Taken

I turned to see Variam with his hand raised towards Anne and the second construct gone. Anne was standing at the centre of the clearing again, looking around. “Get down!” I shouted and ran towards her, bringing the sword back for a swing.

Anne dropped instantly and the second construct blinked in behind her. I’d already started my slash and as I did I felt Variam’s fire magic flare to an inferno. The sword flashed white-hot, the heat scorching my arm and hand, and it cut through the construct’s neck like butter. The head and body ignited, falling in different directions, and the sword spun away and went into the earth with a hiss.

And suddenly the clearing was quiet. The light of Variam’s fire magic blinked out and the only light was the glowing remnants of the two constructs. I shook my burnt right hand and gave Variam a look. “Ow.”

“It’s dead, isn’t it?” Variam was still propped up against the tree and he looked very tired. “Anne, you okay?”

Anne nodded. “Let me have a look at you.”

“After we get out of here,” I said. “You can patch us up later.” I couldn’t hear any sirens yet, but after the mess we’d caused on the motorway I knew they wouldn’t be far away.

Neither Anne nor Variam argued. We limped back to the Jaguar, put Variam in, and drove away. As I did I realised my phone was ringing, and I took it out. “Hey, Luna,” I said wearily. The aftereffects of the fight were starting to kick in and it was suddenly hard to talk.

“Hey!” Luna sounded excited. “I’ve been trying to call you!”

“Sorry. Something came up.”

“I won the duel!”

“Good job.” A sign passed by overhead and I began signalling to take the turn that would lead us off the motorway, northwards back towards Fountain Reach. “Meet us outside the mansion in half an hour. We’ve got some news too.”

chapter 11

It was one hour later.

Anne, Variam, Luna, Sonder, and I were in the woods behind Fountain Reach, in a small clearing on the other side of the hill from the mansion itself. The winter night was only a few degrees above freezing but a small fire burned at the centre of the clearing, its heat forming a bubble of warm air that kept away the cold. The five of us were spaced around the fire, Luna a little farther away. Around us the forest was dark and quiet, the only sound the rustle of wind in the trees.

We’d assembled on the grounds of Fountain Reach before heading into the woods. Sonder had been the last to arrive, having had to make the journey up from London, and as soon as he’d shown up we’d gotten out of sight. The burns on my arm and hand were gone; Anne had healed them along with Variam’s broken leg to the point where I couldn’t even tell where I’d been hurt. Now everyone was looking at me. I’d led them out here and they were waiting for me to tell them what to do.

“Anne,” I said. “Before we start—are we alone?”

Anne nodded. She was sitting on the thin grass with knees up and hands clasped on top of them. “Yes.”

Luna looked at her curiously. “How do you know?”

“I can feel them.”

“Who?”

“Anyone,” Anne said in her soft voice. “Their body, their shape, whether they’re hurt . . .”

“How much can you see?” Luna asked.

Anne looked at Luna. “You’ve got a bruise on the side of your left knee from where you fell a couple of hours ago fighting Ekaterina. And you pulled two of the muscles in your thigh a little.”

Luna’s eyes widened slightly and her hand went to her leg. “We don’t have to worry about anyone sneaking up on us,” I said.

“Who are you worried about?” Sonder asked. He’d taken off the parka that he’d worn here and was sitting on it.

“Before we get to that,” I said, and I nodded to Anne. “Tell us what you found out from Hobson.”

As Anne took out the pad she’d been writing on and began to look through it, reminding herself of the notes she’d written during her conversation, I studied her. The firelight flickered off Anne’s dark hair and the lines of her face, leaving most of her body in shadow.

She didn’t look like the sort of person who should be getting assassination attempts. But someone had just tried to have her killed for the second time in four days and I didn’t know why. Usually when a mage is attacked it’s because they’re a threat, but Anne seemed like about the most unthreatening apprentice I could imagine. I had to be missing something.

“Okay,” Anne began in her soft voice. “Hobson told me that he used to work for the family who lived there, the Aubuchons. He didn’t . . . Well, he didn’t say they were mages, but he knew some of it. Enough not to ask questions.