I close the case and slip it into my pocket. I’m not about to thank Kai for anything, but for the first time since I boarded the plane last night, I feel almost ready for the impossible task in front of me.
I thank Auggie and start up the steps, giving Kai a moment to settle up. Behind me, I hear their murmured goodbyes, the slap of hands on shoulders as they embrace, and a sniffle that must be Auggie’s.
Kai runs to catch up as I push through the door into the foggy blackness of the alley. “There’s a park a few blocks north,” she says. “We can catch a taxi there.”
The rain has slowed to an icy drizzle, and I jam my hands deep in my pockets for warmth, keeping my pace brisk to put as much distance as possible between us and Auggie’s place, hoping it wasn’t a mistake to stop. Ahead, the trees bordering the park rustle, their branches stirred by a wind that seems to whip and change direction too often, too quickly. Lightning flickers in the distance, and a handful of scattered snowflakes swirl on the breeze. Kai’s feet splash in the puddles behind me.
“How do you and Auggie know each other?” I ask Kai over my shoulder, not entirely sure I trust him.
“He was a Handler when I first came to the Observatory,” she explains, trotting to catch up. “He and his Summer lived in the room next to mine. I had a difficult transition. He and Daisy helped me adjust.”
“The fly?”
Kai nods, confirming my suspicion. “Daisy was like a sister to him. He adored her. But she was outspoken. Reckless. She had strong opinions and refused to keep her head down. Michael made an example of her and had her Culled.” Kai winces, as if the memory still stings. “Auggie was allowed to stay in the Observatory. He worked in maintenance for a while, laid low and kept an eye on Daisy’s fly for a decade or so, until a faculty member helped them escape.”
“Who?” I ask eagerly. “If this staff member’s still down there, maybe they can help us.”
“He’s not there anymore,” Kai says, her expression shuttering, the grief in her eyes telling me everything I need to know. Whoever helped Auggie was probably Terminated for it. We’re on our own. “What now?” she asks, scrambling to keep up with me.
“We get to the north portal and find a way down to the Observatory.”
“How?”
“I’ll know it when I see it.”
“So you’re just going to wing it?”
“Pretty much.” I stop at the edge of the park, pacing the sidewalk, searching for a taxi, but it’s oh-dark-thirty out here and there’s no one except a cluster of homeless people huddled around a trash barrel. Fire licks up the side of it, throwing sparks and orange light over their faces. A deep rattling cough comes from under a blanket on the ground.
Kai’s eyes leap to mine as tiny flickers of light, like lost sparks from the fire, swirl into the air with the girl’s next bout of coughing. As we come closer, the girl presses the end of a threadbare quilt over her mouth, trapping the bits of magic before anyone else notices. Her skin is a sickly sweat-slicked gray, her eyes glassy and distant in the firelight.
I kneel beside her. “Summer or Spring?” I ask in a low voice.
Her eyes flutter, heavy-lidded and confused. Her lips crack around her whispered reply. “Summer. How did you . . . ?” Her dark eyes narrow on my face. They slide to Kai and relief washes over her. The thin wheeze she expels sets off another fit of coughing. Kai drops down beside her, rubbing slow circles on the Summer’s back until the fit calms.
“You know her?” I ask quietly.
Kai shakes her head. “Not well. I was a Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. I think she’s north.” Kai draws the Summer’s tangled hair back from her ear. A transmitter light blinks, a steady red pulse, and Kai covers it up again. “Can you get home?”
The girl shakes her head. “I haven’t heard from my Handler in six days. Last time we talked, she said there was some kind of coup. That the Guards were locking everyone in their rooms. She sounded scared. And then she just stopped answering. I didn’t know what to do, so I caught a flight here, but I can’t get through to her, and I was too afraid to turn myself in at the portal.”
Kai and I exchange a worried glance. Auggie said he couldn’t get through to the Summer wing. That the power was probably down. This girl has hours, a day at most, before this weather devours her. At this time of year, we’re not likely to find a stray Autumn or Winter wandering the streets of London to help her.
