‘Really?’ he asked, looking surprised.
She nodded again. ‘Yes, I trust you.’
‘So, trust me,’ he said, his voice softer, tender as a kiss, ‘when I tell you that it’s not you. It was never you. Nor me.’
‘Well, who is it then?’ she demanded, putting her hands on her hips. ‘And how do you know all this all of a sudden?’
He took another deep breath. ‘Would you believe me if I told you my mum seems to be quite the expert on Hunter lore?’
She considered it for a moment. ‘Yeah, I would. She has all those books. She told me once she was doing research on us.’
‘Well, she figured out the prophecy.’
Evie blinked a few times in amazement. ‘Well, if it’s not me, who is it then?’
Cyrus chewed his bottom lip for a few seconds before speaking. ‘She didn’t say who it was, just that it’s definitely neither of us.’ He dropped his gaze to the floor and started fidgeting. ‘They probably haven’t even been born yet.’
Evie frowned at him. If they hadn’t even been born yet then how the hell were they ever going to end this war? Even though she trusted him, what if Margaret was wrong? She’d been wrong before, after all.
‘Evie,’ Cyrus said quietly, his hands slipping behind her neck, forcing her head up so that she was looking him in the eye. ‘I swear it to you. On my life. On everything I hold dear.’ He paused. ‘I swear it on your life. It isn’t you.’
The amber in his eye glinted. Something surged electric and alive inside her as he held her. She wanted to live, she realised. She wanted it with a desire and a desperation she had thought she’d lost. Lucas might not be there with her but that didn’t mean she had to stop living. She owed it to him to live enough for the both of them. It was time to stop holding onto memories and start living again.
‘OK,’ she murmured after a long beat. ‘I believe you.’
Cyrus led her back over to the others who were all sitting in stony silence.
‘OK, let’s talk tactics,’ he said, staring straight at Victor. ‘Firstly, no one’s getting it into their head to try to shut the way through. Are we clear?’
Victor grunted non-committally, a slight smirk playing on his lips. Evie narrowed her eyes at him. She wasn’t totally sure she was buying what Cyrus was selling – she still needed more time to think it all through. But the sight of Victor eyeing her like a crocodile, with unblinking reptilian eyes, only made her dig her heels in. No way was she going to let this man decide her fate.
‘How are we going to fight them?’ asked Vero. ‘We don’t have enough blades. We’ve got three at the last count. So only three of us can actually land any sort of killing blow.’
‘You’re the Sybll,’ Cyrus said, turning to Issa. ‘Can’t you tell us how to win? Isn’t that what you people do? Predict things?’
Issa looked around the group and shrugged feebly. ‘I can’t help you on this one. The Originals are almost impossible to read in terms of precognition. They move too fast, think too fast, act too fast. They’re entirely unpredictable. I can’t see what will happen. There are seven of them.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s impossible to know.’
‘Fire works,’ Evie suggested.
‘But they’re fast,’ Cyrus sighed. ‘We can’t just aim a flamethrower at them. They’re not going to stand still and allow us to flame grill them to barbecued perfection.’
‘We need to draw them out,’ Selena interrupted. ‘Get them all in one place, focused on one thing.’
‘What though?’ Cyrus snapped. ‘A big juicy steak? A bleeding cow? Five bare-throated virgins? And we don’t have the weapons to kill them even if we could draw them out,’ he muttered.
‘He’s right,’ Vero said. ‘We need more weapons. We don’t have any sort of plan until we find ourselves some more weapons. Ones that actually work against them.’
‘Yeah, well,’ said Cyrus, ‘the only way of getting more weapons is by sending a delegation to the Shadowlands and begging some friendly Shadow Warriors to lend us their blades.’
Vero gave him a dark look. ‘Sarcasm is not helping right now, Cyrus.’
They stared at one another in silence. Even Victor wasn’t saying a word. He was just studying her in a way that made goosebumps ride unpleasantly up her spine.
Suddenly Issa cleared her throat. ‘I think I might know where we can find some more shadow blades,’ she said quietly, glancing in Flic’s direction.
