by Jasmine Walt
Holy shit. I spun around, the wind whipping my hair across my face. I’d barely kept hold of my phone, and the GPS was telling me to head north. I turned that way, using the switch on the back of my heel to readjust the speed. Okay, this would be seriously fun if I had two shoes that fit. And if I wasn’t being chased by men in black.
They surrounded me, dark figures amongst the low clouds. I recognised a couple of them as Delta’s cousins, who I’d met before when he couldn’t meet me in the Passages. What were their names? Gregor and… Josef. Though they wore hover boots, they looked like serious businessmen in pressed suits, a sight that ought to have been ridiculous, but was somehow frightening. Plus the material of the suits had an odd, scaled sheen that gave me the sinking feeling it was magicproof.
No way out. I hit the descent button and they followed me in a circle.
“Come quietly, Ada, and we won’t have to hurt you,” said Josef, smirking. He’d always given me the creeps.
“No way,” I said.
A fist slammed into the side of my head, then another. I yelled, losing control of the boot altogether, dropping like a bullet. But they were dropping, too. A fist caught me in the stomach and knocked the breath out of me. I struck out blindly but I was falling, we were falling, far too fast.
And then we reached the ground. Hands caught me before I could hit the pavement. Held my own hands behind my back while one of the other men struck me across the face. My teeth sank into the inside of my mouth, and I spat blood at him, squirming to escape. Someone pulled the hover boot off my foot.
“Let me go!”
“Cooperate with us, girl, and we won’t hurt you.”
“Like hell.”
The next slap hit me so hard, my brain slammed into my skull. The world went hazy.
“Stop, now,” said one of the men, presumably the leader. He looked the oldest anyway. His neatly combed hair was streaked with grey. “She won’t be any use to us if you hurt her too much.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I said. “I’m not helping you, not for anything in the Multiverse.”
“You don’t get a say. We need a weapon. Skyla isn’t strong enough, though she’s done an admirable job stirring up trouble.” He must be Delta’s father.
“So what was all that about helping the refugees from Enzar?” I asked, stalling for time. “A cover-up? You’re despicable monsters.” Josef smirked at me, fuelling my anger. My nails bit into my palms.
“I expect your guardian concealed the truth from you because she wanted to keep you safe,” said Delta’s father. “As a Royal on Enzar, you’d be a pitiless assassin, or the future ruler of the Multiverse. This isn’t just about revenge for us, Ada, it’s about stopping Enzar. You think the war will stay on the Empire’s worlds forever? They’ll find a way out, and they’ll destroy what’s left of the Alliance. You weren’t alive when the war broke out, Ada, and the Royals decimated ten worlds overnight. The Alliance might well have crumbled, were it not for the council’s quick intervention.”
My heart thudded. I hadn’t known the specifics. Hell, I couldn’t have. It wasn’t like Nell had given a blow-by-blow account of the war. Even Josef’s smirk faded as his father spoke.
“The Alliance think they’re prepared for anything, Ada, but they’re mistaken. The only way to stop Enzar conquering the entire Multiverse is to have an equal force to oppose them. Imagine my surprise when I found out we’ve had one of their own in front of us all along.” Delta’s father’s mouth curled into a grim smile. “The Alliance need a reminder, I think, of the danger of a full-scale magical assault. The current council is incompetent, so we’ll take them out first. Luckily, we already have an implant in the Central Headquarters in London. As a known Earth landmark, a targeted attack will make the worlds pay attention.”
Central. Kay.
“You want me to be your assassin? To kill everyone at Central?”
“I was thinking something a little more dramatic,” said Delta’s father. “Like a bomb.”
Magic. Numb horror pulsed through my veins. He intended to use me as a living bomb. But that level of magic would do more than take out Central. It’d knock the Balance across the Multiverse—magic would go haywire, low-magic worlds like Earth would be overrun, and others would end up like Enzar.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Ada, I am terribly serious. Adamantine? That was a poor choice of name on your guardian’s part.”
“Go to hell.”
