by Jasmine Walt
Someone knocked on the office door. “The council want to speak to you,” said Aric. Great.
“Again? For bloody hell’s sake.” Ms Weston shook her head. “Fine, I suppose I’ll have to… you can go now, Kay. Don’t think I’m finished with you yet.”
I almost laughed. In the past few weeks, it had relaxed to the point that being called into her office no longer felt like my career was on the line.
“I’m scared to death.”
Aric glared at me as I came out of the office. “You’re still being an arrogant prick? That’s our boss you’re talking to.”
“Congratulations. I knew you’d learn who everyone is eventually.”
Aric muttered a curse, stifled as Ms Weston marched past, out of the office. “Very funny, Walker.”
“Glad you appreciate it,” I said, turning to leave. “Is there a reason you’re still hanging around out here?”
“I heard what you said.” He took a step towards me, in yet another failed attempt to look menacing. “You’re really going to bring a dangerous magic-wielder here? That girl should be locked up. I can’t believe the Alliance have just let her walk free. She almost killed the fucking planet. And then some.”
“She didn’t,” I corrected. “She was being manipulated.”
“She’s a magic-wielder. She ought to have stopped it, not let it get out of hand like that.”
“When are you going to get it into your head that magic can’t be controlled?” I held up my own hands in demonstration, though the marks had all but healed. “It does whatever the hell it wants. She could only absorb it, not control it. No one can do that.”
“That’s not what you said two years ago.”
“That’s exactly what I said two years ago,” I said, shaking my head. “Magic is a force. It responds to wielders, yeah, but it doesn’t give a crap if there’s someone else standing in the way. We’re like human lightning rods.”
Aric glared. “Then you better stay away from me, Walker.”
“With pleasure.”
I slammed the office door so hard, it actually did hurt, a sharp jolt going through my hands. Goddamned magic burn never let up. At first, it had been like I’d put my hands on an electric fence and then set them on fire. Now it only shocked me every couple of hours instead of every minute. I could deal with pain.
My communicator started beeping. Simon.
“Is that Central’s wyvern-slaying lunatic?”
“Wrong number. This is pest control. Did I hear about gigantic swamp rats?”
“Dammit. And I had some awesome news too. The council have given the plan the go-ahead. We’re opening tomorrow.”
“You are?” I said, gripping the phone harder. Ada.
“Hell, yes. Also, there might be a few people at US Central who want to meet you.”
I sighed. “Don’t tell me you’ve been spreading stories.”
“Only the truth.”
Yeah. Or Simon’s version, which involved heroes fighting monsters and saving the Multiverse. Real life didn’t quite work like that. No one ever wrote about the aftermath.
I closed my eyes. “Guess I have to visit Ada.”
“You don’t have her number?”
“She has mine.” That spoke for itself.
“Ah. Well, she’ll be happy this whole thing’s set up now, right?”
“Yeah. ’Course she will.” Feeling I owed Simon something of an explanation, I said, “You know who stopped the Alliance from helping Enzar in the first place, right?”
I gave him five seconds. It took three. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah.” Yet another reason I hadn’t spoken to Ada. Her family hated me, yes, but knowing she knew what my father had done…
“Well, good luck. I’ll be there tomorrow.”
He hung up. I stared at the communicator for a moment. And then double-checked Ada’s address.
ADA
Nell was pissed off. Nothing new there.
“Who are you meeting?” she said, after I’d hung up the phone. The call from Simon, whoever he was, had come completely out of nowhere. Lucky I was in the house. Not that I really had anywhere else to go these days, but still. No job, and Nell being overprotective. Not to mention Jeth, who’d appointed himself my bodyguard after quitting his job to help Nell run the business while she recovered.
Now, Nell came out into the hallway, her usual sharp expression back in full force. I was kind of tempted to retreat back into my room. But Alber and Jeth had both poked their heads out of their rooms, wanting to hear the action.
“Kay Walker.” Might as well get it over with.
“Walker.”
