Shireen shrugged. “I’ve told you the truth.”
“I get that,” I said. “But there’s something that’s been bothering me about this whole thing. You keep asking me to redeem Rachel. To split her away from Richard. But you’re framing it as something I’m supposed to do.”
“So?”
“I don’t think that’s how redemption works,” I said. “For it to happen, you have to want to be a different person. I don’t think it’s something that someone else can do to you.”
“Well . . . you’ll just have to figure something out,” Shireen said. “I mean, I’ve told you enough times. You don’t really have a choice here.”
“That’s not very helpful.”
“Like I said. I’m telling you the truth.”
I stared down at Shireen. She looked back up at me. Time passed and I realised that Shireen wasn’t going to volunteer anything more. This was what she had to offer.
“I think we’re done,” I said.
“All right,” Shireen said. She rose to her feet. “Good luck. I know it’s hard, but . . . I think you can do it. Or you have to. Because there isn’t anyone else.”
Shireen walked away and I watched her go. Something had been nagging at me for the second half of the conversation, something important, and as she disappeared between the columns, I realised what it was.
Shireen hadn’t lied to me. Luna had hinted at it, but I’d always been sure she’d been telling the truth. But you can tell the truth and still have it coloured by your point of view. Shireen saw this in terms of redemption because that was what she cared about. Rachel was her whole world, and she wanted to make things right.
But the dragon’s prophecy hadn’t actually said anything about redemption. It just said that Rachel had to turn.
I filed that thought away. I couldn’t see how to use it, not yet, but I had the feeling it was important. I let Elsewhere fade from around me, and fell into sleep.
chapter 9
The summer morning had a hushed, expectant feel. It was near to dawn, and instead of being a steady stream, the traffic on the nearby motorway came in fits and starts, each car announcing its presence with a rumbling crescendo before passing with a whoosh of displaced air. The sky was clear, the deep blue of the night brightening in the east into the yellow of early morning.
I arrived five minutes early, letting the restaurant door swing closed behind me. The place was empty but for a couple of workmen eating breakfast. I bought a bottle of water and sat at the far end with my back to the wall.
Kyle arrived right on time, pausing in the doorway to scan the room. His eyes passed over me without stopping. Only when he’d covered the room twice did he go to the machine to order and then come to sit at my table. “Well?” he asked as he sat down.
Kyle is American, square-jawed and competent-looking, obviously fit. He’s a space magic adept and has a complicated relationship with Cinder where he might be Cinder’s property, partner, friend, or all of the above. He has good reason to dislike me, since back when we’d first met I’d personally killed one of his friends and had been complicit in the deaths of several more. Then again, exactly the same could be said of Cinder, so maybe Kyle wasn’t the type to hold grudges. At least, I hoped not. If he was, this had the potential to go really badly.
“No Cinder?” I asked.
“He’s busy.”
I studied Kyle. He looked leaner than he had been, and there was a scar at his temple that I didn’t remember seeing before. “And you’re not?”
“Busy enough that I don’t have time to sit around. What do you want?”
“I need your and Cinder’s help with a job.”
“What kind of job?”
“The dangerous kind.”
“So send in your Keepers and your lackeys,” Kyle said. “Why do you need us?”
“Guessing you haven’t been keeping up with the news.”
“Like I said, we’re busy,” Kyle said. “What happened, you and the Council fall out?”
“Let’s just say I’m short on people I can count on.”
Kyle snorted. “If you’re coming to us, you must really be desperate.”
“This is something you’re qualified for.”
“Okay, let’s hear it.”
“I need to break into Onyx’s mansion,” I said. “He’s got a gateway item that gives access to a bubble realm. I’m going to break into that too, get hold of the relic it’s protecting, then get out.”
Kyle raised his eyebrows and looked at me. “Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
Kyle looked back at me for a moment. There was a chime from the counter. Kyle got up, went to get his food, came back, put his tray on the table, sat back down. He took a drink from his bottle of water and tapped it on the tray. “How many others?”
“Me and about two more.”
“That’s it?”
“There aren’t many people I trust with something like this.”
Kyle frowned. “Didn’t you go to Onyx’s place last year?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you know who you’re dealing with,” Kyle said. “It’s not just Onyx, it’s his whole faction. I mean, calling it a faction is pretty fucking generous, they’re more like a gang. But gangbangers can kill you as dead as anyone else, and I hung out there long enough to know that they’re nasty. Mixture of thugs and full-on psychopaths. And then there’s Onyx and Pyre. I know you guys on the Council don’t take Dark mages seriously, but you don’t want to fuck with them unless you outnumber them by a lot. And it sounds like you won’t.”
“We won’t.”
“What’s the timeframe?”
“Probably tonight.”
“Bad idea.”
“Yeah, I know. You think it’d be a better idea to plan things properly. Stake things out, get a feeling for the area, watch them and learn their patterns. I agree. Unfortunately I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because the longer I wait, the better the chance that the Council will show up.”
“Wait, how bad a falling-out did you have? Never mind, I don’t want to know.”
“Probably wise,” I said. “So there are a bunch of reasons I’m coming to you guys. First, you both have history with Onyx. You know the area and you’ve apparently been in and out of his mansion before. You even tried to stage a rescue from the place. Secondly, last I checked, he and Pyre were your enemies too.”
“Doesn’t mean we want to kick his door down.”
“I’m not expecting you to do this for free,” I said. “I’m willing to offer you what I can. Money, favours, items. Whatever you want, as long as it’s something I can give.” I looked at Kyle. “I’m guessing you’re speaking for Cinder as well?”
“Yeah, about that,” Kyle said. “There’s a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“Cinder’s not really in a position to help.”
“If it’s about payment—”
“Not about payment. You’re not the only one who’s had a falling-out lately.”
“With Deleo?”
“Guess news travels fast,” Kyle said. “Yeah, with her.”
“Is this you we’re talking about, or Cinder?”
“Oh, me and Deleo were never friends in the first place,” Kyle said. He touched his knee. “She’s the one who took my leg, and she’d have finished the job if not for Cinder. When he said he was making me his bondsman, she held off, but it was just holding off. Cinder was the only thing holding her back.”
“To be honest, I never really understood why those two were together in the first place.”
“Well, they’re not together now.”
“Let me guess. Richard?”
Kyle nodded. “Cinder was never happy about working for him. He wanted to go back to being free agents. But Deleo wouldn’t listen, so they had a compromise. Deleo would work for Drakh, Cinder would help Deleo, but Cinder wouldn’t take orders from him directly. It was never that great a solution and there were arguments. I guess one of them finally went too far. I don’t know the details—Cinder’s not in the mood to talk—but he had to fight his way out of Drakh’s shadow realm and he got cut up pretty badly. He’s not in shape for an op like this.”