Chosen

Chapter 9

The Nightstalkers had come out in force this time, and they just kept coming around the corner one after another. Will was at the front with Lee and Dhruv flanking him, gold-hair girl and Captain America were right behind with Ja-Ja the life-drinker, and at the back, almost hidden by the others, was a girl I hadn’t seen before who looked English. Seven in all. They advanced down the corridor towards us.

Caldera stepped between me and them. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Will came to a halt and the rest of them followed his lead. He didn’t look at Caldera; just like each time before, his eyes stayed locked on me. “I’m not here for you.”

“You’re William Traviss, aren’t you?” Caldera said. “Mind telling me what you’re doing on a mage’s property?”

“I don’t care whose property this is.” Will shifted his stare to Caldera. “The man behind you murdered my sister and I’m here for him. Get out of my way.”

Caldera looked back at him, then turned her head just slightly towards me, not taking her eyes off Will. “Verus?” she said, and there was a slight edge to her voice. “Anything you want to tell me?”

I let out a breath. The futures were shifting too much to make any useful predictions now. It was all going to depend on Caldera, and I couldn’t tell which way she would jump. “When I was Richard’s apprentice, I was part of a team that captured Will’s sister,” I said. I kept my voice level. “Will thinks she was killed. I don’t know if it’s true.”

“Liar!” Will snarled, his eyes flaring. “You knew what was happening to her!”

I looked away, unwilling to meet Will’s eyes. “You think I didn’t know?” Will said, and I could hear the hate in his voice. “A year she was held in here. So you sick fucks could use her for fun!”

“And that was why I tried to break her out!” I snapped back. “Yes, I screwed it up, but at least I tried!”

“Right,” Will said scornfully. “You were trying to save her.”

“Whether you believe it or not, it’s the truth. And how are you so damn sure she’s dead? Even I don’t know what happened to her!”

“She died here in this mansion,” Will said. “And I’m going to make sure the same happens to you.”

“We just did this! You were in a train crash twelve hours ago! How are you even here?”

“Enough!” Caldera shouted.

Will and I both stopped. “You,” Caldera said, pointing at Lee. “How did you get in here?”

“Uh . . .”

“Through the door, or through the archway in the wall?”

“None of your business,” Will said, just as Lee said, “The archway.”

Will glared at Lee and Lee dropped his eyes. “At least you’ve got some sense,” Caldera said. “Now let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Are you telling me the reason you’ve come here is to murder the mage behind me?”

“He’s the murderer!” Will said.

“And I’m Keeper Caldera of the Order of the Star,” Caldera said calmly. “That means I police crimes involving mages. Are you about to commit one?”

“The only crimes you Keepers care about are the ones where it’s mages that are the victims,” Will said. He was focused on Caldera now, eyes narrowed, and he wasn’t backing down. “Murdering an adept doesn’t even count in your book, does it? We’re nothing to you.”

“The law is the law,” Caldera said. “And it applies to adepts as well as mages. You might want to think about that.”

The rest of Will’s group had been silent until now, but at this point gold-hair girl spoke up. “So what are we supposed to do when some mage decides to enslave us?” She looked angry. “Just take it?”

“You can bring your case before the Council,” Caldera said. “Your petition will be heard.”

“Right,” gold-hair girl said sarcastically. “And they’re going to care.”

“I don’t make the laws,” Caldera said. “But I do enforce them.” Her voice sharpened. “Now let’s get something clear: this is not up for debate. I’m here on Council business and you’re trespassing. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“You’re right,” Will said, and his voice was soft. His eyes were fixed on Caldera. “It’s not up for debate.”

I felt the mood in the corridor shift, and the futures shifted with it. All of a sudden I could sense violence. “Walk away, William,” Caldera said quietly.

“I walked away from Verus yesterday,” Will said. “Not this time.” He held out his hand to Captain America without looking. I saw Captain America’s eyes flick between Caldera and me and he hesitated for just an instant, then he reached into thin air. Space magic flickered as he pulled out Will’s shortsword and handed it to him then took out a submachine gun for himself. Gold-hair girl’s eyes narrowed on Caldera and I felt the familiar trace of fire magic beginning to build.

“One more step forward,” Caldera said, “and you’ll be attacking a Council Keeper.” Caldera was standing in the middle of the corridor facing all of them, her voice steady. “All of you listen to me very carefully. You might think you’re fighting some sort of war against mages. You’re not. The Council knows all about you and they’ve left you alone. Use those weapons in your hands and that will change. And you will not like the consequences.”

“The Council isn’t here,” Will said. He was standing quite still and I knew he was holding his magic ready. When he moved, it would be very fast. “Just you.”

