A Darker Shade of Magic (48 page)

“I could try and take you back,” Kell was saying. “To your London.”

He and Lila were walking along the river’s edge, past the evening market—where people’s eyes still hung too heavy and too long—and farther on toward the docks. The sun was sinking behind them, casting long shadows in front of them like paths.

Lila shook her head and pulled the silver watch from her pocket. “There’s nothing for me there,” she said, snapping the timepiece open and shut. “Not anymore.”

“You don’t belong here, either,” he said simply.

She shrugged. “I’ll find my way.” And then she tipped her chip up and looked him in the eyes. “Will you?”

The scar over his heart twinged dully, a ghost of pain, and he rubbed his shoulder. “I’ll try.” He dug a hand in the pocket of his coat—the black one with the silver buttons—and withdrew a small parcel. “I got you something.”

He handed it over and watched Lila undo the wrappings of the box, then slide the lid off. It fell open in her hand, revealing a small puzzle board and a handful of elements. “For practice,” he said. “Tieren says you’ve got some magic in you. Better find it.”

They paused on a bench, and he showed her how it worked, and she chided him for showing off, and then she put the box away and said thank you. It seemed to be a hard phrase for her to say, but she managed. They got to their feet, neither willing to walk away just yet, and Kell looked down at Delilah Bard, a cutthroat and a thief, a valiant partner and a strange, terrifying girl.

He would see her again. He knew he would. Magic bent the world. Pulled it into shape. There were fixed points. Most of the time those points were places. But sometimes, rarely, they were people. For someone who never stood still, Lila still felt like a pin in Kell’s world. One he was sure to snag on.

He didn’t know what to say, so he simply said, “Stay out of trouble.”

She flashed him a smile that said she wouldn’t, of course.

And then she tugged up her collar, shoved her hands into her pockets, and strolled away.

Kell watched her go.

She never once looked back.

* * *

Delilah Bard was finally free.

She thought of the map back in London—Grey London, her London, old London—the parchment she’d left in the cramped little room at the top of the stairs in the Stone’s Throw. The map to anywhere. Isn’t that what she had now?

Her bones sang with the promise of it.

Tieren had said there was something in her. Something untended. She didn’t know what shape it would take, but she was keen to find out. Whether it was the kind of magic that ran through Kell, or something different, something new, Lila knew one thing:

The world was hers.

The
worlds
were hers.

And she was going to take them all.

Her eyes wandered over the ships on the far side of the river, their gleaming sides and carved masts tall and sharp enough to pierce the low clouds. Flags and sails flapped in the breeze in reds and golds, but also greens and purples and blues.

Boats with royal banners, and boats without. Boats from other lands across other seas, from near and far, wide and away.

And there, tucked between them, she saw a proud, dark ship, with polished sides and a silver banner and sails the color of night, a black that hinted at blue when it caught the light just so.

That one
, thought Lila with a smile.

That one’ll do.

We think of authors as solitary creatures hunched over work in cramped but empty rooms, and while it’s true that writing is a pursuit most often done alone, a book is the result not of one mind, or pair of hands, but of many. To thank every soul would be impossible, but there are some I
cannot
forget to mention. They are as much responsible for this book as I am.

To my editor, Miriam, my partner in crime, for loving Kell and Lila and Rhy as much as I do, and for helping me pave the foundation of this series with blood, shadow, and stylish outfits. A great editor doesn’t have all the answers, but they ask the right questions, and you are a
truly
great editor.

To my agent, Holly, for being such a wonderful advocate of this strange little fantasy, even when I pitched it as
pirates, thieves, sadist kings, and violent magic-y stuff
. And to my film agent, Jon, for matching Holly’s passion stride for stride. No one could ask for better champions.

To my mother, for wandering the streets of London with me in Kell’s footsteps, and to my father, for taking me seriously when I said I was writing a book about cross-dressing thieves and magical men in fabulous coats. In fact, to both of my parents, for never scoffing when I said I wanted to be a writer.

To Lady Hawkins, for traipsing with me through the streets of Edinburgh, and to Edinburgh, for being its magical self. My bones belong to you.

To Patricia, for knowing this book as well as I do, and for always being willing and able eyes, no matter how rough the pages.

To Carla and Courtney, the best cheerleaders—and the best
friends
—a neurotic, caffeine-addicted author could ask for.

To the Nashville creative community—Ruta, David, Lauren, Sarah, Sharon, Rae Ann, Dawn, Paige, and so many others—who welcomed me home with love and charm and margaritas.

To Tor, and to Irene Gallo, Will Staehle, Leah Withers, Becky Yeager, Heather Saunders, and everyone else who has helped to make this book ready for the world.

And to my readers, both the loyal and the new, because without you, I’m just a girl talking to myself in public.

This is for you.

Victoria “V.E.” Schwab is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say “tom-ah-toes”, “like”, and “y’all”. She also suffers from a wicked case of wanderlust, made worse by the fact that wandering is a good way to stir up stories. When she’s not haunting Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, she’s usually tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up monsters. She is the author of several books for teens, including
The Near Witch
, about a village where the children begin to disappear, and The Archived series, about a library of the dead. Her first book for adults,
Vicious
, was named a Best Book of 2013 by both
Publisher’s Weekly
and Amazon.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same ambition in each other. A shared interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl with a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the arch-nemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

“Supremely plotted and incredibly well-written.”

