“Where are Dan and Mason?”

  “Mason is north,” he said. “I don’t know exactly where. I’m not that important.”

  “You know why?” I asked.

  “Training exercise,” he said. “Money. Power. That’s always why Mason goes there. Dan might know more.”

  “I’ll ask him when I see him.”

  “You are confident,” Alexis said.

  I nodded. “It was nice meeting you, Alexis.”

  “You too, Lucas. Abilities okay with you?”

  I nodded.

  Alexis charged at me, his bone armour covering his body in an instant. I dodged aside, rolled across the frozen ground, and came up in a fighting stance a few feet away while Alexis slowly turned around. The armour would stop a bullet, and being hit while he was using it would more than likely break bones and snap muscle, but he also had the turning circle of a small moon. Sacrificing speed and agility for power and endurance was never a sacrifice I would make.

  Alexis strode toward me with purpose, his hands balled into fists. I couldn’t out-punch him, and I couldn’t keep rolling around the damned ground forever, either. I was hurt, tired, and needed to rest before I fell down, but I was also far too stubborn for my own good.

  I dodged a cross and ducked under his jab, pushing his arm away and forming claws of smoke around my hands, slashing along the bone armour near his ribs before I put some distance between the two of us.

  I’d cut through the bone armour, but it hadn’t been deep enough to draw blood. He darted forward, surprisingly fast considering the armour, and lashed out with a kick. I didn’t dodge in time, and he caught me in the shoulder with enough strength to knock me to the ground. I tasted dirt and leaves as Alexis stamped down on the bullet wound in my shoulder, causing me to shout out in pain.

  Alexis reached down and grabbed me by the back of the shoulder, his fingers digging into the wounded flesh around the bullet hole. I tried to pull away, but he was too strong, and I was soon sailing across the clearing and into a tree with enough force that the air left my body in one rush as I crashed to the ground.

  I had enough wherewithal to move out of the way in time to dodge a kick to my head, and continued to roll as Alexis stamped down where I’d been, the force of the blow leaving a deep footprint in the frozen ground.

  I got back to my feet, feeling a little shaky. I was close to being done. I needed this over.

  Alexis charged again and kicked out at my chest. Smoke poured out of my hands, wrapping around his foot and solidifying, pulling him off balance. The smoke outside of his body continued to grow and harden, until his hands, which he’d been using to try and pull himself free, were now trapped. He was strong and could probably have broken free after a few seconds, but that was all I needed.

  His eyes, still visible inside the armour, went wide with shock as I grappled him into a chokehold, wrapping my legs around his back and placing a hand on the small hole he kept around his nose. I poured smoke into his body.

  More and more smoke filled his nasal cavity, his throat, his lungs until the bone armour began to melt away from him. I continued to pour smoke inside of him until I felt something give. His lungs had burst. Only then did I stop.

  With the smoke that had hardened and kept Alexis in place gone, he fell forward onto the ground. I didn’t like to use smoke in such a way, it was difficult to control and even more difficult to watch someone suffocate to death, but he hadn’t left me much choice.

  I waited a few seconds, but Alexis didn’t move. Even so, I picked up my pistol and put two bullets in the back of his head, just to make sure. Sometimes, revenants surprised you, and I wasn’t in the mood for a second round.

  I took a moment to get my breathing under control and heard the snap of a twig behind me. Nadia walked into the clearing, her chains dragging a semi-conscious William Stone.

  “I thought you were staying at the church,” I said.

  “I thought you might need help,” Nadia said, looking down at William as her chains uncoiled from around him. “I was right.”

  “And what are your plans for William?” I asked her as he began to stir.

  “I thought we could ask him a few questions,” Nadia said with a smile that was genuinely the most terrifying I’d ever seen.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  William remained stoic and loyal to Mason for exactly the amount of time it took for Nadia to squeeze the chains around his body until he couldn’t breathe.

  “Guess who fucked around and found out?” I said.

