Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 (9780698175952) (34 page)

“Khazad’s outside.”

“Shit.” Griff ran a hand through his hair. “I was hoping I’d lost him.”

Now that Griff was closer I could see that he looked on edge. There were rips in his clothing, and he had the look of a man who’d been fighting hard. “What’s at the end of the hall?” I asked.

“Locked door. I was trying to get past when I heard you.” He looked at Luna. “You got that cube? Maybe that’d do it.”

The four of us came together, Luna staying a little back. I took my hand from my pocket but didn’t drop my guard. “What happened at the entrance?”

Griff grimaced, his hand creeping towards a rip along the side of his coat. “Khazad and that bastard Onyx tried to take my head off. Didn’t miss by much, either. If they hadn’t been in such a hurry…”

“No one else made it in?” I asked

Griff shook his head. “We’re all there is.”

Which means it’s either you or Sonder
. “Let’s have a look at that door.”

The hallway bent right and left and right again, ending in a sealed door. I studied the door for a second, then nodded
and walked up to the controls, pulling out a tool. “I can open it. Griff, I’ll need you to throw up some barriers. Khazad’s going to be in the hallway before long.”

Griff gave a glance at me and Luna, then nodded. “Will do. Sonder?”

Sonder jumped eagerly. “I’ll help!” The two of them disappeared back around the nearest corner.

Luna watched them go, then looked at me. “You think it’s one of them.”

I nodded as I began working on the controls. “Or both.”

Luna stood there for a while. “Can you tell which?”

“I can’t see beyond a choice that hasn’t been made,” I said. “Right now we need them and they need us. Once that changes…”

I didn’t finish, and Luna didn’t ask me to. We couldn’t depend on either Griff or Sonder, and our only sure ally was Starbreeze. It was tempting to call her, just for the reassurance of having her around, but Starbreeze couldn’t carry Luna, and the air elemental was our one trump card. I didn’t want to reveal her to Sonder and Griff until I had to.

“Alex?” Luna asked.

“Hm?”

“Why did you let them go?”

My hands went still. I didn’t need to ask who Luna meant.

Why do we do what we do? I think the reasons run deeper than we can know, and often we can only guess at the truest one. “If you can’t have another ally,” I said at last, “next best thing is to give your enemy another enemy.”

Luna was silent, but I could feel her gaze on me. She knew I was holding something back. I stopped work on the controls and sighed quietly. “That’s one reason. The other one is…whenever you kill someone, it becomes a little easier to do it the next time.” I turned to look at Luna. “You’ve never killed.”

A shadow flickered over Luna’s face. “I’ve—”

I cut her off. “Not the same. I mean deliberately.” I paused, looking at her. “It might come to that before this night is out. If it does…then be very sure about what you’re
doing. Because either way, you’re going to have to live with the consequences forever.”

Luna stared back at me, then dropped her eyes. After a long moment, I turned back to the controls. It took me a while to get back my concentration.

When I heard Griff’s footsteps again, I glanced back to see that Sonder was with him. “I’ve set some wards,” Griff said. “But the lock on the door’s going screwy. You sure it’s Khazad?”

“It’s Khazad,” I said. “He’ll be inside in ten minutes. Your wards’ll hold him another ten, maybe less.”

“Can you get this open before then?”

I nodded. “Give me a hand.”

Griff came forward to help, and Luna stepped back. The minutes ticked by as the two of us worked together, me guiding, Griff using the power of his earth magic to manipulate the controls more quickly than I could. Griff was skilled with wards, and smart enough not to question what I told him. We worked quickly and efficiently.

There was a distant grating from far down the corridor. “Khazad’s in,” Griff said with a grunt.

“So are we.” I pointed. “There.”

Griff aimed a surge of earth magic, and with a rumble the door slid open. Beyond was a dark corridor. I scanned quickly ahead and confirmed that it was safe. “Sonder, get the lights,” I said. “You go in too, Luna.”

They obeyed. “Wait,” Griff said sharply. He pointed back down the hallway, and I turned to look.

There was a scuffle of movement. I spun back just in time to see Griff dart into the corridor after Luna and throw a scattering of gold discs down at the floor where the corridor opened out into the hallway. As they struck the ground they flared to life and a wall of transparent force sprang up, blocking the entrance. Sonder had just gotten the lights working; now he spun. “Master Griff! What—”

Griff gestured and a hammer of earth magic smashed Sonder into the wall with stunning force. Sonder’s head cracked against the stone and he hit the ground limply, his
glasses bouncing away. In the same motion Griff swung back and Luna was slammed against the wall, dull-brown energy pinning her arms and legs.

I hit the barrier as Griff turned back to face me. The wall didn’t give, and Griff watched me struggle for a few moments before giving me a nod. “Sorry, Verus. Looks like you’re staying behind.”

“You!” I snarled, straining against the invisible wall. “It was
you
!”

Griff shook his head. “Don’t act so surprised. You were recruited by Levistus, same as me. Difference is I’m permanent and you’re temporary.”

“Alex!” Luna cried.

Griff gestured and the brown energy flowed up over Luna’s nose and mouth, cutting off her breath. I saw her eyes go wide with panic as she struggled to breathe. My fist tightened against the wall of force. I was less than five feet away but the barrier was just as unbreakable as the one I’d used on Canary Wharf. “Griff,” I said, my voice low and deadly. “If you hurt her—”

Griff ignored me and stood and watched Luna choke. There was nothing I could do, and he knew it. After a few seconds he drew his finger down and the energy withdrew just far enough for Luna to gasp in a breath. “Stay quiet if you want to breathe,” he told her before turning back to me. I willed myself to remain calm. “You’re making a mistake,” I said. “If we stayed together—”

“Sorry, Verus,” Griff said. “I’d been hoping to have you around to help with Onyx. But you see, it’s
you
Khazad’s after. He told me two hours ago. This way I get rid of you
and
him. That’s too good a deal to pass up.”

