I help Fray and Willa lift him from the floor and carry him to the car. The Numen could have gone for supplies or to meet someone. She could be back anytime soon.
We make it past the flaking door frame before I stop abruptly, slamming my heels into the dirt. Fray opens her mouth but I hush her. I promise her everything’s okay, I just want to have another look at something. She makes me remove my talisman so she’ll hear if anything happens, and gets into the car with Willa.
I go back inside.
Sometimes it takes me a while to process things. I see something but it doesn’t register until minutes later. When I was walking the perimeter of the warehouse I’d seen something—four blunt lines in the dust beneath my boots. Marks made by fingers.
I feel around the floor, dirtying my hands, and push down on a slight breach in the stone. It comes up, like I’ve hit a valve or release. With my Manticore strength, the brick tile moves easily to reveal a set of steps. Knowing it’s the worst thing I could possibly do, I descend.
I’m aware I’m walking into a stereotypical horror situation. The abandoned warehouse, the abducted victim, the mysterious cellar. Still, I’m stupid enough to go on.
I know something is rotting as soon as I reach the bottom of the stairs. There’s very little light down here but I see everything.
Boys—teenagers like Ran, like Niall, like my brother—are chained to the floor, to the wall, to anything that will hold them down. There are six of them. At least one is dead, slumped in the corner and way beyond my help.
I approach one of the boys, kneel in front of him, and nudge his shoulder. He’s breathing and I can hear his heart but he’s vacant, unresponsive. All of them are.
My stomach turns over. I don’t want to be here any longer.
I scramble up the stairs and take one last look at the boys, whoever they are. They sit upright, arms at their sides and spines too straight, and they stare. They just stare. It’s like they’re in stasis, waiting for a signal or a secret word that will bring them to life. I see everyone I care about in their faces, so I run.
I launch myself into the car.
Fray’s face matches my horror. She must have seen the boys through our link.
The car starts instantly, some fancy expensive thing compared to Fray’s car, and then we’re gone. Nobody follows us—no car, no human, no Numen.
We get to Fray’s house safely, under her insistence that Niall has been through enough already without waking up somewhere he doesn’t recognise. She refuses to go back to my flat. We compromise on me living at her house temporarily.
We get back safe but my instincts are screaming that everything is wrong.
THIRTY SIX
THE BLOOD WARNING
I wake every hour during the night to check that Fray is still breathing beside me. I don’t trust Niall, whether he’s unconscious or not. I’m just waiting for him to make his move.
Fray sleeps on her back, her head to the side and her hair across her face. I watch her through the veil of hair until I’m absolutely sure she’s fine. At some point Fray ends up close beside me. With her scent all around me, I fall into a deep sleep until mid-morning.
Throwing on yesterday’s clothes, I attempt to calm my hair—an impossible goal, since I’ve been too stressed lately to care for it and last night I slept without a scarf. Eventually I admit defeat and pad into the purple tiled en-suite to wash the God awful taste out of my mouth.
I find Fray in the kitchen, frowning at the washing machine.
My mood softens at the sight of her. “I don’t think the washer has any answers for you.”
Fray smiles but it’s forced. I know Fray’s real smile and it makes one side of her nose wrinkle. This is something hollow. I press a kiss to the depression of her temple and curl my arms around her. I don’t know if I’m getting any better at this girlfriend stuff but I’m feeling less and less inadequate with every hug. Fray lays her head over my heart.
She says quietly, “I think I’m sick. Also we have nothing to eat.”
“I can go get something. I need to go home and get some clothes anyway.” I skim her jaw with my thumb but it doesn’t take away the unhappy look in her eye.
“Just come back, alright?”
“I’m coming back. Promise. Stay in the house—inside the Ward. I won’t be long.”
I don’t know how much more of this I can take. Fray without her sunshine isn’t a Fray I ever want to see. I extend the vow of protecting her to making her happy.