Kai tucks the quilt around the girl’s shoulders and smooths her hair. She draws me aside so the girl won’t hear. “There’s nothing either of us can do for her, except get down there fast and try to restore power to the Summer wing.”
We both look up as headlights approach. A taxi. “Come on. The sooner we get to a portal, the better.” I jump off the curb, flagging it down. Kai gives the dying Summer one last look, and we sprint through the freezing rain to the cab.
21
Smothered in Their Lairs
FLEUR
My stiff limbs groan as I shift against the cold stone floor. Slowly, I turn my head, twisting to see my surroundings, orienting myself against the iron bars. I touch the sore muscles in my neck, testing the bruised flesh and swallowing fire. My knees scream as I sit up against the wall, struggling to remember what happened right before I passed out.
A red light winks at me from a new camera mounted by the ceiling.
A clump of fallen stone sits beside my hand, and I consider pitching it at the camera’s lens. But then Doug would only send someone to replace it. Maybe he’d even come himself. And I’m not ready to face him again.
I rub my temple where Lixue cuffed me, listening to the soft snores coming from the direction of Chill’s cell, praying that he was wrong. That Jack’s not coming. Praying that Doug was lying about the others.
A shadow moves in the corridor. A cold draft ruffles my hair as a filmy gray smaze darts between the bars into my cell. It tumbles like an angry cloud, as if it’s aggravated or impatient, circling my head and then doubling back. I hurl a handful of rubble at it, rubbing the warmth back into my arms as it zips away.
A steady march of boots echoes from the catacombs. I push myself to my feet as Lixue stops in front of my cell. Her hands are empty. No water. No food. The same huge Guard I saw before stands behind her.
“What do you want?” It hurts to speak, and the words come out hoarse. Unease sets in as she works a key into the lock.
“Chronos wants to see you.” She slings open the door, and I back away from the huge Guard as he steps inside my cell. He smiles, a little sheepish as he snaps a set of shackles around my wrists before gently escorting me out.
I try to pay attention to our route as I’m marched through the winding tunnels, but after two or three turns, they all look the same. The passageways are dark, the torchlight casting shadows that make it hard to see. Bits of broken shale dig into my bare feet as the Guards follow me up a narrow spiral stairway.
At the top, Lixue pushes open a metal door. Bright white light streams through the gap, and I narrow my eyes like some kind of surfacing mole. A long hall runs to my left. Another to my right. After the trip through the dim tunnels, the shiny floor tiles and pristine white walls are almost blinding, but I’m sure I’ve never been in this part of the Observatory before.
Something cold brushes my left ankle. I pause, startled to see a smaze zipping around it. It darts back and forth, frantic and restless, and I wonder if it’s the same one that wandered into my cell.
Lixue propels me forward with a shove, nudging me toward a door at the end of the hall. She scans a key card and the locks snap open. Lixue pops her head in, talking in a low voice as the huge Guard watches me.
“Leave us,” comes a familiar voice from inside.
Lixue swings the door wide, nudging me through it when I refuse to enter.
Doug sits on a crisp white sofa inside, his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers threaded together, watching a TV. He doesn’t look up. The rest of the room is s
pacious and spare—clean angles, no frills, all white and glass and chrome. My eyes dart to every corner, but there’s no sign of the Staff of Time anywhere.
“Close the door.” Doug’s voice is gravelly and deep, as if he’s been here alone for a while.
“Are you sure, Chronos?” Lixue asks, her eyes flicking to me.
“The Spring won’t be a problem. Will you, Fleur?” Snowy black-and-white footage plays on the TV screen. Two Guards enter the frame. They lean against the wall outside Chill’s cell.
I stiffen as the door clicks shut behind me.
Doug rises and moves to the sideboard. He pours water from a crystal decanter into a short glass and holds it toward me. His shirtsleeves are rolled up, his forearms tensed, waiting for me to take it. I clench my fists, forcing myself to look away.
