The Book of Betrayal

by Melissa McShane

  “Boyfriend.”

  “Ah. Your boyfriend, then.”

  Her eyes went distant suddenly, as if she were listening to something. “I guess they’re calling me,” she said, to my confusion. “It will just take a minute, if you don’t mind waiting.” She left the room, drawing the curtain to encircle the bed.

  I sat back farther on the bed, letting my legs dangle, and closed my eyes to dispel the dizziness. That had been strange. Or maybe my symptoms included selective deafness. My ankle hurt badly enough now I didn’t worry about falling asleep; it wouldn’t let me.

  The door opened. “We don’t have much time,” Derrick said, making my eyes fly open in surprise. “Lie down so I can assess the damage.”

  “That woman will come back any minute.”

  “Quincy sent her on a wild goose chase, following the sound of pages all across the ER. Now, don’t speak.” Blessed pain-free numbness filled my entire body, making me want to weep with sheer joy. “Okay, there’s the cut, the sprained ankle, a couple of strained tendons, and that lump where you hit your head, but nothing else. I have to do this fast, Helena, and it’s going to hurt, so hold my hand and don’t be afraid to crush it.”

  I took his hand, my addled brain marveling at the contrast between his dark skin and the pallor of mine. Almost before I’d gotten a firm grip, pain struck me as rapidly as the numbness had. I bore down on Derrick’s hand and bit back a scream. Tears flowed down my cheeks. After an eternity, the pain subsided, and I let go of Derrick and wiped my eyes. “Thanks.”

  “I’m sorry it hurts, but you can’t look like you were in a car accident. And you have to get out of here now.”

  “I thought the woman was going to be gone for a while.”

  “It’s not her you have to worry about. Campbell’s car has a signal in it that goes off if anything happens to it. It notifies Campbell Security that he needs help. It’s only going to be a matter of hours, possibly a lot sooner than that, before somebody shows up wanting to know where Campbell is. And they absolutely can’t find you here, unless you feel like having your secret shouted to the world.”

  “Derrick, I can’t leave him! What if he…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

  “You can’t help him now. I swear I’ll call you the second we have news. Now, do you have a ride?”

  I shivered again. “Viv’s coming for me.”

  Derrick cursed. “That thing she drives is extremely recognizable. Call her and have her meet you at the top of the ramp, in the back of the parking lot.” He took my elbow and hustled me out the door as I fumbled with my phone.

  The rain had almost stopped, faded to a drizzle that depressed me more than the pouring rain had. Derrick hugged me, cursed, and said, “You’re soaked to the bone, and you’re covered with blood. Go home and get warmed up. I will call you.” He took me by the shoulders and made me look at him. “Campbell’s done tours of duty in places that make Afghanistan look like the Rose Parade. He will survive this. Don’t worry about him.”

  “All right,” I said, though privately I thought How can I not worry about him?

  The little driveway led up to the back corner of the parking lot. I huddled against the building and hoped no ambulance would come in before Viv arrived, no crew of EMTs asking helpful, maddening questions. My mind wouldn’t let go of my last glimpse of Malcolm’s still, bloody face. If he died…I wouldn’t even be able to mourn him publicly. Almost no one would ever know what he’d meant to me. He couldn’t die. He just couldn’t.

  Headlights flashed, and I shrank back, hoping I could avoid notice, but it was Viv in her old Econoline van, pulling up to a halt beside me. “I feel like I’m driving a getaway car,” she said. “Hurry, let’s get you home.”

  For once, the erratic heating in Viv’s van was working, and stepping into the cab was like entering a warm, comforting bubble. Viv turned off the radio, which was playing something by Motion City Soundtrack, and said, “Are you all right?”

  “Derrick healed me, but—” I burst into noisy, messy sobs, curled up on the seat and cried while Viv tried helplessly to calm me down. There was nothing she could do. All the fear and misery I’d had bottled up inside me came out in a river of tears. I pressed my wet face against the window and shook with great, shuddering breaths. “Better now,” I gasped.

