“I don’t know,” said Marley stiffly. She moved over to the door behind Antonio, and then looked back at Alejandro. “Leave. It’s the only way to be safe.”
And he considered it. She could see that he really considered it. The wheel of fate spun over his head and the shadows flickered on his figure. But when it stopped, he’d decided to stay. “It’s not the only way,” he said gently. “You’re here.”
“I can’t protect everybody,” she said wretchedly.
“Well, we will all protect each other. But first, we will enjoy ourselves, eh? And it won’t be as bad as you fear. Ah, good evening, Branwyn.” And Alejandro and his date passed through the door ahead of Marley.
“Come on,” said Branwyn impatiently. “I need to find a good place to check in with Titanone.” She stepped through the still-open door and Marley and Penny followed her.
There was an enormous lobby beyond the door. A pair of grand double doors on the far side of the lobby opened to a glittering ballroom but the lobby itself was just a space for guests to wait for doors to open, or have a quiet conversation away from the crowd. One long wall had a series of screens, each one displaying a different stream of Senyaza accomplishments. The other one was a long window overlooking the open central column of the mall, where the escalators ran.
Marley had seen that from outside, too. It was just a mirror from below. But from here she could just make out the main entrance of the shopping center. It was an excellent view and she wished it made her feel better. She followed the window along until it met the corner and turned, becoming a view of the street below. She scanned the street and frowned at what she saw: a familiar silhouette, leaning against the building across the street. Not Corbin. Severin.
“You don’t need to stay in the lobby,” Control assured her through the earpiece. “We’ll notify you if and when Corbin approaches.”
“Come on,” said Penny, who had followed her. “It’s a very nice lobby. Let’s go see the main event. Let’s go show the main event us.” She dragged Marley away from the window and together all three of them went into the Senyaza gala.
The ballroom had been beautifully decorated with black and silver. There was a buffet along one wall and small tables along two more, with a stage occupying the fourth. People milled around the room, holding drinks and dressed to the nines. Marley had no idea who most of them were, but nearly all of them were dressed spectacularly. Tails and top hats were on display, and there were full ball gowns that looked like they’d been preserved from Victorian times. She spotted a kilt, and an ornate ceremonial kimono, and something in white that she didn’t recognize. Her little green dress was drab in comparison and she felt even the golden full-length evening gown would scarcely have been acceptable.
But Branwyn was getting attention, at least. People turned and looked at her. Marley was smug, until Branwyn muttered, “Penny, I think we’re the only humans here.”
“No,” said Penny crisply. “Some of the waiters are human, see?”
“I’ll take your word for it,” said Branwyn. “They’re still staring at us.”
“We’re special.” Penny shrugged, the movement rippling through her shoulders and down her form. She smiled a moment later. “Let’s go talk to that woman in the kimono. Isn’t it gorgeous? I think there’s something magical about her obi.”
Branwyn narrowed her eyes, peering at the woman in the kimono as she drifted that direction. Penny caught Marley’s eyes and gave her a reassuring smile, then followed Branwyn.
As soon as they moved away, it was like Marley had disappeared from the room. Nobody paid any attention to her. She saw Alejandro inspecting the buffet, and a few other faces she vaguely recognized, but nobody she was excited to talk to. What she really wanted to do was go right back out to the window and look for Corbin.
“You look lost, little lady,” said a gruff, familiar voice. She turned to find Grendel the monster hunter looming over her. He’d made a token attempt to clean himself up and somebody had poured him into a stark black and white suit with a half-buttoned jacket, no vest and a clip-on bow tie.
“I suppose you would be here,” said Marley and sighed.
“Well, it’s a Senyaza party,” said Grendel, grinning. “Didn’t Mr. Black tell you that there was nothing to worry about tonight?”
“No,” said Marley tartly. “He told me Corbin would be coming. I’d expect you to be worrying about that given the last time you met him.”
“Nah, I never worry. It doesn’t help. Kind of hurts me, actually.”
Marley gave him a frigid look. “That must be nice.”
