Half Bad (25 page)

He doesn’t reply, just carries on cleaning the gun.

“And if Mercury told you to shoot Annalise, would you do it?”

He doesn’t look up from the gun but at least he’s stopped cleaning it.

“Would you?” My voice is quiet but unsteady.

He shakes his head but looks me in the eyes as he says, “If I was certain she was betraying you I’d kill her, whether Mercury told me to or not.”

“So you’re not certain?”

“Not one hundred percent. But Nathan, if there’s one thing I’m good at it’s reading people, and there’s something not right about her.”

“Or maybe you just want to see that, but you can’t actually find anything wrong with her, because there isn’t. Because she won’t ever betray me. Because she’s actually a good person. But you don’t want to believe that. You want her to be a spy!” And I realize I’m shouting and shaking with anger.

“Nathan. I know this is difficult for you.” He comes to me and puts his arms around me. I don’t hug him back, but I don’t hit him.

Rose appears from her bedroom, sees us, and blows me a kiss.

I swear at her and go sit in the corner.

Rose is dressed as inappropriately as ever in a long, swirly, figure-hugging gray dress a bit like Mercury’s. Her hair is immaculate, piled on her head in a sleek twisting knot. She looks like she is going to a Halloween Ball, except that her feet are bare. She shows Gabriel her hairpins, which are decorated at their ends with skulls. Small black skulls are for picking locks of doors, small red skulls for opening safes or more complex locks, and the large white skull is . . . she blushes . . . for killing Shites.

Mercury blows in. She is smiling in her own way.

“Before you go for the Fairborn, Gabriel, I’d like you to bring Nathan’s friend to us.”

Gabriel looks uncertain.

“If she’s been sent to spy on us I want her in my hands and unable to give any warning.”

And I know she really wants Annalise in her hands so that she has another hold over me.

“When you and Rose are ready to go, bring her here. Give her no chance to do anything.”

Gabriel and Rose go through their plan. Then we eat in silence. Even Rose looks serious.

At sunset Gabriel goes on to the roof and through the cut.

I wait on the grass.

I don’t have to wait long.

Gabriel and Annalise appear, holding hands. Gabriel drops hers as if she is plagued. Annalise is sprawled across the roof, her eyes closed.

Gabriel calls to Rose and she appears, comes to me, kisses me on the cheek, steps on to the roof, over the body of Annalise and into Gabriel’s arms, but Gabriel’s eyes are on mine all the time. I hear Rose giggle as they disappear through the cut.

Annalise and I are sitting together. Close. She always seemed so much more mature than me, but now she seems much younger. Her face has changed, become longer and thinner, even more stunning. She is dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and a pale blue jumper, but her feet are bare.

I wonder when Mercury will come. She is letting me have some time with Annalise. There will be a motive behind it.

I take Annalise’s hand in mine and ask her what happened.

She blinks and tears run down her cheeks.

“I’m in such trouble, Nathan.”

I wipe the tears with my fingertips, hardly touching her skin.

“After Kieran attacked you, he told my father about us. My father was angry, but he said I wouldn’t be punished. I just had to regain their trust. I had to do as I was told in every little detail. And I didn’t have any other options, so I tried to be good. But they never trusted me, however good I was. My father or one of my brothers was always with me if I left the house. I wasn’t allowed to see any of my old friends. I was lonely but it was bearable. But then, after my Giving, the Council asked to see me. They questioned me about you. My uncle Soul was there. He treated me like I was a traitor. I didn’t answer their questions about you, I said I’d forgotten. But it was frightening. I was summoned again that day I saw you in the Council building. Then a few nights later my uncle came to our house, and I overheard him telling my father that you had escaped and that I would have to go back for more questioning. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I knew I couldn’t face any more of it. I thought that if you’d escaped then maybe it was possible for me too. So I ran away.”

She looks into my eyes and the silver in hers twists slowly. “I thought that if I could find you . . . Well, I didn’t think much beyond that. But I wanted to find you. I’ve always wanted that. And I heard that Mercury helped White Witches for a price. The only thing I did have was money. I can’t believe that I’ve found you . . . that you really are here.”

