Chapter 50
Flic found him up on the roof of her apartment building. He knew she would find him eventually. She’d seen him at Victor’s. In the midst of all that fighting, she’d been the only one who had seen him or felt him. Even though he’d been in touching distance of Evie she hadn’t sensed him. She’d been too busy making sure Cyrus was OK to even notice he was standing right beside her – admittedly invisible.
Whatever Flic thought about Evie and Cyrus, she was clearly wrong.
Lucas had walked straight into the fight. He’d been coming for Victor and it was just lucky for Victor that an army of unhumans had chosen the very same moment to attack. Otherwise he’d be lying on a mortuary slab right now in pieces.
Lucas still wasn’t sure why he’d saved Cyrus from that Scorpio, except that no matter how much he didn’t want to be on Cyrus’s side, he was.
As he pondered it all, he sensed Flic coming up behind him.
‘You’re not about to jump, are you?’ she asked. ‘Because I’m not really a Samaritan kind of girl, so don’t expect me to talk you down.’
He stepped away from the edge and turned to her with a smile that didn’t make it past his lips.
‘Nice fighting by the way,’ Flic said. ‘I saw that move you pulled on the Scorpio. You saved Cyrus’s life. Shame you can’t claim the credit for it.’
Lucas said nothing.
‘Shame you missed your shot at Victor too.’
Still he said nothing.
‘You know, you need to take that shot,’ Flic said, ‘before he can try anything with Evie. He knows about the way through, Lucas. You remember his strategy for closing the way through before, right? I don’t think he’s revised it much.’
‘I’m more worried about Evie doing something. She’s not going to try anything stupid, is she?’ he asked Flic.
Flic shook her head, surprising him. ‘No, I don’t think so. Cyrus managed to convince her she wasn’t it …’ She stopped abruptly realising she’d probably said the wrong thing.
Lucas laughed bitterly. So Cyrus had succeeded where he had failed yet again. Evie had walked away from him, been prepared to sacrifice herself despite his pleas. But for Cyrus she would stay.
‘You know, Lucas,’ Flic carried on, ‘you’re wrong about her and Cyrus. I asked her and she doesn’t …’
‘Stop it!’ he shouted, surprising them both. ‘I don’t want to hear it.’ He started off towards the fire exit.
‘You need to let her see you’re alive,’ Flic called after him.
‘No,’ he said, opening the door. ‘It’s not up for debate, Flic. I don’t want her to know. And I’ll deal with Victor before he becomes a problem.’
‘Whatever you say,’ Flic answered under her breath. She followed him down the stairs. ‘Listen, Issa’s downstairs,’ she told him. ‘I guess you saw her at Victor’s. Anyway she has some idea that you might know where we can find some shadow blades to slice and dice these Originals with. Tell me she’s right.’
Lucas frowned at her. Then he smiled, realisation dawning. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘I have something that’ll work.’
Lucas crossed straight to Issa who was standing in the centre of Flic’s living room, and pulled her against his chest. ‘I’m sorry for leaving you,’ he murmured into her ear.
‘It’s OK,’ she whispered back, clutching onto him tightly.
‘How did you get through?’ he asked, pulling away.
‘Precognition, Lucas. Remember. Sometimes it actually works.’
‘Did you see Tristan? He was there. He was guarding the gateway. He almost didn’t let me pass.’ Lucas shook his head, still confused by why Tristan had stood aside in the end and let him pass through the gateway unharmed.
‘No,’ said Issa. ‘He’s gone. Back to the Shadowlands.’
A shuffling noise made them all turn towards the hallway. Jamieson appeared a moment later in the doorway. His face was drawn and his eyes were hollow and red-rimmed. One arm was wrapped in a cast and bound in a sling. From his expression, Lucas guessed that Flic had told him what had gone down in the Shifter realm.
‘Jamieson,’ Lucas said, crossing straight to him and pulling him into a one-armed embrace.
Jamieson hugged him back. ‘Good to see you’re alive,’ he said in a husky voice. ‘How are you doing? You look like hell.’