“Aww, you don’t need to fret. At least not until he shows up and even then, there’s a lot of people here to stop him from causing a ruckus. And hey, there’ll be dancing later after the speeches.” The giant man gave a little shimmy and tapped his feet.
“I’m glad to see your priorities are in order,” snapped Marley, and looked for Mr. Black. She spotted him in a group of nephilim she didn’t recognize, and she couldn’t catch his eye.
Grendel chuckled. “Everything’s locked down tight. Not even your celestial cat can get in here right now, lady. If that doesn’t reassure you, I guess nothing will. The speeches are usually dull things. What we’ve done over the past year, what we’ll be doing. Boring stuff. Though Branwyn’s going to introduce Titanone this time, isn’t she?”
Marley spotted Branwyn in the growing crowd, sitting on the edge of the stage having an intent conversation with one of the stagehands lurking there. Penny was still talking to the woman in the kimono and the man in the kilt had joined them. “When do the speeches start?”
“They usually give everybody an hour to arrive…” He trailed off, distracted by somebody in the throng. “Hey, come on, I’ll introduce you to some nice people.”
Marley’s irritation faded. The monster hunter was trying to be kind to her. It was impossible not to be touched. “Thanks, but not right now. I can’t stop from worrying.” She tried to lighten it. “But that’s better for everybody.”
“Maybe,” he said, but he sounded like he didn’t believe it. “Well, don’t hesitate to come say hi if you get bored biting your nails.” He strolled off, toward a clump of uniformly short women.
Marley sighed and went over to the buffet, passing several abstract ice sculptures arranged on tables as she did. The monster hunter Ice was inspecting one of them. He nodded at her as she walked by, but returned to frowning at the sculpture when she didn’t stop to chat.
The spread at the buffet was unsurprisingly lavish. Marley picked at shrimp and crab Rangoon and stuffed mushrooms and delicate little cookies. She kept running through arguments that might get Corbin to pause and reconsider whatever he was planning. Each time she ran up against the cold hard iceberg that it didn’t matter what arguments she used: there was no way to cure Corbin of the virus. Skadi had tried and failed, and the virus itself had told her that Corbin’s magic was clinging to the virus, weaving the two of them together closer and closer.
The only problem with that, whispered the back of her mind, is that he’s contagious.
The thought was so startling that Marley stopped chewing her cookie. Was that true?
She realized it was. Corbin was erratic now, but he was still, most of the time, Corbin. He just had new scars. If he wasn’t contagious, if he wasn’t endangering others, she could cope with the virus he’d contracted, along with everything else that had changed. It wouldn’t be easy, but for Corbin she was willing to make the effort.
She remembered her mother saying, Yeah, you were a pain in the ass in high school. But for you I was willing to make the effort.
Her gaze fell on a figure on the other side of the room, standing a little apart from a group. It was Elizabeth Black-Adair. Corbin’s mother. She wore dark slacks and a black sleeveless blouse: positively underdressed for the occasion. She met Marley’s eyes, and held them. After only a few seconds, Marley picked her way across the room. When she arrived at Eliza
beth’s side, the other woman gave her a reserved nod.
“You’re not wearing a radio,” Marley blurted out.
Elizabeth’s gaze flickered to Marley’s own radio. Then she shook her head. “No. I wouldn’t be useful in stopping Corbin tonight. It would only irritate him further.” She rubbed her arms.
Marley remembered the virus, alleging that Corbin’s own mother found him unlovable. “Did you support infecting Corbin with the virus?”
A grim, humorless smile flickered on Elizabeth’s face. “My father and the elder council saw no reason to consult me.”
Hope flaring against the swirling mix of anger and frustration, Marley said, “But you wouldn’t have if they’d asked? You’re his mother. You can’t have wanted him to be hurt like this.”
Elizabeth gave her a darkly amused look. “Everybody expects so much of mothers. So much righteousness.”
