by Bali Rai
Not many other people escaped, however, because the city was in turmoil. Some fled into the wastelands but chose not to follow us; others could only wander the outskirts, looking dazed. Most people simply hid in fright. Even given the chance to leave, the vast majority were too scared to act. Part of me felt guilty for leaving so many behind but it was the best we could manage given how things turned out. I told myself that perhaps more would follow in the days to come . . .
Jonah’s arrival had proved to us that we had been losing our battle with the demons. We had the chance to escape the drudgery and danger of Fire City and make new lives out in the wilderness. We had the opportunity to join other rebels and fight as a bigger group, to make a real difference in the struggle to free our people.
We had to take it.
But that didn’t mean that any of us could forget the people we’d lost. Losing Aunt May was the one thing that I found hardest to take. For so long she’d been the last remaining link to my mother – the only other person in the world who carried the same blood in her veins. Now I was the only one left and something inside me died with her. I also found myself unable to forget what I’d done to my stepfather. Even through all the rage and the relief, I felt like a murderer, and that’s what I was. No matter what he’d done, how evil he’d been, I had killed him, and that was something that weighed down on me during quieter moments. I knew that it always would, no matter how justified my actions might have been.
And then there was Aron. His betrayal had left me feeling cold inside. It was so hard to comprehend that someone I’d grown up with and loved, someone who had been an important part of our family, could have done something so wrong. It made me question the things I believed in, the things I’d been taught. It made me question whether our ‘family’ was really as close and united as I’d always believed. More than the betrayal, it was the fact that Aron had made me question these things that hurt. That made me wish he were still alive so that I could slap his face until it was raw. And I wasn’t the only one. Every one of us felt broken and a little empty because of what Aron had done.
So it was a sorry and tired bunch of us who made the journey north, towards a town that had once been called Loughborough. Stone was as good to his word and led us alongside Mace. Oscar, Faith and me were the only others.
In the confusion, and with Stone’s authority, the human army patrols simply let us pass as they tried to work out why half of the protected zone was on fire. By Stone’s calculations, the government would send thousands more troops, within hours. We needed to be far away by the time they arrived.
It took us two hours of walking through the darkness to reach our destination – a pre-arranged meeting point that Mace only revealed when we arrived. I spent most of the time staring in awe at the sights we passed. I know it wasn’t much – just lots of deserted houses and abandoned cars – but I was still enthralled. It was the first time I’d ever left Fire City, and my first taste of freedom.
The journey was fairly easy and we avoided seeing any army patrols or being ambushed by cannibals. We saw none of the evil things I’d heard lurked in the wastelands, waiting for unsuspecting humans. I know they exist – since we left, I’ve encountered some of them – but that first night, it was like someone was watching over us, protecting us.
At the meeting point, three men appeared and Mace greeted them like they were long-lost brothers, even though he barely knew them. Their leader was a black man called Negus, who had strange hair and smiled continuously.
‘This is our new tribe,’ Mace had told the rest of us. ‘They’re going to take us to where they live.’
I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but when we reached Negus’ hideaway after another hour-long trek across fields and through woods, I felt deflated. We found ourselves standing in the middle of a field, staring at a forest, just across a narrow stream. It was only when we’d crossed the water and entered a network of shallow tunnels that I began to understand. Once we’d emerged into the clearing and the rest of the tribe had appeared, it all made sense. Negus and his people lived in amongst the trees, hidden away from the outside world.
The tribe was warm and welcoming and we were fed and given water. The food was amazing – roasted root vegetables and soup made from herbs. It was far tastier than anything I’d ever eaten; save for the few meals I’d been given at the mansion as a small child. It was food that Aunt May and my mother would have loved. Just thinking of them brought me to tears and I had to stop myself from sobbing.