I wipe her tears away again, this time tracing my fingers over her cheek, feeling the smoothness of her skin. She tries to smile, and reaches over to brush my hair back from my face.

“Your eyes are how I remembered them. They haven’t changed.” And her fingers are on my cheek now and before I can think about it I turn to kiss them, and then I press her hand to my mouth and kiss her palm.

She strokes her fingers over the tattoo on my hand and looks at my neck and strokes that tattoo as well. But she doesn’t ask about them. And the silver in her eyes tumbles and catches the moonlight and more tears come into her eyes.

We sit together and still Mercury doesn’t come.

“I’ll help you, Annalise. But they think you’re a spy. They don’t trust you.”

“But you do?”

“Of course.” And I hold her; she’s so fragile and shaking. “I’ll speak to Mercury . . . convince her.”

Annalise nods.

“We have to wait for her here on the roof. You mustn’t step off the roof unless you are touching Mercury.”

“Or else?”

“Gabriel told me that you fall into a deathlike sleep.”

“Gabriel doesn’t trust me. He doesn’t like me.”

“You’re a White Witch, he’s a Black—”

“Pilot wouldn’t have me in her house.”

“Mercury is more . . . business-minded.”

Annalise nods. “I heard Pilot say that Clay is in Geneva.”

And with that a warm breeze blows over us.

I wait for Mercury to appear, but she doesn’t. I think she’s hinting that she wants to know more.

“Do you know anything about a special knife called the Fairborn?” I ask her. “I think Clay may have it.”

Annalise frowns. “Yes, I’ve heard my father talking about it with Kieran. It’s important, but I don’t know why. Different people take turns to look after it. Only those most trusted by the Council. My father had it for a time last year. My uncle has had it too, and Clay is also one of the ones who guard it.”

Annalise grips my hand; hers is damp now. “You’re not thinking of trying to get the knife, are you?” She turns to look at my face.

I shrug.

“It would be madness. There will be Hunters everywhere.”

“If someone was . . . invisible, say, and could sneak into Clay’s headquarters.”

Annalise shakes her head. “There will be trespass spells to protect the building.”

“Like the one on the roof here?”

“Yes, Clay will have a spell to protect the house. The spell won’t kill you; it will just make you incapable. Kieran told us a story about a fain who tried to break into a Hunter’s bunkhouse once and was found wandering around in a drunken stupor. They did things to him . . . laughed at him . . .”

“All the doors and windows will have the spell?”

“There will be one door that his Hunters use; that’s the only door that will be safe. If you use a different door or break in through a window, you’d be caught by the spell.”

The warm breeze kisses my cheek. I guess that Rose will be able to work this out.

“I’ve also heard Kieran telling Niall and Connor about other spells Hunters use. The entrance door, the one the Hunters use, will have a password spell. You say the password before you cross the threshold and the trespass spell is lifted for a short period of time. There may be different words to go in and out. I’m not really sure . . .”

The breeze has gone cold. Rose doesn’t know about these spells. Perhaps they will realize . . .

The breeze gets stronger and colder.

I stand as Mercury appears. She doesn’t look happy. The wind picks up more so that I’m pushed backward up the slope of the roof.

Annalise is on her knees, her hair blowing wildly.

“Annalise. What a charming child you are.” Mercury’s voice is cold. “Come, let us get better acquainted.”

Mercury stands on the grass near the roof and holds her hand out to Annalise. Annalise looks back at me and I try to move to her but the wind holds me back. Annalise rises and takes hold of Mercury’s fingers. But just as she steps off the roof another gust blows Annalise sideways. Her fingertips reach out but Annalise is not touching Mercury as the wind blows her on to the grass. And the wind is holding me back, holding me still, though I fight against it and I try to reach for Annalise, but it’s too late.

I can’t hear what Mercury says because I’m shouting and the wind is blasting in my ears. Annalise is lying on the ground; only her chest is moving, heaving, and her mouth is open and gasping for breath.

Mercury stands over Annalise, watching her. And I’m shouting and shouting.

And Annalise’s chest is not heaving now. She is completely still. Her eyes are open and I’m screaming at Mercury.

