Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 (9780698175952) (58 page)

For some reason, that bothered me. “Trying to find those Dark mages,” I said.

Meredith pointed to the map. “What are those tags?”

“I think we should try searching there.”

Meredith looked taken aback. “All of them?”

I looked up at Meredith. “Unless you’ve turned up any leads.”

“No, but … Isn’t there a better way?”

“Like?”

“Tracer spells?”

I shook my head. “These two aren’t stupid. If it were that easy Belthas would have done it already.” Cinder and Rachel had made use of those spells to track down prey before. They’d be ready and waiting for someone to try the same trick against them.

Meredith hesitated. “All right,” she said at last. “If you think so.”

F
ive hours later, the sun had set. It had turned into one of those clear, freezing autumn nights, where the stars are sharp and bright and your breath makes puffs of vapour in the air. We were huddled by the side of a long, deserted road, only a few parked cars breaking up the emptiness. To the south was the Thames, far wider and darker than it had been at Deptford, and from the north, over the rooftops, came the distant roar of aircraft. The air smelt of river and cold stone.

I was tired and cold and wanted to go home to bed. We’d been searching our way eastwards along the river as the light faded from the sky and the crowds of commuters poured out of the city and towards the suburbs. By the time we’d reached Silvertown, all but a few stragglers had been
driven away by the deepening cold, and now the streets were deserted.

“Can we stop for the night?” Meredith asked. She was wrapped in a coat bigger than she was, hunched over with her arms engulfed by the muffler, but she was still shiv-ering.

“Just three places left,” I said.

Meredith sighed but fell in behind me as we started down the road. In truth, I didn’t think we had much chance of finding anything. It had been a lonely, cold evening, walking though lonely, cold parts of London, looking through warehouse after warehouse with my magic, and it was looking like my hunch had been wrong. But we were here and we might as well finish the job. Besides, there was another reason, one that I didn’t especially want to say out loud: Cinder and Rachel might be looking for us too and it’s a lot harder to find someone who keeps moving.

Meredith stayed quiet for the length of the road, and as we reached the next industrial park she went smoothly into the routine, moving to the front gate to talk to the security guard at the checkpoint. The guard looked up from his desk with a
what do you want?
expression. It didn’t last—he was smiling in seconds and had told Meredith everything she wanted to know within a minute.

“There’s a maybe,” Meredith told me after he’d waved her good-bye. “A couple renting a unit who might match.” I nodded and the two of us walked past the guard unchallenged. He was staring after Meredith with his mouth slightly open and I don’t think he even noticed I was there.

Ten minutes of scanning the park turned up nothing. I hadn’t really expected much—the place didn’t feel right, not deserted enough. But as we were finishing up, I caught a glimpse of an older pair of warehouses behind the back wall, cut off from the road. “I’ll check there and we’ll move on,” I said. I had to speak loudly—we’d come in close to London City airport, and it was hard to talk over the roar of planes. Meredith nodded with another shiver and we split up, Meredith heading back towards the exit while I went further into the maze of buildings.

The back warehouse was dark and windowless, and passing the outer fence, I found that the building itself was sealed. I couldn’t pick up any magical wards, but that didn’t prove anything: Cinder and Rachel weren’t stupid enough to leave obvious defences. But there was something off about the place all the same, even if I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was.

I took a look around. The warehouse was built right between the industrial park and another complex of buildings next to the airport. Apart from the way I’d come in, there didn’t seem to be any other way out; trying to go in any other direction led me to a dead end. High walls limited vision, giving the place a cramped, uncomfortable feel, and the nearby airport made it hard to hear anything.

I decided to take a closer look. I circled the building and approached the door, reaching into my pocket for my picks and wrenches. Since diviners aren’t as good in combat as elemental mages, we tend to pick up a bunch of less-than-reputable skills to make up for it. Lockpicking’s easy when you can see into the future, and I’m pretty good at it.

As I examined the door, though, I frowned. The lock looked simple, but for some reason, looking into the future didn’t reveal any way to open it. That was odd. I knelt by the door, feeling the cold of the concrete through my jeans, and studied the keyhole. There didn’t seem to be anything unusual, but—

My precognition warned me just in time. I caught a glimpse of something coming, took a closer look, and jumped to my feet in a dead run. As I ran I pulled a grey cloak from my bag and swept it around my shoulders. I was up against the wall with the mist cloak wrapped around me within five seconds. A moment later, the far corner of one of the buildings went black.

People describe night as black, but it isn’t; it’s more like a patchwork grey. When something that’s an actual, light-eating black appears, it stands out against the darkness like a black hole. The blackness formed a vertical oval, starting at ground level and reaching seven feet in height, then shimmered and began to lighten. The shadows of another place were briefly visible, then two people stepped through.

