Cheating Death

by April White

  I smiled and kissed him again. “It was good, wasn’t it? I feel like it’s a start.”

  “I didn’t know how you would do it, but I was totally confident that you would. Come, Ringo will send the others to the library, and I’m taking advantage of the few moments we still have alone to do this.” He kissed me again, but then just wrapped his arms around me and held me close. “Do you remember that kiss you gave me on the platform in 1944, just before you Clocked away with Ringo?” he asked.

  I hadn’t been expecting that change in topics. “Of course I do. The last time I’d seen you a bomb exploded, and then I thought you were dead.”

  “I didn’t know that at the time.”

  I stared at him, and then horror began to dawn. “The only thing you knew was that Tom, who had been a massive jerk all through France, suddenly reappears and steps in front of the bullets he basically instigated in his zeal to kill George Walters.” What had I done? “And then your wife freaks out and barely says a word to you before Clocking away with him as he’s dying. Then, when I come back, I spared just enough time to kiss you, and then I drag Ringo away without another word. Oh my God, Archer! I’m so sorry!”

  Archer laughed at the horrified expression on my face. “After you Clocked out with Tom, Ringo told me about the time stream split. He also told me that he was so glad I was alive because he’d been about to fall for you.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean?”

  He smiled. We’d begun walking toward the library, and he took my hand in his. He ignored my question and continued. “He had decided he would have to ask you to take him home and then send you away, because he didn’t want to be in love with you.”

  I huffed. “Obviously I’m not in love with Ringo, but would it really have sucked so much that he would send me away?”

  “It would have for him. He’d seen how you looked at me the night we married, and he felt you’d never have the same love in your eyes for anyone else. He wasn’t jealous per se, but he’d seen it, so he knew love like ours existed, and he wanted the same thing for himself.”

  Archer must have seen the ten thousand things I thought about crossing my face, because he touched the cat’s-eye bead around my neck and smiled. “Ringo would have been crushed to lose your friendship, but he was convinced it was the only option for him if I was truly gone. I’ll admit, I was a bit jealous when he told me, especially when I realized everything you had gone through together.”

  “There was nothing to be jealous of. I love Ringo so much I want to squeeze him – sometimes in my arms, sometimes around the neck,” I teased, and Archer laughed. And then I got serious again. “But you … you are my heart.”

  He took my face in both of his hands and he kissed me softly. “Thank you. And the kiss you gave me on that platform before you took him away with you, it told me exactly that.”

  I searched his eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t come back to say goodbye properly.”

  He smirked, “Who’s to say you won’t still? I mean, what if we argue and you want to run away to your first husband?”

  I delivered myself into his arms and kissed him soundly. “What an interesting idea …”

  Mongers

  We turned to head into the library and stopped dead at the sight of Raven and her boyfriend, Cole, standing just inside the front doors. For her part, Raven was just as surprised to see us, and her eyes locked onto Archer’s with the look a deer gets in oncoming traffic.

  I recovered first. “Hello, Raven.” My voice was calmer than the pounding of my heart suggested, mostly because my Monger-gut was more muted than usual around my former roommate.

  Her eyes flicked between Archer and me, and she finally cleared her throat. “I’m here to see Miss Simpson.”

  “Have you decided to spy for your uncle, or are you here to resist him?” Archer asked in a pleasant tone. Raven’s eyes widened in horror, and Cole took a step forward.

  “Here, I don’t know who you are, but you don’t speak to her that way,” Cole said. Raven clutched his arm to pull him back next to her, and she swallowed convulsively.

  “Seth threatened Cole,” she said quietly. Cole looked at her sharply, obviously surprised by the news.

  “You didn’t need to bring me here to protect me,” he said to her. There was an edge to his voice, but I couldn’t exactly tell what it was. Not anger, and not ‘I’m too manly to need protection,’ – it was more like ‘thanks for caring so much.’

  “I didn’t want him to use you against me. If Seth ever got you, I’d do anything he wanted.” Raven’s voice was pitched low for his ears, but she was too emphatic to be quiet.