  “You were totally entitled to that crying meltdown,” Viv said. “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “There’s not much to tell that I didn’t say already. Malcolm had some kind of heart attack, the car went out of control, we crashed, and then someone ran into us. It’s just the reality of those things that give them such weight. Telling you about it is anticlimactic.”

  “Isn’t Malcolm too young for a heart attack?”

  “I don’t know. I think so. But it couldn’t have been anything else, could it?”

  Viv’s brow furrowed in confusion. “A stroke? But you’d think he’d be too young for that, too. Some kind of poison?”

  “Not in my mom’s food. And I ate everything he did, so I’d be poisoned too.”

  Viv pulled into the parking lot behind Abernathy’s. “Do you want me to come up with you?”

  “…Yes?”

  Viv sighed, then hugged me hard. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “It’s going to be all right.”

  “I wish people would stop saying that. If it isn’t all right, it’s going to be so much worse if I had my hopes up.”

  “I know. But the truth is, even the worst things pass. And there’s no reason to believe Malcolm won’t have the best of care, and he survived to reach the hospital, so I think saying it’s going to be all right isn’t unreasonable.” She patted my head. “Let’s go upstairs, and you can take a hot bath, and I’ll make some herbal tea, and I’ll sit with you until you fall asleep.”

  “I don’t think I can sleep until Derrick calls.” I unlocked the back door of Abernathy’s and let us both in to trudge up the stairs to my apartment.

  “I think,” Viv said, “you’ll fall asleep in the tub.”

  Which I almost did. I dozed off in the hot water, woke before I could drown, then curled up in my pajamas and bathrobe under my covers and let Viv rub my feet until I fell asleep for real. My last thought, as I drifted off, was Derrick’s taking an awfully long time to call, but I was too exhausted to let it disturb me.

  3

  My ringtone woke me out of shallow sleep in which my dreams were disjointed memories of slewing across the freeway and flying into the concrete barrier. Fumbling around, I finally snatched my phone up. “Derrick?”

  “No,” Lucia said, “but that tells me half of what I need to know. Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. Why are you calling at—Lucia, it’s four in the morning!” That was nearly six hours after the accident. Why hadn’t Derrick called yet?

  “I’m not going to ask you details about what you were doing earlier,” Lucia said. “You don’t want to tell me and I don’t want to know. Just answer yes or no: were you in a car accident around ten?”

  “Yes.” What was she getting at?

  “Were you with anybody else?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was he driving?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is the important one, Davies: did he have some kind of heart attack that caused the accident?”

  “Yes, but how did—”

  “I’ll call you later.” She hung up.

  I stared at my phone, my fingers curled around it like a life line. I was fairly certain Lucia knew Malcolm and I were together, in contravention of the Accords, but she’d never asked and I’d never told. I suspected that she, as another custodian of a Neutrality, was unwilling to turn me over to the Board, either because we were friends or because she didn’t like the Board much. But those questions were oblique even by Lucia’s standards. It sounded like she already knew about the accident and was going for confirmation.

  I put my phone away and lay curled up on my side, staring at it, willing
it to ring again. Maybe I should call Derrick—or would that be bad? Surely he and Olivia and Hector, the rest of Malcolm’s team, weren’t the only ones waiting at the hospital for news. Derrick wouldn’t be able to speak freely in front of Malcolm’s mother, for one. I wiped away a couple of tears. There was nothing I could do but wait.

  My short sleep had refreshed me, though I was still achy from Derrick’s healing. I slouched into my living room, dragging my quilt with me, and curled up on the couch, setting my phone on the end table where I could keep an eye on it. I could watch a movie—but everything reminded me of Malcolm. I wiped away a few more tears and cursed myself for being stupid. Derrick would call.

  I rested my head on the arm of the couch and closed my eyes. In six hours, the store would open, and I would have to behave as if nothing were wrong. No, not exactly; the world knew Malcolm and I were friends, and of course I could be upset at my friend being so badly injured. But I needed to control myself. Which would be easier if Derrick would just call already.

