Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood)

by Megan Joel Peterson

  He was trapped, just like everybody else in this building.

  She wouldn’t kill them in front of Lily, though. He paused at the thought, hoping more than ever that it was true. Lily loved her sister. Clung to her sister. Her world depended on Ashe being the good guy, and on some level, Ashe seemed to realize that.

  Which might give everyone here a chance.

  His jaw tightened as the man told them to follow. Irony didn’t cover it. He wasn’t sure what did. After everything he’d done, the crazy stuff he’d gone through to protect the little girl, the survival of everyone around him suddenly depended on keeping Ashe’s sister as close to her as possible.

  The gun in the back of his jeans feeling heavier than ever, his gaze tracked Ashe as she started after the man, pulling Lily along. The whole thing was sickening. Twisted and sickening.

  But it was only for now.

  *****

  Shadows closed around them as they headed between the columns on the side of the room and overhead, Cole could hear the guns disengage as their owners retreated from the gallery. A thin layer of debris ground beneath his shoes as he walked farther into the darkness, and the crunch of the footsteps ahead of him were the only other break in the quiet.

  He blinked as his eyes adjusted. A faint bluish glow paled the shadows, emanating from behind a black barrier that could have been a wall. Their guide, who’d enigmatically identified himself as Blackjack, walked toward it and Cole followed, pausing as the source of the illumination became clear.

  A single, blue emergency light shone dimly at the base of a wide stairway. Blackjack continued down, the dogs trailing him, though at the top of the steps, Ashe hesitated. She drew a breath, as if considering whether to go on, and then she started after the man, keeping Lily close to her side.

  Cole’s gaze tracked her. There still wasn’t any magic coming from the girl, and even with the wizard impassivity clinging to her face, she’d somehow contrived to look like a beaten-up teenager struggling not to be afraid of following a bunch of strangers into the dark, rather than a mass murderer quietly working on a way to kill them all.

  At his back, the burly man called Shale made an impatient noise. Fighting to keep his frustration from showing, Cole headed after the girls.

  The steps came to an end, with an opening to the right as the only possible direction to go. As he rounded the turn, his eyes swept the eerily silent space of cement columns and cracked tile. His brow twitched upward. The abandoned subway station was utterly still, and thick shadows hung beyond the island of light by the stairs. Up ahead, he could faintly discern the ledge where the floor disappeared, and as he followed Blackjack, he caught a glimpse of dim orange emergency lights farther down the tunnel on either side of the platform.

  Quickly, the man jumped to the tracks and headed left. Waiting for the dogs to go ahead, Ashe dropped down and then turned, bringing Lily after her.

  Feeling like he was falling farther and farther into a mistake from which he couldn’t escape, Cole slid off the edge of the platform and followed.

  Rubble carpeted the ground, fallen in disconcerting chunks from the ceiling above, and occasional dust rained down as subway trains flew through the newer tunnels nearby. Gripping Lily’s hand, Ashe continued ahead of him, her form silhouetted by the orange glow and flanked by the dogs. In the shadows between the emergency lights, larger pieces of debris began to appear, like boulders cast through the tunnel as though they were dice, and along the wall, crazed and gaping fissures marred the water-stained concrete.

  The man turned and disappeared behind one of the boulders, while the dogs took up positions by simply flopping to the ground and fastening their gazes on the tunnel’s end. Cole’s brow drew down. Cautiously, he walked closer, glancing uncomfortably to Ashe at her proximity and then returning his attention to the shadows behind the stone.

  Only a lucky trick of physics had kept the boulder from falling farther and blocking the steel door by its side. Towering higher than the door itself, the mass of concrete was littered with graffiti and sprigs of rebar that protruded like antennae from its edges. Ignoring the precariously balanced slab, Blackjack knocked a quick rhythm and then pushed the door open, sending golden light spilling into the tunnel.

  Cole blinked in the sudden glare and then tensed at the sight of the people standing around a table in the room beyond.

  To a person, they were armed.

