Bound

chapter 16

My feet came down onto smooth concrete. I was in a corridor with recessed doorways, and I could hear shouting. Footsteps sounded behind me and I turned.

Two men rounded the corner. They were carrying guns, and I reached instinctively for my holster, then hesitated as my brain registered what they were wearing. Those were Council security uniforms—

The man at the front saw me and his gun came up. I dived into one of the doorways, bullets whining past. The concrete recesses were thick, like a bunker, and the door was steel.

I looked back just in time to see Rachel step through, the gate fading out of existence behind her. Gunfire barked and there was a flare of blue-green light, bullets splashing off her shield. With an irritated glance, Rachel sent two sea-green rays flashing down the corridor, quick and precise.

There was a brief, agonised scream, and the gunfire stopped.

I poked my head out of the doorway. Where the men had been were two small, scattered piles of dust. A lone submachine gun lay on the floor next to them. “This is your idea of a staging point?” Rachel said to Archon.

Archon was standing in the middle of the corridor; somehow all the fire had missed him. “This way,” he said, and turned down the corridor.

I gave a last glance back at the remains of the Council security men and hurried after Archon. Now that I had the time to listen, I could hear shouting and gunfire from all around us. The rattle of submachine guns mixed with the whoompf of fire spells, and I could sense more combat magic. We’d come right into the middle of a battle. “Where are—?” I began.

Archon didn’t break stride. “Eyes right, Verus.”

I looked right and started. We were passing a corridor and two constructs were charging down it straight towards us, grey-black pantherlike forms with glowing blue eyes. Wisps of mist trailed from their claws as they covered the ground in great bounding leaps, closing the distance shockingly fast. Sixty feet, forty feet, twenty— “Deleo!” I shouted, and jumped out of the way.

Rachel turned and her eyes narrowed, sea-green light glowing as she began to bring her hand up, but as Archon walked past, he tossed something small and round from one hand. It hit the floor just inside the corridor and there was a flash of magic and a shimmer as a transparent barrier formed, blocking the entrance. The constructs—icecats—crashed into the barrier a half second later. The impact would have broken any living creature’s neck, but they just rebounded and threw themselves at it again. Rachel frowned, the disintegrate spell hovering at her hand.

I stared at the icecats clawing at the other side of the barrier. Their eyes burned with a cold fire, and I could almost imagine that I could feel the chill in the air. The barrier was force magic, and now that I looked at it, it felt similar to the ones I used . . . very similar. I turned to Archon to see that he hadn’t stopped walking. In fact, he was disappearing around a corner as I watched.

“Arsehole,” Rachel muttered, and followed.

I hurried after her, and as I did I scanned the futures in which I went left and right, trying to figure out where the hell the Dark mages had brought me. This had to be a Council installation, but where? It couldn’t be the War Rooms—the floors were concrete, the doors looked like the kind you’d find in an industrial facility, and most of all, there wasn’t enough security. If this had been the Council headquarters, every square inch should have been crammed with Keepers and constructs, but from what I could see, the defending humans seemed to be mostly if not entirely ordinary humans, and they were losing. Where’s Anne?

We caught up with Archon at the next intersection. He was standing just short of the crossroads, head tilted as though he was listening for something. “So?” Rachel demanded as we walked up. “Where’s the control room?”

“Just around the corner,” Archon said.

Rachel began to stride past.

“Look out!” I snapped.

Rachel’s reactions are fast. She jumped back as bullets whistled past, as well as something else; a beam of some kind of yellow-orange light, there and gone in an instant. It left behind a strange burning scent, as though the air was on fire. Rachel rounded on Archon. “Why the fuck is it still guarded?”

“Because there are people there.”

Rachel’s face darkened, and she took a step towards Archon. “I’m getting a little tired of—”

“Wait,” Archon said. It was hard to tell through the helmet and the voice distorter, but he didn’t seem concerned.

“Wait for what?”

I looked into the futures in which I took a peek around the corner. In at least two of them I got my head blown off—the people down that corridor were really trigger-happy—but I got enough of a look to see that the corridor ended in a T junction behind which was a steel door that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a missile silo. In front of the door, metal tables had been overturned to form a makeshift barricade, and a squad of Council security had set up behind it. There was a body lying in the corridor, not dressed in a Council security uniform this time. Apparently Morden’s men weren’t having it all their own way.

“Wait for what?” Rachel said again.

I wanted to warn the Council forces to back off. They were just doing their jobs, and knowing the Council, they probably hadn’t had any warning of what might be coming. But Rachel and Archon were standing right there, and I’d already seen that if I stuck my head out to try to talk to the guards they’d just shoot me.

I sighed inwardly. Sorry, guys.

There was a shout, followed by a flat wham. More gunfire erupted; there was the hissing sound of that beam weapon, followed by a scream and an unpleasant splattering sound. The gunfire cut off and there was silence.

Archon was already walking past me and around the corner. “I’m really starting to hate this guy,” Rachel muttered, and followed.

The barricade at the end of the corridor was gone. The tables had been overturned, and the bodies of the defenders lay where they’d fallen . . . which in some cases meant in several places at once. I avoided looking too closely at the pieces of the body to the far left. Three men in masks were standing in front of the door, but it wasn’t hard to identify the tall, slim figure at the centre who’d done most of the work.

“Onyx,” Archon said as he walked up. His voice was as toneless as ever, but somehow I had the feeling he wasn’t happy.

Onyx is a force magic user and battle-mage, and one of those people who’s just plain bad news. When I first met Onyx, he was Morden’s Chosen, young and brutal and willing to fight and kill at the slightest provocation. That had been five years ago, and as far as I could tell, the only thing that had changed since then was that he was slightly less young. You’d think he’d have grown a little over the years, but apparently Onyx was one of those people who’d found a thug-shaped hole into which to fit his thug-shaped life and had decided that there was no reason to mess with a winning formula. Looking at him, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe the fact that Morden had picked me rather than Onyx as his aide might be a sign that he wasn’t all that impressed with how Onyx had turned out either.

