by May, W. J.
“Well, one thing’s for sure: you’re certainly never watching him again,” Devon said firmly, glaring around as if he expected resistance. “There is no way we’re going to let you keep doing this if this is the kind of risk you’re talking about. I don’t care what you think you have to—”
“Dev?” Julian cut him off with a small smile. “Your girlfriend beat you to it last night.”
Devon’s eyes landed on Rae, innocently twiddling her thumbs, before he sank back in his chair, looking a little deflated. “Oh.”
‘Now boarding…Flight 871 to Kansai Airport…Calling all first-class passengers…’
“That’s us.” Julian smiled, trying to sound encouraging. “It’s going to be fine. We’re all going to be fine. We’re going to stop that bastard, Cromfield, and the Privy Council is going to make us kings and queens of Narnia.” He shrugged. “Or whatever.”
As they got to their feet, Molly reached over and gave Julian an unexpected hug. “Just try to keep it together on the plane, alright? Cromfield doesn’t control you. I know you’re not a victim. Your head is your own property, no one else’s. If you don’t want someone to touch it, they can’t. Stand up for yourself. Break the cycle. No means no. You don’t have to—”
“Molls?” He put a hand on her shoulder with a smile. “I get it. Thanks.”
It wasn’t until she walked away with a watery smile that Rae noticed the PSA poster for teen drinking mounted on the wall behind her. She elbowed Devon, and nodded in the direction of the poster. He grinned, but managed to keep his mouth shut as Julian walked by.
While Julian’s ‘food court confession’ had temporarily alleviated everyone’s nerves, they came back in full force as they sat on the incredibly long flight across the Pacific. According to Devon’s calculations, they would land in Osaka with about forty minutes to find whatever little coffee shop Julian had seen in the vision. Needless to say, every little detail helped, and they spent endless hours recounting everything he had seen: from the street numbers, to the advertisements, to the types of clothing the pedestrians were wearing.
Rae was called upon many times to translate something in Japanese, but, in the end, it was to no avail. There were just too many places where it could possibly be.
As fate would have it, it was random chance that pointed them in the right direction.
“Excuse me?” a young Japanese woman tapped Rae on the shoulder.
Rae turned around in surprise, and the girl’s eyes temporarily glazed over as Devon and Julian followed suit on either side. Rae resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the handsome dudes beside her. “Um…yes? Can I help you with something?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt. I know it’s kinda rude. It’s just…you all have been talking for a long time and I couldn’t help but overhear.” She smiled apologetically. “You say you’re looking for a coffee shop next to a skating rink in Osaka? Well, I don’t know about the coffee shop, but there are only three skating rinks in the city, and two of them are closed down at the moment. You want the one on the south end. I can give you the streets.”
“Really?” Rae blinked in surprise.
She smiled. “Really. My friends and I go there all the time.” She must have misinterpreted the blank looks of astonishment on their faces entirely, and backtracked as fast as she could. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to be eavesdropping. It’s just, you said it was life or death. Maybe it’s not…”
“No! It is! I mean, it’s not. It’s, uh… Well, thank you. Thank you so much!” Rae exclaimed, wondering if it would be weird if she gave the girl a hug through the chairs. “It totally is life or death, we…we really like skating,” she finished rather lamely, wishing she had come up with something better to say.
The girl smiled shyly and wrote down some symbols on a napkin, passing it through the slit in the chair.
Rae translated them immediately in her head. “Thank you so much, really!” she thanked the girl again before turning back around to her friends. “This is incredible! We can just call a cab from the airport and go right there.” Maybe Fate didn’t want Cromfield messing with its plans either.
“See, Jules!” Molly nudged him cheerfully. “You’re saving this guy’s life.”
Julian took an unsteady breath. “Yeah, or, if we hit any traffic, we’re going to get there just in time to see him get shot to death.” His friends paused uncertainly, and he shook his head with a tired sigh. “I’m sorry, I’m just…I’m going to be really glad when this goose-chase is over.”