My mist cloak is an imbued item like the monkey’s paw, and it’s the only imbued item I really trust. Mist cloaks are designed for concealment, and inactive, they look like soft cloth, coloured a sort of neutral grey that your eyes slide over. When worn, though, their colours shift and change, fading into the background so subtly that if you’re not watching it happen you’d never even notice. But mist cloaks conceal more than sight; they block magical senses completely. You can pick out someone in a mist cloak if the light’s good and you know what to look for, but to magical detection, it’s like someone in a mist cloak just isn’t there.

Which was good because right now that was the only thing stopping the man up ahead from turning me into charcoal. Cinder is a fire mage, and as I learnt the hard way a long time ago, fire mages can see a man’s body heat as easily as you or I can see light. Cinder swept the area from left to right as he emerged from the gate, waiting for the woman behind him to step through before ending the spell. The gate turned back into darkness and dissolved away to nothing.

Even though Rachel was only a silhouette in the darkness, I knew it was her. She was saying something to Cinder but just barely too far away for me to hear. The two of them walked towards the warehouse and I held perfectly still, straining my ears to hear their conversation.

“—not going to work,” Rachel said.

Cinder said something in his low rumble that I didn’t catch. Rachel shook her head. “Not enough time. We have to kill him.”

The two of them stopped by the warehouse door. They
were maybe twenty feet away, and I tried to breathe quietly. Cinder seemed to be thinking. “Back off?” he said at last.

“No!” Rachel said angrily. “I’m not letting some Light mage chase us away. This is
ours
.”

“Can’t get what he knows if he’s dead,” Cinder pointed out.

“We don’t need him. We can make it work.” Rachel stared past Cinder. “All we need is enough time.”

My skin crawled. I didn’t know if it was coincidence, but Rachel was staring right at me. At some level I knew that in these shadows and with my mist cloak, I’d look like nothing but a patch of wall. But still …

Even through the darkness, we were close enough that I could see the dark smudge of the mask covering the top half of Rachel’s face. “Which?” Cinder said.

“The enchantress,” Rachel said, as if talking to herself. “Blind him … Yes. But only if …” She looked suddenly away from me back to Cinder. “Let’s go.”

Cinder gave a grunt and fished in his pocket for a key. There was a tiny flicker of light as he inserted and turned it with a click. The door swung open and Rachel marched in. “What about Verus?” Cinder said just as he swung the door shut behind them. It closed with a clang and I couldn’t hear anything more.

I’ve never felt so relieved and yet so frustrated. I was glad to have a solid wall between me and those two—but just
one more
sentence and I’d have known what they were planning. I thought about getting closer to eavesdrop and actually seriously considered it for a few seconds, which should tell you how badly I wanted to hear it.

But common sense won. I slipped away into the shadows.

F
ive minutes later, I was two streets over and out of danger. My mist cloak was tucked back in my bag where it could be drawn out quickly if needed. I’d picked a place by a
crossroads, hidden in the shadows of a doorway where I had clear lines of sight down two streets. The only light came from the phone in my hand.

On the small screen was a short message addressed to Belthas containing Cinder and Rachel’s location. My thumb hovered over the Send button, then moved away. I kept staring at the message until the screen went dark.

All I had to do was press the button and I’d be done. Belthas would take over and deal with Cinder and Rachel. I wouldn’t even have to get involved; I could back off and watch the fireworks.

So why was I hesitating?

The last time I’d gotten involved with Cinder and Rachel, they’d alternated between trying to recruit me and trying to kill me, as well as taking the odd shot at Luna. They’d been working with a third mage, Khazad, who
would
have killed me if I hadn’t been quicker to do unto others. It wasn’t as though we had fond memories.

And yet I probably couldn’t have gotten out alive without them. It hadn’t been due to any warm feelings on Rachel or Cinder’s part, but by the end we’d at least gotten to the stage of talking to each other rather than shooting on sight. And I’d definitely saved their collective butts at least once, on condition that they’d owe me a favour.

Of course, Cinder’s assassination attempt had pretty much put paid to that. But still I hesitated. Was I being sentimental because of our history? Stupid. Rachel would kill me without a second thought …

I saw Meredith coming a long way off. Once she’d reached visual range I stepped out of the shadows, letting her see me. “What happened?” Meredith said once she was close enough.

I looked at Meredith and shook my head. I tapped the screen of my phone and heard the quiet delivery sound. “I found them.”

Meredith’s eyes went wide. “Did they—”

“No.”

“Are you going to—”

“Already called him.”

Meredith looked around, then wrapped her coat tighter around her and stepped into the doorway. We waited in silence.

B
elthas didn’t waste time. In less than half an hour I heard the growl of engines and looked up to see headlights at the end of the street. As they grew brighter I saw that they belonged to a van, black and unmarked, with two more following behind. The vans pulled in by the side of the road and the engines died. In the silence I heard the slam of doors.