“And me,” I said, stepping forward and looking between the adepts. “If you keep following Will, it’s going to get you killed. Don’t you see that?”

“Stay out of this, Verus,” Caldera said.

I didn’t look away from Will. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve kind of got a stake in this.”

“Ignore the Keeper and the other one,” Will said over his shoulder. “We’re only here for Verus.”

“That’s not how it works,” Caldera said sharply. “If you—”

“Look out!” I snapped and jumped back just as Will lunged for me.

I’d seen Will in action enough times now to figure out that in terms of straight-up combat ability, his magic was a close match for mine. I could predict his moves, but he was so quick that all my divination let me do was keep up with him. He closed the distance between us in a flash, and if I hadn’t already jumped back he would have run me through.

But while Will might be faster, Caldera had a lot less distance to cover than he did. She stepped into his way and Will slammed straight into her centre of mass with a thud. Caldera didn’t even budge; it was as if Will had run into a wall. She tried to grab him, but even though Will had to be hurting from the impact he was still fast enough to dodge aside and try to get past again.

But they’d forgotten about Sonder. Sonder had kept his mouth shut in the conversation and stayed behind Caldera, but now he put out his hand towards Will, his face set, and cast his own time spell, similar to Will’s but inverted. The two spells met and cancelled each other out and all of a sudden Will was moving at normal speed. He stumbled and came to a stop, a look of surprise flashing across his face.

Caldera hit Will in the chest. It was an open-hand strike, and she drove up off the floor with all her weight behind it. The impact lifted Will into the air and threw him the best part of ten feet, and he hit Dhruv on the way down. The two of them went down in a tangle of arms and legs.

Caldera glared at the adepts, her hands low and spread. “Who’s next?”

Will pulled himself up, gasping. He’d been winded and it took him a few seconds to catch his breath. “Shoot him!” he said, pointing at me. “He’s right there, just kill him!”

Captain America and gold-hair girl had both been ready to fire when Will had rushed in, but the people in the way had made them hesitate. Now they both aimed at me, and as they did I sidestepped behind Caldera. Captain America tracked me with his gun, saw that Caldera was in the way, and checked his fire.

Gold-hair girl didn’t. Red light flared around her hands and ground fire roared out. It was directed at me but hit Caldera instead, and Caldera disappeared in a flash of flame. An instant later the fire was gone. Caldera wasn’t. Her clothes were scorched and smoking but she didn’t even look scratched and I could see earth magic glowing about her, reinforcing and strengthening her body. “You,” she said to the adepts, “are starting to piss me off.”

Several of the adepts took a step back. Will didn’t. “You cowards!” he snapped. “We’ve beaten mages before!” Without looking back he charged straight for me. After a moment’s hesitation the rest of them followed, and that was when things got really messy.

The corridor dissolved into a melee, weapons and fire and confusion. Will was trying to get past Caldera, bullets and ground fire flashing out past them, and the hallway was a press of bodies and blows. There was too much going on and it was all I could do just to keep myself alive. Again and again I saw myself fall dead or wounded, stabbed or shot or burnt, and again and again I slid aside just enough that the strike would miss. The air heated from the fire magic, and bullets struck chips of stone from the walls. Caldera stood alone against the tide but the corridor was narrow and they couldn’t all reach her at once. They kept getting in each other’s way, and whoever was at the front would be focused by Sonder’s slowing magic and by Caldera’s punishing blows. One hit was all it took to send them staggering back, but as soon as they did another would move in to take their place.

The Indian boy, Dhruv, threw a set of metal spheres into the air; an invisible field caught them and sent them spinning around him in an elliptical orbit, moving faster and faster before zipping towards me as though hurled from a sling. I ducked behind Caldera and they slammed into her instead, cracking off her hardened skin. “Stop doing that,” Caldera said through clenched teeth, aiming another punch at Will.

“Some of us don’t have stone skin,” I said just as Captain America popped up around Will and fired at me point-blank. I was already dodging and the burst hit thin air; he fell back instantly, ejecting his magazine and reaching for a new one.

“Find us a way out,” Caldera said over her shoulder, but I couldn’t answer; Dhruv was sending another volley at me from over Will’s head and this time he curved them in, attacking from the side. I had to dive sideways, stumbling for a second, and as I came to my feet another blast of flame engulfed Caldera.

Ja-Ja was on her instantly. The life-drinker had stayed at the edge of the fight, lurking and waiting to strike, and in the second that Caldera was still blinded from the blast he struck. Green-black light flashed at his palm as he touched Caldera’s side, and even at a distance I felt a draining, tugging sensation, like being on the edge of a whirlpool.