“Me, too.” Rae leaned back in her chair. “Worst mission ever.”
“It’s not a mission,” Devon mumbled.
“We’re already halfway through the names on our list,” Molly said, with more forced enthusiasm than she obviously felt. “It won’t be that much longer now—”
“I’m sorry,” Devon interjected, “am I the only one who’s not terribly excited to be going back to London?”
The other three turned to him in surprise.
“Why would you say that?” Rae asked.
Devon raised his eyebrows. “Do you guys have any idea what we’re going to be going back to? Do you have any idea how much trouble we’re going to be in with Carter? With the Privy Council? With your mother?” he added.
Rae stifled a shudder—a truly terrifying prospect.
Devon must have thought facing Rae’s mom might be worst for him as well. “It’s certainly not going to be rainbows and sunshine.” He shrugged. “That’s all I’m saying.”
For the first time since takeoff, it was perfectly quiet in Row 3. The four friends sat with their eyes fixed on the seats in front of them, worlds away as they wondered how each of their particular familial situations would implode the second they got back to England.
The plane had already begun its descent by the time Molly leaned across Rae, and slapped Devon suddenly in the chest with a vicious glare.
He jumped in his seat; she’d apparently used quite some voltage, and he turned to her in bewilderment. “What the hell was that for?” he demanded, twitching slightly from the shock.
“What was it for?” she chanted back sarcastically. “It was for your damn all-encompassing negativity, that’s what it was for.”
Rae and Julian started laughing behind their hands as Molly and Devon had the stare-off of a lifetime.
Molly frowned at him. “You keep those thunderclouds to yourself, Wardell. If you don’t, I’ll bring the lightning.” She leaned back slowly, still shooting him threatening looks as he dissolved in laughter with the rest of them.
“Tell me the truth,” Rae asked as they touched down. “How long have you been waiting to say that?”
“Oh, my gosh, Rae!” Molly smoothed back her hair with an intensely-satisfied expression. “You have no idea!”
* * *
The second they landed in Osaka, that same kind of frantic kinetic energy overtook each of them in turn as they left their bags in the terminal and darted to the cab service. They hopped into the nearest one they could, barreling right past what looked like a pair of honeymooners, and threw all their newly exchanged currency over the barrier. Rae barked the directions in Japanese, and the next second they were off.
So this is Japan, Rae thought as she stared out the window. Was there ever going to be a time when she’d get to see one of these extraordinary countries under normal circumstances? When they weren’t looking down the barrel of a gun? Would she and Devon ever get to vacation together? Did the Privy Council allow for such carefree time off? More importantly, when they got back to England, was the Privy Council ever going to let them off the titanium leash they’d surely be putting around each of their necks?
As they pulled up to the coffee shop, everything appeared exactly as Julian had described it. The buildings, the weather, everything. All the concerns of England vanished from Rae’s head, replaced with a single thought: Where the hell was Akihiro Nakano?
They settled themselves at an outdoor restaurant across
the street, watching the café with eyes peeled, each of them checking their watches on a steady basis. If Cromfield was going to indeed walk up from the northern sidewalk, as Julian had predicted, they would be able to see him coming a mile away.
Julian’s foot was bouncing nervously under the table as he checked his watch for the twentieth time in the past five minutes. “Eleven thirty-eight. Just two more minutes,” he murmured. The bouncing increased. “This is so weird; everything is exactly how I saw it. Look—that guy’s about to sneeze.”
Devon turned to Rae. “So you know the plan?”
“As soon as we see Cromfield, I turn invisible and knock him down. Meanwhile, you and Jules get Nakano to cover, while Molly provides cover fire. We meet back at the skating rink.”
Devon raised his eyebrows sternly. “And?”
Rae rolled her eyes. “And under no circumstances am I to engage Cromfield. I’m simply knocking him off balance to give you guys the chance to give him the slip.”
All at once, Julian straightened up, his eyes locking across the street like a hawk. “That’s him!” He breathed sharply. “That’s Akihiro.”