Mercury slides her hand down Annalise’s face, closing her eyes.

Annalise’s body is pale on the dark ground.

The wind is relentless, pummeling me as I scream curses at Mercury.

Mercury’s voice is part of the wind in my face. “You must warn Rose and Gabriel about the password spell. There is still time to help them.”

“What about Annalise?” I shout, pointing at her body.

“She’s asleep. Not dead. Return safely and I’ll wake her.”

She’s not dead. She’s not dead. Gabriel said it was a deathlike sleep.

“If she dies, Mercury . . .”

“Enough of this. Go.”

Mercury has been as businesslike as ever. She has drawn a map to show me how to find Clay’s house. I’ve heard all the plans, so I know that the house is an hour’s walk from the apartment. I run it in just over twenty minutes. Assuming Rose and Gabriel didn’t dawdle, they’re over an hour ahead of me but they should still be watching the house, waiting for it to go quiet.

I have to concentrate on them, because if I don’t, all I see is Annalise’s body lying on the grass. She looked dead; her chest was still, her eyes were open.

I’m nearly there. I’ve got to concentrate.

The house is in a quiet suburb on a back road with large houses sitting in their own spacious gardens. Behind is a wooded hillside. I scout out the roads round the house and through the woods at the back.

There’s someone at the edge of the woods. His back is to me. He’s watching the house.

And all the training I did with Celia comes back to me. It’s easy, second nature, the way reading is to Gabriel. I tread slow and quiet, taking my knife in my hand. The figure begins to turn as I take my final step and grab his body, the blade at his throat. Poetry in motion.

Gabriel’s body is stiff against mine. I keep the knife pressed against his skin.

“Not good enough,” I hiss in his ear.

“Nathan? What are you doing here?”

“Where’s Rose?”

“Watching the front. What’s going on?”

“Mercury sent me. I need to tell Rose something about the spells on the house. Something useful that Annalise told me.”

He doesn’t reply, so I release him and push him away from me.

“What did she say?”

I tell him and he nods. “Let’s tell Rose then.”

We work our way around to the front of the house. It’s still early, before midnight. Rose is in the garden of a house across the road. She doesn’t giggle as I explain the situation, but she doesn’t want to give up either. She thinks she can work it. All the Hunters enter and leave through the front door. She’ll shadow the next Hunter to arrive and listen for the password.

Now I’m at the back of the house again, leaning against a tree on the edge of the woods. There’s no fence, but there is a lawn that stops just before the trees.

Rose and Gabriel are round the front.

The house is divided into two apartments: the upper one on the first and second floors is occupied by several Hunters; the lower one by Clay. From what I can make out, Clay has an office and a bedroom at the back. I can see several Hunters moving around in their apartment; if they are going in and out they’re not using the back door or the windows for that matter.

The weather is warm but overcast, and a fine drizzle has started to fall.

I asked Rose what to do if something goes wrong.

She smiled. “Escape if you can. Run. If you can’t run, kill as many as you can. They killed your ancestors and they will do everything to kill you, Nathan. Kill them all.” She kissed my cheek and said sweetly, “When you’ve killed them all, then you won’t need to run any more.”

I don’t want to kill anyone. If it came down to kill or be killed, I’d fight for sure but I’d try not to kill. But then again if it was Clay or Kieran . . .

What was I thinking about?

Rose appears beside me. She has come through the garden using her mist, her Gift. She evaporates like mist and so does my memory of her. Even as you watch her, you forget about her. It’s strange . . . confusing. But if she touches you, skin on skin, the confusion goes, and while she’s touching you she’s visible. It’s hard to work with her because of the mist, and you can’t keep hold of her hand all the time. Gabriel says that the best way to work with her is not to watch her at all but to know what she will do and look away while she clothes herself in her mist so that your thoughts remain clear.

Rose asks, “How many Hunters are in there?”

“Four upstairs.” And none of them have Kieran’s bulk. “I think Clay’s in his office.”

“I’ll wait here until he goes to bed, then I’ll go round the front and in. I listened in and heard the password. ‘Red rain.’”

