Nemesis (5 page)

“My sister will not be pleased I’ve come here, either. Hopefully, I’ve avoided that pesky title ceremony and offloaded it onto her,” Markos said, his hoofbeats echoing through the corridor. “She’s a year older than me, and she’d do a far better job.”

“Well, that’s something,” I said. “If you can convince them to let you leave.”

“Worry not, for I am awesome,” said Markos, with the air of a show master addressing a crowd.

I rolled my eyes. “Just don’t go getting yourself into trouble.”

“Yes, I think our office has rather an appalling track record for accidental deaths, doesn’t it?” said Markos, manoeuvring himself around the corner at a Passage junction.

“It does,” I said, habitually checking behind us before following him. “And I’ll thank you not to remind Ada of that.” She’d be at Central right now. If the universe played nice for once, I might actually get to see her before being called offworld again to chase invisible goblins…

“The infamous Ada? Is she working at Central now?”

“If she passes training,” I said. “So, yes.”

“Wow. Someone’s certain.” He looked at me slantwise. “You like this girl?”

Guess I hadn’t exactly been subtle about it. I shrugged.

“Humans.” He snorted.

We emerged through the doorway in London. Ada would either be at Central or at the training complex, but I didn’t see her when I reported to Ms Weston.

“I’m glad you managed to avoid traffic accidents this time,” she said, stacking the papers I’d handed her on the desk.

“Considering centaurs travel on foot, I’d be worried if I didn’t,” I said. “I have to go back there tomorrow, right?”

“I’ll update you once the council makes its decision. There’s little the Alliance can do in this case other than stand on the side-lines.
You’re dismissed for now.”

I nodded. “All right.”

“Am I correct in thinking you intend to return to Valeria?”

Hell, yes.
With the rest of the day free, I sure as hell wasn’t staying on Earth. This was the real advantage to being an Ambassador–the total freedom to travel offworld, even off-duty. Each world and each door was only open certain hours and under guard, but Valeria had twenty-four-hour access.

“Thought I might,” I said. “If it’s goblin-free.”

“I was going to ask that you keep an eye out for trouble, but I’m guessing you planned to.”

She had a point. Even off-duty, Ambassadors never did get away from their jobs. Hardly a cause for complaint. I’d waited too many years for this, and up until I’d been handed my Ambassador’s permit, part of me had still thought the Multiverse would snatch it away last-minute. I’d come close to fucking everything up enough times that now I had what I’d always wanted, the freedom was almost too much.

Not that anyone could know that.

“Got it,” I said. “If there’s any trouble, you’ll be the first to know.”

***

Aside from Aglaia’s ridiculous debates, I almost dared to think the Multiverse was finally on my side. Until I got back to Central. Ada’s older brother waited just inside the entrance hall, and glared at me when I stopped by the entrance, too. “You.”

“What?”

“Where’s Ada?”

I blinked. “I’ve no idea. I’ve been offworld.”

“Of course you have,” he muttered. “You were desperate to get her to work for you, but now she’s here, you’re nowhere to be found.”

Someone was pissed. “What did the tech team do to you? Did a rat get into the storeroom again?”

“Funny,” he said. “One of
your
team almost started a fight in the office.”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” I said. “You mean the guards?”

“The blond dude with the attitude problem.”

“That’s Aric, and someone shoved a stick up his ass. Nothing to do with me.”

“He was talking shit about Ada. Said you hit her with a stunner.”

Crap. “When I arrested her? I thought she was a dangerous magic-wielder. Someone had just died. I tried not to hurt her.”

His eyes narrowed further. “You should stay away from her.” He took a step towards me.

“Says who?” Great. Just what I needed. A fight with her overprotective older brother. I ignored the instinct to strike first and shifted, ready to block if he did throw a punch at me.

“I don’t know what you said to her, but she’s not herself. What happened messed her up. She wasn’t in her right mind when she told you she’d join. And she’d kill me for telling you this,” he added. “I’m not stupid. I know what’s happening here. She’s always had a thing for your type. And she always gets hurt.”

I returned his glare with one of my own. “None of that is your business,” I said, through clenched teeth. He took a step back. Asshole. I shook my head, and stalked outside before I did something I’d regret. I hadn’t asked Ada how she was dealing with what happened. I’d assumed she didn’t want to talk about it. I
should
have asked what she expected from me, after she’d kissed me, but to be perfectly honest, I’d been in a state of shock that she hadn’t hit me instead. Even when her defences had been down, I’d never in a million years have guessed she might see me as someone other than the person who’d ruined her life.

She’s not herself.

I pressed my clenched fist to my forehead, berating myself for being such a selfish idiot. She’d survived trauma, for God’s sake. And I was the person least likely to be able to offer any kind of help. If that’s what she expected…

“Kay?”

I spun around as someone else came out of Central. Not Ada. I stared for a moment in total shock. What in God’s name was
Tara
doing here?

First Ada’s overprotective older brother, now my ex-girlfriend. Right now, I’d take the former all over again.

Tara looked me up and down. “You’re alive,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow. “Really? I must have missed that notice.”

Tara sighed. “I figured it was a joke. Dammit, Aric.”

“Aric said I was dead?” That was a new one. “You can’t really have believed it.”

“Yeah. I told him he was bullshitting, but I thought I’d come here and see what happened. Seeing as I started working in admin at West Office yesterday.” That explained it. As far as I knew, she’d gone travelling after we’d graduated, though like everyone else in our class, she’d planned to join the Alliance. Which meant she was most likely here to fish for information on the attack on Central. Like I needed a conversation with someone who’d made it pretty clear two freaking
years
ago that she wanted nothing more to do with me.