  “Whatever you need to know,” William screamed.

  “Good idea,” I told him. “But I don’t trust you, so the chains stay on.”

  “No,” William yelled. Bullies really don’t like it when they’re the ones on the end of unpleasant treatment.

  “I can use my chains to tell if you’re lying,” Nadia said. “I see the chains of your life. I don’t see the exact events, but if you lie, I’ll know. And I’ll squeeze again until you tell the truth. A few broken bones are always a good motivator for honesty.”

  “I disagree with torture on principle,” I told William. “So, we won’t call it that; we’ll call it giving you an incentive.”

  The fight visibly left William’s body and he sagged forward. “What do you need to know?”

  “We know that the hikers—Clive and Harry—were killed by Sky-High because Mason was concerned about the FBI getting intel on them,” I started. “We know that Dan led the RCU and FBI into an ambush. We know your mutated dog fiends killed the hikers, and you deposited normal fiends near the cabin to throw us off the trail, and Dan was meant to be a hero and instead he got hurt.”

  “One of the hybrids lost it,” William said.

  “Truth,” Nadia confirmed.

  “One of the fiend-human hybrids Callie made just started screaming and flailing around,” William told us. “They’d been used to kill the hikers, as they were used to being given orders. But then they just vanished, and when Dan turned up with his team to look for them, they went nuts. Killed everything in sight and ran off. We had to dump fiends as decoys to cover up the mess, and then more FBI turned up and we didn’t have time to look for the real killers.”

  “We know that there’s someone in the FBI who wants their involvement removed,” I said.

  “Only Callie knows who it is,” William said.

  “Lie,” Nadia said, and started to constrict the chains.

  “Fine,” William cried out through haggard breaths. “Dan too.”

  “Truth,” Nadia confirmed.

  “No one else can know,” William said, his voice hoarse. “There’s an organisation behind Dan and Callie; I don’t know who they are, no one does. They have several powerful people in their ranks.”

  “Why did Dan have the RCU teams in New York and LA killed?” I asked.

  “Dan fucking hates the lot of you,” William said with a croaky chuckle. “No idea why. He just does. It’s not like we’re besties. I work for Mason and Callie.”

  “That doesn’t explain why he went after the LA team,” I said.

  “Callie needed more data,” William said. “Field data. Dan suggested the LA team because he worked there and had some issues with those in charge. I think he wanted to go after every RCU team in the country, flush them all out, to be replaced with Sky-High employees, but he was talked out of it.”

  “By whom?” I asked.

  “No idea,” William said. “Whoever Dan works for. Someone powerful, that’s for sure.”

  “You were tracking Scarlet with that fiend,” I said.

  “You killed it,” William said, sounding vaguely sad about that, which surprised me.

  “I did,” I said. “How’d Callie make it?”

  “She’s been splicing shit together for years,” William said. “She’s trying to create something game-changing. She’s really secretive about it, too. Mason knows, but I don’t think he really knows. You’ve met Callie; she’s kind of intense.”

  “I think evil is the word you’re looking for,” I told him.

  “One man’s evil is another man’s . . .” William started.

  “Evil,” Nadia finished for him. “Evil is evil. Callie is evil.”

  “You’re a traitor,” William snapped.

  “The code for the Sky-High building,” I said.

  William said nothing for several seconds, and as the squeezing became too much and I thought one of his eyes might pop out, he started to talk again. I used my phone to record it all and passed it to Nadia.

  “Where’s Mason?” I asked.

  “Last I heard, he was going north,” William told me. “Canada . . . with Callie. There’s a meeting up there. I don’t know where; I don’t know why. I’m not privy to such things.”

  “Anything you want to ask him?” I asked Nadia.

  “No,” she said. “You always were an asshole. You should know that.”

  “You gonna free me or what?” William said.

  “No,” I told him, and shot him in the head.