  “So I repeat my original question, Miss Walters. Are you here as a Monger mole, or are you willing to betray your uncle?” Trust Archer to cut right to the point.

  Raven met Archer’s eyes with a proud look. “My priority is keeping us alive and safe.”

  “Where’s your sister, Cole?” I asked.

  He didn’t like the question, but he answered it anyway. “Melanie’s safe and none of your business.” Then he stepped forward. “Do you have a plan to go up against Walters and the armed Mongers out there?”

  Archer seemed to size him up, and for his part, Cole wasn’t backing down. Cole was probably a couple of inches taller than Archer, but Archer had lived a very long time, and nothing intimidated him. It took about thirty seconds before Cole looked away.

  “Yes, we do have a plan,” Archer said simply, having established his dominance.

  “I need to talk to Miss Simpson,” Raven repeated. She wouldn’t meet Archer’s eyes.

  “I believe she’s in her office,” he said calmly.

  Raven nodded once before they turned into the library and closed the door behind them.

  “We can’t meet in there until she’s gone,” I whispered to Archer.

  “I think that even if she agrees to work with us, we can’t tell her more than her own small part in anything we do. She is susceptible to the ring’s power, and despite her motivation to keep her young man safe, her uncle holds too much sway over her life.”

  Ringo came running down the hall with Connor, and I could hear several others behind them, including Adam’s girlfriend, Alex, and her cousin Daisy, who had helped Adam lead the mixed-bloods out of the Underground. “Meetin’ in the library, no?” he said, seeming surprised to find us still in the entry hall.

  “Raven’s in there with her boyfriend.” I tossed my head toward the library doors, and Ringo’s eyebrows arched up in surprise.

  “The big bloke from the fencin’ gym?”

  “He’s a mixed-blood. She says she’s here because her uncle threatened him,” I answered.

  “Who?” asked Adam. He was pushing a wheelchair with Tom in it, while Ava and Tam trailed behind with Alex and Daisy.

  “Raven Walters. She’s here with her boyfriend, Cole, and they’re meeting with A—Miss Simpson now.”

  Tam looked stunned. “Cole? Cole Moore is here?” I’d forgotten they were friends. Cole and his sister, Melanie, had been with Tam when he was kidnapped.

  I nodded, and Tam looked so happy, it made me disposed to like Cole a little better.

  “So, where can we hang out to talk?” Connor asked.

  “Our tower’s out. It’s where Miss Simpson put the parentals,” said Adam.

  “Mine’s out too,” I said. My mom had been using it as her office since she started teaching at St. Brigid’s, and I was pretty sure she and Mr. Shaw used it as their private getaway space.

  “There are people in the Shifter Tower too,” said Connor. He looked at Adam. “You ever get into the Monger Tower?”

  Adam shared a look with Tom, and there was something mischievous in it. “Once.”

  “Would anyone be in it?”

  Adam and Tom suppressed grins. “Not unless they broke the lock.”

  I arched an eyebrow at the two young men who looked like guilty toddlers. “Because you hid the key?”

  �
�Maybe?” Adam said, and Tom burst out laughing.

  “Yer goin’ to ‘ave to take us there now, ye realize?” said Ringo in a tone that suggested a dare.

  Adam met Tom’s eyes with an impish wink. Tom looked away and said, “You guys go on.”

  “Not a chance,” said Adam as he crouched down in front of Tom’s wheelchair, his back to Tom. “Hop on, Home Slice.”

  Tom barked a laugh. “Home Slice? No way am I getting on your back. You’d drop me.”

  Ringo looked at me and patted his shoulder meaningfully. I hopped onto his back, piggyback style, and he didn’t even waver. I challenged Tom. “We’ll race you.”

  Adam growled playfully at Tom. “Get on, Cuz. I’m twice his size – we’ve got this in the bag.”

  Tom had no choice, so he scowled, but he also seemed to be having fun with it. The moment he climbed onto his cousin’s back, they took off like a shot. Archer and Daisy laughed and raced after us, and I heard Ava say something about catching up in a minute.

