by K. Gorman
“Wait,” he said. “What should I do?”
“I don’t know. Be helpful?” Aiden paused and fixed him with a blue-eyed stare. “Your choice. Oh—wait, here, need to put you under a tracker.”
His hand reached out and patted down on Ketan’s head. A second later, a rush of warmth flooded through his body. He shrank as it flowed in, touching all of the parts on the way down. But, before he could do more than sputter, the sensation lifted and the Mage took his hand away, new spell runes gathering on his palm.
“See you.”
Then, between one breath and the next, he was gone.
A draft tickled Ketan’s neck. The smoke around the area pulled and eddied where the Mage had stood, disturbed by the sudden pressure change. He stood in shock, looking at the spot where the man had vanished.
The backpack in his hand was heavier than he’d expected it to be—though maybe not heavy enough, considering it contained a crystal powerful enough to fuel Ryarne’s shield.
What should he do? The safest thing would be to, as the Mage had suggested, find a place to hole up. Keep the crystal safe, secure. Wait for Aiden to come back.
But Aiden hadn’t seemed too concerned about Ketan’s ability to protect it. Granted, the Fire Mage had little experience with him. Maybe he’d have handed it off to anyone, no matter their skillset. Ketan just happened to share an Element.
Heat rippled through the pack. He wasn’t sure how the crystal’s thermodynamics worked, but it seemed to bend normal laws. Fabric wasn’t supposed to conduct heat—not like, say, an iron bar—but the backpack’s handle had definitely warmed.
He stepped back and scanned the street, taking in the haloed light, the buckled pavement, and the weathered building fronts. Smoke shifted and eddied, never quite clearing away.
Devin had reappeared in the alley. He met Ketan’s gaze from across the street, bottle still burning in his hand. He waved Ketan over, index finger curling in the universal ‘come here’ gesture.
Then, without a word, he stepped back into the shadows of the alley.
Gunfire blazed in the distance, sounding like pops of firecrackers. Smoke filled the air, shifting in the streets. Ketan heard the stamp and tread of soldiers’ boots, running, marching, coming closer.
Without another thought, he ran across the street and followed.
*
“You run with the Fire Mage now?”
Devin sounded skeptical. He walked just in front of Ketan, the wan lights from the street behind barely catching his form. The bottle in his hand glistened, its dark liquid moving inside.
Even from here, he could smell the kerosene.
“Yeah, I guess. Just met him.”
Devin didn't speak for a minute, weaving between the debris in the alley in silence. Ketan stared at the spot between his shoulder blades, trying to make sense of his gut instincts.
Half of him felt like he could trust Devin. The other half remembered the punch Devin had greeted him with just over a day ago. With his recent robbery, the latter's paranoia was winning the fight.
But Devin surprised him. The teen turned, crab-walking a few steps as he shot Ketan a narrow-eyed look.
“You really a Fire Elemental, then?”
His jaw slackened. News traveled fast. Either Devin had heard that before the UnderNet had gone down, or Ketan had underestimated the Underground's word of mouth.
“Yeah. We cool?”
“Sure,” Devin said. “But your friend isn't.”
His heart skipped a beat. “My friend?”
Had they found Leloni?
“Big fucker, shot in the leg. They hauled him through HQ before they took him down to the basement.”
Relief flooded him. Carson. He meant Carson.
“What's going to happen to him?”
Devin shrugged. “Dunno. They got him in a room now. Even without the wound, he won't be moving for a while. You good friends?”
“No.”
“Good.” Devin paused at an intersection, gave the adjoining alley a glance-over, then turned. “So, what did you get up to with the Fire Mage?”
He shrugged. “Stuff. Grabbed his crystal from his engine.”
Devin stopped dead. When he turned, his eyes had a lot more interest than they'd shown in the last ten minutes. “No shit? You actually got to see one of the crystals?”
“Yeah,” he said cautiously.
“What did it look like?”
He paused, considering the teen. Then, a smile stretched his lips. “Actually, he gave it to me.”
“What?”
“Yeah. For some reason, he couldn't take it with him.”
“He just let you have the crystal?” Devin raised both eyebrows, his incredulity plain to read.
Ketan didn’t blame him. He hardly believed it himself. It was only the weight of the crystal, the way it shifted against his back when he moved, that made it reality.
And he could feel it. Its warmth seeped through the backpack’s seams like a heat lamp.
“Yeah.”
“Show me.” Devin took a step forward.
“No. Not here.”
“You don't have it. You're lying.” Devin's face darkened, his brow creasing, a mix of anger and disbelief flashing in his eyes.
Ketan held his ground, kept his face blank, and watched the teen. His Element stirred within him like old coals raked back to life. Even though he tamped it down, he could feel the heat rise in the air.
Devin's frown softened as he studied Ketan. “You're not lying, are you?”
“Why would I lie?”
“How the fuck should I know? People lie for all sorts of fucking reasons.” Devin dug his free hand into his pants pocket, and Ketan stiffened—but all he pulled out was a tissue. He wiped the hand that held the bottle. “Why can't you show me?”
“The Mage told me to keep it safe.”