If that was the case, it would give Onyx yet another reason to hate me, as if he needed one. My life would really be so much easier if the Dark mages I’ve known had been a little more selective in their choice of apprentices.

I sensed rather than saw Onyx’s eyes flicker towards me behind the mask; it was only for an instant, but I didn’t like what it implied. “What?” Onyx said to Archon.

“You were ordered by Morden to stay away tonight,” Archon said.

Onyx just looked at Archon and the message was clear. What are you going to do about it?

Archon stood quite still. I didn’t sense anything in the futures, but for a moment—just a moment—I had the feeling that Archon was going to do something about it. Then he walked away.

Which left me alone with Onyx, Rachel, and two other Dark mages I didn’t know. I tensed silently, but for the moment, all four ignored me. One of the other Dark mages was examining the door. “Sealed off,” he said over his shoulder.

“Then get out of the way,” Rachel said, lifting her hand towards the door.

The Dark mage turned, then jumped aside. I took one look at what was about to happen and dived for cover.

Green light stabbed from Rachel’s hand, and blades of force flew from Onyx. They struck the door and bounced straight back. Rachel’s disintegrate spell missed Onyx by a couple of feet, turning a section of wall into dust, while Onyx’s force blades whined lethally as they ricocheted all over the corridor. One of them barely missed my head; another slammed right into Rachel, making her stagger as her shield took the hit.

“Are you crazy?” the Dark mage who’d been at the door shouted.

“What the fuck was that?” Rachel demanded.

Reflector shields, I thought. They’re designed to bounce ranged spells back at the caster; they’re more common in duels, but it wasn’t the first time I’d heard of them used to secure a location.

“Reflec-shields,” the Dark mage said.

“So what are—” Rachel began.

Onyx fired again, and this time everyone ducked. Rachel rounded on Onyx as the echoes faded away. “Are you out of your fucking mind?” she snarled.

“Stop it, you idiot!” the other Dark mage shouted.

Onyx moved forward to inspect the door. As far as I could tell, it wasn’t even scratched. “Now what?” the second Dark mage said.

The first Dark mage frowned at the door. “There are people in there.” His eyes went up. “And they’re watching.”

Rachel and I followed the Dark mage’s gaze to a small sphere mounted on the wall: a camera. Rachel lifted a hand to destroy it.

“Wait,” I said.

“For what?”

“Let me try talking.”

“About what?”

Onyx was still at the door and I could sense some kind of force magic. I didn’t know how long it’d take him to find a way through, but I was pretty certain he could smash through sooner or later. I stepped directly under the camera, making sure it could see me clearly, and spoke up towards the microphone attachment. “This is a message to the Council security force defending the control room,” I said. “You don’t know me, but please listen to what I have to say. You need to evacuate the control room as soon as possible.”

Rachel stared at me with an are you serious? look. I kept going, not meeting her eye. “I know you’ll have some sort of alternate entrance. Or a back exit. I recommend you use it, and fast. The mages outside are looking for a way in, and once they find one—which they will—they’re going to kill you. I strongly suggest that you withdraw first.”

Rachel rolled her eyes, turned, and stalked around the corner.

Onyx was readying some kind of force spell, and I could sense it gathering power. I spoke hurriedly; I didn’t think I had much time. “Look, you guys are Council security, right? I don’t know what the Council is paying you, but it’s not worth your lives. It’s not like they’re here dying for you, is it? Just get the hell out. If they kick up a fuss later, you can point to all the dead bodies outside as to why you didn’t stick around. They’ll have bigger things to worry about than punishing . . .”

I trailed off. Onyx was still working on his spell, but I could sense magic from where Rachel had disappeared. It felt like . . . I frowned. A gate spell? I might not know where we were, but I’d already sensed that this place had spatial wards. Trying to open a gate here would probably lead to the thing either blowing up in your face or—

I felt a gate open and close.

Magic flared from within the control room, sharp and precise, once, twice, three times. There was a muffled sound, just barely audible through the steel door. It might have been a scream.

Onyx looked up from his spell, and he and the other two Dark mages paused, waiting. The corridor was silent. As I listened I realised I couldn’t hear any more gunfire from elsewhere, either.

“Was that her?” one of the Dark mages said.

There was a click and the heavy steel door to the control room swung open, revealing Rachel in the doorway. “What are you waiting for?” she said irritably. “An invitation?”

The Dark mages glanced at each other and walked in. Rachel looked at me. “You coming or not?”

I hesitated, then followed Rachel inside. She shut the door behind me with a thump.

The inside of the control room was walled in black. Office chairs sat in front of long, curving desks, and on the desks and walls were more than a dozen computer monitors, showing camera feeds and status reports. A couple of the chairs had been knocked over, and as I turned my head to look, I saw a scattering of dust next to each of them. I looked at Rachel. “Was that necessary?”

“I don’t give a shit,” Rachel said. She tossed something at me.

I caught the object and looked at it. It was black, small enough to fit into the palm of the hand, and radiated low-level magic of some kind, probably universal. “I’m done babysitting you,” Rachel said. “Stay in this room and don’t talk to me.” She stalked away.

I watched Rachel go with a frown. Onyx was arguing with one of the other Dark mages, while the last was working at one of the computer banks, leaning in to stare at the screen. For the moment, no one seemed to be paying attention to me.

I took a closer look at the item in my hand. I’d seen similar focuses before, and it didn’t take me long to figure out how it worked. I placed my thumb on the depression at the top, channelled a thread of magic into it, and spoke. “Hello?”

There was a moment’s silence, then Vihaela’s voice spoke up. “Took you long enough.”

“Where’s Anne?”

“You’re in the control room, yes?”

I wasn’t in the mood for games. “You know I am.”

“Find the camera feeds. Section twelve.”

Two quick strides brought me to the security desk. None of the Dark mages did anything to stop me, and I bent over the keyboard, scanning the monitors. One of the screens showed a map of the facility. Okay, definitely not the War Rooms. It seemed to be some kind of . . . prison? No, those weren’t cells: they were security gates . . .