Chapter 49
It hurt like hell but Cyrus wasn’t about to let on. He’d turned down the offer of anaesthetic in case it took the edge off his instincts but now he was having second thoughts as the needle poked like a Thirster fang through the flesh.
The Scorpio tail had cut almost to the bone. He could tell by Evie’s queasy expression that it wasn’t a pretty sight, so he kept his eyes on her instead because she was. She noticed and gave him what he guessed was aiming to be a reassuring smile.
‘How’d you do this to yourself?’ the nurse asked.
‘Accident with a hedge strimmer,’ he said through a clenched jaw.
‘Well, next time you need to be more careful,’ the nurse giggled.
Evie rolled her eyes. Hmm, was she jealous? Cyrus smiled at the nurse, who got flustered and jabbed the needle into the open wound, skewering what felt like a nerve.
He suppressed the scream just barely.
‘It looks like you and your girlfriend have been in the wars,’ the nurse said, nodding at Evie whose bruised neck was clearly on display, despite her attempts to camouflage it with her hair.
‘Like you wouldn’t believe,’ Cyrus answered, exchanging a glance with Evie as the nurse placed a gauze bandage over his arm.
When she was done, she picked up her tray of bloodied cotton and implements and walked to the door. ‘If you pop your shirt back on and come to the desk we’ll deal with the paperwork.’
Cyrus jumped down off the bed and crossed towards Evie, leaning past her for his T-shirt, which was slung over the back of the chair and taking care to brush against her. He felt the way she jumped and smiled to himself. Even covered in blood, with a bandaged arm, he still had it. And they still had a spark. There was definitely something between them. He just needed her to focus on the present and the future and take her eyes off the past.
He pulled the stupid Klimt T-shirt on awkwardly, trying not to move his arm. He didn’t want Evie to guess how much it was hurting nor see how worried he was about what this might mean for the odds. He wasn’t going to be up to strength by tonight. Hell, he wouldn’t be up to strength for at least a fortnight. But there was no point worrying the others about it.
When he glanced at Evie he saw her eyes were fixed on his other arm. He turned it around and stared at the tattoo on the inside of his wrist. ‘An owl,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Yet another mystery. Of all the scary badass creatures out there to choose from, I chose an owl. What was that all about?’
Evie smiled. ‘It’s a night hunter. It portends death. You told me that once.’
Cyrus looked up at her, his eyes dancing. ‘I did? Huh, well there you go. That’s pretty badass I guess.’
They walked to the door. Evie moved to open it but, before she could, Cyrus put his hand over hers, holding it in place on the door handle. They were pressed chest to chest and her lips were dangerously, tantalisingly, close.
She wasn’t trying to pull away, he thought with relief. Her breathing had hitched a fraction and her gaze had slipped to his lips.
‘I know you loved him,’ he said. ‘But I think you have feelings for me too.’
She opened her mouth ready to protest. ‘I …’ she stammered.
‘Shhh’, he put a finger against her lips, cutting off whatever she was about to say.
‘I just want you to know that I’ll wait until you’re ready.’
He paused, watching as his words hit home.
‘You’ll wait?’ she asked, frowning at him.
‘Yes.’
/> ‘Why?’
‘Because you’re worth waiting for.’
She swallowed, her gaze falling once again to his lips. She was thinking about it. He knew she was and he held himself back. He wasn’t going to kiss her, not until he knew she was his. Completely his.
Finally, after what felt like minutes, she spoke, the words almost incoherent, mumbled to the floor. ‘I’m not promising anything, Cyrus.’
He let go of her hand and gently stroked back a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her eyes.
‘That’s OK,’ he said. ‘I’m not asking you to, yet.’
Chapter 50
Flic found him up on the roof of her apartment building. He knew she would find him eventually. She’d seen him at Victor’s. In the midst of all that fighting, she’d been the only one who had seen him or felt him. Even though he’d been in touching distance of Evie she hadn’t sensed him. She’d been too busy making sure Cyrus was OK to even notice he was standing right beside her – admittedly invisible.
Whatever Flic thought about Evie and Cyrus, she was clearly wrong.
Lucas had walked straight into the fight. He’d been coming for Victor and it was just lucky for Victor that an army of unhumans had chosen the very same moment to attack. Otherwise he’d be lying on a mortuary slab right now in pieces.