The Independent on Sunday

“Schwab’s characters feel vital and real… [T]his is a rare superhero novel as epic and gripping as any classic comic. Schwab’s tale of betrayal, self-hatred, and survival will resonate with superhero fans as well as readers who have never heard of Charles Xavier or Victor von Doom.”

Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“Vicious is the superhero novel I’ve been waiting for: fresh, merciless, and yes, vicious.”

Mira Grant,
New York Times
bestselling author

“Schwab writes with the fiendish ingenuity, sardonic wit, and twisted imagination of a true supervillian.”

Greg Cox,
New York Times
bestselling author

“A dynamic and original twist on what it means to be a hero and a villain. A killer from page one… highly recommended!”

Jonathan Maberry,
New York Times
bestselling author

“Schwab gathers all the superhero/supervillain tropes and turns them on their sundry heads… I could not put it down.”

F. Paul Wilson,
New York Times
bestselling author

“Vivid, highly original, Vicious is a masterclass in storytelling, a superlative left-field take on familiar superhero tropes that is, quite simply, unmissable.”

Adam Christopher, author of
Empire State

“An epic collision of super-powered nemeses. The writing and storycraft is Schwab’s own superpower as this tale leaps off the page in all its dark, four-color comic-book glory.”

Chuck Wendig, author of
Blackbirds

In the years after the smart drug revolution, any high school student with a chemjet can print drugs… or invent them. A teenaged girl finds God through a new brain-altering drug called Numinous, used as a sacrament by a Church that preys on the underclass. But she is arrested and put into detention, and without the drug, commits suicide.

Lyda Rose, another patient in the detention facility, has a dark secret: she was one of the original scientists who developed the drug, and is all too aware of what it can do; she has her own personal hallucinated angel to remind her. With the help of an ex-government agent and the imaginary, drug-induced Dr. Gloria, Lyda sets out to find the other three survivors of the five who made the Numinous to try and set things right…

“A great giggling psychedelic trip down the big pharma rabbit hole.”

Paolo Bacigalupi, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of
The Windup Girl

“Smart, funny, fast, more than a little terrifying.”

Kim Stanley Robinson, Hugo Award-winning author of the
Mars
trilogy

“Brain-stretching speculation in brain science and metaphysics.”

Walter Jon Williams
,
Nebula Award-winning author of
Daddy’s World

“[A] new highpoint in the subgenre of Future Noir.”

Gregory Benford
,
Campbell Award-winning author of
Timescape

“A technothriller that asks big, philosophical questions and catches the answers on the hoof. It’s smart, stoned neurofiction for the post-everything world.”

Cory Doctorow
,
Campbell Award-winning author of
Little Brother

“A good engrossing read… smart biological cyberpunk focusing on designer drugs rather than AIs and virtual reality. Recommended.”

Neal Asher, Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author of
Cowl

“His best yet, combining interesting ideas about religion and the brain with the distinctive Gregory brand of wit and the superb Gregory writing. I can’t recommend this novel highly enough!”

Nancy Kress, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of
Probability Space

Ecko is an unlikely saviour: a savage, gleefully cynical rebel/ assassin, he operates out of hi-tech London, making his own rules in a repressed and subdued society, When the biggest job of his life goes horribly wrong, Ecko awakes in a world he doesn’t recognise: a world without tech, weapons, cams, cables – anything that makes sense to him. Can this be his own creation, or is it something much more?

If Ecko can win though, then he might just learn to care – or break the program and get home.

“Science-fiction with the safety catch off.”

Adam Nevill, author of
Apartment 16

“Strange, surprising, haunting and exceedingly well written. Not to be missed.”

Lavie Tidhar, World Fantasy Award-winning author of
Osama

Chosen as one of
The Independent on Sunday’s
SF Books of the Year 2012 and the
Financial Times
’ Best Books of 2012

Ruthless and ambitious, Lord Phylos has control of Fhaveon city, and is using her forces to bring the grasslands under his command. His last opponent is an elderly scribe who’s lost his best friend and wants only to do the right thing. Seeking weapons, Ecko and his companions follow a trail of myth and rumour to a ruined city where both nightmare and shocking truth lie in wait. If Ecko can win though, then he might just learn to care – or break the program and get home.

“A dense and engaging read which keeps the reader hooked by stacking up one amazing thing after the other… it’s violent, sarcastic, filled with nods and references to all things geeky and fun, and features perhaps one of the most scenery-chewing, over-the-top bad guys that we’ve seen in some time.”

Starburst

“Ecko Burning feels very much like the promise of something even greater to come… funny, exciting and compelling.”

Alternative Magazine

In the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco, student Marcus Yallow was wrongly detained and brutalised by the US government. Now a webmaster for a crusading politician, Marcus is leading the fight against the tyrannical security state.

At Burning Man festival, an old contact emerges from hiding to give Marcus a flashdrive of incendiary evidence, with instructions to leak it if anything should happen to her. When she is kidnapped, Marcus must decide whether to go public—and risk losing his employer the election—before the same shadowy agents come after him.