Caldera gave a roar that was half rage and half pain, and struck at Ja-Ja with the ferocity of a wounded bear. I heard the crack as her blow landed and Ja-Ja went flying down the corridor, but Caldera stumbled and went to one knee. She was up again in an instant and I knew combat reflexes were keeping her moving—you never stay down in a fight, you always get up as fast as you can—but she was swaying and I could tell she was badly hurt.

Ja-Ja picked himself up. Caldera’s punch should have broken his bones but my heart sank as I looked at him and I saw that he was smiling. Whatever he’d taken from Caldera, it had been enough to let him shrug off the hit. “Tastes nice,” he said. “I could go for dessert.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Captain America snapped at Ja-Ja. He was still holding his gun, but he wasn’t aiming it at me anymore.

“We said don’t hurt her!” Dhruv shouted.

Ja-Ja gave Dhruv a contemptuous look. “Yeah, you were doing so great.”

Will was hesitating, looking between Caldera and Ja-Ja. For the moment the adepts were distracted but I knew it wouldn’t last. One of the metal spheres Dhruv had been firing at me was lying on the floor, and I scooped it up. “Caldera!” I said sharply with a note of command in my voice. “Watch!”

Caldera turned, hurt but angry, and Sonder did as well. Before Caldera could speak, I flicked the sphere back down the corridor. It glanced off the wall and through the archway down to the basement, and I heard the clack-clack-clack as it went bouncing down the steps. Caldera and Sonder stared for a second, then their eyes went wide at the same instant. I put my finger to my lips.

“Keeper,” Will said, and all three of us turned to look at him. He was frowning at Caldera. “We’re not here for you. You and the time mage can go. We just want Verus.”

Caldera looked back at him, then gave him the finger.

Captain America raised his eyebrows; he actually looked impressed. Ja-Ja looked eager, and I knew he was hoping Caldera would say no. Will just looked pissed off. “You aren’t going to win this,” he said. “Get out of—”

The nocturne came out of the shadows, homing in on Will like iron filings to a magnet. Its body was black smoke and blended into the darkness behind it so perfectly that only its blue-white eyes were visible. Will leapt back, eyes going wide in shock, but even he wasn’t quick enough and a tendril of darkness twined around his leg, yanking him off his feet.

The corridor erupted into chaos, the adepts scrambling to get away from the nocturne or rushing to fight it, but this time I wasn’t watching. I grabbed Caldera’s arm and yanked at her. Even wounded as she was, it was like trying to move a rock, but it got her attention. “Come on!”

We fled towards the stairs. Before we got out of sight I took a glance back and had one glimpse of Will on his back, slashing at the nocturne as it pulled him in. Captain America was kneeling and firing, gun flashing in staccato bursts, the nocturne reaching for him, and then we were racing up the stairs with the shouts and gunfire fading behind us.

By the time we made it up to the second floor Caldera was staggering and I knew we wouldn’t make it out of the mansion in time. I made a snap decision and pulled a door open. “In!” Once they were inside I slammed it behind us.

Sonder looked around, dismayed. We were in a bedroom, old and neglected, the bed covered in dust and the light dim through the grimy windows, and I realised that it was my old room. I hadn’t been intending to pick it but my feet had remembered the way. “There’s no way out!”

“You’ll have to gate us from here,” I told Caldera.

Caldera looked around and I knew what she was thinking. Gating is one of the more general elemental spells, but also one of the most dangerous; it works by creating a similarity between two points in space and to do it reliably you have to be very familiar with both the place you’re leaving and the place you’re going to. Caldera had studied the copse of trees on her last visit here; that was why she’d gated us there and not directly inside. She hadn’t studied this room. Gating from here would be risky.

On the other hand, trying to make the run out of the mansion with a bunch of homicidal adepts on our tail would be a lot more risky. I felt the futures fall into line as Caldera made her decision, and she began the spell. “Cover me,” she ordered.

I could hear the battle going on downstairs, and I didn’t know how much time we had. Nocturnes are semi-insubstantial and shooting them just draws their attention, but they can still be burnt and they’re still alive. If Will’s group could get organised—and unfortunately for me, they seemed to be pretty good at getting organised—then they’d be able to banish it. “I’ve got a forcewall,” I told Sonder, nodding at the door.

“I can do better than that,” Sonder said, and raised his hand towards the door. For a few seconds nothing happened, then the area around the door seemed to twist and warp before suddenly reflecting our images back at us. Where the door had been was a mirrored sphere, radiating from the wall. I could feel the time magic in the effect but it wasn’t a spell I’d ever seen before. “What is it?” I said.

“Stasis,” Sonder said, not taking his eyes off the sphere.