  His gaze flicked to Ashe. With one hand holding Lily behind her, she scanned their faces, an intensity he wasn’t sure he wanted to understand flashing through her eyes. But after a heartbeat, the impassivity crept back and with an expectant glance to him, she started inside.

  Without any other option, he paced her, keeping Lily out of sight.

  The room had been a storage space once, or perhaps a maintenance area, if the dusty switches and dials along either of the side walls were any indication. But sleeping bags and backpacks filled the space now, and the only illumination came from the brilliant yellow utility lights strung between the struts overhead. Near the far wall, a ladder ran to the ceiling, ending in an access hatch to whatever lay above, and in the center of the room, an old metal table balanced on unsteady legs beneath the weight of weapons and maps of various parts of the country.

  “We’ve got visitors,” Blackjack said.

  Silence made it clear that the statement was obvious. Turning, the man raised an eyebrow to Ashe, caginess slipping back into his gaze. For a moment, she hesitated and then eased over, bringing Lily into view.

  Weapons came up around the room. Instantly, Ashe stepped back to Cole’s side.

  “Hold it!” Blackjack called, raising his hands to forestall any gunfire.

  No one moved.

  “This here is Summer and Snake. They found this little one hiding out after the Blood killed her kin. So take it easy. They say she doesn’t mean any harm.”

  The guns lowered, though only slightly.

  “Why would the Blood attack their own?” a scruffy-faced man growled distrustfully.

  “She doesn’t know,” Ashe answered.

  The scruffy man’s expression didn’t change.

  “Look,” Blackjack said, glancing to Ashe. “Why don’t y’all just start at the top? Where–”

  Metal clanked as the access hatch on the far side of the ceiling swung open. Boots appeared, and swiftly, a man slid down the ladder, turning as he hit the ground.

  The gun went off before Cole could move.

  Ashe’s shields surrounded her instantly, sending the bullet ricocheting into the defunct monitors on the wall, and around the room, the other cripples stumbled away, their weapons coming up to aim at the wizard girl. Shoving Lily back, Cole retreated toward the corner, knowing that with Shale and the dogs behind them, they’d never make it out the door.

  Magic still hovering around her, Ashe stood motionless.

  His muscles tense beneath the barbed wire and chain tattoos twisting down his dark arms, the man lowered the gun, nothing but ice in his eyes. As boots clanked on the rungs above him, he walked away from the ladder, his gaze locked on Ashe as though she was the only person in the room.

  “I almost didn’t believe it,” the man said quietly.

  A girl in a white tank top dropped off the ladder behind him, a shotgun strapped on her back across an extensive tattoo of spider webs made into wings. Yellow light played over the thick, blonde dreadlocks of her hair and as she turned, her expression was as guarded as any Cole had ever seen from Ashe.

  “When Spider told me you were back,” the man continued. “I almost didn’t think it was possible.”

  He stopped in front of her, and though her magic must have hurt like hell, his face gave no sign. “Ashe.”

  Grips tightened on the weapons all around. Heart pounding, Cole clenched Lily’s arm, willing the girl not to move.

  They knew who she was. What she’d done. His gaze slid to Ashe, dreading what she was going to do now.

  “Hello Samson,” A
she said softly.

  Rage seethed under the ice in the man’s eyes. “Where are the others, wizard?”

  Ashe’s gaze didn’t leave him. Cole couldn’t tell if she was breathing.

  “There are no others,” came her reply.

  “Bullshit.”

  She said nothing.

  “You’re dumb as hell, coming here,” the man growled. “There isn’t a person in this room who’s going to let you leave this place alive.”

  Cole swallowed, his eyes flicking between the man, the wizard, and the cripples who looked ready to shoot the first thing that moved. He didn’t stand a chance of reaching his gun in time, even if he’d been so stupid as to think it’d do a shred of good.

  Or known who he’d shoot anyway.

  Ashe was silent, as though she was trying to decide how to respond. “I didn’t do those things, Samson. And I never ordered them.”

