Four safe futures. I got Captain America between me and Will, but before I could exploit it the girl sent another burst of ground fire that pushed me out of position. Two safe futures. I ducked under Will’s slash and hit him shoulder first, coming up to take another cut on the arm, sliding back just far enough to avoid a fatal blow. One safe future and there were no choices at all now, just a single razor-thin path through the whirl of flame and blades. Feint at the girl, jump back. One safe future. Dodge the spray, duck the sword. Fire all over the casino. Still one safe future. Deflect, stabbing pain as metal cut skin. Twist and weave. One safe future.
One safe future—
One safe future—
No safe futures.
I had just time to think Oh, then Will’s sword rammed through my gut.
It felt like a murderously hard punch. The impact came first and I lost my breath in a gasp, then an instant later agony ripped through my lower body. I tried to scream but my lungs were empty. Another blow hit me from behind and I was driven downwards, the sword grating on bone as the impact pushed me off the blade, and the second wave of pain was so horrendous that my vision greyed out.
When I came to I was on the floor. My lower body hurt with a hideous pain, every movement sending waves of agony spidering outwards. I could hear the crackle of flames and smell smoke on the air. “—cameras are still blind,” someone was saying.
“Lee,” Will said. “Lee!”
“Huh?” It was the Chinese kid’s voice, somewhere close.
“Get him out of here.”
“What about him?” another voice said. It was the Indian boy.
My vision cleared enough to make out people standing above me: Will, gold-hair girl, Captain America. They turned to look down at me. “He’s still alive,” the girl said, sounding surprised.
Will gave me a glance and looked away. The Indian boy appeared in my line of sight, pushing his glasses up to peer down at me. An expression of nausea crossed his face as he saw my lower body. “We could take him—” he began.
“No,” Will said without looking.
“He’s the only lead we’ve got to Rachel.”
“No,” Will said again. He flicked the sword and I saw drops of liquid—my blood—fly away. “We finish it.” He turned back towards me, meeting my eyes. His face was set and cold, and in a sudden flash of insight I knew it was the same expression I’d worn in the past, when I made the decision to kill. Will took a step forward.
Running footsteps sounded from my left and a strand of silver mist wrapped around Will, soaking into his body. Will jumped back in surprise, his sword coming up into a defensive guard. An instant later a girl skidded to a halt in front of me, putting herself between me and him.
The girl was Luna. The gold dress hung lightly off her, not hindering her movements, and the silver mist of her curse spread out around her, tendrils lashing outwards and curving away from me. In her right hand she held a tapered wand, fifteen inches long and ivory-coloured with a sphere set at the base. From the tip a strand of silver mist emerged, growing from the wand to form an invisible whip, and as I watched in a daze she levelled it at Will. Her voice shook a little, but her hand was steady. “Get away from him, you bastard.”
Gold-hair girl and Captain America looked at each other in confusion, then at their leader. “Will?” Captain America said.
“Who’s she?” gold-hair girl said.
Will hesitated, then shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.” But he didn’t seem as certain anymore. “Move,” he told Luna.
“Make me,” Luna said.
Will pointed his sword at Luna. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Luna laughed. Tension vibrated through her voice but her stance didn’t waver. “Trust me, you really don’t want to get close enough to stick me with that.”
Will hesitated again, and I could see the silver glow of Luna’s curse clinging to him. My heart was in my throat: half hope, half fear. “Bev,” Will said, gesturing at me. “Fry him and let’s go.”
The gold-haired girl hesitated, looking from Luna to me, then shook her head. She threw out an arm and ground fire roared out, racing towards me.
Luna stepped between us and her whip lashed out to meet the attack head-on. Silver mist tore into the fire, eradicated it, and the ground fire sputtered to a halt in a flash of light. