Risen

20

Sight and sound crashed into me as I came back down in the shadow realm, weight and light and feeling. I was standing in Sagash’s duelling ring with Anne in my arms and I looked down at her, my heart in my throat. I didn’t know how much damage I’d done to her mind, but her chest rose and fell and that meant she was still alive, at least for now. Luna and the others might already be gone; I had to get Anne out of here before—

A terrible pain stabbed through my chest.

I gasped, falling to one knee. For a moment I thought I’d been shot, and I scanned the room, searching for enemies. Nothing. Then why—

Oh.

Klara’s words from a week and a half ago echoed through my head: ‘. . . your right lung will be transmuted, followed by your heart. This will cause them both to shut down . . .’

The pain was like nothing I’d ever felt. No, once before – that time in the deep shadow realm, when something that looked like Anne had stopped my heart. It was like a muscle cramp through my lungs, one that didn’t stop but got worse and worse. My vision was greying out with the pain and I was feeling light-headed; I was getting a tiny trickle of air, but it wasn’t enough.

I kept trying to breathe but it wasn’t working, and deep down, I knew it wasn’t going to. Klara had warned me this would happen, warned that if I kept using the fateweaver it’d kill me. I hadn’t listened, and now I was paying the price.

I couldn’t see any more. I’d dropped Anne and the sovnya; dimly I was aware that I was lying on my side. The pain in my chest was burning agony, and I found myself wishing it would be over soon. Diviners get to experience a lot of ways to die and suffocation is one of the bad ones, but at least it’s quick. A little more and it would be over.

Over . . .

Faces swam up through my memories. My mother, her eyes dark and intense, fingers gripping my arm as she told me you come back. Luna, making me promise to fight to the end.

Something rose up inside me with a snarl. No.

I reached inside myself, to the fateweaver. It was killing me, but it was still mine. I found the future I needed and forced it through, willing my lungs to expand.

Air flooded into my chest with a gasp. It burned, but it was life, and I pulled it in and out as I forced my own lungs to breathe. My muscles did half the work, the fateweaver the other. Air kept cycling through my body, and as I opened my eyes the ceiling above me swam back into view.

Up. Get up. Painfully I rolled over, getting onto hands and knees. Anne was next to me, lying on her back on the stone.

And next to Anne was Hermes. The blink fox yipped at me.

I’m okay, I told Hermes through the dreamstone. I couldn’t manage speaking yet. I controlled my breaths, getting them to a steady rhythm until I had enough oxygen again. It was a bizarre, unpleasant feeling, like giving CPR to your own chest. Pain flared in my body with each breath, but compared with a moment ago, it was nothing.

Hermes yipped again. I’m coming, I thought, and reached for the sovnya.

Hermes shrank down, his tail curling between his legs.

It’s all right, I told him. I won’t let it . . . hurt . . . you . . .

I trailed off. Hermes wasn’t looking at the sovnya. He was looking behind me, up towards the door.

‘Hello, Alex,’ a voice said.

It was a very familiar voice.

Hermes blinked away, air rushing in to fill the space as he vanished. I took a deep, mechanical breath, pulling air into my lungs and pushing it out. Then using the sovnya, I hauled myself up.

Richard was standing on the gallery, just inside the door by which I’d entered.

A tremor ran through the shadow realm. I felt the stones shift under my feet; trails of dust came trickling from the ceiling. ‘Well,’ Richard said. He began walking, circling the gallery. He reached the stairs and descended, shoes ringing on the metal steps. ‘It seems I missed quite a show.’

My eyes tracked Richard all the way down.

Richard stepped off the stairs onto my level and I took a step sideways to place myself between him and Anne. ‘I see you put my ring to good use,’ Richard said with a nod towards Anne.

‘I was wondering why you gave it up so easily.’

Richard came to a stop, watching me pleasantly from just outside the duelling ring. He seemed in no hurry.

‘Why did you let me have the Council’s weapon too?’ I asked when Richard didn’t speak. ‘Just feeling generous?’

‘You seemed to need it more than I did,’ Richard said with a shrug. ‘No need to be greedy.’

‘You never did value possessions for their own sake.’

Richard inclined his head. There was a pause.

‘Did you plan this from the beginning?’ I asked.