  Her gaze flicked from him to the other girl and back. “I went to the Merlin council because Carter told me to. It’s the only reason I left. And they took what I told them, and some of them…” Her jaw muscles jumped. “I didn’t know.”

  Cole watched her, uncertain what to make of her words, but at the mention of the name Carter, the rage on the man’s face grew stronger.

  “You didn’t know,” Samson repeated, disgust dripping from his tone.

  “They said it was Taliesin. They…” she stopped, and Cole could see the emotion on her face swiftly being smothered back inside. “I made a deal,” she continued more levelly. “With Darius, the council leader. He promised to work with the cripples to prove to the rest of Merlin that the Blood existed, but only if I stayed and tried to recreate the binding spell. I couldn’t leave or fight, but I could do what Carter asked. Because of the trust I’d built with your people, I could bring our sides together to destroy the Blood once and for all.”

  Her expression tightened, old loathing surfacing briefly in her eyes. “So I agreed. And a few weeks later, Darius came to say it’d happened. A cripple shot at a Blood wizard, and when he defended himself, the Merlin were finally convinced the Blood were real. Darius told me the Merlin had started fighting them, and that they were working with the cripples side by side. He claimed it was brutal, but we were winning, and that even though I couldn’t go out there, I could rest assured that everything Carter had wanted was coming true.”

  She paused. “Wizards are bastards, Samson,” she finished, deep anger threading through her voice for the first time. “You were the one who told me that.”

  For a moment, the man said nothing, and then derision crept into his eyes. “Convincing. Really. Especially with the little Blood at your side.”

  His gun twitched toward Lily and Cole pushed the girl farther behind him as instantly, Ashe’s magic strengthened. A few feet away, Blackjack winced.

  “Don’t,” she warned.

  Samson’s eyes narrowed.

  “She’s not a Blood,” Ashe said, an edge to her voice. “She’s my sister.”

  From the corner of his eye, Cole saw confusion flash across the dreadlocked girl’s face.

  Samson scoffed. “And he’s your long lost brother,” he said with a jerk of his chin to Cole. “And we’re all just supposed to believe the bloody queen of Merlin is innocent because, what? She looks like hell and claims to be the victim here?” He made a disgusted noise, the hatred in his eyes deepening. “Try something else, you lying bitch. As I remember, that was your act last time, and I think we all know what came of it. Or was Carter just one more dead cripple to you?”

  Everything about Ashe went still, and then slowly, she began to tremble. Like a wall coming into existence in front of her, her magic intensified, till sweat dripped down Samson’s face with the effort of not retreating from the pain. Around the room, the other men backed away, while by the ladder, the dreadlocked girl’s grip on a metal rung tightened till her knuckles showed white. Behind him, Cole felt Lily start for her sister and he snagged her arm, watching Ashe in wary alarm.

  From within its protection, her magic barely hurt at all.

  A breath escaped Ashe and the magic dissipated. Still shaking, she blinked, looking to the other girl.

  “I’m sorry,” Ashe said tightly. “I… I’m glad you stayed away.”

  Turning, she took Lily’s hand. Drawing the little girl along, she walked past Shale out of the room.

  Cole glanced from the door to the cripples, and then headed after her.

  Feet devouring the ground, Ashe strode down the tunnel, with Lily half-running to keep up. Over the distance, he could feel magic flickering fitfully around her, and despite the desire not to let Lily out of his sight, he couldn’t help but slow to lessen its ache.

  “Ashley,” Lily said.

  The older girl didn’t answer. She didn’t even seem to hear.

  “Ashley!”

  Flinching, Ashe stopped, and her gaze followed Lily’s back down the tunnel. For a moment, she didn’t move, watching him through the dim light, and he couldn’t read the look in her eyes.

  Slowly, the magic faded to a shadow of what it had been. He came closer. She was still trembling and before he got within a few feet, she seemed to balk at his proximity and swiftly turned to keep going.

  His brow drawing down, he followed.

  The platform came into view, its bluish lights ghostly against the darkness. Grabbing Lily under her arms, Ashe quickly hoisted the girl onto the tiled ledge, giving no sign of noticing the worried look on her little sister’s face.

