Adamant (31 page)

Ada made a noise halfway between a laugh and a sob. “You really think of everything, don’t you?”

I shook my head. “If I thought of everything, I’d have seen Ellen for what she was. I could have…” I stopped. “Never mind. It’s done now. We’ll go back to Earth and let the Alliance take care of the rest.”

If it’s not too late.
And the Campbell family wouldn’t take our escape lying down. I glanced at Ada, wondering whether it was worth risking a question.

“How were they planning on attacking Central?” I asked. “You said they wanted–” I checked to make sure no one was listening, but the other passengers had done their best to squeeze themselves into the neighbouring carriages, and more than a few had got off at the stop we’d passed—“to use you as a weapon.”

“They didn’t get that far.” She swallowed. “I was supposed to show them what I could do. They tested me—on two other magic-wielders.”

Oh God.
I knew what happened. Because I’d almost caused similar carnage myself. When magic took control… anyone who stood in the way could get killed.

There was nothing I could say. Adding my pain to her own wouldn’t help her, anyway.

Instead, I forced out the question, “How did you escape?”

She took a shaky breath. “Turns out they were in the room with me, can you believe it? Two—two of them. They were mad, totally crazy. They
wanted
me to hurt them.” Her hand gripped mine convulsively, making me jerk back in surprise. Her fingers were icy cold. “They were experiments,” she said. “The Alliance did some kind of experiment on them a few years ago. They could turn invisible. They had magic, like, inside them. Like–like–”

Like Ada.
Was it the same thing? It seemed unlikely, unless of course the Alliance had got the substance from Enzar. But I knew my father had connections with other worlds where magic-based sources were commonplace. I wouldn’t put anything past him. He’d just left the other victims to their own devices—let them walk around with a dangerous power and no clue how to use it. No way could he have known the results. He’d never have left me behind otherwise, even though I’d flat-out refused to have anything more to do with him. A magic-wielder with a permanent inbuilt magic source would be a perfect weapon. As was all too clear, someone else had made the connection first.

Ada’s hand held mine, tighter, and I realised I was shaking, too.

“They could turn invisible?” I asked.

She nodded. “Like human Chameleon devices.” She fiddled with something on her ear. The earpiece. “This is only part of it. The devices can turn someone completely invisible, for a few minutes, anyway. I used it to sneak into Central and steal the bloodrock. That effing bloodrock.” She laughed shakily. “It’s what made the Chameleons invisible. Maybe that’s what they injected those kids with. It’s sick, so sick…”

“I know,” I said quietly.

She tilted her head back so our eyes met. And… I knew. She’d found out, all right. But that wasn’t pity in her eyes: it was understanding.

“I could have stopped them. They…” Ada’s grip tightened. I was beginning to lose feeling in my fingers.

“Whatever happened, it wasn’t your fault,” I said.

Ada shook her head. “You didn’t… didn’t see…”

“It wasn’t your fault.” I had to repeat that. No one had said it for me. I still didn’t think I’d deserved it. But Ada hadn’t chosen this for herself.

The locomotive slowed and most of the people clustering at the edges of the carriage disembarked. I glanced up. “We’re almost at north-side. One more stop.”

“How in the Multiverse do you know all this? I thought you’d never been offworld.”

“I checked out the directions on my communicator.”

“What, you have like a photographic memory or something?”

“Habit. Never mind that. There’s an entrance to the Passages on the other side of the station. We’ll go through there. And then…”

Then I was going to have to tell her. She couldn’t go back to Earth, not with the Campbell family out looking for her and waiting to destroy the Alliance.

There was only one option.

But I couldn’t say it with her half-lying in my lap, her hand clenched around mine. “Wait, what happened to your shoes?”

“Oh,” she said. “I stole Delta’s hover boot.”

“You did what?” Just when I thought she couldn’t surprise me anymore. I glanced at the few remaining passengers. No point in debating when the Multiverse might be depending on us right now. “Hey, over there,” I called, and several people squeaked in terror, trying to hide behind one another. “For God’s sake, I’m not going to hurt you. We need some shoes. It’s important.”

Ada stared up at me like I’d started speaking another language. But a terrified-looking woman tossed over a pair of shoes. I caught them by the laces and handed them to Ada.

“Thanks,” she whispered. “Gods, this is the weirdest…”

“Tell me about it. We have to get off at the next stop, anyway.”

The locomotive glided into north-side station. I pulled Ada to her feet and she responded by yanking her hand out of mine and saying, “I can get up by myself, you know.”

At least that meant she was recovering from whatever happened back at the warehouse. Good. I needed her to be prepared for what I was about to say to her.

Out into the station, through the sea of commuters, past the ticket machines—ordinarily, I’d have noted everything in case I needed to remember later. But we needed to get out as fast as possible. To the Passages. At least it was signposted. Valeria’s Alliance didn’t live in the shadows, but out in the open.

Finally, we stood before a security guard, who stared as I pulled out my Alliance pass. I caught sight of our reflections in the opposite wall—in Valeria, all buildings seemed to be made of this strange reflective metal, the name escaped me—and I saw why. Ada’s clothes were torn and her face bruised. She was far too pale, dead on her feet, her clothes still spattered with blood from killing the wyvern. As for me… my eyes shone black, even from a distance. A killer’s eyes. I turned away and told the security guard in an undertone that there had been a threat to London’s Alliance branch, and it was imperative that we be allowed back into the Passages
now.

For once, luck was on my side. The alert had gone out, and once I’d identified myself by my Alliance codes, he let us through without a fuss. The Passages were all but deserted. I’d never been in this particular area before, but I mentally mapped it out. We were three corridors from the door back to Central. Which made the US branch two corridors the opposite way.

