their red turbans. A tall, slight young man held a wicked-looking curved dagger beneath Gupta’s chin. The point had already drawn blood, which had trickled and dried on his neck. Gupta looked tired and terrified; they had clearly been there for s
ome time.
Lily looked around. The guard was a mix of generations, and all of them had the same strange eyes. Sitting opposite Gupta, in another navy suit, sat a man who had to be Amanvir. He was tall and slim, like all the others, with a prominent nose and a gaunt face. His startling eyes were hooded as he sat, poised and severe, looking at Gupta.
Lily ran over to him, skidding to her knees in front of him, hands by her sides, head bowed. ‘Colonel.’
He looked down at her. ‘What is this interruption?’ he asked the soldier who had allowed her in.
‘She says she knows where our sister is.’
The colonel looked back at Lily. ‘Then tell me, child.’
‘It wasn’t Gupta’s fault. He wasn’t to know what the Agency were planning.’
‘That is for this council to decide, not a little girl.’
Lily clenched her fists. She bit her tongue.
‘Where is our sister?’
‘I will tell you, if you promise not to hurt Gupta.’
Amanvir gave a hissing sigh. ‘You will tell us anyway, child.’
Lily looked up at him, eyes narrowed. ‘You just try me. I’ve had enough of being ordered around and threatened in the last few days to last a lifetime. My blood is what’s got us into this mess, and it’s going to take all of us, together, to get Mona out of it.’
They stared at each other. Finally, Amanvir spoke. ‘I give my word Gupta Singh will come to no harm. Despite his incompetence.’ He stressed the last word.
Gupta shifted on the chair in relief as the dagger was taken from his throat.
Lily pushed to her feet. ‘Mona is in Battersea Power Station, in a laboratory somewhere inside. She was taken so that she might be experimented on. There are other Eldritche there too. It will be well protected, by humans who are not what they seem. Some of them have your powers, and the government has discovered how to harness them. Regan Lupescar will be there.’
‘The Guardian?’
‘Yes. He’s waiting for dawn. Then he’ll try to stop them, to get Mona and the others out. Find him, time your attack together, and your chances of success will be higher.’
Amanvir stood, his suit perfect. He nodded. ‘We must act quickly. Guard, to the transport!’
In the sudden flurry of silent movement, Lily slipped out into the street and headed back into the City. There was one last thing she had to do.