“Right. So you need to get to a safe place?”
Ketan's eyes darted to the alley they'd come from. He could still smell smoke from the street. “Relatively speaking, yes.”
“All right. I can arrange that. Follow me.”
They traveled away from the streets, keeping to the alleys as they walked. He recognized a few buildings from his exploration, but Devin moved through them like they were second nature. Apparently, he didn’t even need a light to navigate the Underground’s maze.
Maybe one day, Ketan would be like that.
If he redeemed his involvement with the robbery.
He wondered what Carson would tell them, now that he was under their care. Ketan doubted they’d provided much kindness in whatever first-aid treatment they’d given him. Pain had a way of making people talk.
And Carson had been waiting for a chance to get even with him.
He tripped on a piece of broken concrete, the action jolting him from his thoughts.
When he looked up, Devin had vanished.
Er. What?
The alley was empty, save for a broken bench to one side and an upturned coffee cup on the other. He hadn’t been that far behind, had he? The man had doused his Molotov, so he couldn’t track him that way, but maybe—
Something scuffed overhead. A piece of dirt fell from the ceiling.
Ketan looked up just as Devin dropped a rope ladder on him.
“Come on. Were taking to the skies.”
At first, he frowned.
Then, he eyed the rafters with a new understanding.
Smart. Very smart. And he remembered wondering about that when he’d first arrived. In a place like the Underground, the sky was really just a different part of the tunnel. Coming down here, seeing the rafters so high over the main streets, it was easy to forget that there was a whole other world made of steel and wood. The support network ran all the way to the top—over seventeen floors of rafters, if rumor had it right.
Of course they would use them. Why wouldn’t they?
He hauled himself up. The rope ladder swung awkwardly as he climbed. Old wood
scraped his knuckles, drove tiny splinters into his fingertips.
Then, he was up.
Devin eyed his boots, watching him balance on the beam. “It takes a bit of getting used to, being up here. I’ll go slow.”
And with that, the teen took off through the rafters, ducking and dodging like a spider monkey.
Ketan stared after him, then looked down. Dim light shone on the alley’s floor, illuminating the dirty, rough concrete that was now far below him. The beams looked like solid black bars, but he found his focus dragged to the space between them rather than the support they gave.
There was a lot more space than wood.
Placing his first step carefully, he ducked under a beam and followed Devin. Wood chafed under his skin, made his boots slip, dusty with cobwebs.
They made an unsteady tak, tak, tak as he followed Devin.
It didn’t take long to find the action.
The rafters put them well away from the street, the beams shielding them from what the shadows couldn’t conceal. A troop of soldiers moved through the street below in tactical precision, guns raised at shoulder level, checking every store and alley mouth that they came to.
“They never look up,” Devin said as Ketan caught up. He leaned against a steel girder, one arm casually hooked around the overhead beam. The streetlights made it bright enough that Ketan could see the diluted blue of his eyes. Dust faded the color from his clothes.
“I expect that will change, if they try this again,” Devin continued.
Again? Ketan watched the soldiers prowl the streets, seemingly facing no enemy. The Underground was so confident in its defense system that they already had contingency plans for again?
Given what he’d seen of Sophia in their brief encounter, and the power that Mages wielded, he really shouldn’t have been surprised. If Sophia planned to make her Underground autonomous, he had no doubts that she would get her way, one way or another.
“So, do you get any boost from it?” Devin focused on him now, his attention diverted from the streets.
Ketan raised an eyebrow. “From what?”
“From the Fire crystal. You know, like in video games. You’re a Fire Elemental. Fire crystals should give you a power boost, right?”
Somehow, he doubted it worked that way. If the crystal gave him a boost, he hadn’t felt it yet.
“I guess not. I don’t really feel any different. It’s warm, that’s all.”
“Can I see it now? We're safe here.”
Ketan stiffened. Then, he shrugged. They were quite high. Even if the soldiers did look up and happen to see them, the two of them would be long gone by the time they managed to climb up here.
And if Aiden was willing to drop the crystal in the hands of a near stranger like Ketan, he doubted the Mage cared about a little show-and-tell. In fact, his only instructions had been to ‘keep it safe.’
He hadn’t specified how.
Ketan shrugged his backpack off, letting the strap slide down his arm. He turned away from the street, stepping across the rafters to get farther into the shadows, then sat down on one of the heavy beams that crisscrossed the space. It still felt dizzy, stepping from one to the other. The ground was so far below.
Devin joined him in a heartbeat, leaning over the bag as Ketan perched it on his knee.
The zipper was warm when he pressed his fingers to it. When he opened the bag, orange light spilled across his skin. The crystal sat in the pack like a giant ember, its solid sides visible only through the shiver of its light and the way its facets glinted. When the bag shifted, the crystal hit the side with a small rustle.
Devin leaned forward, his face underlit by the orange glow. It pooled on his clothes like liquid sunlight. The undersides of the rafters lit up with gold.
“Whoa,” Devin breathed.
“Yeah,” Ketan agreed. He could feel the light hit his skin.
It was pretty, and it felt nice. Warm.
But it gave him no boost.
Maybe he hadn’t played enough video games.