Vihaela’s voice sounded. “Tick tock, Verus.”

“Found you,” I said curtly. One of the monitors was divided into nine camera feeds. Three were black, four more showed nothing but empty corridors, but one showed the entrance to what looked like a giant safe, and in front of it was a group of four figures. Vihaela was easy to pick out, but standing a little to her left and off to the side was a slim figure with shoulder-length hair. I felt something inside me ease a little. All the same . . . “Put Anne on.”

“Don’t trust me?” Vihaela said. She sounded amused.

“No,” I said curtly.

In the camera feed, I saw Vihaela toss something to Anne, who caught it and turned it over in her hands. There was a moment’s pause, then I heard a soft voice through the focus. “Alex?”

I felt a rush of relief. “You okay?”

“I’m not hurt.”

“You didn’t get caught up in the fighting?” I was looking at the map, and if I was reading it right, Anne was deeper than me into the facility—much deeper. To get to where she was, she’d have had to go past a lot of guard posts.

“There were guards. Vihaela . . . dealt with them. Do you—?”

On the screen, I saw Anne flinch as something flew out of her hands and back to Vihaela. “Catch up later, Verus,” Vihaela said. “We’ve got work to do.”

“So are you going to tell me why you dragged us down here?”

“We’re getting through this door,” Vihaela said. “You’re going to help.”

I stared at the door. It looked pretty heavy-duty. “You want to know if it’s trapped?”

“That sort of thing.”

“That’d be a lot easier if I was there with you.”

“Missing me already?” Vihaela sounded amused. “No, I think I’ll keep you right there. Now stop stalling and make yourself useful.”

I glared at Vihaela’s image on the monitor. What’s she planning now? I scanned and found a local security display. “The door’s got a signature lock of some kind, looks like a retinal scan but there might be another way to bypass it, probably magical. Then there’s a key code . . .”

As I spoke I was looking through the cameras, and a set of feeds at the top caught my eye. They seemed to be showing external views of the facility. Several were corridors with people passing by, and something about them made me think of Underground tunnels, but the ones I focused on were the three at the top. They showed a roundabout with a steady stream of traffic. It was night, and cars were circling the arches at the centre and moving through the traffic lights. The angle was weird but the scenery was familiar, and I knew I’d seen it before. I just needed to . . .

Something clicked and all of a sudden I knew where I was. The image on the cameras was Old Street Roundabout. And that meant I was in—

The Vault. All this time, he was going for the Vault.

“Well?” Vihaela said.

“I’m working on it,” I said absently. Inwardly, my mind was whirling. So this was what Morden had been planning. He’d lied to me and to everyone else, let them think he was going to attack the War Rooms, when really he’d been . . .

Had he lied to me? A conversation flashed through my head. Vihaela’s words: Morden promised me both of you. My answer: Did he really? Or did he just imply that she’d be coming, and let you hear what you wanted to hear . . .

“Shit,” I said out loud.

“Need that code, Verus.”

“I said I’m working on it.” So that was where the rumours about an attack on the War Rooms had come from. Morden had planted them, to draw off the Council’s defences. All that soul-searching I’d done about whether to tip off the Council had been a complete waste of time. I could have told Morden to his face that I was going to sell him out, and it wouldn’t have made the slightest bit of difference.

Everything made more sense now. That had been why Vihaela had kept me away during those last few hours—so that I couldn’t glimpse their plans and pass on any last-minute warnings. And it was why they’d split us up. If I didn’t help Vihaela, Anne would be on the chopping block.

But some things hadn’t changed. My deal with the Council still held, and even if the diversion worked and this attack succeeded, Morden was going to get it in the neck. Attacking the Vault wasn’t as big as attacking the War Rooms, but there was no way that the Council would let him get away with it. Once this battle was over, win or lose, Morden was going down.

I just had to make sure he didn’t take me with him.

All of this went through my head in less than five seconds. “You know, if you can’t find a way to unlock it, we can just blow it off its hinges,” Vihaela said.

“No,” I said curtly. With Anne next to Vihaela, I had to help, at least for now. “The doors in this place are reflec-shielded. Put me on to the guy who’s working on that keypad and I’ll see what I can do.”

Vihaela handed me over and I started working through the security systems, and as I did I kept watching the other monitors, piecing together what was going on. Morden’s forces had taken full control of the facility—the remaining Council forces were either dead or had fled. The Dark mages had broken through into some lower-priority storage rooms and were busy looting them, but the main storage vault was behind the doors that Vihaela was trying to get through now. The doors would lead into a section which had no camera coverage at all, and then into the vault itself, which did. Live feeds showed lines of shelves filled with crates and pedestals holding sealed boxes.

The security systems weren’t enough to keep out the Dark mages, but then, that’s what you’d expect. Most security isn’t meant to be impenetrable—it’s just meant to keep intruders tied up long enough for reinforcements to arrive. The Dark mages must have set off every alarm in the place while they were fighting their way in, and right now, a Council strike team had to be assembling. How long until it got here?

Casually, I took a glance back at the other people in the control room. Rachel and Onyx were arguing about something, and the other Dark mages were busy with the computers. I slid my communicator focus from where I’d had it hidden and slipped it into my ear. This place was shielded, but there was still a chance that I might be able to get through to Vari or Luna.

For the next few minutes I multitasked, giving advice to the Dark mage trying to get into the vault while also exploring the futures in which I tried to get in touch with Vari. Divining for two different sets of futures at once is tricky, but I was making good headway . . . until something caught my eye and all of a sudden I had something new to worry about.

There had been a brief and highly unlikely future in which Rachel and the other two Dark mages had all left the control room at the same time, leaving me alone in the room with Onyx. It had vanished almost as soon as it had appeared, but it had been there long enough, and I shot a glance back over my shoulder. Onyx wasn’t looking in my direction, and to a casual glance he seemed absorbed in the contents of one of the computer screens, but now that I knew what to look for, I noticed that he was turned at just the right angle to watch me in his peripheral vision. To all appearances, Onyx was just sitting there, but as soon as the other three Dark mages left the two of us alone . . .