*
A tired smile comes across my face when I catch a familiar scent along one of Almery’s trails. I slow my pace and wait for Guy to catch up, gratitude and relief tied up in me with some other, unnameable emotion. It’s something like safety and a little like fondness. I think this must be how it feels to have family.
Guy doesn’t speak, just squeezes my shoulder. His usual overpowering aftershave has been replaced by the musk of sweat.
“Have you been here all night?” I ask suspiciously.
Relief flickers across his features. “Yeah. I came by last night to find you and stayed to make sure you were safe.”
The easy way he offers information he’d usually begrudge me is telling. “How did you know I was here?”
“I went to your flat to see how you were doing and you weren’t there.”
“You’re lying.” I shake his hand off my shoulder. His wounded expression morphs into shock when I throw my arms around his neck. “How long have you been watching me?”
His arms enfold me. “Just last night.”
“How long have you been watching me, Guy? Don’t lie.”
“Since the hospital.”
“The hospital—but that was two months ago! You can’t have been watching me that long. You wouldn’t have had time to sleep.”
“I haven’t been sleeping,” he admits. I pull back so I can look at him and finally see the circles beneath his eyes, the worn lines cut into his face. He’s made an attempt to cover the shadows with makeup but it’s obvious now I’m looking.
“You should have told me.”
“You’d have been pissed, like you are now.”
I release him from my hold and pin him with a look. It’s one of Willa’s. I’ve never had the opportunity to use it before. Shockingly, Guy looks shamed. “I’m not pissed. I’m actually kind of grateful. If I’d have known you were watching over me all this time—I’ve been scared, Guy, of losing control, of the Numina coming for me, of being attacked and drained in the middle of the night.”
“I wouldn’t let that happen,” he says fiercely.
“I know. If I knew you were there, I wouldn’t have been so afraid.” I pause. “Actually, no. I’d have been pissed, you’re right—but I’d have told you to stay if you were really that worried. If you’re gonna be following me everywhere, you might as well move in with me.” I force a shrug, trying to make this a casual suggestion. Truth is I’d feel a lot safer with Guy in the flat.
He frowns. “You want to live with your brother?”
“I wouldn’t hate it. It’d give me chance to know you better, since we’re being civil now.”
“You only have one bedroom,” he points out.
My eyes narrow. “How do you know that? You’ve only been inside once.”
“I’m a good guard.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “I need to know escape routes if I’m going to rescue you.” I’m trying very hard not to laugh. “What?” he demands.
“I’m the person who turns into an animal at the full moon, and you’re the one with mysterious magic. Isn’t the protector my role? In every book, film, and TV show the weak girl with weird magic is in danger, and then the shape-changer swoops in to protect her. We’re backwards.”
“Weak,” Guy scoffs. He makes a sharp gesture and the clearing becomes of a tornado of leaves. They circle through the air, sucking everything from the wood floor into the vortex. “Do I look weak to you?”
“I don’t know … w
hat’s the worst you can do? Leaf me to death?”
I yelp, diving away as a flurry of leaves comes barrelling at me, and despite the horrible reality of my life, I’m laughing. My stomach hurts with the force of it.
Grinning, I lean against a tree trunk, press my palm into the intricate pattern of bark, and ask the Earth for Majick. Branches snap all at once, a riotous rhythm of clicks echoing around me. Tiny sticks aim themselves at Guy—not at his face, I’m extra careful with my Majick. He yells and throws his arms out, the leaves answering him by flying at me.
I duck, severing my connection with the tree, and my Earth Majick falters. The miniature branches stop their assault on my brother.
Guy’s leaves die down and he beams at me, victorious.
“I need to go home,” I say, albeit reluctantly. I can’t stay here forever. Fray’s expecting me.
“Then I’m coming with.”
*
I unlock the door to my flat, laughing at one of Guy’s snide remarks, and stop dead in the doorway. My flat is exactly as I left it but I sense Majick. It takes me less than a second to pinpoint to location of the power. My bedroom.