“Yes, I know. Not the Walker. His son. He’s setting up this arrangement with US Central so the Enzarian refugees—all the refugees—can get through the Passages to a shelter there. Look, it isn’t as bad as it seems. We can still help people. Just on the legal side. The Alliance… they might be offering me a job.” If that still stood after I’d almost destroyed London. I didn’t dare consider the alternative.
“And if they don’t? We’re running out of money, Ada.”
“We’ll make do. Could always find another supermarket job.”
“This isn’t a joke, Ada!”
“Nell, come on,” said Jeth. “This was bound to go wrong in the end. We stepped on too many toes. Delta’s family were dicks, anyway.”
Everyone winced at the name. No one had dared bring it up for a week after I’d woken up in hospital—not that I was conscious most of the time. It was too painful to think about, so my nightmares did it for me, with feeling. I’d killed five people, including someone who’d once been a friend. Would the Alliance turn me into a hired killer, too? Like Kay… no, that wasn’t fair. He’d killed Skyla, killed Janice, but he hadn’t had a choice in the matter. Magic didn’t give you one.
I wished I could talk to him. Just once. But Nell always seemed to be there, reminding me of what the Walker family had cost us. What the Alliance had cost us. It was a mess. Not least because some Alliance officials had showed up on the doorstep while I was still in a coma and recited a ten-minute-long diatribe about all the laws we’d collectively broken, slapped a formal warning onto us, and then charged Nell for damages on behalf of the guards she and Skyla had knocked out. If not for my being unconscious, I’d have had to give a statement. As it was, Nell had screamed bloody murder about how her daughter had saved the Multiverse and if not for me, everyone in the city would be dead. I kind of wished I’d been awake to watch. At any rate, Nell had managed to convince the guards Skyla had been responsible for the damage, so we’d only been charged for the bloodrock we’d stolen. Too bad “only” had sent us halfway to bankruptcy.
Sometimes being a responsible adult sucked. I’d cleaned out my own bank account and it still wasn’t enough to help. I didn’t think Kay was behind the charges—and from what Nell had told me the Alliance officials said, I was pretty sure it was down to him that the times we’d trespassed in the Passages had been overlooked—but I guessed I didn’t blame Nell for storming about the house breathing fire in the direction of anyone who mentioned the Alliance.
I shook my head. “Let’s worry about that later. I’ve got to go find Kay in the Passages. We’re meeting Simon halfway, so he can show me where the new Passage open to the public is. Want to come?”
“Into the Passages?” said Alber. “Hell, yes.”
“I suppose,” said Jeth. “You need someone to supervise you. You’re not going off to Valeria.”
“But. Hover boots,” said Alber. “Come on.”
“Tell you what, if I get a job at the Alliance, I’ll sneak you with me to Valeria,” I said. “They let you bring one “extra.””
“Seriously?” said Alber. “Oh my God, Ada. You have to get this job!”
I laughed. Nell narrowed her eyes. “Do I need to remind you to be careful, Ada?”
“Absolutely not,” I said. “Are you sure you don’t want to come and see?”
&n
bsp; “If I had my way, none of you would have anything to do with those people,” she said. “I know can’t stop you from going. I only wish…”
“Huh?”
“I’m sorry I lied to you, Ada,” she said, softly, her face creased with remorse.
I sucked in a sharp breath. This was the conversation we’d never had, the one we’d danced around for three weeks, each wondering whether the other would be the one to break the silence. But I couldn’t face another bombshell. Not after what I’d been through already.
“I understand,” I said. “I get why you wouldn’t want that information getting out.”
“It was selfish,” said Nell. “I was younger than you are now when they assigned me as your watcher. I saw them do it to you—saw them…” She shook her head. “You don’t want to know the details.”
“I do,” I said quietly. “But later. We’re meeting Kay in half an hour. We should go.”
“Later, then.” She nodded.
