“Mind if I ask you something?” I said.
“Yes.”
“I’ve never asked how you two got to be partners. Figure it’s not my business. But I really want to know why you haven’t given up on her.”
Cinder didn’t answer.
“I mean, maybe it’s just me, but if a girl I knew was shooting disintegration spells at my chest, I’d take that as a pretty strong indicator that we were officially broken up.”
Silence.
“Look, at the end of the day, it’s your life. I’m just wondering.”
“You ever stop asking questions?”
“Not really.”
More silence.
“So?”
“Just do your job.”
“I am doing my job,” I said. “But until Rachel shows, we’ve got nothing better to do.”
“Bloody hell,” Cinder said. “You do not take a hint.”
I shrugged. “Diviner curiosity. Used to think it would get me killed someday. Turns out a lot of other stuff is going to beat it to the punch. But right now, I’m here and you’re here, so . . . ?”
“I’ll tell you if you’ll just shut up.”
“Deal.”
“Del and I made a promise, long time ago,” Cinder said. “She’d have my back, I’d have hers.”
I waited for Cinder to go on. “That’s it?” I asked when he didn’t.
Cinder shrugged.
Trying to get Cinder to open up is like prying apart a stone wall with a chisel. “Well, I suppose that was pretty much how things were when we first met. When it was you, Deleo, and Khazad. Khazad sold her out soon as it got convenient. You didn’t.”
“Khazad was an arsehole.”
“But that all changed when Richard came back, didn’t it? She got drawn back in.”
“Yeah.”
I studied Cinder. “I don’t buy it.”
Cinder shot me a glare. “What?”
“I can believe you’re the kind to keep that sort of promise,” I said. “You’ve kept every deal you’ve made with me. But that’s because I’ve kept every deal I’ve made with you. If I’d stabbed you in the back, you would not be trying to save me like this.”
Cinder didn’t answer.
“Now, maybe you think I just don’t look as good as she does,” I said. “But you never really struck me as the kind to care that much about looks. And you might be playing some kind of complicated game where she’s a piece on the board, except you never really struck me as that kind of person, either. So we’re back to the same question.”
Another silence, but this one of a different kind. I could feel the futures shifting and knew that Cinder was going to speak. I waited for him to decide what to say.
“Every time I used to see you, you’d have some kid around,” Cinder said. “That apprentice of yours, that Council time mage, the Indian kid, that life girl . . . even with that spider, you’d made friends.”
“Yeah.”
“Lot of Dark mages think that’s dumb,” Cinder said. “They stay cold. No attachments. Travel light, travel fast.” He paused. “But you do that, you got nothing when you get there. People like that . . . they don’t last.”
I looked at Cinder curiously. “Was that why you bonded Kyle?”
“Del doesn’t have that,” Cinder said, ignoring me. “Used to. Had that friend, Shireen. Even you, sounded like. Until Drakh. She couldn’t let him go.”
“He doesn’t care about her,” I said. “I’m not sure he cares about anyone. As far as he’s concerned, at this point, she’s just a failed experiment.”
Cinder grunted. “Told her that.”
“How’d she take it?”
“Not well.”
“So why—?” I paused. “Oh. Out of time.”
Cinder shifted, straightening, and walked to the centre of the room. I moved to the archway at the far end. The passage beyond led into the laboratories and cells of the mansion’s basement complex. I had plenty of memories of them, few good, but I wouldn’t be going there today.
Silence. Minutes ticked by. I scanned through futures and learned little—normally my divination gives me some idea of how a conversation is likely to go, but Rachel’s just too unpredictable. I began to channel through my dreamstone, carefully weaving together pieces of a spell that I hoped I wouldn’t need.
I felt a flash of gate magic from above and knew Rachel had arrived. I’d wondered if she’d hesitate, suspecting something, but as the futures moved it became clear she was coming straight down. “Thirty seconds,” I told Cinder.
“Great,” Cinder said. “Now keep your mouth shut.”
Footsteps sounded from the archway. A moment later, sea-green light, dark and flickering, illuminated the steps. Rachel’s feet appeared, then her body, and finally her face. The black domino mask hid her expression, but I saw her eyes flicker past Cinder to me and felt the futures spike as she called up her magic.
“NO!” Cinder roared. Dark flame billowed with a hungry whoosh. It didn’t strike either of us but it did make us jump. Rachel’s spell faltered and she looked at Cinder in surprise.
“We are NOT DOING THIS!” With his back turned, I couldn’t see Cinder’s face, but his voice held an intensity I’d never heard from him before. “I do not have TIME for your shit right now. You are going to LISTEN.”
Rachel drew back slightly. I think she was surprised. I certainly was.
“This shit with Verus?” Cinder said. “It ends. No more hunting him. He goes his way and so do you.”
“Why are you on his side?” Rachel snapped. But for now at least, there were no futures of her resuming her attack. Cinder seemed to be holding her by sheer force of personality.
“How many times have you tried this?” Cinder demanded. “Over and over, and you missed every time! You think the hundredth is going to work?”
“I have to!” Rachel shouted back.
“Why?”
“Because—Richard—”
“Drakh’s not your master!”
“Because of him!” Rachel shouted. “He tricked me!”
“Drakh was using you,” Cinder said. “Every time he got someone new, he put them above you. Wasn’t going to change.”
“No!” Rachel’s voice cracked. “I’m his Chosen. It—it would have been fine if he hadn’t—”
Cinder just looked at her.
“Stop looking at me like that! It’s his fault!”
“Del,” Cinder said. He didn’t shout this time; he spoke clearly, simply. “Drakh’s not taking you back.”
“No.” Rachel’s voice wavered. “No, he told me. He told me this was my last chance. If I proved . . .”
“You’ve served him long enough,” Cinder said. “It’s time to stop.”
Rachel drew a breath, looked away. Then she turned back, suddenly calmer, and I felt the futures shift. “Maybe,” she said. “But not till I kill him.”
Uh-oh. I sped up my working through the dreamstone.
Cinder’s voice was flat. “Not an option.”
“No, I have to, you see?” Rachel’s voice was suddenly bright, persuasive. “He’s the one who set all this up. You just can’t see it because he’s fooled you too. He does it to everyone, except me. He’s laughing at you right now. Look!”
“Forget. About. Verus.”
“You should call him Alex,” Rachel said absently. “I don’t—oh. Wait.” She turned and stared into empty space, her head tilted.
I felt a chill. Shireen.
“I thought you couldn’t come when he was around?” Rachel asked. She paused, then nodded. “Oh, that makes sense. But you see, don’t you? He killed Tobruk and he killed you. So I have to kill him. I’m all that’s left.”