I squirmed and kicked at the man who held me. But he anticipated it and drove his knee into my spine. Agony radiated through my body, and my last thought before losing consciousness was that Nell would be seriously pissed.
18
Kay
Lights flashed overhead, and I glanced at Markos. The elevator had halted under the first floor, and the entrance hall glittered below. Too far below. Easily the height of a three-storey apartment building.
“Damn,” I said. “I can’t make that jump if we break the glass.” Not in one piece, anyway. Even I wasn’t idiot enough to try it.
There was a humming sound, subtle at first, but rapidly growing louder. The stunner vibrated in my pocket, and that unmistakable static meant magic was somewhere nearby. On Earth? I scanned the inside of the square glass box, looking for the source.
Sparks jumped out from the corner of the glass box, seemingly from nowhere at all. I took a step back, instinct warning me of a danger I couldn’t see.
“What in all gods’ name is that?” Markos said.
“Magic,” I said, as more sparks danced out. Sparks generally meant a stored energy source. I stepped back, running a hand through my hair, thinking–
“Shit,” I said. My fingers had brushed the invisible device clipped to my ear, the one Ada had given me. Chameleon. “I reckon I know what killed Alan. It’s a disguised magical device.”
“Like a bomb.” The centaur’s face had gone deathly pale. “Like—firing a rocket in an elevator.”
“Or shooting a gun in the Passages,” I said grimly.
Without warning, Markos reared up, and kicked at the front doors with two hooves. I ducked to avoid the shower of glass. But there was still a hell of a drop between us and the entrance hall.
More sparks danced across the ground, and I tingled all over like I’d run headlong into an electric fence.
“God.” What a way to die. I glanced at Markos. “Sadly, my stunt double’s not available. Guess this is it.”
Markos cursed. “Gods, human, if you mention this to anyone, I’ll kill you. Get on my back.”
“I—what?”
“You heard me.” I could almost see the device now, surrounded by a halo of red light. A warning. Markos didn’t have to tell me to get a move on.
“This is fucking weird,” I said, vaulting onto the centaur’s back.
“Hold on tight,” was Markos’s response.
And he jumped, clean through the newly shattered doors. I gritted my teeth and hung on for my life. I’ll bet no human’s ever done this and lived—and that was all I had time to think before we were plunging towards the ground.
“Holy shit,” I gasped, flat against the centaur’s back. Behind, I heard a tremendous, earth-shaking blast, and the static grew to a fever pitch. There was a shattering, several crashes, screams, and we hit the floor of the entrance hall with enough force to send my heart slamming into my ribs. I hung on and half-lay there, gasping out curses.
“Holy fuck.” And I swore in several other languages, too, for good measure.
The centaur shook with laughter. “You can get down now, human.”
“Yeah—thanks,” I added and more fell than climbed off the centaur’s back. I hurt everywhere, like I’d been stuck in a blender.
“I didn’t know you were fluent in Aglaian,” Markos remarked. “We could have had some interesting conversations.”
I mentally tried to pull myself together. Focus. Someone tried to kill you.
“Yeah—now’s not
the time.” We had an audience. Faces peered over the balconies a couple of floors up, and several people had gathered near the entrance, too.
“Please excuse me while I bury my dignity,” said Markos.
I shook my head, which felt like it had tried to detach itself from my neck. “Okay. I’m taking a wild guess the killer’s still in the building. We need to send out an alert.” I pulled my communicator out with my still-shaking hand. I managed to open the window for emergencies. “FULL CENTRAL ALERT.” I hit the button.
Sirens rang out. The people on the balconies withdrew, probably heading downstairs—hell, I hoped the other elevators weren’t rigged with bombs like ours.
“Damn,” I said. “I have to tell everyone to use the stairs.”
“You don’t need to.” Ellen stood across from me, surrounded by a halo of shattered glass from the elevator. “I only did two of them.”
There was an infinite heartbeat’s pause.
“You what?” said Markos.