I headed that way, making sure Ada stayed at my side. “I can’t believe you did that,” she muttered. “You can’t go stealing people’s shoes…” She bit her lip. I guessed the impact of the other lawbreaking had hit her again. That was the thing about dealing with a shock, or upheaval—it never
stopped
hitting you. But then, maybe it was easier when you’d already long since walked out of a hell to which nothing else in the Multiverse could ever compare. Pretending had become second nature. Pretending I could sleep more than two hours at a time without reliving a memory that ought to be long dead. Pretending I could walk out of the shadow of a name other people would kill to have, without the compulsion to glance over my shoulder at every turn.

I don’t lie,
I’d said to Ada, but it wasn’t true. There was more than one way to lie. Like omitting the truth, because it was easier than facing the fallout.

I stopped walking. “Ada,” I said.

“Huh?”

“We’re not going back to London. I’d rather not go back to Earth at all, but we don’t have the paperwork. I’m going to call Simon at the New York branch and tell him you’re coming. You’ll have to lie low at the shelter there.”

Her mouth fell open. “You’re joking. I’m not going anywhere. My family’s in London, Kay.”

“I know, but the Campbell family won’t give up. They want to use you to destroy Central, and they’ll be expecting us to go back there. They might have an ambush prepared.”

“What, we hide like cowards?”

“I’d rather that than destroy the Alliance, wouldn’t you?”

“Don’t you patronise me, Kay Walker,” she spat. Her eyes gleamed with fury. “My family are more important to me than anything in the Multiverse. I wouldn’t expect you to get that, seeing as your father volunteered you as an experiment, but–” She stopped, her breath catching. Her eyes said,
Oh, hell
.

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t shout after her as she turned around and ran. The roaring in my ears kicked up again, loud and insistent and in tandem with the magic surging in the air, gathering around me like a swarm of moths drawn to a flame.

***

ADA

It was more difficult than I’d expected, running through the Passages in those awkwardly fitting Valeria-style metal-plated shoes. The floor was slippery as hell. Not to mention I’d have a serious disadvantage in a fight if my shoes fell off. Maybe I should have stolen
Kay’s
shoes, while he stood there staring at me like I’d just…

Said something unforgivable.

I couldn’t think about that right now. Of course, some part of me knew it was stupid to go back to Earth. But… no. That was a line I wouldn’t cross. I could never abandon Nell.

I’d been around this area before, Delta sometimes used that Passage, so I at least knew the way back to the doors to Earth from there. The problem was, of course, there had been a chalder vox and a bunch of dreyverns at one entrance, and a wyvern at the other.
Between effing Scylla and Charybdis,
I thought, recalling Nell’s reading me Greek mythological tales when I was younger, as much for her own benefit as a non-Earth native as my own.

I had to get to Nell. I had to see if she’d woken up, if Jeth and Alber were okay. So I headed in the direction I’d used too many times to count, when helping people back to Earth. I might not have weapons, but I had magic. If anything attacked me, well, it’d be the worse for them.

Don’t think about that.

And definitely don’t think about Kay.

I half-ran, half-skidded into the right corridor, and found the door. Right where I’d left it. The Alliance had cleaned up the mess from where the dreyverns and chalder vox had attacked. All was eerily quiet. The door slid open without a sound. I drew in a steadying breath and walked out into the alleyway. It was only when I stood on my doorstep that I realised I’d unconsciously walked home. I glanced around, but no one was behind me. I didn’t have a key, of course, but I’d hidden a lock pick under a loose tile in the yard for this very purpose. First step: find weapons.

BANG.

A blast of magic roared through the air, taking me off my feet. I was too startled to cry out as my back slammed into the fence and I slid to the ground. Three people emerged from the house. All were dressed in suits of glittering black. Delta and two of his cousins.

“I suspected you’d come home,” said Delta. “It’s easy to get off Valeria, you know. I can’t believe you were idiot enough to come here alone.”

I jumped to my feet and fired my most expressive curses at him, following up with a bolt of magic. But instead, I was the one who was knocked to the ground again—had he
blocked
my attack?

“There’s someone here who wants to talk to you,” said Delta’s cousin, Josef. “She’s pretty pissed with you for killing her brother.”

My insides twisted. I stood again, swallowing back nausea.

Delta shook his head, an awed kind of horror in his expression. “Damn, Red. I didn’t know you’d go ahead and do it. That’s messed up.”

Ignore them. They’re trying to distract you.

A footstep behind me. The girl had appeared from thin air, inches away from me. I stepped back instinctively, dread gripping my limbs. Her face was tear-streaked and her jaw set.

“Don’t mess her up too badly,” said Delta’s other cousin, Gregor. “We need her alive. She’s our weapon.”

“Like hell,” I said, and attacked first. The girl didn’t bother to block my strike—but she suddenly wasn’t there anymore. Invisible again. A blow struck me on the back of the head. I whipped around, kicking blindly. No way to tell where she was.

I stilled, frustrated, looking around for any clue where she might be. Any disturbance. Delta’s cousins were both smirking, though Delta himself still watched me, eyes wide.

Fingers touched my face, pressing into the corners of my eyes. I jerked my head away, squeezing my eyes shut, but Delta’s cousins moved in unison, grabbing my arms to stop me lashing out.

“Come on, Ada, cooperate,” said Josef. “We want to see your pretty eyes. Your
real
eyes. Janice here reckons it’s the key to your magic.”

“Stop!” I yelped as fingers dug into both corners of my eyes. I kicked out blindly and Josef cursed.

“Get the lenses out, girl, and we won’t have to break you.”

“You’re planning to use me as a bomb, you psychos!” I hit out and by the pain that shot through my wrist, I could tell I’d struck him in the face. Now I knew where my target was. I kicked blindly and stuck out an elbow when I sensed Gregor come up behind me.