He re-zipped the bag. The light snuffed out as if he’d eclipsed the sun.
The air cooled.
“No boost,” he repeated, putting the bag back over his shoulder.
Devin straightened. “Oh, well. Can’t have everything.”
He leaned out and scanned the street again. It took a few moments for Ketan’s eyes to readjust. Blue dots blotted out his vision. The crystal burned in his cornea like a Fire spirit. He swore he’d seen a slit of blue in its center. And the way the light had shifted…
He doubted the crystal was an inanimate thing. When Meese talked about her crystal, it had a name. The Phoenix. Like it was a person, not a power source.
And this one had no inclination to dole out power to Ketan.
He tried not to feel cheated. Meese, as he understood, was special. Why she was special, he didn’t know—and he suspected that she didn’t know, either.
Devin sidled back to his post over the street. The light slanted across him, as mercurial as the moon. “It’s nice that you’re here. Useful, anyway.”
Ketan froze. “What do you mean?”
Devin lifted his Molotov, rocking the bottle so that the liquid inside swirled against the glass. It looked like they’d stuffed a sock down its throat for the wick.
“Easier to get you to light this than fuck around with my matches.”
Ah. So he was a glorified lighter now, was he?
Ketan stepped across the beams toward the street, taking it slow as the last of the retinal burn cleared. His fingers caught the edge of the overhanging beam, its steel length and round rivets cold in his grip.
Soldiers flitted on the street below, same as before. There were more of them.
“I’m not sure if I can join you in that, tempting as it sounds.”
“What do you mean? You were always up for a fight.”
He shook his head. “I have to keep the crystal safe. That’s my job. I can’t risk it being shot.”
Devin lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“Come here. You’ll see.”
He edged to the last rafter, ignoring the dizzy feeling in his stomach as the street opened up below him. “What?”
Soldiers moved slowly down the street, looking like large white ants from his angle. He picked them out easily against the city’s concrete. They moved in a thick line, their shapes shifting in the haze.
“This way leads to the exit,” Devin said. “They’re leaving. We’re only here to harry them, make sure they don’t linger.”
He frowned. Then why had Aiden run off to do something for the Water Mage? It had sounded urgent—urgent enough to leave his crystal in the hands of a total stranger…
Then, it clicked.
He understood.
If the invasion really had been an occupation force—a successful occupation force—the Fire Mage would never have left his crystal. He would’ve found Meese, met with Gobardon, and gotten out as fast as possible, not dick around with whatever the Water Mage needed.
The troops on the street—they were retreating.
He watched them for a minute longer, listening to the far-off tramp and stomp of their boots.
Then, he turned to Devin.
“All right, what do you have in mind?”
Chapter 50
Fire was what he had in mind. Lots of it. Glass clinked as they descended the rafters together, entering a building from the side through a tall, half-open window. Their boots thumped hard on the floor.
As they descended a flight of stairs, the sound of soldiers amplified.
It was like they were just outside, marching level with them.
“How far is it to the exit?”
Ketan sidestepped an old bicycle that leaned against the wall, its tires flat, inner-tube spilling out. A few cigarette butts littered the ground, dirty enough to blend in.
“One block and twenty flights of stairs,”
Devin replied. He made a perfect silhouette against the dusty window, one hand brushing the brick wall beside him, the other on the neck of his weaponized bottle.
They peeked through a break in the glass, and heat stirred inside Ketan. Smoke tainted the air. His heart rate jumped as a soldier came into view barely fifty meters from them.
They shrank back into the shadows, watching as she roved the area with her rifle.
She was just below them, her back to the wall of their building. Even from where they stood, they could hear the crunch of glass and loose rock under her heavy boots.
Three others followed, coming into sight from around the corner. The steady march and beat of the column echoed in the distance, punctuated by the staccato thrum of gunfire.
“We want to herd them,” Devin said. “Like sheepdogs, I guess. Make sure they don’t go down any of the alleys. They shouldn’t, anyway. They took this route in, they should be able to take this route out. They know where the exit is.”
Right. Sheepdogs with explosives. Ketan eyed the liquid in the glass again. Perhaps it was his imagination, but it felt like the flammable wick of the liquid called to him. The Fire crystal settled against his back, warm through the fabric of the pack. Every so often, it would shift, and one of its faceted spires would poke into his ribs.
Devin watched through the dusty window. Then, suddenly, he jerked back.
“I think she saw me.”
A second later, they heard the tramp of footsteps in the lower floor. The bottom door shuddered open.
Ketan and Devin exchanged looks.
“Shit. Hide.”
The building had little to hide behind. Time and vandalism had knocked out most of its supporting walls, leaving bare frames of dusty wood behind. An overturned table lay in shambles in the corner, its legs sticking up like broken toothpicks. A rusty bedframe leaned against the wall.
Only one wall remained mostly intact. They slipped behind it, entering what turned out to be the old bathroom. A broken toilet sat on the floor, its ceramic still bolted down. Cracks in the wall let slits of light slant in, making tiny bars on their clothes as they crouched down.
Ketan got a whiff of alcohol and kerosene as he scrunched close to Devin.