Shit. All of a sudden I felt very vulnerable. The tight confines of the control centre was exactly where I did not want to be fighting a battle-mage whose speciality was hitting things until they broke. I needed a plan, and fast.

“Light on the panel’s gone orange,” the Dark mage said over the communicator.

“Means it’s on standby,” I said absently. “Wait sixty seconds, then input the same code again.” What if I tried leaving the room? Anne and Vihaela weren’t that far away, I could get to them pretty quickly . . . no, Rachel was going to stop me. Shit. I needed help, but I didn’t have Luna or Vari this time. What I needed was someone on site already, whom I could count on . . .

An idea came to mind and I scanned the monitors again. There. On one of the screens showing the atrium, I could see a bulky figure that I thought I recognised. I dug around in one of my pockets and pulled out a thin metal probe, then channelled a thread of magic into the communicator. I’d already seen that Vihaela had locked the communicator so that it could only talk to hers, but I’m pretty good at working around those kinds of things. A thread-thin pulse of magic disabled the restrictions for just long enough to send a message ping. Now I just have to hope that he checks it soon . . .

“What are you doing?” Rachel said.

I glanced back at Rachel, making the probe disappear into my palm. “What do you think?”

“Who are you talking to?” Rachel demanded.

“Your boss,” I said. I held up Vihaela’s communicator. “You want to take over? Be my guest.”

Rachel stared suspiciously, then there was a rustle and Vihaela’s voice came from the communicator. “Verus. What’s the holdup?”

Rachel turned away and I let out a breath before speaking into the receiver. “It’s done. Shields should deactivate in a second, you can cut your way through.”

“Good,” Vihaela said. “Stay on the line.” On the screen, I saw Vihaela give orders and a Dark mage stepped forward, conjuring a blaze of light that made the camera flicker.

It would take them maybe five minutes to get through. I looked through the futures in which I tried using my own communicator, and my heart leapt as this time I saw movement. Casually, I turned my back to Rachel and to Onyx and spoke under my breath. “Vari, this is Alex. Come in. Vari, this is Alex. Come in.”

For a long moment there was silence, then Variam’s voice spoke into my ear, the signal clear and strong. “Alex? I’ve been trying to call you for hours! Where have you been?”

I heard a footfall behind me and knew that Rachel was within earshot. I held Vihaela’s communicator to my ear, pretending to talk into it. “Okay, keep that up. You should burn through in a few minutes.”

On the other end of the line, Variam paused. “What?”

“Yes.”

“What are you talking about?”

“No, that should be okay.” I could still feel Rachel behind me. Please, Vari, figure it out.

“I don’t—wait.” I could sense the lightbulb going off in Variam’s head. “Is someone listening in and you can’t talk?”

“Yes.”

“It’s Morden’s goons, isn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

“Shit,” Variam said. “Um . . .”

“Look, just tell me what you can see from your end.”

I could hear Variam snort. “What I can see? Everything’s gone to shit, that’s what. You remember that adept demonstration? Well, it started quiet, just a bunch of teenagers hanging around out in the street. Then the numbers started to fill up. We’d been told to expect a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty—turns out there were thousands. The Keepers all got deployed, there were security squads around, everyone was ready to seal off the War Rooms if they needed to. Then everything hit the fan.”

“What happened?”

“Hell if I know. Some Keepers were saying that there were Dark mages in the crowd—whatever it was, someone started shooting and it got ugly real fast. A bunch of people are dead, the Council have the whole place on lockdown, and the area’s being is being cordoned off and searched. If they—”

“Diversion,” I said.

“What?”

“It’s a diversion. You’re looking in the wrong place.”

“Yeah,” Variam said. “Landis said the same thing. He’s sure this whole thing is just to pull the Keepers off the real target, keep them busy at the War Rooms, but . . . We were getting alarms from the Vault and Southampton before the lines got cut. You at one of those?”

“Yes.”

“The Vault?”

“Yes.”

“I thought so. I’ll tell who I can, but the Council’s in panic mode. They’re still convinced that this is all some sort of bluff and the real attack’s coming in at the War Rooms any minute. It’ll probably be an hour before they’re done rounding up the demonstrators and—”

“That’ll be too long,” I said shortly.

“Anne’s there too?”

“Yes.”

“You’re both okay?”

“Maybe not for much longer.”

“Shit. I’ll see what I can do. Vari out.” The line went dead.

I swore inwardly. In a crisis, the Council is just too slow. The only person I could call who might be able to do something fast enough was Talisid, and that would take time I didn’t have.

“There.” The Dark mage at the other terminal straightened up. “We’re clear.” He looked at Rachel. “You can handle things from here.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Rachel said.

“West wing.”

“You’re not going anywhere until we’re done.”

“Tough shit,” the Dark mage said shortly. “We had a talk with you-know-who and he gave us our jobs. We’ve done ours. You have a problem, ask him.” He headed towards the exit, his companion following.

Rachel scowled but let them go. Feeling my eyes, she turned to me. “What are you looking at?”

I turned back to the monitors. Shit. Now the control room was empty except for me and Rachel and Onyx, both of whom would easily make the top five list of mages I did not want to be locked in a room with. The only exits to the room were the door we’d come in by, and a similar one on the far side. Both were reinforced, and auto-locking. If I could get onto the other side of them, then with the reflector shields, even Rachel or Onyx would have trouble breaking through in time . . . but both were a good thirty feet away, and I did not like my chances of making it before they reacted.

On the monitors, Vihaela’s team finished cutting through the heavy doors. The centre of the door swayed, then collapsed, falling silently to the floor with an impact that would have shaken the walls if I’d been close enough to feel it. “Good job,” Vihaela said over the comm. “See you on the other side.”

“Wait,” I said. “There are two corridors between you and the main vault. I don’t know what’s—”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine.” The comm cut off and I saw Vihaela gesture to Anne. They walked in, another Dark mage at the front with Vihaela right behind.

