iridescent purple metal that caught the light. It was a powerful focus with an active spell working through it. As far as I could tell, it was linked to something else, probably an identical focus with a similarity effect joining them. At the moment the spell was stable. It wasn’t draining Arachne’s magic or life force but she wasn’t getting any better either.
I ran my hand along Arachne’s back, feeling the stiff hairs brush against my fingers. There was something terribly depressing about seeing her like this. Ever since I first met her, Arachne’s always been one of the few stable points in my world, wise and strong. Having her still and lifeless felt wrong, and I couldn’t help wondering if this was my fault. If I’d dealt with Luna better, figured it out earlier …
“Hey,” Cinder called. I turned to see something flying towards me and caught it one-handed. I’d been standing on a battered sofa to get a better look and had to sway to keep my balance. I took a look and saw that it was a touch-screen phone. “What’s up?”
“Password.”
The phone had a password lock. I took thirty seconds and cracked it, then skimmed through the call and message history. The phone had belonged to Mick, aka Michael, and had apparently survived the blast that had killed its owner. I put it in my pocket.
“So?” Cinder said.
“Belthas took my phone. I need a new one.”
Cinder gave me a look.
“There’s nothing there,” I said. “Any luck?”
Cinder gestured at the pile of guns at his feet. The five men had been carrying enough weapons to stock an armoury: submachine guns, pistols, grenades, clips and boxes of ammunition, knives, radios, coils of wire, and what looked like plastic explosive. It was enough to fight a small war—unfortunately, at the moment, it was also completely useless.
I looked at the iridescent metal rod. “Know what this is?”
Cinder walked forward and squinted. “Yeah,” he said after a moment.
“You and Deleo got them from that mage, didn’t you?” I said. “Jadan or whatever his name was. The guy who came up with this bloody ritual.”
“Yeah.”
“How do they work?”
“Dunno.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Got his materials. Didn’t know how to use them.”
I sighed. “It’s just like last time, isn’t it? You guys never understand what you’re messing with but you do it anyway.”
“Would have been fine if you’d let us kill that enchantress.”
“Yeah, well, maybe if you and Deleo had done a bit less collateral damage I wouldn’t have gotten involved.”
“No.”
“No what?”
“Wasn’t why you were helping her.”
I looked at him. “How would you know?”
“She acted sexy and vulnerable and made you feel good,” Cinder said. “So you trusted her. Right?”
I was silent.
Cinder shook his head contemptuously. “Idiot.”
The sound of footsteps made us look up to see Sonder emerge from the tunnel out onto the Heath. Cinder walked away. “Sorry,” Sonder said as he approached. “He made a gate but I couldn’t see through the shroud.”
I nodded. “And in here?”
“They left three hours ago,” Sonder said. “Belthas, twelve men, Martin, and that woman. They had Luna.” He didn’t look happy. “Martin was dragging her.”
I thought about Luna and how she must be feeling. She’d trusted Martin and thought him a friend, probably in the hope he’d become a lot more, and he’d betrayed her in the worst way possible. Then there was the question of what Belthas would do with her or if she was even still— I shook my head and pushed the thought away. I needed to focus.
“Can you take it out?” Sonder asked.
I looked up to see that Sonder was pointing at the rod in Arachne’s back. “Not without killing her,” I said. “And even if I could, I don’t have the first clue how to fix whatever Belthas did.”
“I think it was a paralysis spell,” Sonder said. “I only saw bits of it but …”
I nodded. Ice mages are good at that sort of thing. Sonder looked at Arachne’s motionless body. “Could we get someone to heal her?”
“Maybe,” I said doubtfully. I stuck my hands into my pockets. “We’d have to—”
I stopped. There was something in my pocket and I drew it out. It was the fang of some enormous creature, made of some kind of grey stone, heavy and warm and eight inches from base to tip. It was a magical item and a
