Adamant (28 page)

“Holy fuck.” And I swore in several other languages, too, for good measure.

The centaur shook with laughter.
“You can get down now, human.”

“Yeah—thanks,” I added and more fell than climbed off the centaur’s back. I hurt everywhere, like I’d been stuck in a blender.

“I didn’t know you were fluent in Aglaian,” Markos remarked. “We could have had some interesting conversations.”

I mentally tried to pull myself together.
Focus. Someone tried to kill you.

“Yeah—now’s not the time.” We had an audience. Faces peered over the balconies a couple of floors up, and several people had gathered near the entrance, too.

“Please excuse me while I bury my dignity,” said Markos.

I shook my head, which felt like it had tried to detach itself from my neck. “Okay. I’m taking a wild guess the killer’s still in the building. We need to send out an alert.” I pulled my communicator out with my still-shaking hand. I managed to open the window for emergencies. “FULL CENTRAL ALERT.” I hit the button.

Sirens rang out. The people on the balconies withdrew, probably heading downstairs—hell, I hoped the other elevators weren’t rigged with bombs like ours.

“Damn,” I said. “I have to tell everyone to use the stairs.”

“You don’t need to.” Ellen stood across from me, surrounded by a halo of shattered glass from the elevator. “I only did two of them.”

There was an infinite heartbeat’s pause.

“You
what?”
said Markos.

The flicker of a smile crept onto Ellen’s face. “You would keep interfering, wouldn’t you? I really didn’t want to kill you, Kay, but you left me no choice.”

“The hell are you on?” I said, feeling more like I was the one tripping on something. Maybe the fall had done some head damage after all.

“Sorry, I never got to show you around, Kay.” She smiled a sad smile. And then… she changed. Her poker-straight blond hair turned wiry and dark brown. Her face changed too, subtly, but enough that I looked at a completely different person.

“By the gods,” said Markos.

“You used bloodrock.”

“I did.”

“You’re the killer.”
You don’t say. Intelligent, Kay.

“I had to stop the information getting out,” she said. “I’m damned if I’m going to let them start their twisted crap again.”

Something pitched inside me. She didn’t mean…

“Their experiments,” she said, and dread seeped through my veins like poison. “They used me. I nearly died when I went into the Passages—the magic was too much. But I learned to control it.” She wore a faint smile. “I’ve enjoyed working here, more than I expected. I didn’t intend to stay this long, only it was convenient to know what was happening in the Alliance.”

“Get to the bloody point already,” said Markos. “I’m about a second from trampling you into a puddle.”

“The point is,
I’m sorry, Kay. I admit you threw me off. You’re not like him, not at all. You don’t even look like him. But you’re still a Walker. And I’m in this for revenge.”

What the hell?
She was batshit crazy. Small consolation that she’d said I was nothing like
him
. My hand crept towards the stunner in my pocket. I had one shot left.

“Don’t you dare,” said Ellen, or whoever she really was. She raised a hand, and the charge building in the air fixated itself around her. Hell, there was enough magic in here to power the equivalent of a nuclear weapon.

And she was going to hit me with it. Third level. Almost always fatal. And unavoidable.

“No you don’t,” said Markos. Before I could blink, the centaur
charged.

I’d never seen a centaur charge before, but I was bloody glad he was on my side. He reared up and lashed out, and Ellen was sent flying across the hall. She struck the wall and crumpled to the ground.

“I always thought she was a ditzy idiot,” said Markos. “Never liked her.” He glanced at me. “Kay, are you there?”

I shook off the dazed feeling. “Did you kill
her?”

“Nope, knocked her out.”

“How could
she
have been the one?”

“Very good question.” Ms Weston limped into the hall. “We’ll need to conduct an investigation.”

Did this not surprise her at all?

“Law Division are going to have their hands full,” said Markos. “They ought to lump all the investigations together. It’d save time.”

“Ha,” I said, shaking my head.
Ellen
of all people—the killer? Not that I’d known her at all, really, but…

“What was all that about experiments?” asked Markos.

“It’s classified,” said Ms Weston. “But I suppose the word will get out either way. The Alliance once conducted experiments. It was shut down after concerns about ethics came up. None of the experiments succeeded, anyway. Some scientists within the Alliance believed that they could find a way to inject humans with pure magic in distilled form, to give someone from Earth the same level of ability of a natural-born magic-wielder.”

“That’s twisted,” said Markos, kicking his back foot, face taut with anger.

“On Earth and Aglaia, perhaps, but it’s quite commonplace in high-magic worlds—Klathica, for one, where magic-based implants are sold on the streets. It wouldn’t cause any lasting damage or side effects, and it’s not illegal by any means. The scientists knew what they were doing, and plainly one of the experiments succeeded.” She indicated Ellen’s unmoving body. “We do have a list of the participants, as it happens. In the lab.” She addressed the crowd gathered by the entrance, who were starting to move closer. A mixture of guards and office workers who’d arrived to the chaotic scene. Glass from the shattered lift glittered on the floor, reflecting planes of light. Still more people were coming downstairs and in the other elevators, spilling out into the hall, all staring. The entire force of the Alliance was present; there were easily three hundred people in the entrance hall.

And above everything, magic hung like a red haze. I couldn’t shake it away. And nor could I shake off the raw panic that the whole freaking
world
was going to hear about this now.

Not illegal. No lasting damage.
And they wouldn’t want the instigator’s name to get out. God forbid. The Alliance would cover it up. Reputation won out every time, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do. Who would they believe, the eminent council member and one of the most powerful people in the Multiverse—or his magic-wielder son, who was lucky not to be in jail?