‘Plan all this from the beginning?’ Richard said, raising his eyebrows. ‘Alex, I’m flattered you believe I possess that level of foresight, but you and Anne between you have managed to create such utter chaos that my long-term plans were wrecked weeks ago. You personally have forced me to abandon my entire course of action and start from scratch no less than twice in the past twenty-four hours. I don’t know who could have possibly anticipated all of the absurd things you’ve ended up doing. I certainly didn’t.’

Another tremor went through the keep, accompanied by another trickle of dust. The battle with the marid had fried my comm focus and I couldn’t sense the Council forces anywhere. Richard and I were alone. ‘Glad I’m making a difference.’

‘Oh, trust me, no one is going to question that. I don’t know whether to put it down to desperation or sheer stupidity, but dealing with the two of you has been like trying to steer a wild elephant. When Anne was possessed by the sultan, I really thought things might settle down, but you’ve been quite determined to take up the slack. Take that assault on my forces. You have no idea how much work it took me to persuade Nimbus that a head-on confrontation between my adepts and his Keepers would be too costly. And then just when I’ve almost found a way to resolve things neatly, what do you do? You assassinate him and send the Keepers in anyway.’ Richard gave an exasperated sigh. ‘I suppose I only have myself to blame. I did ask you to protect the girl. I just didn’t expect you to take it quite so seriously.’

‘And let me guess,’ I said. ‘This is where you take Anne and that marid and start the whole thing all over again.’

‘I’ll admit, it’s tempting,’ Richard said. ‘To bring Anne to account for her various betrayals, if nothing else. But no. Anne may be powerful and she may be an ideal jinn host, but if I’d known from the beginning just how much sheer aggravation she would cause, I would have shot her myself. Between her conscious self stubbornly refusing to co-operate, and her shadow self wreaking mayhem, she is the most irritating girl I have ever had to deal with. Honestly, I have no idea how you put up with her. I’d have thought you could do better.’

‘You hang around with Rachel, Crystal and Vihaela, and you’re giving me a hard time about my choice in women?’

‘Well, there’s no accounting for taste,’ Richard said. ‘In any case, take Anne and be done with her. Quite frankly, I’ll be happy if I never see her again.’

I didn’t move. I knew Richard hadn’t come here just to tell me that.

‘The ring, however, is another matter.’ Richard held out his hand. ‘If you don’t mind?’

I looked at him.

‘I would really appreciate it if you don’t fight me on this one, Alex.’

‘Do you have a new host lined up? Or are you going to do it yourself for a change?’

‘I’m sure you’ll find out sooner or later.’

‘No, I don’t think I will.’

A shudder went through the keep. I heard a cracking, groaning sound, and felt the floor tremble as something collapsed far below. ‘This strikes me as neither the time nor the place,’ Richard said.

‘Maybe you should have thought of that before triggering that isolation ward,’ I said. ‘And actually, I’d say that the middle of yet another one of your giant destructive screw-ups is a very appropriate place.’

‘For heaven’s sake, Alex,’ Richard said in exasperation. ‘The last time we had one of these conversations, you made it clear that the girl was your sticking point. That you were doing all this for her. Well, you’ve got her, and you even have enough time to spirit her away somewhere safe before you finally fall over dead. Your objective has been achieved.’

I nodded.

‘So can you please explain why you are standing in my way?’

‘One question first,’ I said. ‘Why?’

‘Why am I here? Why am I talking to you? Why do I—?’

‘Why any of it,’ I said. ‘What was it for?’

‘If you can’t figure that out by now . . .’

‘Oh, I know what your plan was,’ I said. ‘Control the marid, make an army of jinn mages, take over the country. But what was the point? Even before this war, you were one of the most powerful Dark mages in Britain. You had a mansion filled with servants, apprentices vying to be your successor. Wealth, status, women – anything you could have wanted, you only had to snap your fingers. But somehow none of that was enough.’

‘I did have such ambitions in my younger days,’ Richard said. ‘But the trappings of success grow stale.’

‘Then what doesn’t? More power?’

‘Essentially.’

‘When does it stop?’ I asked. ‘Say you’d succeeded, taken over the country, then what? Would you have built a bigger army, aimed for other countries? All of Europe? The world?’

‘The world seems a little ambitious,’ Richard said. ‘But as long as it works . . .’

‘You still haven’t given me an answer.’