They watched as a middle-aged businessman walked out of the coffee shop, blinking in the bright afternoon sun. He stretched out his arms, spilling a few drops of his coffee, before lifting his hand to call a cab.
As one, their eyes scanned up and down the roads, searching for Cromfield.
Julian said he had simply walked up? He’d have to be walking very fast; the final minute was almost over and Nakano was set to die at precisely eleven-forty.
“Jules?” Devon asked nervously.
Julian leaned forward, not even breathing, when it suddenly happened.
The minute passed.
He straightened up like someone had slapped him. “What? I…I don’t…”
Nakano’s cab arrived and he climbed inside, easing away into traffic.
The three friends shared a quick look before turning as one to Julian.
“I don’t understand,” Julian fumed. “I saw this happen. I SAW it! One minute ago, I saw this man die. How could…?”
Rae got to her feet, a sudden sinking feeling weighing heaving her chest. A moment later, she opened her hand and a cell-phone appeared in her palm. Going off memory, she typed in the number listed for Benjamin Mills and waited. On the third ring, a deep voice answered.
A voice that was certainly not that of Benjamin Mills…
Chapter 9
“Kon’nichiwa!”
Rae froze. Every inch of her stood rooted to the ground and the air around her stilled.
It wasn’t the voice she had been expecting. Not the one she had been dreading. The one that slithered around behind her, from her waking hours to her darkest dreams. Soundless, toneless, ever present. A distant echo of terrible things to come.
This was something else entirely.
It wasn’t the voice of a villain. There were no dark rumblings or a sinister hiss. He sounded…pleasant. Engaging. And thoroughly delighted to be talking to her.
“Crom—” she cleared her throat and hissed, “Cromfield. Jeremiah Cromfield.”
On the sidewalk across from her, Molly, Devon, and Julian rotated slowly around, stiffening like three horrified statues. The world behind them rushed on in a streak of people and lights, completely oblivious to what was happening. But the four of them were frozen in time, barely breathing as they waited.
Cheerful laughter crackled through the static, and Rae pressed the phone harder to her ear. This can’t be happening. This has got to be a bad dream or something. Rae’s brain couldn’t think or process. She could only stare into the eyes of her friends, unable to do anything else.
“Indeed it is, my dear! Indeed, it is! I just can’t tell you how happy I am to be hearing your lovely voice! When I had this vision yesterday—saw that you would be calling—I have to admit I got a little nervous. I’ve been waiting so long. And me, nervous?” He laughed again. “For the first time in over a hundred years. Can you imagine?!”
He laughed again and Rae shuddered.
Breaking out of his trance, Devon held up a furious hand and took a step forward, mouthing, Hang up the phone, Rae!
“No, sweet Rae, you’re not going to hang up the phone,” the voice on the other end grew softer, more menacing. “You can tell that impatient boy-toy of yours to take a step back and wait his turn. You and I are going to have a conversation. I’m entitled to it.”
Fingers trembling, Rae held up her hand, motioning for Devon to stop. There were tears in her eyes and she shook all over, but knew she had to keep listening. There was something deep inside her that wasn’t letting her hang up the phone. Something she didn’t quite understand. Fear? She’d lived a life of fear, but this… this she couldn’t explain.
“Of course, one can almost understand Dear Devon’s impatience,” Cromfield continued. “After all, he only has a few short decades left with you, if he lives that long. Whereas you and I, oh, sweet Rae, we have the rest of eternity.”
Rae’s eyes flicked up and met Devon’s gaze in silence. Even from where he was standing, he could easily hear every word. It was as if there was a sudden dimming in his bright eyes, a strange deadening she could feel reflected in her own.
“But enough about that silly boy! Let’s talk more about you!” Cromfield said in the same enthusiastic voice as before. “You’ve followed my little trail of breadcrumbs all over the world, you clever girl! I must admit, as much as it’s inconvenienced me, I’m actually rather proud of you. What’s a few lost hybrids here and there?” He laughed, the sound turning more evil as the seconds passed. “You’re the only one I want.”