The truth weighed heavy on me, heavy as the burden of what I’d done. The deaths I’d caused. And the worlds I’d almost obliterated. I couldn’t sleep without reliving that moment in the warehouse when I realised that the magic I’d coveted all my life was never under my control. It was a lie. I was a walking weapon, and I’d almost destroyed the Earth.
In the long hours awake, I couldn’t help but wonder if Kay was haunted by the same thoughts.
I never called. I couldn’t do it. He’d seen my real eyes. Seen what I was.
Alber and Jeth stood either side of me as we approached the alleyway to the Passages. The road was so torn up, it was a pain to climb over, but at least the Passage entrance still stood. Even if none of us had used it since. I knew that the Cethraxian creatures had been the Campbell family’s doing and the Passages were relatively quiet now, but I kept one eye out for danger all the same. All three of us were armed. I had magic, too, of course. But I hadn’t dared use it since.
My heart climbed into my throat as we got closer to the halfway point. I hadn’t needed to check the map Simon had messaged me, because I knew this part of the Passages backwards.
And I knew the person standing at the other end of the corridor. Lean and dark-haired, dressed in black faux-leather uniform—could he patrol, then? Using third level magic had almost taken his hands off. But I couldn’t picture Kay consenting to sit out on the action for long. Dammit, say something. Stop staring!
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey. These two your new bodyguards?”
“My brothers,” I corrected. “You’ve met Jeth and Alber already.”
“Unfortunately,” Jeth muttered.
“Well, that’s nice,” said Kay, turning to him. “Seeing as I was about to offer you a job.”
Jeth’s mouth dropped open, comically. “You what?”
“The Alliance techs were impressed with your invisible communication device.”
“You bastard. You gave it to them?”
“I thought they’d be impressed.” He shrugged. “Enough to offer you a pretty good starting salary.” And then he named a sum that made my jaw drop as comically as Jeth’s.
“Oh. My God. Okay, let me think on that one.”
Amusement flashing in his eyes, Kay turned to me. “You’re welcome to take the entrance exam for a novice, Ada. Basic probationary period. Ms Weston will tell you the rest, if you come to Central.”
“Let me think about it, too,” I said, a little too quickly. I think he knew I meant I’d discuss it with Nell. “Is Simon here?”
“We’re meeting him. This way.” And he strode off without giving us the chance to keep up.
“Holy freaking hell,” said Alber, as we followed. “You’d be mental not to pass that up.”
“I know,” said Jeth.
“You’d get all the cool gadgets, too.”
“Tell that to Nell,” said Jeth. “What about you, Ada?”
“I think…” I cut myself off before I said something melodramatic, like that joining the Alliance seemed the only option I had left, if I still wanted to explore the Multiverse.
Of course I did. The old dream hadn’t died, even if I’d felt like it had when I’d woken from that coma. The nightmares would stop, eventually. I had to believe that. Somehow.
Magic was the more addictive for the long absence. I could feel it pulling at me, tempting me, and I wondered for the first time if Kay could feel it, too. He was the same as I was, after all.
I recognised the route we took as the one we’d been chased down by the wyvern, through the maze of underground corridors and up the hidden stair to the first level. I guessed the Alliance would map out this part of the Passages now. Kay seemed to know where he was going, anyway. But he didn’t stop, didn’t even look back. Despite everything, a twisting sensation caught at my chest. After everything… did he not even want to talk to me? Hadn’t he been the slightest bit concerned about my being in hospital, in a coma? Nell and my brothers hadn’t mentioned him asking after me, but I supposed they’d made their opinions quite clear. Kay was a Walker, and even if I worked for the Alliance, Nell would never forgive him.
The twisting sense deepened. It wasn’t fair to judge him on that. Even for arresting me. Not now he’d done something we’d never managed to achieve in a lifetime of trying to help people from Enzar. This was actually happening. For real.
I didn’t know whether to skip down the Passages or burst into tears. After this hellish month, I finally dared to hope that things might start to look up.
When we caught up to Kay, we found him at a junction in the maze of endless corridors, talking to a tall blond guy I assumed must be Simon.