I glanced at Central, hoping she’d get the message that I was waiting for someone else. I needed to talk to Ada. Screw her brother being there–she didn’t need a freaking bodyguard watching her all the time.

“Aric also said you killed two magic-wielders,” she added. “Is that part true?”

Oh, shit.
There was no point in hiding it, even though I figured from her expression she’d guessed already.
You didn’t have a choice,
I told myself as I had countless times over the past few weeks. The shocked disgust on her face might be deserved, but she hadn’t been there, and had no way of knowing what it actually felt like to be inches from death at the hands of a magic-wielder.

“I thought so,” she said quietly.

I had no defence against that, because she knew what had really gone down with Aric and me two years ago. Just when I thought I’d buried it all, the past came clawing back.

“Are you done?” I said. “Because I’m waiting for someone.”

She blinked. “Just wondered if it’s true that you saved Central.”

“If I was dead, it’d be a bit difficult,” I said.

“Oh, for God’s sake.” She stepped in front of me, barring the doors to Central. “I’m not going to shout it from the rooftops, you know.”

Yeah, but things have a habit of getting out.
The last thing I wanted was to go through the whole story again. She could have asked anyone else. But after what happened two years ago, I knew she wouldn’t take anything less than the truth from me. Dammit.

“Well? Did you?” she asked, hands on hips in that
give me answers or shit’s going down
pose I once knew so well.

“No, whoever told you that is a liar,” I said, having had about enough. “The details are classified. Read the papers.”

Tara flushed a furious red. “Don’t talk to me like that.”

“It’s true. Not my story to tell.”

“Who the hell’s is it, then?”

“Mine,” said a voice from behind us.

Oh, damn. I knew before I turned around that it would be Ada, approaching Central with a scowl on her face.

ADA

I’ve got this,
I thought that morning, as I waited in the corridor outside Office Fifteen. I fidgeted, stepping from one foot to another. I’d already spoken to Ms Weston, head of admin, aka my new boss, yesterday. Though she might be seriously intimidating, she wasn’t interrogating me anymore. I had no reason to fear I’d be locked away in the Alliance’s prison cells for eternity or sent back to what was left of my homeworld. Instead, if I played my cards right, I’d have a job by the end of the week.

The jet-black skyscraper in the middle of London had always drawn my attention even when it had been a place I wanted to avoid–at least, when I wasn’t stealing from the stores. I’d never imagined in my wildest dreams I’d actually be getting to work here. Not that it was anywhere near as impressive up on the first floor, just a corridor lined with cubicle-like offices. Plain white paint, grey carpets. Totally mundane compared to the glossy entrance hall.

“Come in.”

I drew in a breath, and went into the tidiest office I’d ever seen, with only a single piece of paper on the desk and everything else put away in cabinets. The sharply-dressed woman standing at the desk was just as impeccable. She rarely blinked, which made her a world-class expert at the kind of stare that intimidated almost everyone.

I met her gaze until my own eyes started watering.

“Ada Fletcher,” said Ms Weston. “It’s a pleasure to have you here.”

“I’m glad to be here,” I lied.

“If you’re ready, of course.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Oops, that sounded too defensive. Better hold my tongue.

“After the excitement a few weeks ago…”

Yeah. So exciting, nearly destroying the world. The deaths were just the icing on the cake.

I clenched my teeth together. Apparently, self-restraint needed to be out in full force. I couldn’t forget how this woman had torn my life apart in only a few words. I’d always thought it odd that I could use magic even though I wasn’t mageblood, the magic-wielders of Enzar. It turned out the ruling nonmages had injected magic in its purest form into me, turning me into human adamantine, antimagic. If I channelled any amount of magic, I’d absorb the backlash myself. The power in my blood had literally destroyed worlds. And Ms Weston knew it–yet I sure didn’t feel like a powerful magic-wielder when impaled on the end of her glare.

“I’m absolutely sure,” I said. “I want to help people. Offworlders. It’s what I’ve always wanted. I’ll do anything.”

“Good.” She took a handful of papers from a cabinet and handed them to me. “Fill out these. There’ll be more tests throughout the next couple of days. The timetable’s there. And you’ll be at the training complex later so we can evaluate your fighting skills, though as a witness to your astonishing skill battling that wyvern, I doubt it will be an issue.”

I frowned. So she was praising me now? Whatever next? What was it about Central and people being unpredictable? Kay had been the same. Enemy one second and ally the next. Well, it felt that way now. I hadn’t even seen him today.

It’s just nerves. Stop being stupid.

Leaving the office and heading to the booth Ms Weston pointed out to me, I looked around for any sign of Kay. The other desks in the office were clean and no one seemed to be about. Several people in the department had recently been killed–by Skyla.
Don’t think about that!

Too late.

I hurried back to Ms Weston’s office to return the papers to her, then stood for a few uncomfortable minutes while she scrutinised them. I’d been honest, but if she wanted to pry more details about my magic out of me, she’d have to take it up with Nell. She’d made no secret of the fact that she and the council were interested in employing new magic-wielders. True, the Alliance’s mandate emphasised free will and they hadn’t forced me to cooperate even as their prisoner, but Nell’s paranoia wasn’t unfounded. The Campbell family had strapped a bomb to my back to blow up Central, and though everyone connected with them had been locked up, I still couldn’t walk down the street without glancing over my shoulder in case someone else jumped me. I’d always been cautious, but now I was almost at Nell’s level. At least alertness was a valued trait in an Alliance guard.

“There’s something important we haven’t done,” she said, looking up at last. “We need a more in-depth statement on the events of the attack on Central. Start from the beginning, from your capture at the Alliance’s hands, and we’ll progress from there. I’ll need you to submit it in written form, of course, but I’m interested to hear your account now.”