Symbols have been smeared in red on the wall over my bed—the same language as the words I saw lit up on the building across the alley. The words the original Phoenix confirmed to be the language of Numina.
I don’t think this message will be a friendly warning to protect Fray, though. I think this is the exact opposite. A threat.
I stumble as unexpected Majick rushes past me, but it’s just Guy projecting a Ward of Akasha.
Without really thinking about it, I start running through my apartment looking for anything else out of place, avoiding what’s in front of me. I feel my breathing quicken and I know I need to calm down but right now calm is elusive.
“It’s a warning,” Guy says, his voice edged in ice.
“How do you know?” I plead with my legs to hold me up as I dizzily return to my room. The liquid used to write the symbols is definitely blood—my Crea nose can smell the tang from here. Thankfully, it’s not human.
“Mavers has been teaching me to read Numina,” Guy tells me. “Do you want to know what it says?”
“No.”
“It says to stay away from the Halfling or more Legendaries will die.”
Air rushes from my lungs all at once. “Fray.”
I disobey the warning without a second thought, rushing outside and tearing across the road, uncaring of traffic. When I reach the wood’s edge, I rip off my talisman and reach out for Fray. Guy catches up just as I’m screaming for her.
The muscles in my thighs strain with how hard I’m pushing myself. I don’t want to admit the truth to myself—that something is irreversibly wrong. I hear no static from Fray’s mind and there isn’t a single scared thought from her.
I unleash the monster I fight so hard to repress and scream a hostile growl into the woods. Guy flinches beside me.
Talons unfurl from my fingers. My vision sharpens all at once and I know I look beastly, that my eyes are the most golden they’ve ever been.
None of that matters.
My link to Fray is gone.
THIRTY SEVEN
THE MISSING
I propel my shoulder into Fray’s back door and it splinters beneath my weight. My muscles are corded, my body swimming with the chemicals of the Change. I’m caught between forms. The extra power lent to me from the Manticore knocks over the kitchen table, wrenches the living room door from its hinges, and cracks the wood of a stair as I thunder to the second level.
I find Niall tied to a chair in the spare bedroom, his jumper ripped at the shoulder, turquoise wool marred with blood. “Where is she?” I snarl.
“Fray’s gone.” His attention jumps to something past me, alerting me to the Numen before I sense her Majick. I lurch out of the way, spinning and deadly.
Guy gets to Miranda first.
He pins her to the wall, binding her wrists to the plaster with cords of Akasha. It appears as thin wisps of smoke floating on the air but I know the force of that Majick. It’s unbeatable by any Legendary Majick.
Unbeatable by any Legendary Majick!
“Guy!” I jump for my brother at the same moment Miranda bats him away with a burst of green-tinged air. I can’t identify that Majick—I’ve never seen it before. Few Legendaries have seen Numina Majick; we know next to nothing about how it works or its limitations. The only thing we know is that it can best ours with very little effort, and that when Numina Majicks collide natural disasters happen.
A searing pain in my chest brings me back to Fray’s home. My coat is torn open, blood beginning to swell over my skin. Miranda circles me. I block the doorway, covering Niall. I don’t trust him but he’s Fray’s friend. And my paranoia of him plotting with Miranda was clearly unfounded—his body wouldn’t be bound if he was.
I swipe at the Numen with my claws, hoping to take her off guard, but I’m shoved back by a darting ribbon of Majick. It strikes pain into my stomach. I can’t even tell its type when it’s touching my skin.
Where is Guy? I can’t see anything past the Numen.
Miranda’s eyes sear me. Though she doesn’t use visible Majick, a sliver of fire forms in my veins. Power is pushed through my body. I’m not sure what Miranda intended, but I bet it wasn’t for my Earth Majick to come to life.
Tendrils of my Majick reach out, searching for the nearest source of power. There’s nothing close. It goes further, determined, but it’s going to take time.
I need an idea right now because Miranda is inching closer. She licks her lips and takes a heaving breath. She’s excited.