“Suit yourself.” He swirls the glass, turning to watch me as he takes a deep gulp. My swallow is painful and dry, loud in my own ears. His eye dips to the bruises on my neck as if he’s reading my thoughts. I haven’t had anything to eat or drink since I was yanked from the villa. Doug sips the rest of his water luxuriously, every slow swallow taunting me.
He steps closer, his hair falling over the patch covering his right eye. The cold diamond of his left eye rakes down my sweat-stained coveralls, all the way to my filthy, bleeding feet. He gestures with his glass toward the sofa. I give him a wide berth, pausing midstride in front of it.
A glazed pot rests in the center of the glass coffee table. The waxy green leaves spilling over the edge of the pot are the only splash of color in the room.
My mind lunges for them, sliding into their moist, cool roots, clutching the houseplant like a found weapon as I ease down onto the sofa.
Doug watches me over the rim of his glass. “I’ve been staring at that pot for days, and I can’t budge a single leaf. Why?” he demands.
His tone earns him a contemptuous smile.
In a flash of movement, he reaches for a leaf, pinching it between his thumb and forefinger. My right arm bends at an odd angle in response. I cry out, yanking my mind from the plant a second before the stem snaps.
Doug sits on the sofa across from me, twirling the broken leaf between his fingers. He sets down his glass with a sharp clink against the tabletop and stares at me with that horrible gleaming eye.
I leap for his glass and slam it against the table. It shatters with a deafening crash, and I back away from the sofa, clutching a thick, gleaming shard in my hand. I bolt for the door, braced for Doug to pounce, but he makes no attempt to stop me. The doorknob slips in my blood-slicked palm. I rattle it, but it’s locked, the security panel beside it blinking red. Whirling around, I search the room for another exit, but there’s no way out. Doug rises from the couch. He feints as I swing at him, grabbing my wrist as it flashes past his neck. The shard slips from my fingers as he wrenches my arm behind my back. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
“You’re an idiot if you think I’m going to make this easy for you. Why should I?” I snap. “You’re only going to kill me anyway.”
Doug yanks me toward the TV. He reaches for the remote with his free hand and turns the channel to the satellite feeds. An explosion of color bursts onto the screen. My eyes dart back and forth over the weather maps, my mouth falling open as I follow the path of the deadly storms spreading across Europe and Africa. News headlines cut across the bottom of the screen. Devastated cities. Trade routes interrupted. Markets in panic. The death tolls are staggering, and I turn away.
Doug hurls the remote across the room and spins me around by the arm, forcing me to look at him.
“This isn’t only about you and your boyfriend anymore. It never was, but you and Jack were too selfish to see it. Gaia’s magic is loose, and if I can’t control it, every living creature on this godforsaken planet is going to suffer and die. The destruction of the world will be on you!”
“You killed them!” I say, fighting back tears. “Everything was fine. Everything was better under Lyon and Gaia. You did this.”
“I only finished what you and Sommers started. And now you and I are going to fix it.” His voice is strained. He presses a palm to his breastbone and shoves me away from him. Drawing thin breaths, he claws at his tie, dragging down the knot as he lumbers to the decanter. Clutching his chest, he turns over a glass, filling it to the brim with a shaking hand and sucking down the water in huge, greedy gulps.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, darting a hopeful glance at the door.
“Nothing. So don’t get any stupid ideas about leaving.” His voice is hoarse. He sets down the glass and wipes his mouth on his sleeve.
My own mouth is too dry to even salivate. I lick my lips, trying to remember the last time I had any water, and my stomach growls. Doug turns at the sound, dragging his tie over his head and tossing it over the arm of the sofa. He juts his chin to a set of double doors behind him.
“You’re bleeding on my carpet. There’s a first-aid kit in the bathroom. Clean that mess up. Then we’ll get started.”
I open my mouth to protest, but he gestures to the broken leaf wilting on the table in front of him. “You’ll stay here with me and we’ll work round the clock. You have until Jack gets here to show me how to control the earth magic. I suggest you make your last moments on this earth count.”
He turns his back on me, letting me know this conversation is over.
I stare at him, unable to move. How long until Jack comes looking for me? How many days until Doug kills us both?