‘Honestly, Alex,’ Richard said. ‘Look at anyone who rises to the top. The Senior Council, the presidents and prime ministers of the modern age, the kings and warlords of olden times. Why do you think they do it? To change the world? Power doesn’t need a purpose: power is its own purpose. It is the only goal that has value in itself, because it is the means by which all other goals are achieved.’

‘So you’re saying it’s never enough. There’s always more.’

‘Alex, I’ve tried to be patient with you. I have answered your questions and explained my reasons. However, my patience is not unlimited and I do not intend to stand around debating you until this shadow realm collapses. Give me the ring.’

‘No.’

Richard rolled his eyes. ‘You’re as bad as she is.’

‘For someone who spends so much time manipulating people, you have some real blind spots about how they work.’

‘Enlighten me, then,’ Richard said with a sigh. ‘You’ve gone to all these extraordinary lengths to save the girl lying on the floor behind you. And against all odds, you’ve done it. You’ve won! All you have to do is hand over an item – one which was not even yours to begin with, I should add – and that would be the end of it. But instead you’ve decided to turn around just before the finish line.’

‘Well, here’s the thing,’ I said. ‘I don’t think that would be the end of it. I’m sure if I hand over this ring you’ll go on your way quite happily. But sooner or later, in a year or five years or ten years, you’ll pop up with a new host and a new army and start all over again. Because just like you said, it’s never enough. You’ll never be satisfied with what you have, and that means you’ll keep coming back again and again until someone stops you.’

‘I remember a boy who cared nothing for others. Who was quite happy to let them fight, while he followed his own path.’

‘I haven’t been that boy for a long time. And the biggest reason for that is you. You’re more willing to get your hands dirty than the Light Council, but you know one thing you and the Council have in common? You both like to push the dirty jobs off onto someone else. And a lot of that time, that someone has been me. You see it from on high as a chess game between kings and princes. But when I see it from ground level it’s a lot harder to ignore the costs.’ I looked Richard in the eyes. ‘You have left a trail of death and destruction and misery everywhere you have gone. Some of the people you trampled chose to fight you; some were just unlucky enough to be in your way. But no matter what, every part of the world is a worse place once you’ve been there. You were willing to start a war that could have brought a new age of darkness, all to get one over on the Council.’

‘You were the one who decided freeing that marid was a good idea,’ Richard said. ‘Though I suppose you did eventually clean up your own mess.’

‘But worse than any of that,’ I said, ‘is that you lead other people into evil. You built up that army of adepts with promises and honeyed words, and led them to their deaths while you walked away. You started a war between mages and adepts and a whole lot of regular people, most of whom had probably never even heard of you but who just happened to get caught in the crossfire. And if you want the best example, look at your own apprentices. We were supposed to be your legacy, weren’t we? The proof of your greatness. Well, take a look how we turned out. Tobruk, dead. Shireen, dead. Rachel, insane and dead. I’m the only one left, and I’m willing to risk my life to stop you. “By their fruits ye shall know them”, isn’t it? What does that say about you?’ I looked straight at Richard. ‘You’re worse than a warlord. You’re a bad teacher.’

Richard’s smile slipped. In the seventeen years I’d known him, it was the first time I’d seen him genuinely insulted. ‘I gave you everything. I made you.’

‘Oh, all those things you gave me! You made me a Dark apprentice at seventeen, a criminal at eighteen, a slave at nineteen and a murderer by twenty. Every one of the worst things in my life traces right back to that day you walked up to me on the school playground.’

‘You were nothing when I found you!’ Richard snapped. ‘Everything you learnt, you learnt from me! You think I haven’t noticed you copying my tricks?’ He took a breath, seemed to calm himself. ‘Well. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. But I did expect some level of gratitude.’

‘Gratitude?’ My voice cracked as I finally lost my temper. ‘You self-satisfied arsehole. You have never taken responsibility for the shit you’ve done, not once! Even when your jinn nearly wrecked the whole country you blamed it on me!’ I tightened my grip on the sovnya to stop my fingers from trembling. ‘I am sick of you, sick of you coming back over and over again to ruin my life. Now I’ll make you an offer. You turn around and walk away, and you never go near me or Anne or this ring as long as you live. Because if I ever see you again, it’ll be the last time.’

Silence greeted my words. Another shudder went through the keep, and I heard the rumble of falling stone. Richard looked at me without expression. ‘You don’t want to do this, Alex.’

‘I have never wanted to do anything more.’

‘Stand against me,’ Richard said, ‘and after I kill you, I’ll kill her.’