  “Ashe,” came a voice behind them.

  He looked back as debris crunched in the tunnel. Gun bouncing against her shoulder, the blonde girl from the storage room jogged out of the shadows. Stopping at the edge of the light, she held up her hands peaceably, as though between her and the wizard, she was the one who somehow needed to appear nonthreatening.

  “Hang on a minute?”

  Ashe didn’t move.

  The girl’s mouth tightened. “Look,” she said, taking a few steps closer. “Sam was being an ass, alright? What he said…” she glanced away, irritation flashing across her face. “I’m sorry.”

  Cole looked to Ashe. Nothing but typical wizard impassivity showed in her eyes. One hand on Lily’s leg, she waited, motionless and still managing to look as dangerous as ever at the same time.

  The other girl didn’t even seem to notice. “What’re you doing here?” she asked, her tone vaguely incredulous.

  “Saw your message outside.”

  Her voice was quiet, and almost pained, and he found himself wondering again what the hell she’d seen. But at the words, the girl just scoffed, her incredulity deepening.

  “And what? You thought dropping in without warning would be a good plan?”

  Ashe said nothing, and the other girl’s humor faded as she glanced to the blood on Ashe’s face and arms. Silence fell over the tunnel, broken only by the patter of dust raining down as a distant subway train rushed by.

  “I didn’t want to believe it, you know,” the girl said after a moment. “That you were behind all that…” she shook her head. “Didn’t make sense. Wizards being bastards, now,” she chuckled dryly, “that I’ll believe any day of the week. But the rest…” she shook her head again.

  “When’d you find out?” she asked, her tone becoming serious.

  “About three weeks ago,” Ashe answered quietly.

  The girl paused. “Did you try to reach us?”

  “They told me they killed Carter’s people.”

  “They must’ve meant Serenity’s crew. She and the others died trying to reach a couple of their friends a few months back.” For a moment, the girl’s face tightened, and then she visibly pushed the memory aside. “So what about the ferals?”

  Cole glanced between them, at a loss for what she meant.

  Ashe hesitated. “The leaders are dead.”

  The girl’s brow shrugged equitably. “And that?” she asked, jerking her chin toward the dried bloodstains.

>   “Taliesin. Maybe Blood too.”

  “Still alive?”

  “Some.”

  “We’ll keep an eye out.”

  Silence returned.

  “Listen,” the girl said. “I don’t know what your plan is, and I know the others aren’t exactly happy you’re here, but would you stick around a bit? There’s someone who’s going to want to see you.”

  He saw Ashe swallow at the words. “Okay.”

  The girl nodded. Adjusting the gun strap on her shoulder, she started for the platform.

  “I’m Spider, by the way,” she said to him as she approached.

  He paused. “Cole.”

  “Cripple?” she asked. Her gaze twitched to Ashe.

  Hesitating again, he nodded, and then noted how she didn’t really seem to accept the answer till it came from Ashe as well.

  He struggled to keep the bafflement from his face, feeling adrift enough as it was without letting the others know. Calmly, Spider kept walking, giving no sign she cared that a wizard the rest of the world blamed for mass genocide stood only a few feet away.

  “And you are?” Spider asked Lily, her friendly tone marred only slightly by the tension he could hear beneath the words.

  “Lily,” Ashe supplied quietly.

  Spider looked from her to the little girl, and as he came up near them, Cole could read the questions in her eyes. But with another glance to Ashe, she seemed to push past the uncertainty to just give the kid a smile. “Nice to meet you.”

  Cautiously, Lily nodded, watching her as if waiting to see what she’d do with the gun.

  “This way,” Spider said, hoisting herself over the edge of the platform.

  He stared at Ashe and Lily as they climbed up after the girl and headed for the stairs. None of this made sense. Ashe, Spider, the gun-wielding gladiator who’d tried to shoot her and accused her of getting some guy named Carter killed.

  Every single shred of evidence Harris and his father had supplied.