  Ringo carried me a lot more easily than I could have carried him, and he let Adam lead the way right up until we reached the top of the stairs at the last hallway. I had never explored the entire school, but evidently Ringo had, because he put on a burst of speed and slammed a palm on the door at the end before Adam could reach us.

  “Done!” he said, winded, but not doubled over like I would have been. I slid off his back and shot Adam a snarky smirk.

  “Got it in the bag, huh?”

  “You weigh less than my beefy cousin,” he said, panting. Tom hopped down off Adam’s back and only winced a little as he hit the ground. I looked him over carefully.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m fine,” he said with another scowl. But then he seemed to force himself to soften his tone. “I got used to the insta-healing powers of being a Sucker,” he said, just as Archer, Alex, and Daisy arrived. Archer nodded sympathetically, breathing hard from his run.

  “Me too,” he agreed.

  I tried to be subtle, but I couldn’t help giving them a quick once-over to make sure none of their recent injuries had re-opened.

  “So, where’d ye ‘ide the key, Arman?” Ringo had swept the top of the door lintel like I did every time I came to a locked door. This one was heavy wood with a big iron lock, which meant the key would be big too. He came away with a handful of dust, but no key.

  Adam just smirked and looked at me. “You think I’m lazy. Where’d we stash it?”

  I stepped back from the door and examined our surroundings. We were at the end of the hallway, and there was a window on the outside wall. I tried the lintel of the next door down, and Adam scoffed.

  “Boring,” he said.

  There was a pillar with a statue on it set into a niche on the opposite wall. I examined the statue – it was a man done in a classical Greek style, dressed and kitted out like Ares, God of War. I smirked and ran my hand along the back side of it.

  I found the key just where I thought I might, taped onto the booty of the statue. I held it up with an arched eyebrow. “Really?”

  Adam laughed in delight. “Figures you’d go for the arse.”

  “Figures you would,” I retorted.

  I handed Adam the key. “Here, you go first in case it’s booby-trapped.”

  Adam handed it to Tom. “You do it.”

  Tom scoffed. “Coward.”

  He fitted the key into the old-fashioned lock and turned it with a clear grinding noise. “How long has it been since anyone used this tower?” Alex asked Adam.

  He shrugged, his hand on her back in an easy gesture of affection. “No idea. Do you know?” He looked at Archer.

  “Not since I began keeping a room here after the war. I didn’t go to St. Brigid’s as a young man. My father wasn’t aware of my mother’s Sight,” he said.

  The inside of the tower was dark, and all the furniture was draped with heavy canvas sheeting. The room didn’t have the chill of the wards that the Seer Tower had, and none of the Monger-gut feeling I’d had downstairs with Raven was present at all.

  I turned to Tom and whispered, “I just realized I don’t get Monger-gut from you anymore.”

  “You think it’s because of the cure?” he asked in a low voice.

  I shook my head. “No, I think it’s because we’re friends.” I spoke louder, to the whole group. “When Ringo and I were on the other time stream, we ran into Raven working in a café.”

  “Bookstore,” murmured Ringo under his breath, and I smiled.

  “A tea and coffee and cake bookstore,” I corrected.

  “Wait, Raven was working?” Adam asked in obvious disbelief.

  I nodded. “Yeah. And she was actually pretty humble and nice.” Skeptical eyebrows rose all around the room. “The strange thing was, I didn’t get the Monger-gut thing I usually have around them.”

  Tam and Ava had just entered the tower room. “What’s Monger-gut?” Tam asked. He looked around the tower with something close to awe, and I realized he hadn’t gone to school here either.

  “I think it’s the Shifter part of me, probably modified by my mix, that recognizes Mongers as dangerous predators,” I said.

  “Do you get it from Suckers?” he asked as he peeked under a drape on the wall and then pulled the cover off a gold-leaf and oil painting. “Whoa, who’s the warrior?” A cloud of dust rained down when the cover came off, and it took a second for the dancing dust motes to settle.