I swore silently. I didn’t care if Vihaela ran into trouble, but Anne was another matter. Just as bad, Vihaela was now out of contact. If Onyx figured that out . . .

From behind me I heard Onyx straighten, and I closed my eyes silently. Why can’t anything ever go right?

“Deleo,” Onyx said.

“What?”

“Take a walk.”

Rachel glared at Onyx. Onyx hadn’t treated Rachel kindly on their first meeting, and that had been before he’d tried to kill her. It had been years ago, but from the way Rachel was looking at him, I was pretty sure she hadn’t forgotten. “Why?”

“So Verus and I can talk.”

“Why should—?” Rachel began to say, then stopped as she got it.

I saw the futures flicker, and I could almost watch the thoughts going through Rachel’s head. Her first reaction was to tell Onyx where to stick it, just out of sheer bloody-mindedness. Then a new thought: wait, I could just say yes. Why not let Onyx do it for me? The counterargument: Richard ordered me not to hurt him. If I do, I’ll be in trouble. The other voice: but it won’t be you, will it? You just need to say you weren’t around . . .

Slowly, Rachel turned towards me, her eyes watching from behind her mask, flat and unreadable. I saw the futures flicker, and I knew she was making the choice. I held very still, afraid to say a word. I knew how much Rachel hated me; nothing I could say would make things better and the sound of my voice would definitely make things worse. Come on, I prayed silently. Just give me a little luck . . .

The futures shifted and settled, the other branches winking out. “You know,” Rachel said, “I could go for some fresh air.”

“No!” I took a step towards Rachel. “We’re supposed to be on the same side!”

“You’ve never been on my side.”

“I’ve been helping Vihaela—”

“You’ve been helping Vihaela because she threatened to kill your girlfriend.” Rachel’s voice was contemptuous. “You helped Morden because he threatened to kill you. You never do anything unless there’s something in it for you. I have no idea why Morden was desperate enough to pick you.” Rachel glanced at Onyx. “Or maybe I do.”

I couldn’t see Onyx’s expression change, but I saw violence spike in the futures and I knew that that comment had not improved his mood. “Either way,” Rachel said, “I figure I’m doing him a favour.”

“I can help you,” I began.

“No, you can’t.”

“I can tell you—”

“No, you won’t.”

“Will you just listen?” I snapped.

“Why?” Rachel said. “Everything you say is bullshit.”

I took a breath. There had to be something that would get through to her. “We were apprentices together once. We were even friends, or something close to it. If that means anything to you, if it ever meant anything to you, then help me now.” I paused. “Please.”

Rachel stared at me for a long second, as though she were weighing something up inside her. “Did you really think that would work?” she said at last.

“I—”

“Shut up.” Rachel looked at me in disgust. “I am so sick of your shit. You’ve been trying to get to me for months, haven’t you? What did you think was going to happen? You’d give me a speech and then I’d go, ‘Oh, yes, Alex! I want to be a good girl! I’ll do anything you say!’” Rachel shook her head. “Get this clear. I will never help you. You might be able to trick the others, but it doesn’t work on me. And right now? The way I see it, either Onyx kills you, or you kill him.” Rachel shrugged. “I’m fine either way.” She turned and left the room.

Leaving me alone with Onyx.

“Well, well,” Onyx said, and his lips curved in a smile.

I stood silently, taking in Onyx’s stance. The Dark mage was standing relaxed on the other side of the control room, his hands hanging loosely by his sides. He wore a belt with a couple of items holstered, but as far as I could see he wasn’t carrying any weapons. He didn’t need them. Onyx’s force magic can punch a hole through a concrete wall, and his shields are strong enough to take hits from military heavy weapons. Nothing I was carrying would even scratch him.

There were two exits from the control room: the one Rachel had used, and the back way, leading deeper into the facility. Onyx was blocking my path to the front door, but in doing so he’d left me a clear path to the back one. I checked—yes, it’d open. All I had to do was hit the button by the door and yank on the handle.

Except that in the time it’d take me to do that, Onyx could kill me three times over. I needed a distraction.

“Must really suck when even she hates you,” Onyx said.

I rolled my eyes. Onyx was trying to put me off balance, scare me before moving in for the kill. It might have worked if he hadn’t been so bad at it. “Give me a break.”

“I bet—”

“Blah, blah, look how pathetic I am.”

“You know—”

“Blah, blah, look how smart you are, blah,” I said. “You think so slowly that by the time you’ve opened your mouth I’ve had time to hear the whole sentence. Twice.”

Onyx’s mouth twisted in a snarl. No one likes getting interrupted, and Dark mages tend to have even less tolerance for it than most. “See how fast you think when I split your head open.”

“Right, brutal violence,” I said. “Your go-to solution for every problem. It ever occur to you that this is why Morden’s been passing you over? He needs someone whose résumé doesn’t start and end with ‘sociopathic killing machine.’”

Violence was flashing through the futures, and I knew that Onyx was within a sentence or two of jumping straight to the killing. “You know what?” I said. “Fine.” I pulled my knife from my belt sheath and started stalking towards Onyx. “You want a fight? That’s exactly what you’re going to get.”

Onyx had been expecting me to run. He hadn’t been expecting me to attack, and just for an instant he hesitated before a spray of blades flashed out at me.

An instant before Onyx cast, I switched directions, sprinting for the door. A monitor behind me exploded in sparks, an alarm went off, and I dropped my knife and threw gold discs to the left and right. I called out a command word, feeling the force barrier snap up behind me just in time to intercept the next spell; Onyx saw the wall, destroyed it with a spell, sent another volley of force blades to shred the whole area in which I’d been standing . . .

. . . and in that time I’d yanked the door open and ducked out of sight.

The door led into an empty corridor. The distance to the next junction was maybe fifty feet away, and against most people I could have covered that in time, but Onyx is fast, and he was already sprinting after me. I knew that I wouldn’t make it.

So instead of running, I flattened myself against the wall.

