by Jasmine Walt
“Where do you live?” I asked.
“Ten-minute drive from Central.”
I bit my lip. Of course he wasn’t a serial killer, but did that mean I was willing to trust him? He worked for the Alliance.
He’d offered to help me, help the refugees, in a way I’d never thought anyone could, even after I’d acted like a total ass, insulted and attacked him. What the hell was this?
Alber interrupted the silence. “Jesus, Ada, I know you have bad taste in guys, but this is ridiculous.”
My jaw dropped. “You did not just say that.” I punched my brother in the shoulder. Hard.
“Ouch! I was just messing with—gah!” I had him in one of Nell’s infamous headlocks in a heartbeat.
Kay, who hadn’t reacted at all to Alber’s comment, now looked amused. Which made me even more annoyed. “Don’t flatter yourself,” I shot at him. “I’m not interested in Alliance guards. My brother’s a total ass who’s going to apologise right now, aren’t you?”
“Gah—all right! I’m sorry. Jesus.” Alber rubbed his neck. “That was uncalled for.”
“So was that a yes or a no?” Kay inquired. “For the record, I’m not at all interested in magic-wielders.” Huh. I’d expected him to say criminals, not magic-wielders.
“Good.” I glared at him. “What’re you going to do if I say no?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“And if I say yes?”
“What I said. Drive you back with me. Not murder you in your sleep. No offence, but you look like you’re about to crash.”
“That was offensive,” I said. “But all right. Fine.” Maybe I was tripping out from sheer tiredness. I hadn’t slept all night, and it had been a hell of a long day. One freaking bombshell after another.
Maybe I just wanted this whole fiasco dealt with. Like he’d said, I’d made a pretty big spectacle of myself already. Everyone would know who I was, who my family were. They probably thought I was a lunatic, if not a criminal. If I could really clear my name, clear Nell’s, then things could go back to normal. I didn’t have to join the Alliance.
I really did have a choice in the matter.
And okay, maybe one percent of me was the tiniest bit curious to learn about the Alliance guard who’d gone from enemy to possible ally within the space of only a few hours.
This had to be some bizarre dream. I sat in the front of Kay Walker’s flashy red car as he steered through late-night London traffic. I hadn’t a clue what to say, and Kay seemed content to drive in silence—apart from occasionally cursing at particularly idiotic drivers.
“Damn city drivers,” he muttered, tapping his fingers on the dashboard.
“You’re not from the city?”
“I grew up on the outskirts,” he said, not elaborating.
“The Academy’s… south of London, isn’t it?” I said. “I’ve never been, but Nell used to talk about it.” I bit my lip. Shouldn’t have mentioned Nell. I looked down, but Kay’s eyes were on the road anyway.
He nodded. But didn’t say a word.
Gotta love awkward silences. I fidgeted, watching the traffic instead, the ordinary streets, shops, chattering people boarding red buses, thronging the pavements. People who had no clue what insanity was happening so close by. Outside the Alliance, did anyone know at all? Nell had got all our information from contacts, like Skyla, who relentlessly spied on Central. Back before all this craziness, that was all I’d known—secrecy. I could never tell anyone who, what, I really was.
Kay knew. More than I’d ever intended to tell anyone. And it was only now occurring to me that I knew nothing about him. At all. Including why the hell he’d taken it upon himself to help me, after everything that had happened. I glanced at him out the corner of my eye. He looked… tired? Sad? I couldn’t tell.
Before I could think of anything intelligent to say, he stopped the car next to a row of apartments.
I didn’t know what to expect of Kay’s house. Living in central London wasn’t cheap, and Academy graduates were usually loaded. But his studio flat was pretty modest. Top floor, up four flights of stairs. I was about ready to collapse by the time we reached the room, but I didn’t say a word and followed him into the apartment. First time I’d ever been to a guy’s flat, seeing as most of the guys I’d dated had still lived with their parents. As for my two brothers, Alber’s room was a no-go area, and Jeth’s was the kind of organised chaos only a tech geek could achieve. Kay, though…his one-room apartment was spotless. Almost too clean. The fitted wooden furniture was bare, save for a flat-screen TV on the desk, couch in front. Kitchenette off to the side, bathroom through another door. Nothing lay on the floor, no discarded clothes or anything. No girlfriend, I thought. A handful of boxes were stacked in one corner, next to a punch bag.
