Rook stopped and turned, pushing her back against a wall. For a moment she thought he was going to attack her, and she was aware of his birds shadowing the air around them, like black bags carried on the breeze. His eyes glimmered dark. His lips were pressed tight, pale. But then he sighed, relaxed his grip on her throat, and stepped back. His fingers lingered against her skin, a silent apology.
“I hate them because they killed my brother.” He was looking at her shoulder, unable to meet her eyes. “They dragged him away soon after Doomsday, cut him up…” He waved away whatever images the recollection invoked.
“Go on,” Lucy-Anne said. Rook veered from anger to confusion, not used to exposing himself so much. But then he seemed to settle and started speaking.
“David. He was my twin but so much more…special. He could speak to the birds. All of them, from the smallest wren to the biggest buzzard. They'd drift down and perch so close to him that he could touch them. It was amazing, and he kept it from everyone but me.”
“Why keep it from people?” she asked, confused. Wasn't everyone in London special nowadays?
“Because he was like that when we were little kids together, then older kids, then all through our teens. And it was only after Doomsday that it troubled him enough to get caught.”
She frowned, confused.
“He was like you,” Rook said. “Special all on his own, before all this.”
“Like me?”
“I dreamed of you because you dreamed of me,” Rook said softly, and it was the most emotion she'd heard him convey. He was opening himself to her, and at the same time his doubt about doing so was obvious. He'd been closed up tight for so long that this was hurting.
“I did dream of you,” she whispered.
“And that's why I want to help you,” Rook said. “Because you're like David. Pure. Don't you see? You weren't even here when it happened, and still you're so special. Not like me. Changed into this by Doomsday and all the shit that's come after.” He turned suddenly and walked away. Overhead, rooks followed them, flitting from roof to roof, all of them totally silent.
Lucy-Anne ran after him. She could not shake from her mind's eye the image from her dream—that strange woman on the banks of the Thames, and the nuclear explosion that had seemed to pass her by.
“They're just dreams! They can't all come true.”
“I came true,” Rook said over his shoulder. He continued walking away, and Lucy-Anne could only follow.
Jack stared along the barren wilderness of the Mall towards Buckingham Palace and wondered what had become of the Queen. Had she died at her first inhalation of Evolve, just like so many of her subjects? Or was she now someone with incredible, almost supernatural powers, a human being rapidly evolving into something greater—a fire starter, a healer, someone capable of impossible things?
As far as Jack was aware, no one had seen the Queen since Doomsday. Perhaps on his quest he would meet her, and her majesty would be revealed.
“Stop arsing about!” Sparky hissed. He was Jack's best friend, heavily built with spiked blond hair, and a lighthearted manner that hid darker depths. “Jenna's gonna be waiting.”
“Yeah,” Jack said. He closed his eyes briefly, and for a while he was his old self. He was glad. He felt so much closer to his friends like this.
All through the previous night, following his confrontation with his father and their escape from the scene of so much death and destruction, Jack had been sensing a change happening inside. The Nomad's touch was working through him at its own strange pace. He was infected, but he had an idea that his own burgeoning powers were something different from his father's, or Rosemary's…or perhaps anyone else in London right now.
He had hidden himself, Sparky, and Jenna away from view in a basement while a Chopper looked right at them, and made the soldier not see. And he didn't know for sure how he had done so. Invisible! Jenna had gasped, but Sparky had been more wary, eyeing his friend as he considered what had happened.
Jack was still not sure whether he had influenced their presence, or the Chopper's ability to see them.
Sparky grabbed his arm. “We need to get across Trafalgar Square sharpish! Don't like it here, it's too open. Anyone could be watching.”
“We'll be okay,” Jack said.