I raised my eyebrows. Even slowing someone down as Sonder had done a minute ago isn’t easy, and a temporal stasis is supposed to be even tougher. Sonder had gotten a lot better over the past year. From below I felt a flare of life magic, the draining, tugging sensation of Ja-Ja’s spell, and there was a whining, rasping sound just on the edge of hearing that made both me and Sonder flinch. The stasis flickered briefly, then strengthened. “I think the nocturne just lost,” I said. “Caldera?”

“Working on it,” Caldera said.

Sonder and I glanced at each other, then Sonder focused again on his stasis and I started calculating probabilities. I couldn’t see any future in which the adepts got through the stasis . . . yet. I also wasn’t sure how long it would take Caldera to pull off the gate, or whether she could manage it at all. From the stairs I heard running footsteps. They paused briefly in the corridor, then started towards us. “Caldera?” I said again.

“I’m working on it!”

The footsteps halted. The stasis was muffling the sounds, but I was pretty sure they were on the other side. I wondered what would happen if they opened the door into the spell. I couldn’t see the answer from my angle; in all of the futures I could see, the stasis remained as it was, smooth and unbroken. I heard a distant banging sound.

Then from behind I felt the catch as the gate spell took, and the portal opened behind us. Looking around, I saw the brown-rimmed oval hanging in the air, and through it someone’s living room. “Move!” Caldera shouted.

I didn’t argue, jumping through and landing on carpet. Caldera followed and Sonder came last, backing through the gate, still holding his focus on the stasis spell. The instant he was through, Caldera let the gate collapse and I had one last glimpse of my old bedroom before the gate winked out and was gone.

We were in the living room of what looked like a flat, an old sofa and armchairs surrounding a messy coffee table piled with books and letters. Dirty glasses and tea mugs were scattered around the papers, and one shelf was filled with bottles of spirits. It was a comfortable sort of untidy, the kind of room where it’s easy to fall asleep on the sofa. Through the window I could see London houses: we were on the second floor. I checked and rechecked the futures and confirmed that we were safe. No one was following us . . . at least not soon.

“What the hell was that?” Caldera said.

I turned to see that Caldera was glaring at me. “What?”

“How long have you known that Will and his Nightstalkers have been trying to kill you?”

“Since the last couple of times they tried.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“No.”

Caldera grabbed at me, trying to shove me up against the wall. It caught me by surprise and Sonder jumped back wide-eyed, but Caldera wasn’t fast enough to catch me, at least not wounded as she was. I knocked her hand away and she stumbled past. “What were you expecting?” I snapped. “I met you three days ago and you’re a Keeper. You think I’m going to tell you everything?”

Caldera rounded on me. “You put us in danger! You nearly got us killed!”

“And you led us in there! Which part of ‘going into Richard’s mansion is fucking insane’ did you not follow, Caldera? Was I not clear enough?”

“You should have told us!” Caldera still looked furious, but at least she didn’t seem about to lunge for me again. “We could have—”

“You could have what? I told you going into Richard’s mansion was suicidal. I told you Deleo had the place warded and there was nothing to find. I told you we were staying too long and it was time to get out, and you didn’t listen! You didn’t pay attention to anything I said that didn’t relate to your bloody job!” I shook my head in disgust. “Mages like you treat diviners like we’re some kind of information feed. You ask us a question, we pull out the answer, and you forget about us. Well, we don’t always have the answers you want, but what we are good at is telling when something’s dangerous. So next time a diviner tells you that, try listening!”

Caldera and I faced each other, glaring, until a cough broke the silence. We both turned to see that Sonder was raising his hand nervously. “Um,” he said. “Could we maybe talk about this quietly? Without the shouting and grabbing?”

All of a sudden the tension ebbed away. Caldera swayed on her feet and I caught her shoulder, staggering a little as I tried to hold her up. I’m pretty strong, but Caldera wasn’t light. “I’m fine,” Caldera muttered, trying to push me off.

“You’re not fine,” I said. “You need a healer.”

“I could call Anne,” Sonder said.

“That girl from the shop? Isn’t she ex-Dark?” Caldera shook her head. “I’m not letting her touch me.”

I sighed. “Caldera, you might be an asshole, but you just got hurt because you stepped in the way of a bunch of people trying to kill me. I’m not leaving until I know you’re okay.”

“Yeah, thanks for that.” Caldera dropped into one of the armchairs. “I’ll call one of the Keeper healers.”

“Then do it.”

Caldera gave me a look. “You aren’t supposed to be around.”

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. “What, you’re not supposed to have non-Light mages around for medical care? What exactly are you afraid I’m going to see?”