Nice!

“By the way, I think there’s a cellar,” I tell her. “There’s a grate in the ground to the left of the house. A light came on earlier. I think Clay was down there.”

“A good place to keep weapons.”

“Maybe. If I was Clay . . .” What would I do? “I’d keep the Fairborn near me. But he has guns to store for his troops, I guess; guns, bullets, whatever. So maybe . . .”

“Anything else?”

“If I’m at the back, how will I know that you are out of there?”

“Don’t wait here. When I go in, you go round the front and wait with your boyfriend.”

“Do you know how irritating you are, Rose?”

She giggles softly.

I nudge her and nod to the house. The light in the office has gone out. A few seconds later the light from the cellar comes on.

“Is he putting his weapons away for the night?” Rose wonders.

And I know the answer. “No. He’s a Hunter. He never sleeps without them.”

“Under his pillow then.”

“I have the feeling he sleeps with his boots on and the Fairborn strapped to his thigh.”

“I like a challenge.”

The cellar light goes off and the bedroom light comes on. A shadow. Two shadows. Clay and his girlfriend move around, come together, kiss, separate, Clay’s shadow goes. The office light comes on again.

“And I thought it was going to get romantic,” Rose says.

I watch the shadow in Clay’s bedroom, the way it moves, and how familiar it seems.

* * *

It’s much later when the office light goes off. Clay moves to the bedroom and that light goes out too.

“See you the other side,” Rose says, and she skips lightly up the garden in full view of the house. A mist covers her, and I’m wondering if I saw her at all. I tell myself that she has gone to the front of the house and is slipping in.

I go into the woods to work my way around to the front in a wide circle, cutting between two houses way up the road and heading back to Gabriel. I move slowly. There’s no rush, though really I’ve no idea how long Rose will be. But I want to be sure that I don’t make any stupid mistakes. I get the feeling that the Hunters are relaxed near the house. They’ve switched off or at least lowered their guard a little, never imagining anyone—any witch—would attempt to break in.

Gabriel is in the garden of the house opposite Clay’s. He doesn’t speak but glances at me as I move next to him. He watches the house. I watch behind us.

Nothing happens.

No cars, no Hunters coming or going. It must be two in the morning by now.

Then Gabriel nudges me. I turn to see the front door opening and two Hunters leaving the house. I get that confused feeling, wondering what’s happening, and I can’t work it out, but I tell myself to look away and find I’m looking at Gabriel’s profile and he turns and looks at me, smiles, and then murmurs, “Rose is with them.”

I nod. Rose has done well to get in and out without being spotted. But I can feel my heart thudding now. Does she have the Fairborn?

“Let’s go.”

But before we take a step there’s a shout from the house. From inside. I can’t make out what it’s saying but I think it’s Clay. And then I hear, “Find whoever’s got it—NOW!”

We hunch down low and run fast through the garden to the back of the house, over the fence, and into an alley.

Gabriel runs left to the corner. “This is where I said we’d meet.”

I keep watch to the right while Gabriel looks down the side street.

I hear a soft giggle and turn around.

Rose is leaning against Gabriel. They are both smiling. As excited as kids who’ve stolen sweets from a shop. Rose holds up a long knife. Black handle, black sheath.

“Easy for someone so talented,” Gabriel says to Rose. “But I think Clay has noticed the Fairborn is missing . . .”

“Let’s go,” I say and head back along the alley.

We’re sprinting when a Hunter steps out of the road ahead of us. She seems as surprised as we are. She stops, hesitates, then shouts, “They’re here!”

I’m nearest to her and in that time I’ve closed in on her. She’s taking her gun out of its holster and I’m three strides closer. She’s raising her gun as I launch myself at her, my right arm going for her throat and my left for her gun. I hear a shot and I land on her and we seem to fall in slow motion but my hand is on her throat and she’s looking at me. And she’s so young, not much older than me, and the glints of light in her eyes are twisting frantically and then I hear a crack and it’s the sound of her skull and the glints in her eyes have gone.

I’m sitting astride her.