“You’ve tied my hands before,” I remind him. He turns, and when his eye meets mine, I dredge up a memory—the day of my Reconditioning when he tied me to a chair, the satisfying snap of my head against his nose. “How well did that work out for you?”
A muscle tightens in his jaw.
I storm into the bedroom and close the doors behind me, falling back against them and holding them shut.
22
Night Falling Fast
JACK
The portal to the Summer wing is just south of Greenwich Park. Kai and I duck behind a row of hedges beside the two-story house in Blackheath. The windows are dark and the porch lights are out. A low brick wall shields us from passing traffic as Kai readies her bow. I grip my flashlight and lockpick set, searching for signs of movement in the house.
“You think they’ll bother posting Guards in a house with no power?”
Kai nods. “They’d be foolish not to guard a portal, especially one without power.”
“How long will I have to get through the locks?”
“Once they hear you, you’ll have about five seconds to open that door before they’re all over us.” She stows her backpack within reach of the window beside us. Then she rolls out her shoulders and shakes out her hands. “Ready?”
“Not really.” My own hands are so cold, I can barely feel my fingers.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.”
The darkness hides my grimace. Last time I showed Kai my back, she put three arrows in it. But as she rises to her feet and stalks toward the door with her bow raised, I don’t have much of a choice but to go along with her.
I creep up the porch steps. My hands feel clumsy as I kneel in front of the door, less sensitive to the feel of the pins than they should be. I listen, breath held, watching for Kai’s single sharp nod before turning the knob.
The hinge creaks as I crack the door open. Through the narrow gap, I have a clean line of sight straight into the darkened parlor.
Into the face of a Guard as she looks up from behind a desk.
I shove the door open. It swings a full four inches before it bounces to a halt, a chain lock stretched across the opening.
“Shit!” I croak.
The Guard leaps from her chair. My flashlight shines off the barrel of her gun.
I jump to my feet and hurl my shoulder into the door. “You didn’t tell me there was a chain!” The wood around the chain splinters, the sound of it drowned under the Guard�
�s shout as she calls out for her team. I recoil as a bullet lodges in the doorframe. I ram the door again. It flies open, and I stumble in with it.
Kai’s foot smacks into the back of my knee. I crash to the floor as something hisses over my head. There’s a thwack and the Guard holding the gun goes down, an arrow protruding from her throat.
Another thwack. A Guard at the end of the hall falls.
Kai stalks around me, bow raised, arrow nocked. She jerks her head to the side, instructing me to stay behind her as we tiptoe around the body into the kitchen. The floor shakes with the thunder of heavy boots and the cellar door flies open—
Thwack. A Guard falls through it. Kai kicks him, making sure he’s down.
She nocks another arrow and steps over him, disappearing down the cellar stairs. I pause to fish a key card from his pocket before remembering we left Kai’s backpack outside. I retrace my steps to the window, ducking as the dead Guard’s magic soars over my head. Shouldering Kai’s pack, I blink away the glare, unsure what I’m seeing as I spot a shadow moving down the hall.
A Guard creeps into the kitchen. On silent feet, she stalks to the cellar door. I draw my knife and follow her, reaching the top of the stairs just as she sneaks up behind Kai.
I hurl the blade. Kai spins, bow raised, as the Guard tumbles down the last few steps, landing facedown at the bottom with my knife in her back.
Kai blinks up at me and lowers her bow. Neither of us speaks as I bend to retrieve my knife and grab the Guard’s key card from her pocket. We shield our eyes as her magic flares and soars away. When the light fades, I hand over Kai’s backpack and one of the key cards, keeping the other for myself.
I snap on my flashlight, swinging the beam around the cellar. The elevator to the Summer wing sits in the far corner of the room. Resting the flashlight on the floor, I pry the elevator doors open and peer into the shaft. Dank, musty air whips up from below. It smells strongly of minerals and moss, the same closed-in smells that fill the catacombs under the Observatory. An open Coke can sits on a rectangular folding table beside me. I pour the remaining contents onto the floor and pitch the empty can into the shaft.
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