The same thing happened when Oscar mentioned Tyrell and wondered what had happened to him. Mace had explained a little, but not enough to stop us from feeling that we’d lost Tyrell too, alongside May and Raj and the others. I was so used to having my big friend around that I even missed his smell. The sight of so many new and friendly faces failed to stop us feeling sad on that first night.
I slept huddled close to Faith, under a tent that had been surrounded on three sides by a mound of earth for warmth. The blankets we’d been given were old and threadbare but they were clean and cosy too. I don’t know if it was tiredness or the fresh air, but I fell asleep immediately and didn’t wake until long into the following day. On waking, I spent a long time exploring my new home, and talking to the people I met. Some of them were escapees from the Fire City Hunt – people we’d rescued and set free in the wastelands. It was so awesome to find those who had survived because of something we’d done. It made me understand what our rebellion was really worth – much more than Aron or my stepfather could ever comprehend. I began to feel a lot better about things, despite the aching sense of loss I felt inside.
Within a few days I’d settled in completely and begun to help with the day-to-day chores. I took a special interest in cooking and in collecting the ingredients too, maybe to keep the memory of my aunt alive and put the things she’d taught me into practice. Faith and I learned how to distinguish certain plants and roots by their foliage, and which mushrooms and berries were edible as opposed to deadly. We got to know the other tribe members better as we worked, ate and slept alongside them.
Oscar and Mace spent their time talking to Negus and the others, and Stone too. He seemed like a changed man. For the first time ever, I saw him smiling and joining in with the rest. One evening he sat the children around an open fire and told them spooky stories, entertaining them all until they’d fallen asleep. Even though it was a shock, it was good to see him getting involved. Without his warning about my stepfather and his help afterwards, we might still be in Fire City, facing certain death. That was enough for me to accept him, even if I could never completely trust him.
And then, four days after we’d arrived, Jonah limped and stumbled into the camp, his pale face and lithe body covered in bruises, his obsidian eyes sunken and red-ringed and his clothes torn.
It was Negus who spotted him first, rushing to help. I saw him next, and I was so happy that I tipped over a cooking pot in my rush to greet him. I’d spent the previous days praying that he’d managed to escape alive but unsure that he had. In my nightmares, I saw Valefor overpowering and devouring him. No human could match an ancient, but somehow Jonah had, and lived to tell the tale.
To be honest though, by that point I think I already knew that Jonah wasn’t completely like me – not totally human. I just didn’t want to accept it.
As Jonah rested and a few of the tribe tended to his injuries, I took Mace to one side. ‘Let’s walk,’ I told him.
Mace seemed surprised, but he followed me all the same. We went to the far side of the forest where the small stream flowed into a wide river, and from which we could see the giant pepper pots of the nearby power station clearly. I sat on the riverbank, my feet in the water, and looked up at the only real father I’d ever wanted.
‘No more bullshit,’ I said to him. ‘I want to know.’
‘Want to know what?’ he asked, looking slightly annoyed at the way I’d spoken.
‘Tell me about Jonah,’ I told hi
m. ‘I know he’s not human, so what is he?’
Mace mumbled and turned red, looking away.
‘There’s no point in lying to me,’ I added. ‘Your reaction gave the game away. I’m right, aren’t I?’
Mace turned back to me and shrugged. ‘It’s not for me to tell you,’ he replied. ‘If you want the truth, ask Jonah.’
I nodded and told him I would, just as soon as he recovered. ‘But you did know, didn’t you?’ I added.
Mace nodded. ‘He told me when we left to find the weapons,’ he admitted. ‘Told me to keep it to myself. I felt I owed him his right to privacy. I’d do the same for you too.’
‘What about before that though?’ I asked. ‘When he first arrived – you know, all the speedy moves and the somersaults?’
Again Mace nodded. ‘I had my suspicions,’ he said. ‘But it didn’t matter. I never admitted it, Martha, but we were in a difficult position until Jonah turned up.’
I gave him a quizzing look. ‘Difficult in what way?’ I asked. ‘Our lives have always been tough.’