“How many others are there?” She points to me and then over her shoulder. Guy must be behind her, but he doesn’t react to her words. That does not bode well. “One,” she says. “Two. How many more?”
I step closer, looking past Miranda for Guy. He’s on the floor, a thin line of red across his temple. I flick my eyes back to the Numen, my stomach coiling with rage. I’m the closest I’ve ever been to the Manticore without the Crea moon. For a moment, I expect to Change. I wish I would. The beast would love to tear Miranda’s head from her body and I’d love to let it.
I don’t know if my brother is okay but with Miranda in the way, I can’t help him. I arrange myself into what I think is a fighter’s stance, feet firmly on the ground, shoulders squared, arms tensed and claws ready.
I’m ready to die to protect Guy, but first I snarl, “Where is Fray?”
Miranda tilts her head. “Who?”
“The Halfling.” My words sound barely human.
“Away. With my kin.”
“Where?”
“With my kin.”
“Fine. Who are your kin? The Gods?”
Miranda howls laughter. “Surely you know by now?”
I’m never getting a straight answer from her. I launch myself through the air. My talons are aimed to rip out her throat—but she disappears between one blink and the next, reappearing behind me. I skid along the floor and am back on my feet in a second.
Heat creeps along my subconscious and in my rage it takes me a moment to realise what it is. My searching Majick is pulsing with a result.
I act without thinking, ripping energy from the Earth and into myself. A potted plant comes hurtling up the stairs and collides with the Numen so hard the terracotta base rips her head clean off her shoulders. Dirt scatters over the carpet, shards of the pot crashing to the floor.
I run past the headless Numen and drop beside my brother.
Following a base instinct, I cover my hands with dirt. The power of the Earth flows from my palms when I take Guy’s head in my hands.
His face is bloody and scarily ashen for his dark complexion. I card my fingers through his short hair as the Earth Majick soaks into his skin. I don’t know what it will do—or if it’ll do anything—but nature is supposed to have healing properties, isn’t it?
When he doesn’t respond a
fter three minutes I haul myself to my feet. My bones feel made of titanium as I trudge across the hallway.
“You okay?” I ask Niall. The Manticore turns my voice clipped, though I meant to be gentle.
“I’m not sure.”
I edge closer, slowly so I don’t spook him, and cut the cord wrapped around him with my claws.
Niall chokes on a horrible gasp and for a second I think I’ve cut him but then I follow his line of sight.
Miranda is on her feet again, her skull replaced and the flesh of her neck rapidly healing. “Where are the others?” Her face twists with each word, skin pulling apart to show the muscles underneath.
“There are no others,” I whisper. With each passing second, I’m losing the rage fuelling me.
“Liar,” Miranda hisses.
I pull the last remaining power from the Earth littering the carpet and create a protective ring around Guy. It won’t last, not against Numen Majick, but it’s something.
Miranda comes closer to me and a foreign coldness pierces my mind.
Psychic Majick.
How ironic that I wanted to find another Psychic to get answers. Now I’ve found one and they’re trying to kill me.
The Numen’s ice stalks my thoughts with one objective: find other Legendaries, find more Majick.
I block her with a poorly thrown up wall but she dissolves it instantly. Miranda reads my thoughts, my memories, every scrap of information I’ve ever absorbed. I can’t stop her. I don’t know how.
A laugh tells me she’s found what she wants. She knows about the Red. Every little thing about them. The last thing she lingers on is the location of the Academy.
My fists want to hit the Numen but she has full control of my mind. It’s like I’m Changed—paralysed and powerless. Unless she wants me to move, I can’t.
“That was helpful,” she says as she retreats from my mind. The cold slips away but so does my strength. I slump to the floor, wheezing.
Miranda vanishes, dispersing in an instant with Gateway Majick.
I couldn’t do a thing to stop her and now Guy is unconscious, Fray is missing, and the Numen draining Majick is stalking towards the Academy with one intention—to absorb the Red’s power.
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