Taken

There’s not much on the roof of my flat—a little parapet around the edge, one chimney, and that’s it. It’s bare and cold and there’s no shelter, but I love coming up here all the same and it’s because of the view. The edges of the roof go out just far enough that you can’t look down into the street, but other than that there’s no direction you can’t see. As I climbed I could hear the sounds of the city all around us; the whistling of the wind on the rooftops, the creak of stone and metal from the buildings nearby, the low steady growl of traffic. Voices echoed up from the streets around, a train rumbled along one of the railway bridges in the middle distance, and far overhead an airliner drew a clear contrail of white across the blue sky. Millions of people, millions of stories, all blending into the sounds of London.

Anne was sitting on the parapet, looking southward over the skyline with her hands around her knees. She looked back as I crossed the roof. “Cold?” I asked.

Anne shook her head and I sat down next to her with a sigh. It really was a great view. “Are Luna and Vari okay?” Anne asked.

“Oh, they’ll be fine. Just sorting out the pecking order.”

“Thank you for letting us stay here,” Anne said. “And . . . for everything else.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“When Vitus took me . . .” Anne said. She was staring down at the building opposite, and she had to stop and take a breath before she could go on. “I was so scared I couldn’t think. I was lying on that table, trying to keep myself alive and hide my life so he couldn’t find me. I didn’t know if I could do it. The first time nearly killed me and I knew if Vitus came back to take any more of my blood I’d die. Then I felt you come in and Vari and Luna and . . .” She looked up at me, red-brown eyes serious. “I wasn’t scared anymore. I knew you’d come.”

I looked away. I always get uncomfortable when people are grateful to me—I’m never sure I really deserve it. “Eh. The only reason it was me was because I made Variam stay back and guard the entrance.”

“Vari always fights,” Anne said simply. “He always tries to protect me and I know he’ll never give up. But I don’t know if he’ll be okay. Usually . . . I guess it’s like I need to be responsible for everyone. And I don’t mind or anything, but . . . It feels like I don’t need to worry about that so much that when you’re around. It’s nice.”

“You know, I’ve always wondered,” I said. “What is the deal with you and Variam? How did you get to know each other?”

“Everyone asks that,” Anne said with a slight smile. “We met because of another boy called Harbir. He was Variam’s older brother and when things started happening at my school Harbir came to help. He was like that.” Anne’s smile faded. “But he was killed. I didn’t know how to use my magic back then, but . . . I wish I’d been able to do something.

“After that Sagash kidnapped me and took me away. I was in his castle for a long time. Sagash was a Dark mage but he didn’t have any other apprentices. He wanted me to become his Chosen, and when I said no he tried to make me.” Anne was quiet for a moment. “It was . . . bad. Really bad. Back then I didn’t know Vari well—we only met because he was Harbir’s brother. He could have stayed at home and been safe. But he didn’t. He came looking for me and he tracked Sagash down and in the end we were able to get away. I think he did it because of Harbir. One of the last things Harbir had been trying to do before he disappeared was protect me and . . . I guess Vari feels he kind of inherited the responsibility. He takes that kind of thing really seriously. He’d never let me get hurt, even if he doesn’t like me all that much.”

“Wait, what?”

“He doesn’t hate me or anything,” Anne said. “But I think it gets on his nerves the way I’m so quiet about things. He likes it when people stand up to him.”

“So that’s why he finally started listening to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing.”

Anne gave me a puzzled look, then shook it off. “Did everyone make it out from Vitus’s sanctum okay? The Keepers wouldn’t tell me.”

“Crystal got away clean,” I said. “Lyle too—he got out with Crystal and she left him behind. He wasn’t hurt or anything, but last I heard he was in hot water. He was supposed to be keeping the apprentices in the White Stone safe and instead he ended up arranging them an all-expenses paid trip to Death Mansion.”

“Are the Council going to blame him?”

I shook my head. “He didn’t actually know what was going on, so no. Still, I don’t think he’s going to be getting any promotions for a while.” It was an odd feeling. I’ve had a grudge against Lyle for the longest time, but now that things had gone wrong for him I found to my surprise that I wasn’t especially happy about it. If he’d gotten in trouble because he’d finally taken advantage of the wrong person I probably would have laughed, but the way it looked to me was that it had been Crystal who’d taken advantage of him. Somehow that just made it sad.