Onyx came charging through the doorway, his force shield radiating around him. He passed within two feet of me and I ducked in behind. Onyx caught the movement in his peripheral vision and whirled—too late. I slammed the door in his face and the lock clicked just an instant before Onyx’s next spell hit it from the other side.

I heard the wham of the force magic and felt the door vibrate. I let out a breath, feeling my heart hammering. Too close.

An alarm was beeping, loud and insistent: meep meep meep meep meep. Looking around, I saw that Onyx’s spells had done a number on the control room; a chair had been cut in half and shards of broken monitors covered the floor. A message was flashing on one of the surviving screens: LOCKDOWN ENABLED.

There was another wham and I heard the door vibrate behind me, and that galvanised me into action. Onyx would find a way through that door soon. I crossed the room to the other exit; it was the one Rachel had used, and I’d have to watch out for her, but I’d deal with that problem when—

I paused. The door wasn’t going to open.

I hit the button just to make sure; a red light blinked above the panel, but nothing happened. I pushed it again. “Come on, come on . . .”

Meep meep meep went the alarm. Over the noise, I heard a voice coming from the communicator. “—rus?” The alarm was drowning it out. “—there?”

I grabbed the communicator off the desk. “Yes.”

“Sounds a little noisy in there.”

“What?” I needed to get that door open before Onyx found a way in. I checked the monitors and found the local security settings. The doors were outlined in red, and I clicked the unlock button. An error message flashed: LOCKDOWN ENABLED.

Vihaela said something that I couldn’t hear over the meeping of the alarm. “Little busy!” I shouted. There was a button marked All Clear and I clicked it. The alarm cut off. All of a sudden, the only noise was the distant wham of Onyx trying to blast his way in.

“I said, everything all right in there?”

“I’m just great,” I said shortly. “Where’s Anne?”

“Standing right here.”

I glanced up at the camera feeds. I couldn’t see Vihaela or Anne on the displays. “I don’t see you.”

“Oh, we’re not in the vault yet.”

There was a weird noise in the background, something like an elongated hiss. “What’s that noise?”

“Hmm,” Vihaela said. “That’s interesting.”

“What?”

“Anne, dear?” It sounded as though Vihaela was speaking over her shoulder. “Time for you to earn your keep.”

“What’s interesting?”

“Guardian dracoform,” Vihaela said. “We should be five minutes or so. Don’t go anywhere.” The communicator went dead.

“Guardian what? Where are—?” I realised I was speaking into a dead microphone and swore.

Onyx was still hammering at the door. Okay, screw this. It was time to get to Anne and find a way out of the Vault before the whole Council came down on our heads.

The computer menu was demanding a six-digit code. I looked into the scenarios in which I typed every possible combination and saw hundreds of possible futures unfold in parallel, each terminating in the same message: Code Invalid. I focused, standardising the movements I used to type, zooming out. The hundreds of futures became thousands, the thousands became tens of thousands, the tens of thousands became hundreds of thousands . . . One future didn’t fit; a single white ball in a sea of black. I picked out the code, typed it in. The menu disappeared.

The communicator in my ear pinged. “Vari,” I said absently.

“Alex?” Variam said. “You guys need to get out now.”

“Why?” I asked. The lockdown menu had disappeared, but the door’s icon still wasn’t changing from red to green.

“The Council are refusing to release the Keepers to reinforce the Vault,” Variam said. “They’re still afraid that this is some sort of feint and the real—”

“This is the real attack!”

“I know! They authorised Sal Sarque to send in a reconnaissance team.”

I paused. “How big a team?”

“From what I’ve heard? All of them. You do not want to be around when they get there.”

Sal Sarque was the head of the Crusaders. It was a good bet that the “reconnaissance team” was going to be composed of the same sorts of people as the ones who’d taken Anne. “How long do we have?”

“They might be there already.”

Vihaela’s communicator flashed. A glance at the futures confirmed that it wasn’t Vihaela. “I’m going to have to call you back,” I said. “Alex out.” I grabbed up the handset. “This is Verus.”

“Got your message,” Cinder’s voice said through the speaker. “Trouble?”

“You could say that. I’m locked in the control room and Onyx is trying to smash his way in.”

“Del?”

“Was the one who left us here in the first place. Any chance I could get some help?”

“No.”

“Seriously?”

“Guard duty at the front,” Cinder said.

I swore. “There’s not much time. We’ve got a Crusader strike team coming in.”

“Where from?”

“Don’t know, but they’ll probably have some kind of back way.”

“Understood.”

“Wait! Can’t you—?” Cinder clicked off. “—help,” I finished, talking to the dead line. “Thanks.”

I became aware that the control room had gone quiet; the muffled wham wham wham of Onyx’s force spells had stopped. I couldn’t hear what he was doing anymore, and that worried me. I glanced up at the cameras that should show the corridor he was in, but they were black. Onyx obviously didn’t want me to know what he was doing. Bad sign.

I crossed the room and put a hand to the wall, concentrating. I could feel a force magic source from the other side; it felt powerful, and sharp. I looked into the futures of what would happen if I stayed where I was . . .

Great. Onyx couldn’t smash through the door, so he’d decided to cut through the wall. He’d break through in a little over ten minutes. I needed a way out of here.

I scrolled through windows on the computer system, searching for a way to unlock the door. Access settings—no. Network controls—no. Local security—that should be it, but none of the commands were working . . .

The communicator pinged. “Hello, Verus,” Vihaela said. “How’s it going?”

“Just wonderful,” I said shortly. “Where are you?”

“Why don’t you see for yourself?”

I looked up at the monitors. For the first time, I could see movement on the vault cameras. The Dark mages of Vihaela’s team were spreading out, grabbing items off shelves and pedestals and shoving them into bags. As I watched, I caught sight of Vihaela, talking into the communicator. Where’s Anne? “So you’re in,” I said. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Vihaela said. “Though I should really give the credit to your friend. You never told me she was such a combat expert.”