“Don’t you have…anything else?” I said, lamely.
“It’s a new apartment,” he said, shrugging off his jacket. “I just moved in a week ago, I’ve been at Central most of the time.”
I felt a rush of homesickness for my own cupboard-sized room, stars on the ceiling and all. Would I ever get to go back?
“Wow,” I said, not sure what else to say. I dropped my rucksack to the floor. “Damn. What a day.”
“I was going to order takeout Chinese. Want some?”
“God. Yes.”
As he dug in his jacket pocket for his communicator, I saw a mark on his left arm that I thought at first glance was a tattoo—but it was a scar, a deep line that ended in a jagged mark on his forearm. What had done that? It wasn’t recent, though it looked painful. As he moved, I saw it was on both sides of his arm, like a sharp claw had stabbed right through it.
Ouch. I turned my back and nosed around some more while he dialled the number, peering into boxes. Books, mostly. Offworld dictionaries? Academy graduation certificate—damn, he really had just graduated. With top grades.
“What are you doing?”
“Being curious,” I said, shamelessly. “About what Alliance guards do when they’re not beating up monsters or arresting people.”
“We’re not that interesting,” said Kay. “Don’t touch that.”
Whoa. “I’m touching nothing.”
“Good. I have those arranged alphabetically.”
I burst out laughing. “Sorry,” I said. “Wait—you’re not serious.”
“Maybe a little.” The slightest smile lifted the corner of his mouth.
I turned back to the boxes. “Tell me that isn’t the collector’s edition of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Because I might just kill you if it is.”
He was the one to laugh this time. “I’m terrified. That’s what I told you not to touch, by the way.”
“Really? Hmm. Didn’t figure it was your thing.”
“Call it a guilty pleasure.”
“I lent my copy to Delta—my friend from Valeria,” I explained. “Most of the stuff he gives me doesn’t work on Earth, though.” I stopped myself before I said anymore. For someone who’d spent her life keeping secrets, I was crap at not letting information slip lately.
“Valeria?” Kay said. “You’ve not been there. No, you said you hadn’t been offworld.”
“Believe me, I’ve tried to persuade him to sneak me in a dozen times,” I said. “I mean, they have freaking hover cars. And hover boots now, too. I’m going there someday, no matter what.”
“How were you planning on doing that?” he asked. “Not to judge or anything. I’m intending to get on a mission to Valeria as soon as I make Ambassador. That is, if this mess doesn’t cost me my job.”
Crap. We were back to that again. Kay looked like he regretted mentioning it. I fell silent, and Kay started pacing the room, like he had in my prison cell—had that really only been yesterday?
I stood, leaving the boxes, and went to check through my bag again.
“You can crash on the bed,” he said. “I don’t mind.”
Well, that was something. And I did feel like crashing. I’d been runni
ng on pure adrenaline all day.
I managed to rouse myself when the food arrived, the TV playing some old action flick in the background. Kay looked like he was avoiding my eyes, and gave me privacy to go and clean myself up in the bathroom. I’d acquired more bruises, and my knees were scraped raw, but I’d had worse injuries in Nell’s intense training classes. Thank the gods I’d had the sense not to pack the blue rabbit-patterned pyjamas. Because that really wasn’t a level of embarrassment I was ready to handle—this was awkward enough already.
Naturally, because I was trying not to think about it, I wondered how many other girls he’d brought back home. Wait, new apartment. Where did he live when he was at the Academy, then? It was like a university, so probably campus accommodation. And before then? Who were his parents?
