Cursed

liked to think of herself as unpredictable, a rebel, but the truth was she’d always been more conservative than she’d been willing to admit.

So I worked on the assumption that she’d do things the same way again. I took out a map of London and started making a list of warehouse districts and industrial parks within close distance of the city centre. Then I struck out all the ones that saw high traffic or were otherwise too busy for secrecy. That still left too many, so working on a hunch I limited it to places near water.

By the time Meredith returned, it was late afternoon. “Hey,” I said without looking up as she walked in.

Meredith leant over next to me to look at the map. She’d replaced the ash-stained dress with a dark jumper and pair of jeans, and she smelt of some fragrance I couldn’t place. “What are you doing?”

Meredith was giving me an odd feeling at the moment. When I was with her, looking at her, I couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful she was. But as soon as I spent any time thinking of something else, Meredith seemed … less important, somehow. So despite how close she was, I didn’t meet her eyes, keeping my attention on the map. It wasn’t that I didn’t want her around or anything—I did. I liked having Meredith there, because …

…because …

…I couldn’t think of anything. When I tried to think past Meredith’s beauty and her magic to what kind of person she was, I came up blank. And that was odd, wasn’t it? We’d spent enough time together, the last couple of days. But somehow all our conversations seemed to end up being about me or our work, rather than her.

For some reason, that bothered me. “Trying to find those Dark mages,” I said.

Meredith pointed to the map. “What are those tags?”

“I think we should try searching there.”

Meredith looked taken aback. “All of them?”

I looked up at Meredith. “Unless you’ve turned up any leads.”

“No, but … Isn’t there a better way?”

“Like?”

“Tracer spells?”

I shook my head. “These two aren’t stupid. If it were that easy Belthas would have done it already.” Cinder and Rachel had made use of those spells to track down prey before. They’d be ready and waiting for someone to try the same trick against them.

Meredith hesitated. “All right,” she said at last. “If you think so.”

Five hours later, the sun had set. It had turned into one of those clear, freezing autumn nights, where the stars are sharp and bright and your breath makes puffs of vapour in the air. We were huddled by the side of a long, deserted road, only a few parked cars breaking up the emptiness. To the south was the Thames, far wider and darker than it had been at Deptford, and from the north, over the rooftops, came the distant roar of aircraft. The air smelt of river and cold stone.

I was tired and cold and wanted to go home to bed. We’d been searching our way eastwards along the river as the light faded from the sky and the crowds of commuters poured out of the city and towards the suburbs. By the time we’d reached Silvertown, all but a few stragglers had been driven away by the deepening cold, and now the streets were deserted.

“Can we stop for the night?” Meredith asked. She was wrapped in a coat bigger than she was, hunched over with her arms engulfed by the muffler, but she was still shiv-ering.

“Just three places left,” I said.

Meredith sighed but fell in behind me as we started down the road. In truth, I didn’t think we had much chance of finding anything. It had been a lonely, cold evening, walking though lonely, cold parts of London, looking through warehouse after warehouse with my magic, and it was looking like my hunch had been wrong. But we were here and we might as well finish the job. Besides, there was another reason, one that I didn’t especially want to say out loud: Cinder and Rachel might be looking for us too and it’s a lot harder to find someone who keeps moving.

Meredith stayed quiet for the length of the road, and as we reached the next industrial park she went smoothly into the routine, moving to the front gate to talk to the security guard at the checkpoint. The guard looked up from his desk with a what do you want? expression. It didn’t last—he was smiling in seconds and had told Meredith everything she wanted to know within a minute.

“There’s a maybe,” Meredith told me after he’d waved her good-bye. “A couple renting a unit who might match.” I nodded and the two of us walked past the guard unchallenged. He was staring after Meredith with his mouth slightly open and I don’t think he even noticed I was there.

Ten minutes of scanning the park turned up nothing. I hadn’t really expected much—the place didn’t feel right, not deserted enough. But as we were finishing up, I caught a glimpse of an older pair of warehouses behind the back wall, cut off from the road. “I’ll check there and we’ll move on,” I said. I had to speak loudly—we’d come in close to London City airport, and it was hard to talk over the roar of planes. Meredith nodded with another shiver and we split up, Meredith heading back towards the exit while I went further into the maze of buildings.

The back warehouse was dark and windowless, and passing the outer fence, I found that the building itself was sealed. I couldn’t pick up any magical wards, but that didn’t prove anything: Cinder and Rachel weren’t stupid enough to leave obvious defences. But there was something off about the place all the same, even if I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was.

I took a look around. The warehouse was built right between the industrial park and another complex of buildings next to the airport. Apart from the way I’d come in, there didn’t seem to be any other way out; trying to go in any other direction led me to a dead end. High walls limited vision, giving the place a cramped, uncomfortable feel, and the nearby airport made it hard to hear anything.

I decided to take a closer look. I circled the building and approached the door, reaching into my pocket for my picks and wrenches. Since diviners aren’t as good in combat as elemental mages, we tend to pick up a bunch of less-than-reputable skills to make up for it. Lockpicking’s easy when you can see into the future, and I’m pretty