Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 (9780698175952) (55 page)

I stepped back into my living room, letting the portal close behind me, and dropped onto the sofa, staring at the wall. For the first time I seriously considered taking Garrick’s advice: drop everything, get out, and wait for the dust to settle. I didn’t want to fight Rachel and Cinder. For one thing, they were stronger than me. Meredith and I had thrown everything we had at Cinder tonight and barely slowed him down. One on one, Cinder would take me apart, and Rachel would probably do it even faster.

But if I was being honest, the bigger reason was our history. Rachel and I had never been friends; we’d tolerated each other at best and hated each other at worst. I’d fled Richard once I finally understood what he was, while Rachel had given herself over wholly to his path. But twisted as she was, Rachel was one of the last links to my past—someone once told me that she was what I could have been and they were right. And as far as I knew Cinder was the only person she trusted. The more you know about someone, the harder it is to kill them. I didn’t want to kill Rachel or Cinder, and if I got into a fight
without
being ready to kill them, there was a good chance
they’d
kill
me
.

But if I didn’t do anything, I’d be leaving them free rein with creatures like Arachne.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. I hate decisions like this. No matter what I did, bad stuff was going to happen. What I wanted was for Rachel and Cinder and Meredith and
Belthas to drop the whole thing and stop trying to kill each other (and stop catching me in the crossfire while they were at it). But I couldn’t make them do that. The only choice left to me was whether to be involved. I studied my phone, thinking how easy it would be to send a message to Belthas telling him I wanted out.

The sound of the opening door brought my head up. Meredith was standing there, looking at me. “Hey.” I came to my feet. “Feeling better?”

Meredith walked forward. Her bare feet were quiet on the carpet; she’d lost her heels somewhere in the fight. Her dress was dotted with tears and ash marks and her hair was tangled, although it didn’t do anything to diminish her looks. “Are you okay?” I said. Somehow, the closer she got, the harder it became to do anything but look.

Meredith stopped next to me, looking into my eyes. She had to tilt her head to do it; she barely came to my shoulder. Her eyes were a deep brown and I started to lose myself in them. “Alex?” she said softly, and her voice seemed to come from all around me. “I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

I stood dead still for a second. A small voice at the back of my mind was trying to tell me something, but it was hard to listen. Then Meredith stood on tiptoe to kiss me and I stopped thinking about anything at all.

I
don’t usually sleep well. I sleep even less well the closer I am to someone else. But I found some peace that night and when I woke I felt better than I had in days. I lay propped up on one elbow for a while, watching Meredith as she slept, until she stirred and opened her eyes to give me a smile. “Morning.”

Over breakfast, Meredith and I talked about our plans for the day. “You’re staying in your shop?” Meredith said in surprise.

“It’s a workday.”

“What about … ?”

“I’ll close early,” I said. “I need to check out the factory in the afternoon. You?”

“I’m meeting some people.” Meredith brushed at the ash-stained dress with a resigned look. “And shopping. All my stuff was in my flat.”

I hesitated. “You could stay here if …”

Meredith shook her head with a smile. “That’s okay. I don’t want to be too much trouble.”

“Are you going to be okay on your own?” I’d made the mistake last night of thinking that there wouldn’t be another assassination attempt so soon and I didn’t want to be caught napping again.

“I don’t know.” Meredith looked worried. “How did they find us last night? I was sure they couldn’t track me.”

“They probably didn’t,” I said. “Just posted someone to watch your flat and waited for them to call in.”

“Oh. Could you … ?”

“No problem.”

I
t didn’t take me long to sweep the area for spies. My area of Camden isn’t large and I know it like the back of my hand. Meredith left after a kiss. I watched her go, then returned to the shop in a good mood. My doubts about Meredith from last evening didn’t seem to matter anymore. Although I was planning to stay in the shop all morning, I didn’t feel like keeping it open for customers. Instead I flipped the sign to
CLOSED
and settled down at my desk to wait.

Most mages will think twice about attacking another mage’s home. Not only is it messy, but mages tend to treat fortifying their house as a personal hobby. My shop had been raided five months ago, and since then I’d gone to some effort to set up a few surprises for intruders. I could probably give even Cinder a run for his money if he tried to break in, and for exactly that reason I didn’t expect him to do it—
mages who make a habit of launching attacks on prepared targets tend not to live very long. But after last night I wasn’t in any mood to take chances, and I spent a couple of hours exhaustively searching the futures for attacks. I came up blank, which was moderately reassuring. At least nothing was being planned right at the moment.

The glazier arrived while I was working and replaced the window. Once he was finished the morning light was pouring in again, making the shop much more cheerful. Luna arrived ten minutes later, and to my surprise, Martin was with her.

I’d included Martin in my invitation more for Luna’s sake than anything else; I hadn’t seriously expected him to show up. But he followed right behind Luna as she let herself in. I raised my eyebrows and he had the grace to look embarrassed. “Martin,” I said.

“Hey,” Martin said. “Listen, I’m really sorry about Saturday. I was just kind of out of it. Didn’t think about what I was doing.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So, uh, how much do I owe you? I meant to pay for it, it was …”

“Martin, did you listen to a word I said? You didn’t pick it. It picked you.”

Martin hesitated. “Uh … okay. Sure.”