‘You don’t know as much about the future as you think.’

‘Look, Alex,’ Richard said. ‘Let’s—’ He stopped suddenly as his expression changed.

There. I’d been wondering when Richard would see this coming. No more reason to hold back. I flooded the futures with static.

Instantly my precognition was blanked out. When you can use divination all the time, you grow to rely on it. I barely even think of it as magic any more; it’s just another sense, like sight or hearing. Now instead of seeing Richard and the room around me in four-dimensional clarity, all the woulds and coulds and mights, my vision dwindled down to only the present, with everything beyond nothing but a blank void. Hard to believe normal people lived like this all the time.

But it was my choice, and that made a difference. I looked at Richard.

‘Very impressive,’ Richard said tightly. ‘Did you learn that from Helikaon or Alaundo?’

I gave him a cold smile. ‘Use your divination and find out.’

There was a new wariness in Richard’s eyes. He’s afraid. For the first time in probably years, Richard couldn’t see what was coming. He was still deadly dangerous, but his best defence had been stripped from him. ‘Last chance to walk away,’ I said.

Richard paused. If I could still see the future, I knew that I’d be seeing the shifting strands of him making a decision. Then his expression became flat and unreadable. ‘As you wish.’

Sagash’s arena was still. The tremors had fallen silent, and the two of us faced each other across the duelling ring.

‘So,’ I said. ‘What’ll—?’

A thread-thin black wire flashed out towards me.

Even without my precognition, I’d seen it coming. I knew Richard, and I knew how he fought – a killing attack as the opening move. I brought up the sovnya, channelling through the fateweaver, and the black wire curved in to strike the sovnya’s blade, the weapon flashing red as it ate the jinn’s magic.

I charged.

Richard struck again but I swerved as I ran; the attack missed and I felt a flash of triumph. He wasn’t used to fighting without his divination. Richard started a third attack but I stabbed with the sovnya and he had to abort his movement to throw up a black shield.

I pressed in, swinging the sovnya in tight, deadly arcs. I had to control my breathing through the fateweaver and maintain the optasia at the same time, but with no need to keep up my precognition, I had attention to spare. Richard fell back before my assault, face tight with concentration. The black shield around him flickered, flaring when the sovnya cut into it. He tried to strike back with those black wires but they were unwieldy at close range and the fateweaver sent them into the walls and floor.

Another tremor shook the keep, and the floor shifted beneath my feet. Both Richard and I stumbled but Richard recovered first and his hand blurred.

Light exploded at our feet, dazzling me. I felt Richard’s jinn magic lash out and I blindly pulled it in to catch it on the sovnya’s blade. Without my divination, the fateweaver was cruder, a club instead of a scalpel, but I poured power into it and willed myself to be safe and nothing touched me.

My vision cleared, black-purple spots fading as I heard running feet. I was still dazzled but I could make Richard out at the other end of the room. It had been some sort of one-shot, a flash bomb; he’d managed to draw it without my seeing. Now he stood half-turned away from me, right hand behind him while the left held a tangle of spinning black wires. He was working on a spell.

‘An impressive weapon,’ Richard said. ‘Unfortunately—’

I activated my headband and kicked off the ground, soaring towards Richard with the sovnya extended.

Richard’s mouth quirked in a smile. He let the spell drop and brought up his other hand to reveal a gun.

Richard shot me twice while I was still in mid-air, then dived aside as I flew past. I crashed into the wall, and before I could recover he’d emptied his gun into me, firing until it clicked on an empty magazine and the echoes of the shots faded away.

I straightened and turned to face him.

‘A bullet ward?’ Richard snapped. ‘You’ve been saving that this whole time?’

‘What can I say?’ I’d been channelling a thread of power into the bullet ward since the fight started, and it had deflected every shot. ‘You taught me to be prepared.’

Richard backed away. That black shield was powerful, but from the way he was eyeing the sovnya he didn’t seem to want to test it against a direct hit. Another tremor ran through the floor; I kept my balance this time and as the spots faded from my vision I lunged.

Richard created an attack behind me, black wires lancing for my head, but I’d seen him use that trick before and I used the fateweaver to make it miss. The sovnya cut rents into his shield and he had to scramble back. But he was running out of space now, underneath the gallery with the wall behind him. I deflected another shot with the fateweaver, then brought the sovnya around, left hand high and right hand at elbow level so that the blade hissed across at waist height in a sweeping blow, impossible to dodge.