There’s a metal grille behind her head and there’s blood oozing over it. As I get up I see that her neck is at a strange angle. I want to believe the metal grille killed her, but I had my hand on her neck and her neck is broken and I still can’t believe she’s so young and I killed her. I manage to get up but it’s hard. My side hurts.

Then there’s a shot and another and another. I drop down to a crouch and turn to see Rose lying on her stomach on the ground and Gabriel kneeling by her, his arm stretched out, gun pointed at the body of another Hunter lying on the ground farther back down the alley. Nobody moves.

Rose is very still. As still as the Hunter by me.

Gabriel bends down and takes the Fairborn out of Rose’s hand. He has to unfurl her fingers and he lays her hand back down on the ground and by then I’m next to him. Rose’s head is turned to the side; her eyes have no glints in them and her back is a mass of blood.

Gabriel pulls me away and we’re running round the corner and there’s more shots. There’s another Hunter up ahead and Gabriel is shooting at her and we’re in some gardens and over a fence and then I have to stop.

I’ve killed a woman. I didn’t mean to but her neck is broken and Rose is dead too and I’m shaking. There’s blood all over my hands, the girl’s blood, and I’m rubbing my hands on my shirt but there’s more blood. There’s lots of blood.

Gabriel says, “Oh no, Nathan.”

And I look up at his face and see then that he’s staring at my stomach and he pulls my shirt back and my knees are like jelly.

“Shit, Nathan.”

I look down. My T-shirt has a spreading, dark stain on it. The blood looks black.

“I’m okay.” I’m saying it without thinking anything about it. I don’t feel okay.

“I can heal it,” I say. I get a buzz and straighten up. Take a breath. Calm down. “I’m okay.”

She shot me in my left side, lower ribcage. “I’ll be fine.” My hands are still shaking. For some reason I can’t heal that.

“You sure?” Gabriel sounds so worried.

“Yes. Let’s go.”

And we go and I’m okay for five minutes but then the pain in my ribcage comes back. I’ve healed it and it has come back and the pain is crippling. This isn’t normal. I have to stop again.

Gabriel says, “It’s a Hunter bullet, not a fain bullet. Is it still in you?”

“I think so.”

“We’ve got to get it out. It will be magical, poisoned.”

“There’s no time. I can heal it for now. Get it out when we’re at Mercury’s.”

“It’s bad, Nathan.”

“I’m fine. At the moment I’m more concerned about getting a bullet in my back.”

And I set off, but I can tell I’m slow. I’m struggling to keep up with Gabriel. In fact, I’m not keeping up, he’s slowed right down. We turn the corner and a jeep is coming toward us. A Hunter jumps out, shooting, and Gabriel shoots back and then we’re running and I can’t keep up with him. I know Gabriel must have hit the Hunter, because I’d be caught by now if he hadn’t.

We go through more gardens to reach a back alley. Gabriel waits for me, then scoots me over a high wall.

He jumps down to stand in front of me and I have to lean against the wall for support.

He speaks quietly. “Nathan, you can’t run fast enough. They’ll catch you if you try to run. I’m going to draw the Hunters away and keep them occupied so that you can make your way back to the cut. But you must be careful. Don’t take any risks. Don’t wait for me at the apartment. Just go through the cut and back to Mercury’s.”

And I know he’s right; I can’t outrun Hunters. But I have a bad feeling. I remember what Rose said: that Gabriel would love to have the chance to save me. But leading Hunters away, so many Hunters, is suicide.

I shake my head.

He says, “It’s the only way,” and he gives me the Fairborn. It hangs from a leather strap that he puts over my neck.

“Gabriel. It’s too dangerous.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“You don’t know how to be careful.”

He smiles, then he kisses me on the cheek and says some words, and even though they are in French I know what they mean, and I grab him to me.

He says, “How many days to your Giving?”

“Four. You know that.”

“I won’t miss it.”

And then he’s climbing over the wall and is gone.

I wait and wait before I dare set off. I hear something that might be another shot or maybe a car backfiring but it’s distant. I know it isn’t a car really. And then I hear police sirens. The Hunters won’t like that. They’re distant too, but there are lots of them.

I’ve got to head to the apartment.