The ember of hope faded to blackness. “You don’t care, then. He’s just a tool to you, too.” Wildly, she wished she had a drink, so she could throw it at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth’s small hand clenched into a fist. “I had a child because I wanted one, Miss Claviger. My husband and I both wanted one. We didn’t know what it would do to Aedrian. I reached a point where I had to choose between my husband’s needs and my child’s. But I’d already chosen my husband long before, and there were others who could tend to Corbin. And then…” She looked down. “Time passed.” She shrugged. “It always does. I hoped he might eventually find another who would choose him first, and after that he would be able to forgive me.”
Elizabeth didn’t have a drink either, but her words were a splash in Marley’s face all the same. She knew too well about hard choices. She was too familiar with hoping Corbin could wait while she sorted out her emotions. She had no room to judge Elizabeth.
The other woman’s eyes flicked up to her again. “So. No radio. But if he makes it through every other barrier, I will go to him and see what can be done.”
Numbly, Marley asked, “Their power is secrets. How could your husband not have known what would happen if he had a child of his own? How could he have been so unprepared?”
Elizabeth blinked. “Oh, well. It came to him upon the death of his father. The gift wants to be passed on. It hid its true nature from him. The power is secrets, and it keeps its own, especially related to itself.”
Marley frowned. “Oh.” She turned away and then turned back. “I have to think about that.”
Elizabeth shrugged, looking at her with obvious curiosity. “Of course. But if it ends up mattering, Miss Claviger? I do love Corbin. So does Aedrian. So does my father. If we didn’t none of this would be so difficult.”
Marley nodded as she turned away. She knew. Love was complicated. It made things hard, not easy. She remembered being in Corbin’s arms, and thought, It makes things worth it.
She went to the windows on the far side of the ballroom. When she’d looked out before, she’d seen a familiar shape on the sidewalk across the street. Severin was still there, leaning against a storefront, his arms crossed over his chest, his face turned toward the entrance of the building.
Marley wondered if Branwyn knew. Probably not. She probably would have said something cranky. Or did she want him there? Marley could no longer quite tell. And after spending so much time with Corbin, Marley didn’t feel like she was in a good position to be warning Branwyn about dangerous connections. Branwyn already knew, anyhow. That was usually the problem.
Besides. Marley had played it safe and slow over the past year and in retrospect she wasn’t sure she’d recommend that to anybody.
Severin glanced up, directly at her window, at the exact same time the voice in her ear said, “Corbin incoming through the south shopping plaza entrance. He’s walking right toward you, Twelve.”
Marley straightened her shoulders and ran her hands over her skirt, then hurried across the ballroom. Both Grendel and Branwyn noticed and moved to intercept her; Branwyn got there first, when Marley was almost at the exit to the lobby.
The voice in Marley’s ear said, “Twelve bypassed. He has a stealth charm engaged, Eleven. Countermeasures activated.”
“I can see him,” said a second voice. It was childlike in both its excitement and its pitch. “Here, let me show you.”
“Er. Thank you,” said the ear voice, surprised. “Uh, who is this?”
“Titanone,” said the childlike voice happily.
Marley stepped into the lobby and stopped. Every screen on the far side of the room was displaying Corbin, from a half-dozen different angles, as he made his way through the sparsely populated evening shopping levels. One of the suited guards, wearing sunglasses, beelined for Corbin. But Corbin, crossing the south gallery with long strides, didn’t hesitate as he flung out his hand. The guard stumbled and fell to his knees, retching.
“Eleven bypassed. Approaching Escalator C, Ten.”
Grendel fought free of the crowds and emerged from the ballroom. “You need to stay up here, lady. The lobby is fine but if you go beyond things are going to get confusing.”
“I know what to do,” said Titanone cheerfully, and on the screen all of the escalators stopped.
“I think that’s already happened,” said Marley, moving closer to the screens. “Branwyn, Titanone is talking on the radio. He just stopped the escalators, which I don’t think was part of the plan.”
Branwyn’s eyes widened and she ran to one of the columns in the lobby, slapping her hands on it. Meanwhile, Corbin climbed up the frozen escalator, pushing his way past the confused shoppers.
