‘I’m not a Gem,’ Alice says.
‘Oh yeah?’ Saskia grabs Alice’s silver bag and empties the contents on the floor. A lip gloss, a stick of gum, a Radley purse, a compact with a picture of a dragonfly on the back, and an iPhone. Saskia scoops up the phone and turns it in her fingers. The screen illuminates as she catches it with her thumb. ‘What the hell is this, then? You think Imps have shit like this?’
‘It’s just a phone.’ Alice raises her hand like she may try to grab it, but changes her mind at the last minute.
Saskia frowns. ‘Any more shit like this? Or do I need to strip search the lot of you?’
Reluctantly, we dig into our pockets and hand over our possessions. Wallets, phones, lip balms. I didn’t think I could feel any more vulnerable, but without my phone, my emergency taxi money and my family photograph, I feel completely naked. I think we all do, our arms folding across our chests, protecting our organs – our hearts.
But Saskia doesn’t seem to care. She rams them into Alice’s bag, the stitches pulled tight at the seams. ‘This looks like Gem stuff to me.’
‘I’m not a Gem,’ Alice repeats.
‘She’s not,’ Nate says. He uses his I’ve just had an idea voice, and it comes out strong. His arms unfold and his chest seems to rise.
Saskia turns to him, raising her knife so quickly that I barely register the movement. ‘Shut it, young ’un.’
Nate watches the blade, but his voice stays strong. ‘She’s a spy, for the Imps. We use her cos she looks like a Gem.’
I can’t help feeling a little put out. I’m the older sibling, I should have the ideas and the strong voice. Alice was right, I am lacking in the imagination department.
Saskia starts to laugh. ‘Bollocks!’
Matthew looks at Nate, his eyes large with sympathy. ‘There ain’t no spies we don’t know about.’
‘That’s not true,’ Nate says. ‘Ask Thorn.’
Saskia’s brow furrows. ‘Here, how do you know about Thorn?’
Nate doesn’t even pause. ‘I work for him. We all do.’
‘Nate,’ I hiss. But Katie silences me with a look which says, Trust him.
‘Why else would she run after us?’ he says. ‘She ain’t stupid you know, she knew running into the city were suicide, but she had to get back to Rebel Headquarters.’
I notice with a pang of pride that Nate has flattened his vowels to sound more Imp-like. And I’m ashamed to admit I never thought of using my knowledge of the canon to our advantage. We know many rebel secrets – we’ve watched them and read them and discussed them in detail for the past two years. I have to remind myself he’s only fourteen sometimes.
‘Yeah?’ Saskia looks unnerved now, her purple birthmark crinkling around the corners. ‘So where’s Rebel Headquarters then, smartarse?’
‘Don’t tell them.’ Katie cuts in, clearly enjoying the shift in power. ‘They may not be rebels, they may just be trying to find out.’
Saskia and Matthew throw their heads back and laugh, revealing their grimy throats and the brown of their molars. It’s the first time I’ve seen them smile, and it’s like only their mouths remember how.
‘Oh, now you’re just taking the mick,’ Matthew says, the smile gone as quick as it came.
I look at Alice, her fists clenched and trembling slightly. I take a deep breath. ‘I’ll tell you if you leave us alone. Deal?’
Saskia moves towards me, slow and almost seductive. ‘Go on.’
‘The headquarters are in the bombed-out church.’
Saskia’s features draw together. ‘OK.’ Her voice changes, suddenly guarded, like she’s scared of giving anything away. But she knows I’m right.
‘Saskia?’ Matthew says.
‘Shut up. I’m thinking.’ She pushes her fingers into her eyes like she can reach into her brain and arrange her thoughts. ‘OK, but that don’t mean your Gem friend ’ere is a spy. What can you tell us, princess?’
Alice looks nervous, her voice pinched. ‘It’s by the broken bridge. Down by the River Thames.’ She cringes as she realizes her mistake; they don’t call it that any more.
‘The river what?’ Saskia says.
‘The river, down by the river,’ Alice garbles.
Saskia raises her eyebrows. ‘OK, you know too much. We’re going to see Thorn. Then he can stick you all in the belly.’ Her fingers play with the fabric resting just above her collarbone. I remember this backstory – Thorn slashed her a few years ago when she bodged a mission. And it’s as though she’s remembering too, tracing the ridges of the scar through her overalls. She laughs, unexpectedly. ‘We was meant to be introducing him to Rose today, the newest member of our rebel family. But he gets to meet you instead. Lucky bastard.’
‘But you said you’d let us go,’ I say.
‘Never trust an Imp.’ Saskia smiles again, and this time it extends to the rest of her face. Her sapphire eyes flash.
Nate knocks me with his hand, low down so nobody sees. ‘It’s OK, Violet. We need to see him anyway. We can all go together.’
I don’t know why Nate wants to see Thorn. He would string us up in a second if he thought he couldn’t trust us. Maybe we can dupe Saskia and Matthew, but there’ll be no duping Thorn.
Matthew takes a sharp breath over his teeth, like he’s testing the air. ‘What we gonna do about . . . that?’ He gestures to Alice. I can’t tell if the cold or the anxiety makes her shiver.
‘He’s right,’ Saskia says. ‘Two minutes on the main street and the Gem lookalike will get lynched for sure. And you’ll be no good to Thorn if you’re dead.’
Alice’s tremor becomes more apparent. I want to wrap my arms around her, but I’m afraid I’ll make her look weak.
Saskia wriggles her arms into her overalls and somehow unzips the front from the inside. It drops to the floor and wrinkles around her feet like she’s a python shedding an extra skin. Beneath it, she wears grey hessian trousers and a cream shirt, stained with brown. I hadn’t realized how thin she is under all that material; the sharpness of her shoulders and hips jut from beneath the cloth. I can’t help wondering when she last ate.
She uses the toe of her boot to flick the overalls across the floor to Alice. ‘’Ere, put these on, try and blend in a bit.’ She turns away and mumbles into the cold, ‘And you look like you’re freezing your tits off.’
I supress a little smile, it’s the first glimpse of kindness I’ve seen in her since we arrived. She was much nicer to Rose.
Katie and I help Alice into the overalls, and I notice her feet remain shoeless and slightly bloodied from the mad dash through the city.
‘Christ, Alice, your feet,’ I say.