The flicker of a smile crept onto Ellen’s face. “You would keep interfering, wouldn’t you? I really didn’t want to kill you, Kay, but you left me no choice.”
“The hell are you on?” I said, feeling more like I was the one tripping on something. Maybe the fall had done some head damage after all.
“Sorry, I never got to show you around, Kay.” She smiled a sad smile. And then… she changed. Her poker-straight blond hair turned wiry and dark brown. Her face changed too, subtly, but enough that I looked at a completely different person.
“By the gods,” said Markos.
“You used bloodrock.”
“I did.”
“You’re the killer.” You don’t say. Intelligent, Kay.
“I had to stop the information getting out,” she said. “I’m damned if I’m going to let them start their twisted crap again.”
Something pitched inside me. She didn’t mean…
“Their experiments,” she said, and dread seeped through my veins like poison. “They used me. I nearly died when I went into the Passages—the magic was too much. But I learned to control it.” She wore a faint smile. “I’ve enjoyed working here, more than I expected. I didn’t intend to stay this long, only it was convenient to know what was happening in the Alliance.”
“Get to the bloody point already,” said Markos. “I’m about a second from trampling you into a puddle.”
“The point is, I’m sorry, Kay. I admit you threw me off. You’re not like him, not at all. You don’t even look like him. But you’re still a Walker. And I’m in this for revenge.”
What the hell? She was batshit crazy. Small consolation that she’d said I was nothing like him. My hand crept towards the stunner in my pocket. I had one shot left.
“Don’t you dare,” said Ellen, or whoever she really was. She raised a hand, and the charge building in the air fixated itself around her. Hell, there was enough magic in here to power the equivalent of a nuclear weapon.
And she was going to hit me with it. Third level. Almost always fatal. And unavoidable.
“No you don’t,” said Markos. Before I could blink, the centaur charged.
I’d never seen a centaur charge before, but I was bloody glad he was on my side. He reared up and lashed out, and Ellen was sent flying across the hall. She struck the wall and crumpled to the ground.
“I always thought she was a ditzy idiot,” said Markos. “Never liked her.” He glanced at me. “Kay, are you there?”
I shook off the dazed feeling. “Did you kill her?”
“Nope, knocked her out.”
“How could she have been the one?”
“Very good question.” Ms Weston limped into the hall. “We’ll need to conduct an investigation.”
Did this not surprise her at all?
“Law Division are going to have their hands full,” said Markos. “They ought to lump all the investigations together. It’d save time.”
“Ha,” I said, shaking my head. Ellen of all people—the killer? Not that I’d known her at all, really, but…
“What was all that about experiments?” asked Markos.
“It’s classified,” said Ms Weston. “But I suppose the word will get out either way. The Alliance once conducted experiments. It was shut down after concerns about ethics came up. None of the experiments succeeded, anyway. Some scientists within the Alliance believed that they could find a way to inject humans with pure magic in distilled form, to give someone from Earth the same level of ability of a natural-born magic-wielder.”
“That’s twisted,” said Markos, kicking his back foot, face taut with anger.
“On Earth and Aglaia, perhaps, but it’s quite commonplace in high-magic worlds—Klathica, for one, where magic-based implants are sold on the streets. It wouldn’t cause any lasting damage or side effects, and it’s not illegal by any means. The scientists knew what they were doing, and plainly one of the experiments succeeded.” She indicated Ellen’s unmoving body. “We do have a list of the participants, as it happens. In the lab.” She addressed the crowd gathered by the entrance, who were starting to move closer. A mixture of guards and office workers who’d arrived to the chaotic scene. Glass from the shattered lift glittered on the floor, reflecting planes of light. Still more people were coming downstairs and in the other elevators, spilling out into the hall, all staring. The entire force of the Alliance was present; there were easily three hundred people in the entrance hall.
And above everything, magic hung like a red haze. I couldn’t shake it away. And nor could I shake off the raw panic that the whole freaking world was going to hear about this now.