“Hey, he’s climbing up the escalator. He’s not supposed to do that,” complained Titanone. The lights in the shopping center flickered and then went out.
“Turn the lights back on!” said Control sharply. Muffled screaming came from beyond the walls and then got louder as Antonio opened the door between the lobby and the rest of the shopping center.
“Say please,” said Titanone sulkily.
Branwyn said, “Titanone—” then shook her head and dragged one hand down the pillar. The emergency lights came back up, but the screaming didn’t stop. The screens flickered with angry static, still focused on the escalator, which was mostly a strip of lights obscured by moving silhouettes.
Control said, “Reacquiring target’s location….”
“You lost him?” blurted Marley and then was glad she didn’t have the radio set to broadcast everything she said.
“Hard to track by cameras in the dark, lady.” Grendel cracked his knuckles and glanced at the rest of the monster hunters who had come to the door.
“What number are you?” asked Marley, her gaze returning to the screen.
“Aw, we’re not in the queue. Not unless things get really bad, and Grandpa Black don’t think that will happen. The old man’s soft on the kid.”
“He’s in the emergency staircase,” said Titanone sullenly. “I’ve turned the lights off there but I can feel him still climbing. He’s past the third floor now.”
“Agent Six, the stairs. Agent Four, come to corporate reception,” snapped Control. “Four, bring Antonio and Grendel.”
Marley, every muscle tensed for her cue, almost missed it until Control repeated, “Four! And tell the Artificer that if she can babysit her project, that would be appreciated.”
She was Four. “Branwyn—“
“Doing what I can. Maybe I can figure out a way for Titanone to be actually helpful.”
“Will the elevators work?”
“Yours will. Go.”
Marley nodded. “Grendel, you’re wanted upstairs. You too, Antonio.” The doorman nodded, rubbed his hands together and then handed his equipment to one of the guards.
Control directed Marley to the nearest upper floor elevator. She ran through the dim open spaces of the third floor, noticing how empty it already was. There were crowds at the escalators and broad staircases as the remaining shoppers worked on escaping the malfunctioning building. Voices ov
er the loudspeakers advised both calm and evacuation, citing the early closure of the mall.
They should have done that hours ago, thought Marley, and then she was in the elevator with Grendel and Antonio. “Agent Six, whoever that is, is in the stairwell after Corbin. We’re going to your station, Antonio.”
“Ah,” he said, and stared at the wall for a moment. “I am Three.”
“I ain’t shit, so why am I here?” asked Grendel, putting on the earpiece he’d picked up at some point. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“Our plans were disrupted by unexpected activity from the host structure,” said Control crisply. “Now we’re improvising.”
The elevator door opened, revealing the desk and security checkpoint where Antonio worked during the days. Everything seemed normal: power and lights were both on. Antonio immediately headed over to the station, ordering the duty officer out of the way and pawing at the computer keyboard.
“Agent Six has been disabled. Ready yourself, Four.”
Marley looked around helplessly. Normally, she’d put her protection on somebody now, but what good would that do?
Then the stairwell door opened and Corbin stepped quietly out. He had a messenger bag over his shoulder and something small and oblong in his hand.
“Corbin,” said Marley sharply, stepping forward.
He glanced at her as he tucked the oblong shape into his pocket. “I just can’t get away from you, can I?”
“You knew I’d be here.” She walked toward him carefully, activating her magical Sight.
“It couldn’t be helped. But if you stay out of the way, you should be safe.” He leaned against the wall as if waiting for something, his eyes flicking beyond her to where Antonio and the others waited. They were muttering to each other.
“What are you doing here? You told your grandfather you were coming to the party. That’s down a floor.”
He chuckled. It wasn’t a nice sound. “And he didn’t have me shot. I’m a little curious about that.”
Marley twisted her fingers together. “He told me they infected you on purpose. That you refused to use your magic in ways they needed.”
Divinity Circuit (Senyaza Series Book 5) Page 27
