Fated

wasn’t me I was worried about.

‘Wait,’ Khazad said.

‘Is she here or not?’

‘This thing’s screwing up,’ Khazad said in frustration. ‘Stupid piece of crap.’ He raised a hand, and something dark gathered in his palm.

As it did, I felt something from Luna. I glanced down and stared. The silver mist of Luna’s curse was moving. A strand of it slipped invisibly outward, reaching ten, twenty times further than normal, curving over the cars to brush against the object in Khazad’s hand. ‘Shit!’ Khazad snarled.

‘Well?’

‘I don’t fucking believe this! It’s dead!’

‘Is it,’ the woman said absently. She was still scanning from left to right, her eyes passing over where Luna and I were hidden, and I didn’t dare move.

‘Screw it,’ Khazad said angrily. He stuffed the whatever-it-was into his pocket. ‘What about a trail?’

‘Wiped.’

Khazad glanced up, his eyes narrowed. ‘Thought she was a norm?’

‘She isn’t a mage.’ The woman’s eyes traced the wall from behind her mask. ‘But there’s something …’

I held my breath. The woman’s eyes had come to rest on me, and she was staring right at where I was hidden. Again. How does she know? Five seconds passed, ten.

‘Well?’ Khazad demanded.

The woman looked away, and I let out a soft breath. ‘That door,’ she said, her voice suddenly sharp again. She started walking towards the door I’d left ajar, disappearing behind the pillars. I strained my ears to listen. Khazad said something I couldn’t hear, finishing with ‘—not there?’

‘We’ve got her address,’ the woman said. ‘One thing at a time.’ The door creaked open and their footsteps receded up the stairs.

Luna started to move, but I signalled for her to stay down and she did. I counted off a full minute, looking through the futures, then walked forward, pulling the mist cloak from my shoulders. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Who were they?’ Luna asked, scrambling to her feet. She looked anxious rather than scared, which probably meant she didn’t understand what we’d just heard.

‘The man’s called Khazad. I don’t know the woman’s name. You don’t want to meet them.’

As we hurried back the way we’d came and emerged out into the street, Luna spoke up hesitantly. ‘They kept saying “she”. Did they mean—?’

‘Yes.’

Luna shut her mouth and we walked the rest of the way back in silence.

We were back in my flat, above the shop. Luna was curled up on my sofa in the same spot she’d been lying in last night, watching me. Her white hands were curled around a coffee mug. She’d been sitting listening for the last ten minutes, only speaking to ask questions.

‘So that’s how it is,’ I finished. ‘Cinder, Khazad and that woman tried for the relic last night. Now it looks like they’re going for something else instead.’

‘The cube?’

‘Cinder was looking for it yesterday, and those two are working with Cinder. Now they’re looking for you.’

Luna was quiet for a second. ‘Why?’

‘Probably traced the cube to the same place you got it. They don’t know you gave it to me or they’d have been trying to break in here. Right now, you’re their lead. They’re not going to give up easily.’ I hesitated. ‘I’m sorry for getting you into this.’

Luna only shook her head. ‘How were they tracking me?’

‘Khazad had a focus. There are lots of ways, he was using one of the simple ones. Luna—’

‘It was my curse, wasn’t it? That was what stopped him finding me.’

I blinked. ‘You can tell?’

Luna nodded. ‘Sometimes. When there’s something I’m really afraid of. It’s like a part of me reaches out and touches it, and it’s gone.’

‘Huh.’ I sat back. I’d always thought Luna’s curse was a passive thing, but what Luna had just said made me wonder. Being able to feel it that clearly …

‘She said she had my address, didn’t she?’

I’d been reaching for the glass of water on my desk. As Luna spoke I went still, then picked up the glass and took a drink, hoping she hadn’t noticed the pause. This wasn’t something I wanted to tell her. ‘Yes.’

Luna was silent for a second. ‘The man I got the cube from doesn’t know where I live,’ she said at last. ‘He knows my number, but … Oh, of course. My name. They could have looked my address up with that.’ She shook her head and looked up. ‘Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter much. I can’t go home, can I?’

I let out a breath. ‘No. They’ll be at your flat by now.’

‘They won’t hurt anyone else in my building, will they?’