Mace shook his head this time. ‘You don’t understand,’ he told me. ‘We were losing the fight and I knew it. Losing more and more of our people and saving fewer from the Hunt. Jonah’s arrival just made all of that more apparent. More urgent.’
‘Like a catalyst?’ I said.
‘That’s what I called him, too,’ he replied. ‘Exactly that. His arrival was like a sign that we had to act, so I wasn’t even remotely bothered that there was something odd about him.’
‘Because we needed him?’
‘Yes, Martha.’
‘So he is different then?’
Mace smiled at me. ‘I told you, talk to him. And soon – he’s leaving tomorrow and I’m not sure he’ll be back.’
‘Tomorrow?’ I felt sick at the thought. He couldn’t just leave, not without . . .
‘Yeah – he’s heading south, says he knows where to find Tyrell. Stone is going with him.’
‘To find Tyrell?’
‘Jonah feels responsible,’ Mace told me. ‘Says he won’t rest until he finds him.’
‘But then,’ I said hopefully, ‘he’ll come back, surely? Bring Tyrell back to us!’
Mace shrugged again. ‘Talk to him,’ he repeated.
I caught up with Jonah the next morning, as he got ready to leave. Seeing him prepare made me feel sad, and a little angry too.
‘Were you just going to leave?’ I half snapped at him. ‘Not even a goodbye?’
He shook his head. ‘There’s no time,’ he replied. ‘I need to find Tyrell.’
‘Ever since you arrived in our lives, you’ve been in a hurry,’ I told him, trying to stop myself from sounding like a spoiled child. ‘Don’t you ever relax?’
He smiled, put down the gun he was holding, and took my hands in his. The scent that he carried sent my hormones into overdrive and I wanted to kiss his almost perfectly contoured mouth. My heart was thumping and I forced myself to look away.
‘There’s too much to do, Martha. The demons don’t rest, and neither can we.’
‘But,’ I said, looking back into his eyes, ‘what if I can help you – come with you?’
‘No,’ he said with determination. ‘It’s too dangerous. The roads south are swarming with patrols, both demon and human. There’ll be even more after what we did in Fire City. I won’t let you risk your life.’
‘But you’re happy to risk your own?’
Jonah grinned. ‘Last night,’ he said, ‘I sensed that you and Mace were talking about me. I don’t normally listen to people’s thoughts but I listened to yours . . .’
The look on my face must have been a mixture of surprise and horror. I looked away again, deeply embarrassed.
‘Remember when I told you about the other demons – the ones you’ve never seen?’
I nodded slowly.
‘My mother was a succubus,’ he revealed. ‘And my father was human.’
‘But—’
He shook his head. ‘I know what you’re going to say,’ he told me. ‘You want to know why I didn’t tell you. Ask yourself a question though, Martha. Would you have accepted me if I’d have told you what I was – on that first night?’
I looked at his hands, holding mine so gently, and I took in his scent. My head began to spin with questions. ‘Probably not,’ I admitted. ‘But I don’t understand why you’d help us if you’re a demon.’
‘I’m not a demon,’ he insisted. ‘I’m only part demon. The human side of my being is the one I choose to live by.’
‘But the demon part – how can you control it?’
Jonah shrugged. ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘I just know that I can, most of the time.’
‘And when you can’t?’
‘I can turn it on and off,’ he told me. ‘When I fought Valefor, I let the demon come to the fore. That’s how I defeated him. I know you were wondering about that.’
‘He’s dead?’
Jonah nodded. ‘Consumed,’ he added, without explaining what he meant. ‘What will you do now?’
I told him that I didn’t know. ‘Stay here, I guess,’ I added. ‘Help with whatever we’re going to do next.’
‘Negus and Mace are going to go further north, to meet the Resistance fighters up there,’ he told me. ‘They’ll need strong people like you and Oscar to guard the camp and take care of things.’