Cut that out, Ada, I told myself. Now was not the time to get overly curious about Kay Walker. We were from different worlds. Though I couldn’t help imagining how Nell would react if I started dating an Alliance employee. She’d interrogated most of my exes, actually scared a couple of them off. Kind of depressing, really. Sign up for an overprotective guardian who assumes everyone’s a murderer in disguise.
Someone who’d defend me to the end of the Multiverse.
That thought sobered me up pretty fast.
Despite the buzz of the TV and Kay’s constant pacing about—seriously, did he ever sit still?—I fell asleep the instant I lay back on the pillow.
I awoke with a gasp. I’d been dreaming of fighting the dreyverns again, unable to stop the knife flying out and striking Nell. Disoriented, I looked around the darkened room. Kay sat opposite me, back to the wall, eyes closed.
“What in the world are you doing?” I asked. He couldn’t possibly be asleep like that.
One eye half-opened. “Meditating.”
“As opposed to sleeping?”
“I’m an incurable insomniac.” Both eyes opened this time. “Are you okay?”
“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You talk in your sleep.”
I flushed. “Oh, God.” I pulled the covers over my head, and he laughed softly.
“You speak Karthonic?”
“Yeah… was I speaking that?” I was about to ask how he recognised it, but he probably knew twice as many offworld languages as I did. Academy graduate.
“Kind of. Didn’t make much sense. Who taught you, anyway?” He hesitated. “This is off record. No one’s gonna come in here and arrest you.”
You know what? I believed him. I let the covers drop from my face. “My foster brother, Jeth. He was originally from Karthos. He wanted to learn from a tutor. I picked up a few phrases.”
“What about your other foster brother? Which world’s he from?”
“Alber’s from Enzar too. But mageblood.” I paused. “What about you? Any siblings?”
A shake of the head. “Just me.”
“Is it not… lonely here on your own?” Now I was definitely prying.
He shrugged. “Not really. I’ve only owned this place a few days, and I’ve been at Central or in the Passages most of that time. Ambassadors don’t really settle on one world, anyway.”
“What about… your parents?”
His eyes narrowed, barely perceptibly. “Dead or otherwise absent.”
I knew it was rude to keep asking questions. “Sorry,” I said. “I was just curious. I don’t know what happened to my real parents. I never met them. But Royals aren’t exactly known for being friendly. They probably started the war in the first place.” I sighed. “It’s a mess.”
“Really?” He paused for an instant. “So who raised you, then?”
“Nell.”
“She kicked Aric’s ass. I wish I’d seen.”
“Me, too,” I said, smiling despite myself. “So… you went to the Academy.”
“Yeah. Graduated nearly two weeks ago.”
How old did that make him, then? A couple of years older than me at most. But he acted older. Not that I was a shining example of maturity, but still. Then again, half the people from my year at school were married and had houses and kids, and the other half spent most of the time drunk and passed out in their own gardens. I’d never really had anyone my age I could relate to, save for my brothers. Even the people who thought the idea of travelling to another universe was awesome would ultimately pick Earth, the familiar, in the end.
Even Nell. I’d lived in a literal shelter all my life, for all the excitement.
“The Academy,” I said. “Was that like pre-Alliance training?”
“Sort of. You don’t have to go there to get a job at the Alliance, but it lets you skip most of training because you already have the experience. But most people go through an apprenticeship instead. Are you at university, or working?”
“Uh. Neither, at the moment. I used to help Nell at the shelter. Now…” I’d no idea. What would happen to the shelters now?
“I’ll talk to the council,” he said. “The Alliance could use the help, if New York Central opens that Passage to the shelter over there.”
“You’re… really going to do that.”
“Of course.”
I shook my head. It still seemed so surreal. For all I knew, I was dreaming now. I absently glanced about the room. “I still don’t get it, you know that?”
“You don’t have to,” he said.
No. Except… now, I kind of wanted to. Pity magic didn’t extend to reading minds.
“If I were you, I’d consider joining the Alliance,” he said. “You’d still get to help people, only in a legal way. And Ambassadors get free run of the Multiverse.”
“Only if I can still help people from Enzar,” I said. “Ambassadors—that’s what you want to do, right?”