“Yeah, she’s a woman of many talents,” I said. I could see Anne over Vihaela’s shoulder. “Since everything’s going so well, how about you order Onyx to stop trying to kill me?”

“He’s there?”

“Yes.”

“Oh well,” Vihaela said. “I try to make it a policy not to get between master and apprentice. I hope you’re still keeping an eye on things.”

“Are you listening to a word I’m saying?”

“I’m sure everything will be fine. Keep watch for another ten minutes, then you can come join us for extraction. I wouldn’t wait around for the Council if I were you.”

“Thanks, I’d figured that out on my own. What kind of extraction?”

“One of the items in this vault acts as an amplifier for piercing gate wards.”

“That’s great. What about the fact that Onyx is going to smash through the door in less than ten minutes?”

On the monitors, I saw Anne take a step towards Vihaela’s communicator; Vihaela gave her a look that stopped her. “Honestly, Verus, I don’t go running to you with all my problems.”

“Wait! I want to talk to—” Once again I found myself talking into a dead microphone.

Okay, Alex, think fast. I had . . . around seven and a half minutes before Onyx cut his way through. I went back to the computer settings with redoubled energy. Nothing, nothing . . . there. The lockdown command had reset the security permissions. I clicked the button marked Authorise.

A window flashed up. ENTER THUMBPRINT SCAN.

I looked around and found a thumbprint scanner. And the people who’d be authorised to use it would be . . . the people that Rachel had just turned into dust.

Shit.

An image on one of the monitors caught my eye; Rachel had just walked into the vault. Anne gave Rachel a look but Rachel ignored her, moving next to Vihaela to exchange a few words and—I frowned. Wait. What’s Rachel doing there . . . ?

The Crusaders arrived.

Every camera feed went dark all at once. I felt the signatures of spells in the distance: gates, fire, air. Gunfire sounded in the distance, followed by muffled shouts. I looked into the futures in which I waited where I was and realised that Onyx wasn’t going to be the first one in anymore. The Crusaders were less than two minutes away, they were going to open the door from the outside, and they were being led by . . .

Oh, come ON. It was Jarnaff, and he was being followed by a whole strike team. Was there a single mage in Britain who hated me who wasn’t in this place?

I scrambled for the controls. The Crusaders had done something to mess with the system, but they hadn’t shut it down completely and I managed to find a reset function. With a loud beep, the lights above the door panels went red. It would keep them out, but not for long. My divination lets me mimic expertise, but it’s not a replacement, and by my best guess I had maybe three minutes before either Onyx or the Crusaders broke through, at which point it would be a race to see who killed me first. I looked around from one door to the other. I felt like a rat in a trap. I had to come up with something . . .

If you have one problem, you have to solve it yourself. If you have lots of problems, sometimes you can get them to solve each other . . .

I grabbed Vihaela’s communicator and disabled the lock. “Cinder, this is Verus,” I said. “Come in.”

A moment’s pause, then the communicator activated. Cinder spoke over the whoosh of flame. “Little busy.”

“I need your help.”

“Can’t get to you—” Cinder broke off, addressing someone else. “Kyle! Eyes right!” There was the ratatat of an automatic weapon.

“Call Onyx,” I said. “Convince him I’m at the main entrance to the control room talking to the Crusaders.”

“How?”

“Jesus!” I snapped. “I don’t care what you say, tell him whatever the hell you like, just make him think I’m there and not inside!”

Cinder paused, but for only a heartbeat. “Fine. Wait one.” He cut off.

There was a scratching sound from the front door. I looked up in time to see the light above the door go from red to green, and I stabbed a finger at the keyboard, locking it again just a second before the door would have swung open. Damn, they’re fast. I hit a command that I knew would buy me a few seconds; the mouse icon spun as the application went into reset mode.

From the other side of the room came the scraping sound of warping metal. I looked and thought I could see a flicker as Onyx’s force blade cut through the wall. I held my breath. If it was going to work, it would have to be now. I looked through the futures. Nearly . . .

There. All of a sudden the futures in which Onyx came through the back door vanished, and I heard the distant sound of running feet. I stood listening, counting down in my head. To get all the way around the control room from the outside, Onyx would have to run down two corridors, then turn a corner. He should be coming into view of the Crusader team right about . . . now.

I felt a flash of force magic from outside. There was a muffled shout, then a scream, and I saw the wall vibrate. The futures in which the Crusaders broke through the door abruptly vanished.

There. I took a deep breath. If I was really lucky, Onyx and Jarnaff would kill each other, but at least now I had some breathing room. I put a hand to my ear. “Anne, this is Alex.”

No answer. “Anne, this is Alex. Can you receive?”

Still nothing. I frowned. Anne and I had checked those communicators just before leaving to meet Vihaela. What was going on?

I could still sense force magic through the walls: Onyx was giving the Crusaders quite a fight. I pulled up the camera controls and managed to find the command to get the vault cameras up and running, then looked up, searching through the screens.

The Dark mages were pulling out. Across the camera feeds, I could see the members of Vihaela’s team grabbing last items from the shelves and containers and hurrying for the far side of the vault. A gate was already open, one mage maintaining the spell while the others moved through one by one. A figure in a helmet was overseeing them, arms folded; Archon. I was struck by how well ordered the evacuation was. Dark mages usually don’t cooperate well, but these worked together quickly and efficiently.

It took me a second to find Vihaela, and when I did, I frowned. She was with Anne in a small alcove. The alcove contained a pedestal with an open box, and Vihaela and Anne seemed to be having some sort of argument. From her body language, Vihaela seemed to be trying to . . . order Anne? Persuade her, maybe . . .

A chill went through me, and all of a sudden, I had a very bad feeling. I scrolled through the menu, found a volume icon, and turned it up.

Anne’s voice came from the speakers, faint and tinny. “. . . does it do?”

“It’s an imbued item,” Vihaela said. “A powerful one.”

Anne looked dubious; she said something I couldn’t hear. “Because it doesn’t work for Dark mages,” Vihaela told her.