  I cursed again, this time aloud, and sat up. I couldn’t sit here alone with my thoughts. I got up and put in Vertigo, which wasn’t my favorite Hitchcock film, but had the advantage of being one of the movies I’d never watched with Malcolm. I made myself some popcorn and a big mug of hot chocolate and settled in to watch.

  Right when the truth about Madeleine Elster is revealed, my phone rang. I spilled what was left of my popcorn and snatched it up. “Where are you?” Judy demanded.

  “A…at home?” I stammered.

  “You weren’t with him when he crashed his car?”

  “I was. Derrick got me out. You heard about that?”

  “Reports have been coming in all night. All Nicolliens, of course, until the news broke that Campbell was taken to the ER. You’re all right?”

  “I’m fine now. Is Malcolm all right? What have you heard?” Tension gripped me in a tight fist.

  “Nothing more than that. It’s all the deaths that everyone’s worried about.”

  “Deaths?” The tension increased.

  Judy let out a deep sigh. “Something happened around ten o’clock last night that killed dozens of magi. Father’s still sorting through the reports. They just collapsed, like—”

  “A heart attack?”

  Judy paused briefly. “So Campbell experienced it too? But he survived.”

  “So far.” Tears choked me. “I don’t know if he’s still alive.”

  “Is Derrick with him?”

  “I think so.”

  “Then he’ll let you know when there’s news. You shouldn’t worry about it. That won’t help him.”

  “Nothing I can do will help!” I found myself on my feet, shouting at my phone. “I can’t be there for him, I can’t work magic, all I can do is sit here and wait!”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I wish I could help. Do you want me to come over?”

  “No. I’m sorry I yelled. Besides, your father probably needs you.” The strangeness of Judy’s news struck me. “Did you say dozens of magi?”

  “All of them steel magi, too. We think something might have gone wrong with their aegises. Thank God it’s not just the Nicolliens.”

  “You want more magi to die?”

  “Of course not!” Judy sounded exasperated, as if she, too, was near the breaking point. “I’m just saying we don’t need any more friction between the factions, after what happened with the familiars at Christmas. Father was frantic right up until we heard about Campbell. Then he gave Parish a call and learned this thing struck both sides equally.”

  “But Malcolm survived.”

  “So did a lot of people. And not all the steel magi were affected.”

  I dropped onto my couch. “What do you mean?”

  “Once it was clear it was the steel aegis that was the problem, Father had his people start calling all the Nicollien steel magi. And some of them were just fine. So maybe it’s the batch of aegises, or who performed the Damerel rites to implant them—”

  I swiveled to lie back on the couch. It was a relaxed pose, but I felt nothing like relaxed. “That makes sense. I guess Mr. Rasmussen won’t know until he’s got more information.”

  “He’s got people working on that. The house is full of them, which is why I’m awake to call you. I’m really glad you weren’t hurt. We heard Campbell’s car was totaled and there were three other cars in the pile-up.”

  I shook my head, though she couldn’t see me. “There was only one other car, and I don’t think they were hurt badly. I hope they weren’t. I was in shock, and it was raining so hard, and…Judy, he looked dead. I don’t want that to be my last memory of him.”

  “It won’t be. He’s going to be fine. There were a lot of steel magi whose aegises failed who didn’t die.”

  “I bet most of them weren’t on the freeway when it happened.”

  “No.” Judy let out a deep breath. “I really can come over if you want company.”

  “I’m just trying to relax enough to sleep again. I keep waking up thinking my phone is ringing.”

  “I won’t keep you, then. I’ll come over around eight and I’ll bring breakfast, so don’t worry about that.”

  “Thanks, Judy.”

  I put my phone down and closed my eyes. Derrick would call—

  The phone rang. Not Derrick—Lucia. “Have you heard anything?” I demanded, sitting up abruptly.

  “Not about Campbell. I take it no one’s called you either.”