“Look,” Luna said. She’d been watching from one side and now she sounded like she was choosing her words carefully. “We did listen. I told Martin why the thing was dangerous. We talked about it and we did some research too. This thing’s really famous.”

“Eyewitness reports?” I asked. “Or stories?”

“Just stories. But they matched with what you said.”

“I’m guessing they didn’t have happy endings.”

Luna nodded.

I looked at Martin. “But you decided to keep it any-way.”

Martin looked confused. “Well, yeah.”

“And you think this is a good idea because … ?”

“Look, we’re not idiots, okay?” Luna said. “We talked it over.”

I took a breath. “Okay,” I said once I’d gotten myself under control. “What did you figure out?”

“The monkey’s paw only takes things,” Luna said. “It was in all the stories. It can’t make anything new but it can take something away and give it to someone else.”

I stopped. I’d never considered it but now that I thought about it, it made sense. “All right.”

“And you told me imbued items have a purpose, right?” Luna said.

“Yes,” I said slowly. “Okay. I see what you’re getting at. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s been bad news for everyone else.”

“Only if you use it wrong,” Martin broke in. “Look, all the characters in the stories are stupid. They wish for something that’ll kill them. All you have to do is word it right and you can get anything you want! You’d have to be crazy to give it up.”

Luna and I both looked at him. I looked at Luna. “It worked,” she said defensively.

A nasty feeling went through me. “What?”

Luna didn’t answer. “You used it,” I said.

“Martin did.”

“For what?” I asked Martin.

But it was Luna who answered. She rose from where she’d been sitting on the edge of the table and walked to Martin. Four steps brought her next to him, and she placed a hand on his shoulder.

My jaw dropped. “Wait!” I called, starting to move, then stopped. Looking at Luna with my mage’s sight, I could see the silver mist of her curse being drawn off her in a steady flow. Instead of soaking into Martin, it was streaming into something in the pocket of his jeans … the monkey’s paw.
Luna’s curse wasn’t gone, it was just as strong as ever … but instead of hovering around her it was being drawn in.

“It’s okay,” Martin said with a grin. He slipped an arm around Luna’s waist with an easy familiarity. “Safe, see?”

I just stared with my mouth open. I knew I looked stupid, and I had the feeling both Martin and Luna were enjoying it, but I was trying to understand what I was seeing. Luna was touching Martin, yet instead of flowing into him, the mist was sliding along the surface of his skin, funnelling into the monkey’s paw. I’d never seen this—wait, yes I had. Just once. It must be the same—

“It was Martin’s first wish,” Luna said, echoing my thoughts. “Protection from magic. We’ve been testing it and it works. It
works
. My curse can’t hurt him!”

I kept staring, trying to make sense of it. I’d seen it once before. Arachne had woven a ribbon to counter Luna’s curse, drawing it in and nullifying it. But it had lasted only a few hours before crumbling to dust and Arachne had admitted to me afterwards that it had taxed her to her limits. If what Luna was telling me was true, this thing could nullify
all
magic, not just Luna’s, and do it indefinitely. There wasn’t a mage alive who could match that.

I suddenly realised that both Martin and Luna were looking at me, Martin cocky, Luna expectant. “Taking,” I said. “What the monkey’s paw does.”

Luna nodded eagerly. “That was what I thought. It’s what it’s made to do!”

In other words, Martin had just done in one evening what I’d failed to do in five months. “I guess that’s good,” I said after an awkward pause.

“Of course it’s good! Aren’t you happy?”

Luna was looking at me, her eyes bright. Martin still had his arm around her, but she seemed to have forgotten. I shifted uncomfortably. I knew how Luna wanted me to react and it wasn’t what I was feeling. “I hope it works,” I said at last.

“It
does
work! And if it can do this, think about what else it can do! Maybe it could take my curse away completely!”

Alarm bells went off in my head at that. But Martin shifted. “Come on, Lun.” He pronounced it
loon
. “We said we weren’t going to try that.”

Luna flinched away from Martin, seeming to remember he was there, before stopping herself. “Listen, we were hoping you could help us,” Martin said. “With figuring out how to use it. I mean, you know as much about this thing as anyone, right?”

“Maybe,” I said slowly.

“Okay, so how many wishes do you get? Three?”

“The man I got it from said five,” I said. I could see Luna listening attentively. “I know one man who used it four times. He disappeared right after.”

“So five,” Martin said.

“What happened to him?” Luna asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. The last conversation we had, he was asking how to make the thing do what he wanted.”

“So it was doing what he told it to, right?” Martin said. “He just wasn’t wishing for the right things.”

“Maybe,” I said reluctantly.

“What about after all five?” Luna asked. “Once you’ve finished? Someone else can use it, right?”

“Yes—no! Luna, don’t even think about it!”

Luna’s expression didn’t change; she’d obviously expected my reaction. “Those stories are just to stop people trying it, aren’t they?” Martin said confidently. “They don’t want anyone else getting something this good.”

I looked at Martin in disbelief.

“I want to try it,” Luna said quietly. “If there’s any chance.”

I took a deep breath. “I want to ask you something,” I said once my voice was steady. “You’re hoping if you use
it in the right way, the monkey’s paw will give you what you want, right?”

“Yeah,” Martin said. Luna nodded.

“What does it get out of it?”

Both of them stared at me. “What do you mean?” Martin asked.

“It’s what it’s made to do, isn’t it?” Luna said.