“Hey there,” said Simon. “You must be Ada.”
“Hey. These are my brothers, Jeth and Alber,” I said.
Jeth nodded, while Alber muttered, “Hi.” That was about as friendly as I expected, considering.
“Right,” said Simon. “Well, this is the centre junction where you’ll need to direct anyone passing through. That way leads to the upper level—but you know that, don’t you? Kay said you know the Passages pretty well.”
I nodded, but couldn’t help wondering what else he’d told Simon about me. Not that it was any of my business.
“Anyway, we have guards down this path here. They’ll direct them the right way.”
“Maybe they should signpost it?” Alber suggested.
“They tried,” said Simon, grinning at Kay. “But jokers kept rearranging the signs to point the other way. Sounds like something we’d have done, to be honest.”
“Yeah,” said Kay. “Direct people to Monsterville. I’m hearing there’s a disappointing lack of Cethraxian vermin in here these days.”
“You’ve not been back?” I asked. I couldn’t help it. “Wait—your hands.”
Kay looked at me, hands held palm up. Barely marked, aside from a handful of crescent-shaped scars, fading already. “No harm done.”
Simon snorted. “You’d say that, you lunatic. Hell, you’ll probably say it on your deathbed.”
Kay smirked. “If you outlive me, ask that they write it on my grave.”
“Can we not talk about death in this place?” Alber said, glancing behind us.
“I second that,” said Jeth. “Are we done here?”
Kay was still looking at me. “Why don’t you show Ada the shelter, Simon?”
“Sure,” he said, sounding a little surprised. “Ada? I can bring one non-Alliance person. Sorry, guys,” he added to the others.
“I—sure! I’ve always wanted to go to New York.” I turned to Alber and Jeth. “You two can find your way back?”
Jeth nodded. “Sure can. See you later, Ada, okay?”
“Yeah, I won’t be long. Bye.”
“You owe us for this!” Alber called over his shoulder, as he and Jeth departed. Kay had already headed down another pathway, Simon on his heels.
“Hey—wait!” I hurried to catch up. “For God’s sake, stop charging off like that.”
“Terrible, isn’t he?” said Simon. “He’s always running off when you’re trying to talk to him. It’s the most bloody annoying–”
“I can hear you, you know,” said Kay, over his shoulder. But he slowed enough to let us catch up.
“I meant you to,” said Simon. “Seriously. I’d be impressed to hear if you’d found a way to get him to stop chasing after monsters for five minutes.”
“Not likely,” I said, with a sideways glance at Kay. His half-smile didn’t reach his eyes, which now I saw up close, were shadowed. Haunted, I thought, and suddenly wished Simon would leave us to talk alone. The idea made my pulse drum nervously.
“Did you find out what happened to Cethrax, by the way?” Kay asked Simon. “I’ve been asking around, no one seems to know.”
“They’ve been fined a hundred million credits for aiding the Campbell family,” said Simon. “Their Vox leaders aren’t too thrilled about it.”
“Good,” said Kay.
“Yeah. They deserved it.” And worse. Twenty Alliance guards had been killed in the fighting, apparently, not to mention the people Skyla had murdered at Central. I still couldn’t get my head around that. And Delta, too. The two people I’d trusted outside my family. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to it. My life before the Alliance had caught me felt like it belonged to a different person. Someone I didn’t know.
I’d spent years helping people who’d been through hell. But none of that had in any way prepared me for dealing with this crushing, overwhelming guilt. The screaming nightmares. The panic attacks. Even my brothers didn’t know the half of it. And Nell fluctuated between paranoid and distant, depending on her mood. I was used to keeping quiet, the refugees’ problems taking precedence over my own. But now...
I glanced at Kay again. I swore he’d looked in my direction then turned away just as quickly.
Was he avoiding my eyes? Why? Because I hadn’t called? I didn’t think so, somehow. Things like that seemed to bounce right off him.
“Here we are,” said Simon, breaking the silence. “Welcome to the NYC Alliance.” He pushed open the door.