  “Take my phone to Gabriel,” I told her. “I’m going to my embers to heal this bloody wound. I’ll be a few hours, I imagine; the bullet is out, and it wasn’t in anything close to a dangerous place. Besides, my body has already stopped the bleeding, so I won’t be long.”

  “Riftborn are weird,” Nadia said. “You want us all to do anything when you’re gone?”

  “Get ready for war,” I told her, taking a deep breath, opening my embers, and stepping through into what I hoped was going to be a lot safer than it had been the last time.

  “You look like shit,” Casimir the stag said as I sat on a crumbling stone fence surrounding a longhouse.

  “Thanks very much,” I said, peeling off my jacket and shirt to find my entire upper torso covered in blood.

  I placed the weapons in a neat pile beside me, and Casimir walked silently with me to the nearby stream, where I washed myself off. Sometimes when you were hurt and you arrived in the embers, you had blood and grime from the real world, and sometimes you didn’t. I was never entirely sure why, but by the time I’d finished cleaning myself, the bullet hole was gone, and I could move my shoulder without gritting my teeth.

  “I need new clothes,” I said, standing up from the cold water of the stream, and was almost immediately dry.

  “Maria is sat atop your old home,” Casimir said. “Can I assume that you will not be staying?”

  “I need to get back to the church in Hamble,” I said. “My friends need me.” I’d left my Talon mask at the church because it was an object of great importance to me. It meant I could go back there from my embers, and frankly, that was a better idea than having to return to Brooklyn each time.

  “You are back to your old self, I assume?” Casimir asked.

  I nodded. “Mostly. The power level isn’t quite right, but I’ll have to make do. Besides, people are going to die if I don’t get back.”

  “You know that this will be twice in quick succession,” Casimir said with an almost-chuckle.

  “Yeah, I’m not actually new at this,” I said as the pair of us walked through the village after I picked up the weapons I’d arrived with.

  “My point is,” Casimir said, “I would advise you to not be hurt enough that you need to come back here again. You will take much longer to heal.”

  I nodded. “I know, couldn’t be helped. I got shot, and I can’t be anything less than at full strength to go up against Mason’s people.”

  We reached the longhouse and a raven landed on the wall beside me. “That’s a little on the nose,” I said to Maria.

  “I thought it might remind you what you once were,” they said with a short squawk.

  “I remember,” I said.

  “You didn’t remember to wear clothes,” Maria said.

  “I got shot,” I said. “Had to wash the blood off. Any idea how much time will have passed? It wasn’t critical, not life-threatening, so I’m hoping no more than a few hours.”

  “Half a day maybe,” Maria said. “It’s not an exact science. How’s the arm?”

  I flexed my shoulder. “Good.”

  “You need anything else?” Casimir asked.

  “No, just a heal and run,” I said. “Any trouble with the shadows?”

  “Things appear to be back to normal,” Maria said. “Or whatever passes for normal, anyway.”

  Maria landed next to a small stable, although there were no horses inside. “This the exit?” I asked.

  “Take care,” Casimir said. “Try not to come back injured for a while.”

  I opened the stable door and stepped into the tear inside, ending up beside the bed where I’d put my mask, close to the main area of the shelter under the ruined church.

  “It’s Lucas,” I called out, unable to see anyone close by and not wanting to freak anyone out when they heard me moving about.

  Gabriel’s face was suddenly illuminated as the light beside him ignited, casting a glow as he holstered his gun.

  “Nadia said you’d be back soon enough,” Gabriel said.

  “Everyone okay?” I asked.

  Gabriel nodded.

  Apart from Nadia and Gabriel, the former of which was sat beside a small fire, there was quite the group of people. Emily was sat cross-legged on a chair, frantically making notes. Hannah sat beside her, staring into space, while Zita was busy talking to Booker, occasionally looking around the room as if she was expecting an imminent attack.

  “You stayed down here?” I asked.

  “More space to move around,” Gabriel said. “It was feeling a little cramped above.”

  The train had been returned to its former place, and as everyone looked up at me, Bill climbed down from the carriage, followed quickly by George and Dale.