Saki volunteered to go and fetch the notes, and Ms Weston directed a couple of guards to handcuff Ellen. She still hadn’t moved. But I watched as Carl and another guard cuffed her, prepared to step in if she woke up. I didn’t trust her at all, unconscious or not.

“Now the killer is apprehended…” Ms Weston nodded, and I turned to see Saki approaching, clipboard in hand. My heart started drumming in my ears.

Ms Weston flicked through the pages clipped to the board, and nodded. “Three of them—and the other two were listed as missing five years ago. Right. We need to put out a search warrant.” She raised her voice. “There are two other rogue magic-wielders out there, the other experimental subjects were sent to go free. They’d have been children at the time, thirteen years ago. With Earth’s magic levels unnaturally high right now, there’s the chance they could hurt people, assuming they’re still on Earth.”

My heart stopped drumming and plunged instead. I clenched my fists, fought to keep still and not make a run for it. A search warrant? What had happened to the others?
What did he do—drag in children off the streets?
I doubted they’d been
willing
participants.

I didn’t run. If it got me fired, arrested, so be it. I’d deserved as much when I’d used magic and nearly killed Aric two years ago—it was a miracle
that
hadn’t got out, too. Magic-wielder. And I’d fought it so damn hard. I’d never used magic since. Not once.

A tall man in a pressed suit approached Ms Weston and spoke to her. She nodded, and they conversed in low voices.

Hell.
That man must be one of the council members. I knew there were only three of them present, but it hadn’t hit home that they’d be here, right now, because I’d sent out an emergency signal to the entire building.

Any hope of not drawing attention to myself had gone clean out the window. I tried to look unobtrusive instead—a little difficult when you stood next to a centaur, surrounded by a mess of broken glass and an unconscious woman. Carl glanced at Ms Weston. “Should I take her downstairs, or is this a full evacuation?”

She shook her head, wearily brushing back her dust-streaked hair.

“Kay raised the alarm,” she said, and turned to me like she expected
me
to give the order.

I summoned what little authority I could. “I’d say we evacuate just to be on the safe side,” I said. “Ellen—whoever she is—rigged two of the elevators with magic-based bombs. She was killing off anyone who came close to exposing the research, but she was also out for revenge on anyone else involved.” That seemed likely, anyway.

Ms Weston nodded. “Skyla Benson,” she said. “Her real name. She has a distinct magic-wielding style, too—I recognise it from when she used it the other day. And I believe it matches the magic used in the Passages the day we found the intruders.”

“Wait, what?” I said.

“I have this,” said Carl, from beside Ellen, holding up a rectangular metal device. “It can detect traces of magic and see if they match. It wouldn’t be half as effective offworld, of course, but on Earth, it could only have been the same person.”

Damn.
She was one of the people who helped Ada escape. Ada couldn’t have known she was the killer—no way—but at the moment, I didn’t know
what
to think.

“There are other experimental subjects?” the tall man asked Ms Weston, as if he’d read my thoughts.

“Two,” she said. “Twins. They’d be in their late teens—the experiments were on kids, naturally. There’s nothing in the file, they disappeared the same time as Skyla did. We need to consider the possibility that they’re working with her. They wouldn’t be bound by the same rules as other magic-wielders on Earth—even more so now the Balance has been shifted this way.”

I went ice cold all over. She didn’t mention me. She
had
to know. It was right there in front of her. But she didn’t say it. She didn’t name the last
volunteer.
No, victim.

At the time, I’d half-assumed my mother’s death had pushed my father over the edge, and the experiment was some twisted new punishment, or a convenient way to dispose of the son he’d never wanted. I’d blocked the memory out, just like everything else. And when I’d first set foot in the Passages two years ago, magic had lured me into its trap and then turned on me and almost destroyed any chance I had of joining the Alliance on my own terms. All because of some sick, pointless experiment. I should have known it would catch up to me.

Get out.
I could feel blood dampen my hands where the nails dug in, sweat cold on the back of my neck. I needed to get the hell out of there before I lost it completely.

A buzzing sounded in my ear. I barely stifled my reaction, and backed away from the crowd as Ada’s voice whispered in my ear. “Kay?”

***

ADA

My eyes flickered open. Cold metal pressed into my back, and I realised almost immediately that I was freezing. Passages-freezing. I sat on the floor, my back against a wall. Not tied up. Where in the Multiverse was I? Valeria? Earth? Another world entirely? It was dark, but looked like the inside of an empty warehouse, made entirely of cold grey metal.

Locked up again,
I thought. It was becoming a bad habit. I pushed myself to my feet, wincing. Should’ve checked my injuries first. Nothing was broken otherwise I’d be in far more pain. But the bruises hurt like a bitch, and I was pretty sure there was a fist-sized lump on the back of my head. I still wore one boot. I sighed, unlacing it. At least I’d have something to use as a weapon, though it was ridiculous that I’d lost two
pairs in a week. Then again, this whole situation was ridiculous. I took deep, calming breaths to stifle the growing sense of walls closing in on me. I was imagining things. Of course the walls weren’t moving. I just wasn’t a fan of locked rooms.

I rummaged in the pockets of my coat. Someone had taken my phone away, and the main part of the Chameleon must have fallen out of my pocket at some point. But the earpiece was still in place. I could contact Kay.

First things first.
It wouldn’t be much use if I didn’t know where I was. The warehouse seemed to be cube-shaped. At least, the ceiling appeared the same height as the length of the floor, both ways. And there were no windows. I finally spotted the door, hidden like a door to the Passages. But this wasn’t the Passages. I could feel a different kind of magic. More contained, somehow, than the random bursts that came from behind the doors between-worlds. Magic-wielders could tell the difference between levels of magic in the various worlds, I knew, like a sixth sense. It figured that I’d be super attuned to it.
Wish I had built in GPS instead.