“It’s procedure, Verus,” Caldera said. She looked very weary all of a sudden.

“I’ll stay with her,” Sonder volunteered.

I looked at him for a second. I would have liked to stay, and despite everything I had the feeling Caldera didn’t really want to throw me out. But Caldera was probably right; if she was going to call in Keeper personnel they weren’t going to have much use for a non-Light diviner of questionable background. I wouldn’t be doing anyone any favours by staying. I turned to go.

“Verus,” Caldera said.

I stopped and looked back. Slumped in the chair, Caldera looked weary but still alert. “Don’t go after Will. Stay away from him.”

“That’s kind of easier said than done.”

“They attacked a Keeper,” Caldera said. “This isn’t your problem anymore. Just keep your head down and we’ll take it from here.”

I looked at Caldera for a moment. “I’ll give it a try,” I said at last, and walked out into the hall. The door to the flat was warded. I let myself out.

I had a lot to think about on the journey back.

There’s a feeling you get when you’re under pressure: a kind of nonstop anxiety, where it seems as if you’re spending all your time reacting to one crisis after another instead of doing anything yourself. I’ve had that feeling before, and one of the things I’ve learnt over the years is that when you get it, it means you’re doing something wrong.

I’d just nearly been killed three times in four days. The first time I’d been saved by Luna, the second time by Anne, and the third time by Caldera. If I kept this up, then sooner or later Will’s lot were going to catch me when I didn’t have a super-powered woman around to help me out. When what you’re doing isn’t working, you stop and figure out what’s wrong.

What was I doing wrong?

The first time, Will and the adepts had found me at the casino. The second time it had been at my house, and the third time it had been at Richard’s mansion. But looking back on it, I had advance warning each time. Before the casino, I’d met Lee on the rooftops, and I’d gone out anyway. I’d spoken to Will in the shop, and even though it was obvious they knew where I lived, I’d gone to sleep in my flat. And then, even knowing that they had a way to track me, I’d gone to Richard’s mansion. I’d used the annuller, which would have blocked most tracking spells . . . but I hadn’t known for sure that it would block their tracking spell. What I should have done was find an empty, quiet place and then look into the future for however long it took to confirm that they weren’t going to find me. Trying to make sure that something can’t happen is slow and frustrating work, but I should have spent the hours to do it and I hadn’t.

Arachne was right—I had been careless. And I’d put Caldera and Sonder at risk as a result.

It’s an unpleasant feeling to realise that other people are paying for your mistakes. Worse, this was something I was supposed to be good at. I’d been careful about this kind of thing once. Back in Richard’s mansion I never would have been so thoughtless—if I had, I wouldn’t have survived. The only thing that had kept me alive through those two years had been a hair-trigger sense for danger. Every second and every thought had been utterly focused on survival. What had changed?

I’d changed. It was as simple as that. For most of the past year I’d been spending my time teaching Luna, helping Anne and Variam, dealing with customers, working, relaxing, socialising, and generally having something much closer to a normal life. Oh, there had been danger, but it had been the sudden kind of danger, usually solved by running away. I’d never been seriously and persistently hunted. Even when I’d realised that Will and the adepts were coming for me, I’d treated it as a problem to be investigated.

But right now I wasn’t an investigator, I was prey. If the Nightstalkers caught me, they would kill me.

First they’d have to catch me.

Understanding that felt like opening a door to a part of my mind that had been closed for a long time. I felt the old animal wariness start to seep back, and I looked at the problem coldly and dispassionately. As long as the Nightstalkers had a reliable way to track me, they could keep forcing fights on their terms. If I allowed them to do that then sooner or later I’d be brought down and killed. The first priority had to be to break their tracking link.

The only thing so far that seemed to have blocked the link was Arachne’s lair. I’d been there for a day and a half after the casino fight, recovering, and the Nightstalkers hadn’t gone after me there. It had taken them much less time than that to track me down everywhere else, so evidence suggested that the wards on Arachne’s lair were strong enough to hide me. Which meant that whatever their spell was, it wasn’t unstoppable.

But I couldn’t stay in Arachne’s lair forever. I needed a way to hide while moving, and my best chance at doing that was my mist cloak. The first task was to retrieve it.

Getting past the police was the easy part.

I could only guess at the number of detectives who must have been swarming over my flat throughout the morning, but London’s a busy place and, no matter how spectacular the explosion, sooner or later the police have somewhere else to be. There was only one PC on duty, standing at the front of my shop and waving tourists away from the blue-and-white POLICE DO NOT CROSS tape.