I frowned. Something about that box looked familiar. I’d seen it before, but . . . closed, instead of open?

“. . . to be a tourist,” Vihaela was saying. “Do something useful.”

Anne was looking down into the box but wasn’t moving to take it. The lid was blocking my view of what was inside, but something was nagging at my memory. Darkness and fire . . .

And suddenly I remembered. The raid on Christmas Eve; the bubble realm and Ares. This was the relic I’d carried out of there. The same one that Morden had wanted the first time . . .

And with that, I remembered what Arachne had said. But underneath it, the essence remained. A human who called up the jinn according to the old rituals, with the jinn as a willing partner, could still unlock their full power . . .

Dread spiked through me, and horror. It wasn’t me at all. I hit the transmit key, shouting into the microphone. “Anne! No! Don’t touch it!”

Neither Anne nor Vihaela reacted; the audio feed was one-way. But Vihaela glanced past Anne to the camera, and just for a second I could have sworn she smiled. Then it was gone, and Vihaela turned and called to the remaining Dark mages. “All right! Last one out, get the lights!”

“Wait!” Anne called. “Where’s Alex?”

“Last I heard, he was on his way,” Vihaela said over her shoulder. “Hang around if you like, but we’re not waiting.” She walked away to join the retreating Dark mages.

I scanned through the futures frantically. Something caught my eye; I brought up the other cameras and hissed under my breath. There were men hurrying down the main corridor, mages striding at the centre, gunmen flanking them and covering the lines of fire. They were only minutes away from reaching Anne.

In the few seconds I’d looked away the vault had all but emptied. Rachel was one of the last ones out. “Deleo,” Anne called out. “Where’s Alex?”

Rachel didn’t bother to answer. “Hey!” Anne shouted.

Rachel paused, glancing over her shoulder. “Crusaders probably got him.” She looked at Anne with an unpleasant smile. “Too bad for him. Maybe if you stuck around, you might be able to help.” She turned and walked away out of view. Anne was left alone.

“Oh no, no, no,” I muttered. The last Dark mages were leaving through the gate; Rachel stepped through as I watched. Anne was the only one visible on her camera now. From where she was standing, she couldn’t see the gate; she didn’t realise she was about to be left behind. The Crusaders would be at the doors. I started to look to see how long she had—

No. All of a sudden, I knew that was the wrong thing to do. It was what I’d been doing for too long: just standing and watching, looking ahead without doing anything. But I didn’t have any way of reaching her—

Yes I do. Alone in the control room, I reached into my pouch, pulled out the dreamstone, and looked down at it, seeing the facets glint amethyst in the light of the monitors. I’d already scanned the futures in which I tried to get in touch with Anne and I hadn’t seen this working—

But that was what Arachne had been telling me, wasn’t it? I hadn’t been making it work; I’d been looking into the future to see if it would work.

For once, I didn’t stop to think. I focused all of my concentration on the dreamstone and threw my mind into it, picturing Anne in my thoughts.

For an instant, I had a sense of vertigo, like falling across an impossible gap, then there was the sense of something tearing and all of a sudden I could hear voices. It felt like opening a door, as though they’d been there all along and I’d just never found the way through.

. . . where he is, one voice was saying. There were two of them; both were Anne’s, and yet both were different. He could be coming, maybe she’s lying, maybe they’re all lying . . . can still feel that dragon, how it felt, no, have to think. Have to think. If he’s coming, I should wait; if I leave I’ll be abandoning him, he might need me, can’t leave him alone if he needs my help, but I hate this place, I want to get out . . .

“Yes,” I said. “Get out. Can you hear me?”

. . . could fight them. No, not fight, kill; but no, I don’t . . . you don’t have a choice, you remember that house, cutting and tearing . . . No. I can stun, paralyse, I don’t want to go back . . . wouldn’t be enough, you know what you have to do. I’m afraid of what it does. Take it. No. Don’t have a choice . . .

She can’t hear me. I focused my thoughts into a beam, projecting the words. Anne.

On the screen, I saw Anne start. Alex?

It’s me. You need to get out of there.

Where are you?

Don’t worry about where I am.

I have to! . . . hurt, nearly dying. Where are you?

Still in the facility. Follow the Dark mages, I’ll find my own way out.

No! I’m not leaving you! . . . besides, it’s too late. They’re gone.

I looked at the monitors and saw that Anne was right. The gate was closed. Then find a place to hide. The Crusaders are going to reach the vault any minute.

Can’t hide. All of a sudden, Anne sounded weary. On the monitor, I saw her eyes shift down to the open box. One choice left.

No! I sent the thought as forcefully as I could. I could sense Anne’s feelings, tired and desperate and afraid, but there was something else underneath it, something darker that wanted to be unleashed, and that scared me more than the Crusaders. Anne, you can’t. That’s what he wants!

Anne’s hand had been drifting towards the box; now it paused. Who?

Richard and Vihaela. This is what they’ve been planning all along, leaving you here. Whatever you do, whatever that thing is, don’t take it!

Planning how? Anne asked. I don’t understand. But she drew back a little from the box.

I felt a tiny surge of relief. We can figure that part out later. Right now we need to—

There was movement on the monitors. Anne and I looked up as one.

The Crusader team came through into the vault. There were nearly a dozen of them with more behind, and they had a direct line of sight to Anne, and for the first time I got a clear look at the two mages in the middle team. It was Lightbringer and Zilean. Zilean and Anne saw each other at exactly the same time.

For a frozen moment Anne was absolutely still, then her face twisted in terrible rage. I heard both voices inside my head snarl as one, and on the monitor I saw Anne’s hand disappear into the box.

Every camera inside the vault went black.

I felt a flash of something from the direction of the vaults, powerful enough to sense even through the distance and the walls. Inside my head I felt anger, fear, chaos. Anne!

A moment’s pause, then a presence, cold and looming and massive. Words reared up like a towering wave. GET OUT.

The wave crashed over me and I was hurled back to my body, the connection fraying and snapping. I staggered, caught myself. I was alone in the control room.