Lucas still wasn’t sure why he’d saved Cyrus from that Scorpio, except that no matter how much he didn’t want to be on Cyrus’s side, he was.
As he pondered it all, he sensed Flic coming up behind him.
‘You’re not about to jump, are you?’ she asked. ‘Because I’m not really a Samaritan kind of girl, so don’t expect me to talk you down.’
He stepped away from the edge and turned to her with a smile that didn’t make it past his lips.
‘Nice fighting by the way,’ Flic said. ‘I saw that move you pulled on the Scorpio. You saved Cyrus’s life. Shame you can’t claim the credit for it.’
Lucas said nothing.
‘Shame you missed your shot at Victor too.’
Still he said nothing.
‘You know, you need to take that shot,’ Flic said, ‘before he can try anything with Evie. He knows about the way through, Lucas. You remember his strategy for closing the way through before, right? I don’t think he’s revised it much.’
‘I’m more worried about Evie doing something. She’s not going to try anything stupid, is she?’ he asked Flic.
Flic shook her head, surprising him. ‘No, I don’t think so. Cyrus managed to convince her she wasn’t it …’ She stopped abruptly realising she’d probably said the wrong thing.
Lucas laughed bitterly. So Cyrus had succeeded where he had failed yet again. Evie had walked away from him, been prepared to sacrifice herself despite his pleas. But for Cyrus she would stay.
‘You know, Lucas,’ Flic carried on, ‘you’re wrong about her and Cyrus. I asked her and she doesn’t …’
‘Stop it!’ he shouted, surprising them both. ‘I don’t want to hear it.’ He started off towards the fire exit.
‘You need to let her see you’re alive,’ Flic called after him.
‘No,’ he said, opening the door. ‘It’s not up for debate, Flic. I don’t want her to know. And I’ll deal with Victor before he becomes a problem.’
‘Whatever you say,’ Flic answered under her breath. She followed him down the stairs. ‘Listen, Issa’s downstairs,’ she told him. ‘I guess you saw her at Victor’s. Anyway she has some idea that you might know where we can find some shadow blades to slice and dice these Originals with. Tell me she’s right.’
Lucas frowned at her. Then he smiled, realisation dawning. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘I have something that’ll work.’
Lucas crossed straight to Issa who was standing in the centre of Flic’s living room, and pulled her against his chest. ‘I’m sorry for leaving you,’ he murmured into her ear.
‘It’s OK,’ she whispered back, clutching onto him tightly.
‘How did you get through?’ he asked, pulling away.
‘Precognition, Lucas. Remember. Sometimes it actually works.’
‘Did you see Tristan? He was there. He was guarding the gateway. He almost didn’t let me pass.’ Lucas shook his head, still confused by why Tristan had stood aside in the end and let him pass through the gateway unharmed.
‘No,’ said Issa. ‘He’s gone. Back to the Shadowlands.’
A shuffling noise made them all turn towards the hallway. Jamieson appeared a moment later in the doorway. His face was drawn and his eyes were hollow and red-rimmed. One arm was wrapped in a cast and bound in a sling. From his expression, Lucas guessed that Flic had told him what had gone down in the Shifter realm.
‘Jamieson,’ Lucas said, crossing straight to him and pulling him into a one-armed embrace.
Jamieson hugged him back. ‘Good to see you’re alive,’ he said in a husky voice. ‘How are you doing? You look like hell.’
‘You should have seen me when Issa found me,’ Lucas smiled. ‘And you can’t talk.’
‘He only needs a shower and a shave,’ Flic interrupted. ‘You know where the bathroom is, right, Lucas?’ The hint was heavy in her voice.
‘First things first,’ Lucas said, dropping to his knees and rummaging in his bag. He pulled out the few items of clothing that he and Issa had worn for two months, the spare bandages and dressings that Issa had brought with her and stolen along the way from looted stores. At the bottom of the bag was a package. Lucas pulled it out and laid it on the table. It was a bundle of cloth bound tight with string. He cut through the knots with his blade and unfurled the cloth, laying out the contents on the table before them. Twelve arrow tips made from shadow blade.