Humans have a habit of thinking in two dimensions rather than three. We remember to guard the back door and the front door; we don’t usually guard the roof. I got onto the rooftops via the nearby flats, passed the railway line where Anne and I had made our escape last night, then crouched in the shadow of a chimney stack and looked into the future of what would happen if I stayed here.

The Nightstalkers were on their way, which wasn’t good news but by this point really wasn’t much of a surprise. Not only had the nocturne not shaken them, they actually seemed to be homing in on me faster and faster each time. I followed up the routes to check and . . . yes, they were going to gate onto the roof ahead, probably at the same spot they’d used to try to cut me and Anne off last night. I had maybe five minutes before they arrived.

I could run, but that would just be making the same mistake all over again. They’d keep chasing, and I’d be burning energy running away, reacting to them instead of doing anything constructive myself. Instead I looked into the futures in which I got my mist cloak. There wasn’t time to confirm that it’d hide me but it looked possible, and even if it didn’t work I’d have a better chance behind my home defences than out in the open. I moved quickly across the rooftops to my flat, skirted the hole in the top, and climbed down to the balcony to let myself in. My flat was a mess. While Anne and I had been busy with Ja-Ja, Variam and Luna had been fighting off the rest of the Nightstalkers below. It looked like they’d made their stand on the top landing, and the walls and banisters were charred. I moved down the stairs, heading for my safe room.

There are three floors to the building I live in. The first floor is the shop, along with a small boxroom for storage. The third floor is the flat where I actually live, with my bedroom, living room, bathroom, and kitchen, as well as the way out to the balcony and the roof. The second floor has the main storage room, a spare room which I converted into a bedroom last year and which is currently being occupied by Anne, and another door which looks sealed off. It isn’t—it’s my safe room, and it’s where I keep anything really valuable or dangerous.

I touched a spot on the door, said the command word, and felt the wards go down as I let myself in, shutting the door behind me. My safe room doesn’t have any windows and with the door shut it was pitch-dark. I didn’t turn on the light, relying on my diviner’s senses to navigate. My mist cloak was hanging on a peg at the side of the room; I pulled it around my shoulders, feeling the magic in the item meld itself around me, then I stepped to the corner and waited.

It’s easy to pick up magic items when you run a magic shop. I’ve been doing it for years and the size of my collection would surprise most mages . . . if I’d ever show it to them, which I wouldn’t. Although the safe room was dark, I could feel the dozens of overlapping auras from the items, holding steady in an uneasy equilibrium. The contents of the room would have looked bizarre to anyone able to see them. There was a sword hanging on the wall, oddly curved and with a hilt sculpted into the shape of a crocodile. A pale green egg rested on a shelf, point up in apparent defiance of gravity. Three darts were clamped tightly into a metal holder with a lock on it, and a white-and-blue tube of lacquered wood carved with flowers sat on its own in the middle of the table, far away from everything else. Odd items with odd purposes, most of them useless except for the person or situation for which they were designed. But just a few were very useful indeed, and my mist cloak was one of them.

My mist cloak is an imbued item and actually alive, though not in a way most people would understand. It’s weak by imbued-item standards, which makes it vastly more powerful than the one-shots I usually carry, and it does two things. The first is a type of adaptive camouflage, its colour changing to match its surroundings. It’s not invisibility—you can be seen if you move, and in broad daylight you just look very unfashionably dressed—but in cover or shadows, it makes you pretty hard to find.

The second ability is more specialised and from my point of view much more valuable. A mist cloak hides its wearer from magical senses, turning them into a kind of black hole against magical detection. Very few other mages know that I have access to that particular trick and I work hard to keep it that way—I’ve done a few things which the Council would have nailed me to the wall for if I hadn’t been wearing my mist cloak at the time. Now I was counting on it yet again.

Looking into the future, there was good news and bad news. The good news was that the mist cloak was definitely doing something—the lines of my futures and the Nightstalkers’ didn’t automatically converge into combat anymore. The bad news was that combat was still possible, it just wasn’t certain. I looked to see what would happen if I left the room and went back the way I came, and saw that the Nightstalkers were already here and heading in my direction. There were only three this time: Lee, Dhruv, and Captain America. I held my position and waited. After only a couple of minutes I heard footsteps through the wall, trying to be quiet.

One of the simpler uses of divination magic is short-range spying; you can look ahead into the futures in which you move closer to a target in order to watch them. People are unpredictable, so they have to be only a few seconds away, but as long as the environment is static it works consistently enough. My house was silent and empty, and the futures in which I opened the door were easy to follow. All three of them were there, standing close to one another. None had visible weapons, which was interesting. I knew Captain America and Dhruv would only need a second to draw them, but I could do a lot in a second. It looked like I wasn’t the only one making mistakes.