Richard dropped his gun and snatched out something small: with a shing! noise it expanded into a thin metal staff six feet long. The sovnya hit it with a high-pitched clang. The staff should have snapped under the blow but it rang and held.

I reversed and struck again but again Richard parried, sliding away. I followed up, not giving him the chance to open the range. The sovnya flickered and slashed, but each time that staff stopped it a foot or two short.

The clash of metal echoed through the room, mixing with the stutter and thud of footwork. My breaths came in and out, harsh and mechanical, as I forced my lungs to expand and contract. Richard fought in silence, but I could see sweat on his forehead and his eyes darted to follow my attacks. Stone dust hung in the air. My left hand was sweaty and my muscles burned, but my right arm was tireless and I put all its power into my blows, forcing Richard to block perfectly or die.

I brought the sovnya down in an overhead strike. Richard deflected the blow, taking the instant’s breather to try to back away, but I reversed to slash at his ankles, forcing him to jump. He landed with a thump and I was on him again; I wasn’t giving him the chance for any more tricks. Richard was too busy parrying my blows to attack with his jinn magic; from time to time he had openings to strike with the staff but he didn’t take them, devoting all his attention to defence. I recognised the style he fought with; it wasn’t so different from the one I’d learnt in his training hall all those years ago. The sovnya did its part, seeming to twist and strike of its own accord. It could sense the thing inside Richard and it wanted to cleave his flesh and bone to reach it.

And Richard was struggling. He was good – maybe as good as me – and he had that jinn, but I had the fateweaver and a better weapon and a stronger right arm. A blow battered through his defences, scoring a gash across his body armour; he blocked the next strike, but the one after that tore open a webbing pouch, scattering its contents on the floor. I could hear his breathing, harsh and ragged – was there fear in those brown eyes? Richard tried to call up some kind of spell, but I was on him instantly and this time he took a cut to his forearm. I was pouring everything I had into the fateweaver, forcing the futures towards ones where my blows landed. It was the most energy I’d ever put into the thing and I knew I couldn’t keep this up but I wouldn’t have to: Richard was being overwhelmed. He wasn’t trying to attack or get away any more, all his attention was on the next parry. Sweat soaked my clothes and my muscles were crying out, but Richard was slowing down too. A little more—

Pain stabbed through my chest. I ignored it, brought the sovnya down in a crushing blow that cut Richard’s shoulder through his armour. He backed away towards the wall and—

—the pain stabbed again, sharper and stronger. It didn’t stop; it pulsed, and kept pulsing in time with the beating of—

—my heart.

No! Panic filled me. No, no! Not now! Not NOW! Desperately I tried to keep up the attack, but pain flooded my body; my head swam and I stumbled. Richard was backpedalling, watching me with a calculating gaze. I tried to chase after him, but the cramp grew worse, stronger with each beat. I chased him, but I couldn’t catch him and the agony in my chest grew worse and worse until it seized up.

My vision greyed out for a moment, and when it came back I was on one knee. I tried to get back up and couldn’t.

It was over.

‘Well,’ Richard said from a distance. ‘You certainly made that as difficult as possible.’

I couldn’t answer. My breath was coming in short, quick gasps. I could just barely pull enough air into my lungs, but my heart was fluttering, beating in fits and starts. The only way I could keep it going was by using the fateweaver to push through the futures in which I stayed alive . . . except that using the fateweaver was making it worse.

There was no way out.

‘What a pathetic ending,’ Richard said. He was still breathing hard and he looked hurt, but he could move and I couldn’t. He retracted the staff with a metallic shikk, then circled to put me between him and the wall; another tremor shook the keep and he paused until the floor had stopped quaking. ‘Killed by your own weapon.’

The sovnya quivered in my hand; it wanted so badly to kill Richard, but he was staying out of reach. I stared daggers at him but there was nothing I could do.

‘I have to admit,’ Richard said, ‘after all the trouble you’ve caused, I’m tempted to make this slow and painful.’ He considered a moment, then shook his head. ‘No, one should stay practical about these things.’ He drew a second gun, a small holdout, and levelled it at me. Somehow it didn’t surprise me that he had two. ‘Die.’

The gun cracked and I sent a thread of magic through the bullet ward. The very weakness of the focus saved me; its energy requirements were so low that I could still power it. The bullets glanced away.