“You want the fateweaver? Take it. Let them go.”

Griff shook his head and started working on the door controls. “Love to cut out the deadweight, but I need her along. The fateweaver’s got a lock that works the same as the front door, and she”—he nodded at Luna—“is the only one who can open it. Well, her and that cube.”

I looked down at Sonder, lying sprawled at Griff’s feet,
and hoped desperately for him to get up, but as I looked into the future my heart sank. Sonder was out cold. There was nothing I could do to stop Griff from sealing the door behind him.

“Oh, one more thing,” Griff said. He snapped his fingers and I felt a surge of energy from down the hall behind me. “I just took down the wards. Have fun with Khazad.” He took a step back towards Luna.

“Griff,” I said. I didn’t speak loudly, but there must have been something in the way I said it. Griff paused and looked at me.

Griff was next to Luna, within her danger zone, and I could see the silvery mist of her curse drifting through the bonds imprisoning her. The strands flowed lazily through the air, reaching Griff, soaking into him. “You are going to find,” I said, my voice soft, “that Luna is very bad luck for people who try to hurt her.”

Griff looked back at me, and I had one second to remember him like that: stocky and strong, his iron-grey hair mussed slightly from the struggle. He gave me an amused smile. “I’ll take my chances.” He put out one hand, and a fist of brown energy smashed the control crystals. The ones on my side flickered and went dead, and with a rumbling sound the door rolled across. I had one glimpse of Luna’s eyes going wide in panic, then the door ground shut with a
thud
.

I was alone in the hall. And distantly, from behind me, I heard Khazad’s footsteps coming closer.

B
ack when I was a prisoner in Richard’s mansion, Tobruk would sometimes play cat and mouse. He’d set me loose to run the dungeon, give me a head start, then come after me. Some of my memories of that time are blurred, but that feeling I remember crystal clear. Pressed against a wall, my heart in my throat and my breath coming fast, straining my ears for the sound of footsteps, feeling only dread because hiding
never
worked; Tobruk
always
found me, the only question was when.

Standing in that hallway, I felt all the old terror rush into me. Khazad was coming and he was stronger and crueller than I was, and when he found me he was going to hurt me and he was going to kill me, and there was nothing I could do. I scrabbled in my pocket, pulled out the glass rod, and channelled a thread of magic into it, speaking in a rush. “Starbreeze. Starbreeze, can you hear me? I need you. Please come. If you’ve ever listened to me, come now, please—”

I broke off as I felt something black and cold open up within me. Starbreeze would hear me, and she would answer…but too late, far too late. I turned, searching frantically for a way out, another exit. There wasn’t one. All that was left was to face Khazad. Me with my tricks and toys against the full power of a Dark mage. I stood helplessly in the empty hallway, listening to the footsteps draw closer, and I was nineteen years old again, cowering in the dark, paralysed with fear.

And then something spoke inside me, something older and steadier.
You aren’t a child anymore. You told Luna there’s always a way out. Time to prove it
.

I took a deep breath, stood up straight, and waited.

K
hazad came around the corner like falling night. The Dark mage was a small man, but as he walked a cloak of shadow seemed to gather around him, turning him into something larger and more menacing. The lights dimmed slightly as he passed, and didn’t brighten. Black eyes met mine.

“Hello, Khazad,” I said. My voice shook the tiniest bit.

Khazad strode forward without answering. I watched him and wondered as I did how I could have ever thought he looked like a bird. He moved with a smooth, unhurried grace, not taking his eyes off me. I knew he was probing the area, scanning for traps, making sure I couldn’t trick him the same way again.

Khazad came to a stop twenty feet away, studying me. “Where are the rest?” he said at last.

“Griff took them,” I said.

Khazad smiled. “So he did something right.”

We stood looking for a moment more. “I want to make a deal,” I said.

Khazad kept smiling. “Really.”

I gestured down at the bracelet of black metal that Khazad was still wearing. “I can switch that off.”

Khazad raised his eyebrows. “Like you did with yours?”

“I can disable the receptor. Stop Onyx from activating it.”

“And?”

“A truce,” I said. “You don’t harm me, I don’t harm you.”

Khazad stood looking at me for a moment, his eyebrows still raised, then raised his hands and sent a bolt of black lightning straight into my chest.

The pain was so intense I didn’t even feel it when I hit the ground. My lungs had frozen and I struggled to breathe. Flashing spots swum before my eyes.

“You have no idea how much I’ve been wanting to do that,” Khazad said thoughtfully. As my vision cleared, I saw he was crouching down in front of me, only a couple of feet away. He was looking at me, eyebrows raised. “I told you this was coming.”

“Onyx—” I managed to say.

Khazad smiled, a flash of bared teeth. “Oh, I’m sorry. You didn’t know? I’ve decided to throw in with Onyx instead of Del. Wasn’t hard, after what she did in the forest.” His smile widened. “Oh, Verus, you should have heard her after I left them in that room, once she realised I wasn’t coming back. I wonder if she’s still alive. Hope she is. I wouldn’t want it to be too quick.” Khazad blinked and looked down at me. “But what are we going to do with you?”