“I can’t find him,” Lee said at last. In the ambient light from the windows he looked nervous. He was right to be.

“You’re sure he was here?” Dhruv asked.

“I think so,” Lee said, glancing around.

“Was he moving when you lost him, or did he just vanish?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Well, which spot did you lose him in?”

“I don’t know,” Lee said, sounding aggravated. “I keep telling you, I just know the direction. You didn’t give me time to triangulate.”

“He probably gated,” Captain America said. He had an American accent too, though I didn’t recognise what kind. He didn’t look as edgy as Lee but he did look alert.

“Diviners can’t use gate magic,” Dhruv said.

“Didn’t stop him before.”

“That was the Keeper,” Dhruv said. “And Lee said she wasn’t with him anymore. Right?”

“No . . .” Lee said reluctantly.

“So.”

“Why were we fighting her?” Lee said. “I thought you just wanted Verus.”

“Because she wouldn’t get out of the way.”

“We could have waited.”

“That was Will’s decision, not yours,” Dhruv said. “You want to take it up with him?”

Lee was silent, but Captain America spoke up again. “He’s got a point.” As he spoke he kept looking from side to side, watching each door in turn as he faced Dhruv. “And what the fuck was Ja-Ja doing?”

“It was the middle of a fight,” Dhruv said. But there had been a moment’s hesitation, and I could tell he wasn’t quite as sure of himself as he was acting.

“Yeah, and it was supposed to be against Verus,” Captain America said. He didn’t sound happy. “What, we’re killing everyone in our way now?”

“Ja-Ja didn’t obey orders,” Dhruv said.

“Ja-Ja’s a psycho.”

“He’s our big gun.”

“Which doesn’t change the fact that he’s a fucking psycho.” Captain America’s voice was hard. “He shouldn’t be on the team.”

“As long as we can point him in the right direction, he’s useful.”

“I’m not seeing that,” Captain America said. “Didn’t he just nearly murder a Keeper? Isn’t that a problem?”

“When did you get so picky?” Dhruv said in annoyance. “‘No problem that can’t be solved by high explosives,’ wasn’t that what you used to say? You didn’t argue about that bomb. And you, Lee. You think the Keepers would have gotten you away from Locus? You’re here because of Will. Don’t forget that.”

Both Lee and Captain America were silent. “Look, we’ll talk about it back at base,” Dhruv said. “Let’s check this floor and get out of here. Have you tried all the rooms?”

“Those two,” Captain America said. “This one’s locked.”

“Lee?” Dhruv said. “Anyone on the other side?”

There was a pause and I tensed. “No,” Lee said at last.

“Can you get it open?” Dhruv asked Captain America.

Captain America hesitated and I held very still. I’d deliberately left the wards on the safe room down. They could have held the Nightstalkers out for a while, but they would have as good as told them that there was something in here to find. It would have taken them a while to break through, but I had no doubt they could do it eventually and once inside they couldn’t fail to find me.

But right now they weren’t expecting to find me, or they never would have had that conversation where I could hear them. For once I had the advantage of surprise, and I was done screwing around. My knife was hidden beneath the cloak, and if they forced their way through into this room I was going to kill them, simple as that. I’d promised Anne that I wouldn’t, and back when I’d said that I’d meant it, but I’d rather break a promise than die and that was what it was going to come down to at this rate. I’d take Dhruv or Captain America from ambush, then I’d bring up the wards to split the remaining two, kill whoever was on the same side as me, then run. Will would be on my trail in seconds and the chase would be brutal and ugly, but I’d been pushed as far as I was willing to go. I watched the futures flicker before me, Captain America making the decision, and wondered if he had any idea how close he and his friends were to death right now.

“No,” Captain America said at last. “Not without the cops hearing.”

“Fine, it looks sealed anyway. Let’s go.” Their footsteps started up again, trailing down the hall and then up the stairs. And then they were gone.

I waited for a long time, listening and looking ahead, but in both present and future the building was silent. I’d shaken the Nightstalkers. Now I had to figure out what to do next.

I stayed in that room for the rest of the day.

My mist cloak could hide me from Lee, but it’s not the best fashion choice for walking outside in broad daylight and while I waited for the long summer evening to end I called Luna. The phone rang for a while before picking up. “Hello?” Luna asked.

“It’s Alex. You guys okay?”

“Alex!” I could hear the relief in Luna’s voice. “We’re fine. Where are you?”

“You first. Did you sort things out with the police?”

“Uh, more or less,” Luna said. “They kind of want to talk to you.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t want to talk to them.” I could probably convince the police that the explosion hadn’t been my fault—which was the truth, ironically enough—but I absolutely couldn’t afford the distraction. “What did you tell them?”