  “Glad you could make it,” I told them. “We’ll need all the help we can get.”

  “I’m not much of a fighter,” George said. “I am a thinker, a litigator. I do not think I would do battle well.”

  “I am a fighter,” Bill said with a beaming smile. “I’m here to hit people.”

  As the pair had been talking, several others had left the train, including Michelle, three other members of staff—two men and a woman whose names I didn’t remember, and the two large bouncers who worked at the bar, Todd and Mikey.

  “I’m here because I need to help,” Dale said as everyone said hello and went to take seats around the fire. “We drove up after you called last night, got here about an hour after shit apparently hit the fan.”

  “What time is it?” I asked.

  “Just after eight p.m.,” Bill told me.

  “We’re planning to leave soon,” Hannah said.

  “A friend arrived at the church a few hours ago,” Gabriel said.

  “I came to save your ass,” a familiar voice said from the entrance to the train carriage.

  I looked over at Ji-hyun. She was a little over five and a half feet tall, with long brown hair that was scooped back into a high ponytail. She wore black boots, jeans, a white T-shirt with the word kaiju in bright red being eaten by Godzilla, and a black-and-red biker’s jacket. She dropped down from the carriage, walked over to me, and embraced me in a tight hug. “I was worried,” she whispered.

  “Me too,” I told her. “What happened in LA?”

  “Same thing that happened here,” she said, pulling away. “Team got attacked by people who could change into fiends. I’m the only survivor. They tore them apart, Lucas. Never seen anything like it.”

  “I’m sorry,” I told her. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Me too,” Ji-hyun said.

  “So, Dan is working for someone else,” Booker said. “Someone who was happy to have members of the RCU used as test subjects for their murderous fiends.”

  “And someone above my pay grade is working with them,” Emily said. “Working to kill my agents.”

  “I’m sorry,” I told her. “You manage to get any of your agents to help?”

  Emily shook her head. “All being watched. Too conspicuous if we all run off at once. They have families; I can’t do that to them.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Gabriel said.

  “Zita and Booker, did you get anyone to help out?” I asked.

  “We got a few people who owe us favours,” Booker said. “What do you need?”

  “Hannah, can you hack into the emergency systems of each of the four banks and get them all to show a bank robbery at the same time?” I asked her. “I’ve been thinking we need to keep the HPD busy. They’re all corrupt, but that doesn’t mean I want a bunch of humans getting steamrolled over by us.”

  “Certain parts of the media would eat that up,” Emily said.

  “Zita and Booker, I want your friends to piss the police off,” I said. “Get as many of them away from that station as possible. I want anything you can do. But tell them not to blow anything up or start shooting people; just make noise, make it look like something big is happening.”

  “They can do that,” Booker said, looking at a grinning Zita.

  “Dale will accompany me to the warehouse,” I said. “Hopefully, there won’t be many of Mason’s friends there. You know the cops, and if necessary, you’ll make a good distraction.”

  “At least you’re being upfront about it,” Dale said.

  “They rest of you need to get into Mason’s building,” I said.

  “William’s access codes are the real thing,” Nadia said. “Scarlet confirmed them. Also, I know he couldn’t lie, but it didn’t hurt to confirm.”

  “You want me with them?” Ji-hyun asked me.

  “We’re the only riftborn here,” I said. “They might need you if this thing turns ugly.”

  Ji-hyun nodded. I was pretty sure that anyone picking a fight with her had brought whatever she would do on themselves.

  “And us?” George asked.

  “No offence to you and your bar staff, but I don’t think you’re soldiers, are you?” I asked.

  “Served six years in the British paratroopers,” Todd said.

  “And you?” I asked Mikey.

  “Just some boxing and MMA stuff,” he told me.

  “Right, well, you’re going with Ji-hyun and co,” I said. “You’re both revenants, so you’ll be able to help, but Ji-hyun is in charge. You listen to her; you do as you’re told.”

 

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