Rae just shook her head, unable to speak, unable to hang up; simply stuck as hordes of people strode by her, standing in a horrified daze as the man who ruined her entire life tried to strike up a friendly conversation.
“Now, Rae, you wouldn’t happen to be in Japan, would you?” The laugh that followed this time was mocking.
It was those words that finally snapped her out of her trance. She looked up with sudden passion as her eyes locked on Julian’s petrified face. “Where’s Benjamin Mills?” she hissed.
“Benny?” Cromfield laughed. “Oh, he’s fine! He’s washing up; we just got back from a delightful dinner. You wouldn’t believe some of the ingenious ideas that man has running around his little head. Delightful!”
“If you—”
“Is there something you’d like to say to him?” Cromfield cut her off. “I’d be happy to take a message.” He was just playing with her now, keeping her on the line as he did as he pleased. Just like he’d always done as he pleased, her entire life; uprooting it as he saw fit, taking her parents out of the equation. Leaving her ignorant as to who she was, what she was until a time of his choosing.
Her teeth ground together, incensed beyond belief, but, when she spoke, it was in surprisingly pleasant tones. “Dear Jeremiah!” She let the word hang in between them, and heard a sharp intake of breath on the other end.
A few paces away, Devon’s face tightened as though she’d stabbed him.
Rae winked at Devon. She could flippin’ play Cromfield’s game. “I don’t want you to hurt Benjamin. If you hurt him, you hurt me.”
There was a profound pause on the other end of the line before, “Rae, I would never do anything to hurt you. I would burn the world to the ground before I let that happen.”
Yeah, you’d never do anything to hurt me except kill my father, kidnap my mother, essentially orphan me, and threaten the lives of everyone I meet. Cool. Thanks. I owe you one.
“But you have to understand the significance of what I’m doing here. Not everyone was born with your unique gift, my sweet. I’m simply doing all I can to—” His voice cut off as another pair of footsteps entered the room. There was a muffling sound, and she could tell Cromfield had put his hand over the receiver. “Just a minute, Rae. Yes, you can pour us some drinks.”
“Benjamin!” R
ae screamed at the top of her lungs, but Cromfield was already walking into the next room where Benjamin couldn’t hear her.
“Anyway, my dear, I’ve got to run. But it was a pleasure speaking with you today. A pleasure I hope to repeat again very soon. Send my love to the boyfriend and Miss Skye.” He snapped his fingers, the sound echoing through the phone, making Rae jerk. “Oh, and if you wouldn’t mind, thank Julian for me. His help has been truly invaluable over these last few days. I really couldn’t have done it without him.”
Rae’s eyes locked onto Julian’s dark ones, and, although he couldn’t hear what Cromfield had said, his face paled and he began slowly shaking his head. “What have you been doing to him?” she whispered.
“Doing to him? Why, Rae, you make it sound so sinister! I’ve simply been watching him, the same way you had him watching me. How fortunate that one of your closest friends happens to be a twin tatù! It made getting to you know and your little group so much easier.”
Rae thought of the look on Julian’s face went he went down at the airport. He’d said it felt like someone was trying to pry their way into his head. It felt like it was killing him.
“There’s Miss Skye, for example, your best friend; soon to be your roommate in your new London apartment. I really have to congratulate you on that, by the way; such a find! I also would have chosen the balcony with the park view. Then, of course, there’s Devon, the temporary boyfriend,” he sighed, as if the thought exasperated him.
Rae’s eyes flashed up to Devon again, watching as he ground his jaw to a pulp, his hands periodically turning into fists.
“Talented, handsome, strong, and, despite his strict upbringing, still willing to break the rules of the Privy Council; willing to throw it all away for love. If we were talking about anyone other than you, Miss Kerrigan, I would have said it was a good match. In fact, if we were talking about anyone other than you, I might actually be very curious to see what sort of children such a match would provide. Alas, it isn’t meant to be. All good things must come to an end.”