“There wasn’t much we could tell them. The house blew up and you and Anne were on the wrong side, then all of a sudden they came up the stairs and it was me and Vari holding the landing. I thought they were going to swarm us then all of a sudden they were gone, I guess they were chasing—” I heard a voice in the background and Luna’s voice suddenly became muffled, as though she were talking to someone else. “Yeah, it’s him . . . I don’t know, how am I supposed—Fine, I’ll ask, just shut up.” Her voice became clear again. “Vari wants to know what happened at the mansion.”

“Managed to avoid Deleo, didn’t manage to avoid the Nightstalkers. Sonder was there and Caldera got hurt but we made it out alive.”

“Sonder was there? Why— Never mind. Are you okay? We didn’t know what had happened until we got Anne’s message.”

“I’m fine. Is Anne there too?”

“Yeah, we’re all at my flat. Where are you?”

“Hiding.”

“Um . . .” Luna said. “Okay.”

“There’s been a change of plans,” I said. “I’m not going to meet up with you.”

There was a moment’s silence. “Why not?”

“Right now I’m using my mist cloak to shake them. That won’t work if I’m with you guys. And Will and Ja-Ja have attacked a Keeper now. The Council is going to have trouble ignoring this.”

“Wait, so that’s the plan?” Luna sounded very sceptical. “Hope the Council sorts it out?”

“I haven’t given up on Elsewhere,” I said. “I was interrupted last time and I’m going to go back tonight. For now there’s not much you guys can do. Just stay together and stay safe.”

Luna took a while to answer. “All right,” she said at last. She didn’t sound happy, but she didn’t argue. “Be careful, okay?”

We spoke for a little longer, then I talked briefly with Anne and Variam. Even over the phone, speaking to them made me feel better, like warming my hands at a distant fire. At last I said my good-byes and hung up, then looked at the phone. I wasn’t happy either, and I knew why. It was because I hadn’t really been telling Luna the truth.

I hadn’t been lying. Waiting for tonight and the next visit to Elsewhere was a good plan, and it made sense to at least give Caldera a chance to see if she could keep her promise, even if deep down I didn’t really believe that the Keepers were going to bail me out. But there was a second reason I was staying away from Luna and Variam and especially Anne, and it was because of a quiet dark voice growing at the back of my mind telling me that there was only one way this was going to end. I wasn’t yet willing to follow that line of thought all the way through, but I knew better than to ignore it.

I stayed in my flat as the sun dwindled in the western sky, haunting the empty building like a ghost. The police didn’t return and neither did the Nightstalkers, and I spent my time digging through the ruins of my bedroom, salvaging what I could. There’s something unpleasant about having your home attacked, a kind of violation. I’ve had my flat invaded by various intruders before, including an assassin construct, two or three different Dark mages, and a particularly unfriendly shapeshifter, but none of them had wrecked the place so badly. Despite the damage I would have liked to sleep in my own flat, but common sense advised against it and once the sun had set I left my shop. I wondered how long it would be before I’d come back again.

Being able to look into the future gives you a certain amount of protection against being killed in your sleep, but as last night had demonstrated it’s not reliable. The basic problem is free will; once someone’s made their plans to kill you it’s easy to see them coming, but if they don’t decide on the details of their assassination attempt until after you’ve gone to sleep then it gets iffy. Until this was over I wasn’t going to be sleeping in any of the places I’d been attacked in. In fact, I wasn’t going to be following any of my usual routines at all.

This is the reason being hunted sucks so much. If you know who’s chasing you and how, it’s not difficult to throw off pursuers. The problem is doing anything else. I couldn’t run my shop, or live in my flat, or hang out with Luna or Anne or Variam or Sonder, or follow any of my usual patterns, because if I did I could be traced. Most people can get away from hunters in the short term—it’s the long term that trips them up. Even if you’re being hunted, life goes on: you have a job to do, places to go, and a home to live in. All those things make you predictable, and sooner or later someone will use them to find you. I couldn’t keep hiding forever. Right now, though, I just needed somewhere to sleep.

The Royal National Hotel is next to Russell Square, a gigantic concrete-and-brick building that sprawls over an entire city block. It’s the largest hotel in London and feels like a small airport, right down to the people sitting on the carpets in the lounge with luggage piled around them. My mist cloak drew stares but I was too tired to care. The reception staff didn’t even blink; either they were too well trained or they’d seen so many weird guests that nothing fazed them anymore. Probably both.

My room was on the second floor with a view out over the flagpoles of the inner courtyard. I didn’t undress or even empty my pockets; I just dropped on the bed and closed my eyes. I was asleep inside two minutes.