He inclined his head.
“All right. Well, I know I grew up here, but Enzar is my homeworld, and so many people have died. If I can help people get away from that place, I will.”
“Enzar,” he said. “The Alliance has kept that one under wraps, which is quite unusual given the scope of the war. I was planning to check their archives in the morning. The connection to bloodrock—it seems too odd a coincidence.”
“Yeah, it does. You can never be too careful with magic.”
“Nell said that, right?”
“How did you know that?”
“I guessed. Judging by what you did with magic, I don’t think safety’s first on your list.”
I fully sat up, arms folded. “Oh, you’re back to lecturing me again? Believe it or not, I know magic’s dangerous. I know what I’m doing.”
“Look, I’m not trying to lecture you… okay, maybe a bit. At the Academy, there was an incident. Several people got hurt because of magic. Nearly died.”
“Ah.” I figured he’d been involved. But the careful blankness on his face could have been the calm before a storm, and as curious as I might be, I didn’t want to push further.
Is he a magic-wielder? There was no way to tell from looking at someone, not if they were from Earth. Though trying to read Kay Walker was an impossibility. The only time I’d got a real reaction from him had been when…
Ah, crap. I shook my head, annoyed at the guilt rising. “I’m sorry I yelled at you before,” I said. “What I said was… awful. I…”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, cutting me off. “Really.”
The guilt didn’t go away. I’d been desperate enough not to care what I said, just to hurt the nearest person, and it happened to be him. And instead of arresting me again, he’d risked his job and helped me. However surreal it seemed, if he’d really intended to help Enzar… I don’t lie, he’d said, and then handed me proof about that shelter. As for the rest? It might be crazy, but it felt like he’d told the truth. Which made me even more of a bitch.
“Dammit,” I muttered. “Why did you have to turn out to be nice?” And why couldn’t I keep my stupid mouth shut?
“Huh?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Just it was easier to hate t
he Alliance and blame you for all the crap in my life. Now I don’t know who to blame. And I feel like the world’s biggest idiot.”
“You’re welcome to blame me if it makes it easier,” he said lightly.
“Hmm. Nah, I think I’ll blame the Multiverse in general.”
“Get some sleep.” His mouth curled into a faint smile. But a genuine one.
Yeah. Good idea. No point in thinking about what I couldn’t control. I lay back down, heaviness weighing on my eyelids. Tilting my head, I saw him shift slightly. In fact, now I looked closer, I could tell he was only feigning casualness, and his eyes were open, alert. He sat at a slight angle, so he could see the door. Like a trained soldier. Keeping an eye out? Did he expect an attack?
My eyes ached too much to keep open any longer, and the world faded away.
My eyes flickered open to the sight of Kay walking past the door, shirtless. I sat bolt upright.
“Holy hell.”
“What?” He smirked. “Like what you see?”
“What the—what the hell happened to you?”
Scars crisscrossed the entire left side of his body—long, deep scars like the one on his left arm, like claw-marks. I gripped the bed convulsively. I couldn’t even imagine the pain.
“I had a disagreement with a wyvern,” he said, absently running his right hand over the mark on his left arm.
“How are you still alive?”
“Lucky.” He said this in an ironic tone.
“You’re insane.” I shook my head. “You’re actually insane. You know that?”
“I did wonder.” He went into the bathroom, leaving me staring. I rubbed my eyes. Damn. Here I was, getting distracted again. It was morning now. I had to get my head together.
Today was our last chance.
16
Kay
“Why bother driving in London?” asked Ada.
“I hate public transport,” I said, amused at her incredulity, as we waited at a red light. She perched on the edge of her seat, short red hair still slightly tousled though she’d dragged a brush through it. She wore black, her own approximation of guard uniform complete with daggers sheathed in those famous boots of hers. Dangerous, and in my book, that equalled “extremely attractive”. And the reflection of her low-cut long-sleeved top in the wing mirror didn’t help. I hadn’t counted on her being so bloody distracting now her defences were lowered around me.