  “No.” My voice shook, and I swallowed to get myself under control.

  “Sorry to hear that, but I’ve got worse problems. And so do you.”

  That chilled me. “What do you mean? Did someone see me with…someone they shouldn’t?”

  “Not that kind of problem. A lot of magi died tonight just after ten, all of them experiencing some kind of heart trauma. Not just here—all over the world. Lots more than that had heart attacks that didn’t kill them outright. All of them were steel magi.”

  “I know. Judy told me.”

  “Did she tell you not all steel magi were affected?”

  “Yeah. She said they think it’s a flaw in the aegises.”

  “Maybe. I’m not so sure.” Lucia’s Italian accent was stronger than usual, her words slow and deliberate.

  “What else could it be?”

  Her words became even more deliberate. “Think about it, Davies. Only steel magi, the front line fighters in the Long War, are affected, but not all of them. And every one of them was hit at the exact same time. To me, that doesn’t sound like an incident. It sounds like an attack.”

  It took me a moment to understand. “You mean…something by the invaders? The ones the Board and I encountered last Christmas?”

  “Or their human allies, more likely. They wouldn’t have included their own steel magi in the attack. I’ll bet you my next month’s paycheck we won’t find a single magus with the marker among the victims.”

  I nodded. “I wouldn’t take that bet.” Intelligent, monstrous invaders had contacted the Board and me almost three months ago and revealed the existence of a shadow cabal of magi that had infiltrated the Wardens. The Board had discovered a neurological marker that indicated someone had made deals with the invaders and was a traitor. Unfortunately it was a marker that occurred naturally in about one in three people, so it wasn’t a useful test on its own.

  “If I’m right,” Lucia said, “it’s going to be nearly impossible to keep the shadow cabal a secret. Bad enough not being able to purge the Gunther Node without giving everything away. It’s getting harder to keep track of who’s allowed to know what.”

  “What would you do if you were allowed to…purge?”

  “Imprison a lot of people. Have trials. Execute some people.”

  I shuddered at her casual tone of voice. “I couldn’t do that.”

  “If it came down to a choice between the life of an innocent and the life of a traitor, you could.” Lucia’s cold, flat statement disturbed me, the more so
because I couldn’t say she was wrong. “Anyway, I called Ragsdale after I talked to you last and let him know my theory. He’s going to gather the Board and come up with a plan. That plan will almost certainly be ‘figure it out, Pontarelli.’” She sighed. “I almost wish they’d never brought me in on this.”

  “You were a natural choice, once they’d cleared you of complicity. And they know you don’t like them and aren’t likely to just tell them what they want to hear.” Lucia had been the first person the Board brought in on the secret, before me, who’d encountered one of the intelligent invaders personally. She’d spent the last three months slowly and secretly cleaning house at the Gunther Node and had been about to start in on the factions. This would certainly change her plans.

  “Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I’m telling you because I’ll be sending over a bunch of augury requests in the morning and I want you to be prepared. You’re to give those priority over anything else, understand?”

  “I will. Is there any other way I can help?”

  “You don’t think that’s enough? Davies, I’d go crazy if I thought the oracle might be corrupted. Just knowing you know the secret is a reassurance.”

  I sighed. “I hate not knowing which of my customers is a traitor. But I hate even worse knowing there’s a possibility that some of them could be invaders wearing human suits.”

  “We’ve almost got a solution for that. The problem is installing it without Campbell Security getting suspicious at us doing an end-run around them.”

  Her mention of Campbell Security sent a new pang of fear through me. “You ought to investigate them. They’re powerful enough that if they are corrupt somehow, they could do a lot of damage. Not that I believe they’re corrupt.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, Davies, but at least you know for sure a certain someone isn’t one of the shadow cabal.”

  “Thanks, Lucia, that’s so cheering.”

  “Hey, I did tell you not to take it the wrong way. I’m looking at it as having cleared over two hundred local magi of complicity with the invaders. Unfortunately, far too many of them lost their lives in the process.”