Richard paused, then sent a twisting line of black wires at my head. I changed my focus through the fateweaver, and twitched the sovnya. The wires curved in to strike the blade and were absorbed.

‘Really, Alex?’ Richard said. ‘You’re going to make me do this?’ He drew a knife.

Richard walked forward. My eyes flicked past him, around the room, searching desperately for some advantage, some trick. There was nothing. Scatterings of rubble around the edges, the duelling ring under Richard’s feet, Anne lying behind him . . .

Anne. Arachne’s dress.

I levelled the sovnya at Richard, and as I did I reached out with my magic, channelling a thread of power into the imbued item behind.

The dress responded instantly. Spells activated and began to work, weaving at lightning speed. I could recognise the signature of Arachne’s magic, tightly woven and subtle. The spell was enormously powerful, but so well-masked I could hardly sense it.

Richard paused just out of my range. I could barely move; once he got inside the polearm’s reach, it would be over. I kept the sovnya pointed at him with my left arm, while with my right hand I drew my gun.

Agony flooded my body and my vision went white. Richard could have killed me in that instant but I was still blocking his divination, and as my vision came back I saw that he’d used the time to put his shield back up. Black energy flickered where the gun was pointing, while with his other hand he held the knife point upwards. Its edge gleamed faintly in the light.

I’d slumped the rest of the way to the floor, propped up on my side and one elbow. The sovnya trembled as I kept it and the gun levelled. Richard held the shield ready to block any shots, his stance wary.

‘You’re only making this harder on yourself,’ Richard told me. I saw his eyes flicker and knew he was calculating how to get close enough to cut my throat. Behind him, Arachne’s spell was working, repairing the damage to Anne’s mind, but it needed time. I saw Richard tense, about to move—

Hermes blinked into existence right in front of me.

Richard paused. Hermes crouched protectively in front of my body and gave a sharp, threatening bark.

Richard gave the fox an exasperated look. ‘Oh, come on.’

Richard took a step to the right. Hermes shifted to keep himself between Richard and me. Richard moved back to the left, and again Hermes mirrored him.

‘For heaven’s sake, Alex,’ Richard said. ‘First you and your girlfriend, now you want me to kill your pet as well?’

I didn’t answer. I was keeping up the optasia, forcing my lungs to breathe, training my weapons on Richard, and pushing the fateweaver to keep my heart just barely beating. It was straining me to my limit and I had nothing left to guard against an attack.

But Richard didn’t know that. I saw his eyes flick between the sovnya and the gun and Hermes; none were a threat on their own but there was no easy way for him to kill me without leaving himself open. Hermes growled, his tail bushed up.

Another quake shook the keep, and Richard staggered. The motion jolted my chest and white spots danced before my eyes. My muscles were trembling and it was all I could do to hold up my weapons.

Behind Richard, Anne stirred.

As the floor steadied, Anne rose. She came to her feet with a liquid flowing movement, like a shadow on the wall. I saw her gaze lock onto Richard; ahead of her, Richard recovered his balance and prepared to move.

I looked up at Richard and smiled.

Richard stared back at me, then understanding flashed in his eyes and he spun.

Anne was sprinting, low to the ground, long legs carrying her across the duelling ring as they’d done so many times before. Richard’s arm came up, the magic of his jinn darkening into a black shield, a killing spell gathering at his palm.

I levelled my gun at Richard’s back, the barrel trembling. It was hard to see but I put everything I had into the fateweaver, willing Richard’s death, and as I did I dropped the optasia and saw every future but one blink out.

The trembling stopped.

I fired.

Richard grunted. His spell discharged, going wide; an instant later Anne slammed into him, hand coming up like a knife. Green light flickered, soft and deadly. Richard crumpled, leaving Anne standing over him, spots of his blood on her skin where they’d been flung by the bullet. She stared down at his body.

For the first and last time, I reached out to Richard with the dreamstone. I searched for his mind and found nothing. Gone.

It was over.

I let out my breath and let myself fall.

I heard a rush of footsteps and saw Anne kneeling over me, hair hanging down towards my face. She glanced up and down my body and worry sprang into her eyes. ‘Hold still.’

You sound different, I told her through the dreamstone. I’d stopped breathing, but that didn’t seem important any more. My heart beat in fits and starts, on the edge of failing.