  The painting was done in a distinctly Middle Eastern style and showed a long-bearded warrior wearing a helmet draped with chain mail. Archer pulled open a window drape to put light in the room, and then stood in front of the painting.

  “Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub,” he said reverently.

  I caught Ringo’s and Tom’s eyes, and all of us wore the same surprised look. “Saladin?” I said.

  Archer nodded. “One of the greatest warriors in history, and certainly among the most noble.”

  “Why is he hanging here?” asked Adam.

  “Saladin was a Monger,” I said, the light dawning. I turned to Archer. “This is who Bas saw in battle just before the Third Crusade.”

  “You guys know some cool people,” said Tam in awe, stepping forward to examine the painting more closely.

  “Saladin’s sword was apparently made in a process that is now lost to technology. Crafted in Damascus from wootz steel, which originally came from India, Saladin’s sword was very high-carbon steel, which made it extremely strong and light and able to hold the finest edge. Legend says Saladin’s sword could clean-cut fallen silk or slice a pillow in half.” Archer explained.

  “Do you think his sword could have been the Monger artifact?” I asked.

  “Bas said the last ‘e ‘eard of the Monger artifact was in Jerusalem durin’ the Crusades,” said Ringo.

  “I suppose it’s possible …” Archer didn’t sound convinced.

  “Seems weird that it would be another weapon though, since Death has his daggers.” I hadn’t put my daggers back on since we returned, and I felt a little naked without them.

  “Hang on – Death has daggers?” Adam said.

  So I told them about having basically traded identical daggers with Death.

  “What can they do?” Ava asked.

  “I’m not really sure, but I think the blade sort of reads a person’s character through their blood.” I waited a beat to drop the other shoe. “I saw Duncan’s soul when I threw my dagger at him.”

  There were gasps from my friends, and Archer gripped my hand tightly. “What did it look like?” he asked.

  “Take a dose of rage and magnify it to the intensity of a black hole. Then add a streak of pure malevolence, and there you have Duncan.”

  “Nice to know I’m descended from such a prince,” grimaced Tam.

  “Leprechaun, you and my cousin are a couple of the princeliest guys I know. Saladin was one of you too, and he was a proper hero,” said Adam.

  The staircase to the upper tower room
was hidden in a way that was similar to the Clocker Tower, and Adam delighted in showing everyone the secret catch at the back of the wardrobe. He and Tom hadn’t climbed up there before because he hadn’t known how to access the stairs until he met me, so it was a surprise to all of us to find a single round table in the middle of the room.

  Ringo and Ava flung open the drapes, and the light shone like an arrow on the tabletop. Tom was the last one up the steps, and he saw my face before he saw anything else.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  I dragged my gaze away from the table and up to his. “I think I know what the Monger artifact is.”

  The Knight

  The entire surface of the table was painted like a chessboard, with the pieces set up, ready for battle. All the pieces were beautifully carved from a heavy wood and they looked worn from handling. The dark pieces weren’t actually stained – they had been carved from ebony, and the shapes were distinctively elegant. Every piece on the board was accounted for except for one black knight.

  “Show me Léon’s piece,” I whispered to Tom.

  His eyes were riveted to the board, as he drew the chess piece he had been carrying around with him since Léon died in 1428 out of his pocket. With a shaking hand, he placed it on the empty square.

  It was a perfect match, and the table seemed to hum with energy.

  “Pick it up,” I whispered urgently.

  Tom retrieved the piece and held it tightly in his fist. His eyes met mine, and the shock in them was palpable.

  “How could Léon have had a piece from this set?” he asked. “He wasn’t a Descendant at all.”

  “Léon was Jewish, and you said the piece had been in his family a long time,” said Archer. “Maybe it came from Jerusalem.”

  “Bas told us about Saladin carrying a black knight piece in his pocket. What if this is that piece? Saladin was there, in Jerusalem. It could have been lost after he won the city.” I knew I was grasping at straws, and then I pulled the scrap of paper out of my back pocket and read the prophecy Aislin had given me.