Not illegal. No lasting damage. And they wouldn’t want the instigator’s name to get out. God forbid. The Alliance would cover it up. Reputation won out every time, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do. Who would they believe, the eminent council member and one of the most powerful people in the Multiverse—or his magic-wielder son, who was lucky not to be in jail?
Saki volunteered to go and fetch the notes, and Ms Weston directed a couple of guards to handcuff Ellen. She still hadn’t moved. But I watched as Carl and another guard cuffed her, prepared to step in if she woke up. I didn’t trust her at all, unconscious or not.
“Now the killer is apprehended…” Ms Weston nodded, and I turned to see Saki approaching, clipboard in hand. My heart started drumming in my ears.
Ms Weston flicked through the pages clipped to the board, and nodded. “Three of them—and the other two were listed as missing five years ago. Right. We need to put out a search warrant.” She raised her voice. “There are two other rogue magic-wielders out there, the other experimental subjects were sent to go free. They’d have been children at the time, thirteen years ago. With Earth’s magic levels unnaturally high right now, there’s the chance they could hurt people, assuming they’re still on Earth.”
My heart stopped drumming and plunged instead. I clenched my fists, fought to keep still and not make a run for it. A search warrant? What had happened to the others? What did he do—drag in children off the streets? I doubted they’d been willing participants.
I didn’t run. If it got me fired, arrested, so be it. I’d deserved as much when I’d used magic and nearly killed Aric two years ago—it was a miracle that hadn’t got out, too. Magic-wielder. And I’d fought it so damn hard. I’d never used magic since. Not once.
A tall man in a pressed suit approached Ms Weston and spoke to her. She nodded, and they conversed in low voices.
Hell. That man must be one of the council members. I knew there were only three of them present, but it hadn’t hit home that they’d be here, right now, because I’d sent out an emergency signal to the entire building.
Any hope of not drawing attention to myself had gone clean out the window. I tried to look unobtrusive instead—a little difficult when you stood next to a centaur, surrounded by a mess of broken glass and an unconscious woman. Carl glanced at Ms Weston. “Should I take her downstairs, or is th
is a full evacuation?”
She shook her head, wearily brushing back her dust-streaked hair.
“Kay raised the alarm,” she said, and turned to me like she expected me to give the order.
I summoned what little authority I could. “I’d say we evacuate just to be on the safe side,” I said. “Ellen—whoever she is—rigged two of the elevators with magic-based bombs. She was killing off anyone who came close to exposing the research, but she was also out for revenge on anyone else involved.” That seemed likely, anyway.
Ms Weston nodded. “Skyla Benson,” she said. “Her real name. She has a distinct magic-wielding style, too—I recognise it from when she used it the other day. And I believe it matches the magic used in the Passages the day we found the intruders.”
“Wait, what?” I said.
“I have this,” said Carl, from beside Ellen, holding up a rectangular metal device. “It can detect traces of magic and see if they match. It wouldn’t be half as effective offworld, of course, but on Earth, it could only have been the same person.”
Damn. She was one of the people who helped Ada escape. Ada couldn’t have known she was the killer—no way—but at the moment, I didn’t know what to think.
“There are other experimental subjects?” the tall man asked Ms Weston, as if he’d read my thoughts.
“Two,” she said. “Twins. They’d be in their late teens—the experiments were on kids, naturally. There’s nothing in the file, they disappeared the same time as Skyla did. We need to consider the possibility that they’re working with her. They wouldn’t be bound by the same rules as other magic-wielders on Earth—even more so now the Balance has been shifted this way.”
I went ice cold all over. She didn’t mention me. She had to know. It was right there in front of her. But she didn’t say it. She didn’t name the last volunteer. No, victim.
At the time, I’d half-assumed my mother’s death had pushed my father over the edge, and the experiment was some twisted new punishment, or a convenient way to dispose of the son he’d never wanted. I’d blocked the memory out, just like everything else. And when I’d first set foot in the Passages two years ago, magic had lured me into its trap and then turned on me and almost destroyed any chance I had of joining the Alliance on my own terms. All because of some sick, pointless experiment. I should have known it would catch up to me.