‘Well, you made sure of that, didn’t you?’ Green light glowed at the edges of my vision and I sensed Anne’s magic taking shape. ‘I’ve got a lot to say to you, but it can wait.’

The pain was fading. I didn’t know whether it was Anne’s doing or not, but it felt wonderful. If you ever see Arachne again, I told Anne, tell her thank you.

‘Tell her yourself. All right, here we go.’

I felt Anne’s magic take hold, working on my body. Scrapes and cuts healed, and the beating of my heart steadied, but it didn’t grow stronger.

I lay peacefully on the stone, looking up at Anne. After all that had happened, it was nice to just watch her. Red-brown eyes flicked back and forth; a frown creased her forehead; her hair brushed my shoulder and she absently pushed it behind her ear. Your hair looks nice like that, I said.

‘That should have worked,’ Anne muttered. She tried again, her spell weaving through me.

Can’t heal this, Anne. Anne’s healing works by speeding up the body’s natural regeneration, pouring energy into it to let it rebuild itself. But my heart and lungs were being transformed, not damaged. There was nothing to heal.

Stop distracting me, Anne said. Her thoughts were focused, abstracted. She started work on a different type of spell, weaving it through her hand as it rested on my chest.

It’s not your fault, I said. I felt warm and at peace. There was nothing to fight or be anxious about any more. How long since that had been true? I couldn’t even remember.

I didn’t have the strength to keep using the fateweaver. I let go of the path where I stayed alive, letting the futures open freely.

The futures didn’t open. The fateweaver kept working, doing it by itself. It’s not going to make a difference, you know, I told it. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised: the fateweaver was alive, just as I was, and it wanted to live too. It didn’t understand that it was killing me.

Anne’s spell failed again. ‘Come on!’ she shouted. ‘Why won’t it work?’

It’s okay, I told her. I knew this was coming. I raised my artificial arm – the only one I could still lift – and stroked her cheek gently. I couldn’t see very well but I could just make out her face. Glad I got to see you one last time.

Realisation flashed in Anne’s eyes, followed by fear. ‘No!’ She stared down at me with a look of dawning helplessness. ‘You can’t do this! Not now!’

I felt a cold nose poke against my left hand, and smiled slightly. Hermes. I did everything I set out to do, I told her. Now I get to die in the arms of the woman I love. Good way to go.

The fateweaver was still holding me to a single future, but I was close enough now to make out the end. It was like riding a train to the end of the line. Beyond was an empty void, though it was white, not black. Had it always been that way?

‘There’s got to be something.’ I couldn’t make out Anne’s face any more, but I could hear her talking to herself, her voice quick and frantic. ‘Rebuild from another organ, no. Amputate . . . too late. Oxygen . . .’

The shadow realm trembled and I heard the grinding crack of breaking stone, followed by a roar. The floor bucked and shook. You really should get out of here, I told Anne and Hermes.

‘Be quiet! It’s the fateweaver, I can’t heal you while it’s doing that. Have to make it part of the solution somehow . . .’

You can’t save everyone this time. The end of the line was very close. But it’s okay. It doesn’t hurt any more. I’ve been pushing myself so long but it’s finally over.

Anne said something I couldn’t hear.

Now I can stop, I told her. I let the connection go.

My heart beat one last time, then ceased. Feeling left my body, starting at the outskirts and drawing in. Sight and sound and touch drifted away, leaving only a white void. It was very peaceful.

Dimly, as if from a great distance, I could make out Anne’s voice. ‘. . . no,’ she was saying, and there was something dark and furious in her voice. ‘You aren’t allowed to die. Not until . . .’ Then all sound was gone.

The train reached the end of its tracks and plunged into a dazzling white sky.

I felt as though I was racing through the clouds and into infinity. You know, I thought as my senses faded, all in all, that really wasn’t so bad.

And then there was nothing at all.

THE END

of the Alex Verus series

(Yes, this is really the end.)

(There’s no need to be like that. You had plenty of warning. Alex went into that knowing what was going to happen, and you should have known too.)

(Really, you can put the book down.)

(You’re very persistent.)

(Still here?

I told you, Alex’s story is over.

But it’s true, there are others.

Very well. Where to begin . . . ?

Three and a half weeks have passed.

In London, the sun rises on a cool October morning.

Somewhere in Camden Town is a street, fenced in by

the canal and the train lines. On that street is a shop,

with letters above the window that read Arcana

Emporium. The door swings open . . .)