‘Five spare,’ he said grinning up at the others.
‘Where did you get these?’ Flic asked, dropping to her knees and picking one up to admire it.
‘The fight at the Bradbury. I took out a Shadow Warrior on the roof. She was carrying these in a sheath on her back. I had them on me when …’ He broke off.
Flic threw her arms around his neck. ‘You may have just saved the day, Lucas.’
Lucas stood in front of the mirror holding onto the basin. Jamieson’s assessment was on point. He looked like hell. He ran his hand over his jaw, feeling the roughness of week-old stubble. His hair needed a cut too, was hanging over his collar. His cheekbones were more pronounced, his eyes a dark charcoal grey, ringed with shadows. He pulled off his shirt.
He was still in shape. He’d forced himself to start exercising when they were on the run, knowing that one day it all might come down to how fit he was, how able he was to fight.
He looked more muscled than he had been before, though perhaps it just appeared that way because he was leaner. He pressed his hand to the coarse home-made stitches that Issa had given him using a ball of twine and an embroidery needle. They seemed to have finally done the trick. The skin had finally closed over, leaving a silver scar as thick as his finger. He pressed his fingertips against his side. It wasn’t so tender anymore. The ache was buried much deeper inside him instead.
She loves you.
That’s what Flic had told him. Except it didn’t look that way.
Flic had tried to force Issa to tell him that Cyrus wasn’t in Evie’s future, that he was instead. But judging from the stuttering reply Issa had given him, she’d seen no such thing. He’d left the room at that point.
Once he would have fought and died for Evie – and, despite everything, he knew he still would. Without hesitation. She wasn’t his anymore, but he was still hers.
As he stared at himself in the mirror, deep down, where the ache resided, right in the heart of him, he knew that it was better this way, that Cyrus was better for her. He could protect her – that much he’d proved. He seemed to love her, though he wasn’t sure if love and lust were the same thing for Cyrus. And if he hurt her in any way he might just have to kill him. But most of all, Cyrus was fully human. He wouldn’t ever fade and aband
on her.
Despite his feelings about Cyrus – despite the anger he could feel like a horse kick to the stomach every time he thought of Cyrus laying his hands on her and kissing her – he also recognised that Cyrus was the only man other than himself who could protect Evie from Victor. Yes, she was stronger now, but she was also wounded. The need he had to protect her was part of his DNA, buried deeper even than the ache he felt every time he thought of her.
When he came out of the bathroom Flic did a double take, grinning at him. ‘Hot stuff, my brother,’ she said. ‘How can any woman, unhuman or otherwise, resist that face?’
He scowled at her.
‘Even that face,’ she pouted. ‘It’s pure lady lust material.’
‘Listen,’ he said, ignoring Flic. ‘I’ll stay. I’ll fight with you guys. I’m going to kill Victor. But then I’m gone. And Evie won’t ever need to know. Understood?’
Flic squinted up at him, her jaw pulsing and a hurt expression on her face. ‘Where will you go?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know – I guess now the Elders are no more I’m no longer being hunted. Which means I’m free to go wherever I want.’ The truth of that made his head spin. Where was home? It had been a place once. Now it was a person. He shook off that thought. It didn’t help matters.
‘First things first,’ he said, ‘let’s focus on getting through tonight.’
Chapter 51
Cyrus was huddled over the kitchen counter with Victor, Ash and Vero, drawing up the plan for that evening. The sight of Victor and Cyrus standing so close together made Evie’s skin crawl. They’d come back to Victor’s to regroup before the attack and sort out the weapon situation. It didn’t seem like a great idea to Evie, but Issa had told them it was safe for the moment.
In the background a television played on mute. Evie watched a blonde CNN reporter with a sombre expression reporting to camera. She was standing on a street somewhere. There was yellow tape in the background, and several chalk outlines were drawn over the blood-spattered sidewalk. The picture switched to another reporter, on another street corner. This time in the background Evie could make out a gathering of people in front of a makeshift shrine. Statistics ticker-taped across the bottom of the screen. iPhone footage of some Mixen filled the top right-hand corner. Evie stared in horror. How was this happening? How was any of this real?
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