‘You should have seen me when Issa found me,’ Lucas smiled. ‘And you can’t talk.’
‘He only needs a shower and a shave,’ Flic interrupted. ‘You know where the bathroom is, right, Lucas?’ The hint was heavy in her voice.
‘First things first,’ Lucas said, dropping to his knees and rummaging in his bag. He pulled out the few items of clothing that he and Issa had worn for two months, the spare bandages and dressings that Issa had brought with her and stolen along the way from looted stores. At the bottom of the bag was a package. Lucas pulled it out and laid it on the table. It was a bundle of cloth bound tight with string. He cut through the knots with his blade and unfurled the cloth, laying out the contents on the table before them. Twelve arrow tips made from shadow blade.
‘Five spare,’ he said grinning up at the others.
‘Where did you get these?’ Flic asked, dropping to her knees and picking one up to admire it.
‘The fight at the Bradbury. I took out a Shadow Warrior on the roof. She was carrying these in a sheath on her back. I had them on me when …’ He broke off.
Flic threw her arms around his neck. ‘You may have just saved the day, Lucas.’
Lucas stood in front of the mirror holding onto the basin. Jamieson’s assessment was on point. He looked like hell. He ran his hand over his jaw, feeling the roughness of week-old stubble. His hair needed a cut too, was hanging over his collar. His cheekbones were more pronounced, his eyes a dark charcoal grey, ringed with shadows. He pulled off his shirt.
He was still in shape. He’d forced himself to start exercising when they were on the run, knowing that one day it all might come down to how fit he was, how able he was to fight.
He looked more muscled than he had been before, though perhaps it just appeared that way because he was leaner. He pressed his hand to the coarse home-made stitches that Issa had given him using a ball of twine and an embroidery needle. They seemed to have finally done the trick. The skin had finally closed over, leaving a silver scar as thick as his finger. He pressed his fingertips against his side. It wasn’t so tender anymore. The ache was buried much deeper inside him instead.
She loves you.
That’s what Flic had told him. Except it didn’t look that way.
Flic had tried to force Issa to tell him that Cyrus wasn’t in Evie’s future, that he was instead. But judging from the stuttering reply Issa had given him, she’d seen no such thing. He’d left the room at that point.
Once he would have fought and died for Evie – and, despite everything, he knew he still would. Without hesitation. She wasn’t his anymore, but he was still hers.
As he stared at himself in the mirror, deep down, where the ache resided, right in the heart of him, he knew that it was better this way, that Cyrus was better for her. He could protect her – that much he’d proved. He seemed to love her, though he wasn’t sure if love and lust were the same thing for Cyrus. And if he hurt her in any way he might just have to kill him. But most of all, Cyrus was fully human. He wouldn’t ever fade and abandon her.
Despite his feelings about Cyrus – despite the anger he could feel like a horse kick to the stomach every time he thought of Cyrus laying his hands on her and kissing her – he also recognised that Cyrus was the only man other than himself who could protect Evie from Victor. Yes, she was stronger now, but she was also wounded. The need he had to protect her was part of his DNA, buried deeper even than the ache he felt every time he thought of her.
When he came out of the bathroom Flic did a double take, grinning at him. ‘Hot stuff, my brother,’ she said. ‘How can any woman, unhuman or otherwise, resist that face?’
He scowled at her.
‘Even that face,’ she pouted. ‘It’s pure lady lust material.’
‘Listen,’ he said, ignoring Flic. ‘I’ll stay. I’ll fight with you guys. I’m going to kill Victor. But then I’m gone. And Evie won’t ever need to know. Understood?’
Flic squinted up at him, her jaw pulsing and a hurt expression on her face. ‘Where will you go?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know – I guess now the Elders are no more I’m no longer being hunted. Which means I’m free to go wherever I want.’ The truth of that made his head spin. Where was home? It had been a place once. Now it was a person. He shook off that thought. It didn’t help matters.
‘First things first,’ he said, ‘let’s focus on getting through tonight.’