‘Then that’s what we’ll do,’ I replied. ‘What about you?’
‘I want to find Tyrell,’ he told me again. ‘And then I’m going to find my siblings.’
‘To rescue them?’ I asked.
Jonah shook his head. ‘Not exactly,’ he replied. ‘They don’t need to be rescued. I just want to see my sisters again.’
‘What about your brother?’
‘Oh,’ he said, his eyes hardening. ‘I want to find him too. Find him and kill him . . .’
I gasped and Jonah let go of my hands. ‘One day,’ he told me, ‘if we survive, I’ll come back to you and explain everything. I didn’t choose this path, Martha, just like you didn’t choose yours. We end up having to deal with the situations that are created for us. You asked me not to judge your mother, remember?’
I nodded.
‘Well, I’m asking you not to judge me. Everything I do, everything I feel – I have no choice over any of it. Life dealt me the hand, Martha. I’m just trying to cope with it.’
‘I understand, but I want to be a part of it. If you’ve been reading my thoughts . . .’
‘I don’t always do that,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Only sometimes.’
‘But you know what I’m going to say now?’
‘Yes,’ he admitted. ‘Does that make you angry?’
‘No,’ I said truthfully. ‘It should but it doesn’t. All I keep thinking about is—’
He put a finger on my lips. ‘Ssh – I know what you’re thinking but we don’t have time, Martha. Not now. There’s a long, hard battle to be fought. Most of us won’t live to see it end. But we have to fight it, Martha. We have to. Otherwise we might as well give up now.’
‘Promise me you’ll come back,’ I almost pleaded, no longer caring that I was making a fool of myself. ‘Promise, because I don’t want—’
Jonah took my face in his hands and kissed me deeply, and my heart felt like it was trying to burst out of my chest.
‘I promise I’ll try,’ he eventually told me. ‘It’s the best I can do.’
Jonah
I’m heading south, towards the centre of their power, towards their inner sanctum. The road is going to be treacherous, the journey dangerous, but I am prepared. Nothing is going to stand in my way – not their human armies or their demon legions. I carry the will of my mother inside me and the rage of a son deprived of her love. I carry the blood of both human and Hell-kin, which makes me stronger than them, and gives me a faith they can never understand . . .
The mercenary travelling with me has his uses but I know that he cannot
be trusted. Despite his futile attempts at hiding his real thoughts, I can see right through him. I’m going to let him believe that he’s got me where he wants me. I’m happy for him to believe it. He’s going to take me to the people I’m after . . .
When I’ve dealt with them, it will be my brother’s turn. I know that he can sense me approaching; I’m pleased that he knows. I hope he is ready for me. Consuming Valefor has made me stronger; consuming my brother will make me stronger still . . .
I’m going to need that strength. I’m going to ransack their city, just as they ransacked my home. I’m going to tear them apart, just as they tore apart my parents. I’m going to consume them all and sit and watch as Babylon burns . . .
I hope they’re ready. . . .
Stay in touch with Bali:
www.balirai.co.uk
Twitter@BaLirai
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bali Rai has now written nine young adult novels for Random House Children’s Publishers UK. His first, (un)arranged marriage, created a huge amount of interest and won many awards including the Angus Book Award and the Leicester Book of the Year. It was also shortlisted for the prestigious Branford Boase First Novel Award. Rani and Sukh and The Whisper were both shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize. His latest book, Killing Honour won the North East Teen Book Award. Bali also writes the hugely popular Soccer Squad series for younger readers.
Bali was born in Leicester, where he still lives, writing full-time and visiting schools to talk about his books.
ALSO BY BALI RAI AND PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S PUBLISHERS UK
(Un)arranged Marriage
‘Absorbing and engaging’ – Observer
The Crew
‘A jewel of a book’ – Independent
Rani and Sukh
‘Heart-wrenching love story that will exert its power over you long after the book is finished’ – The Bookseller
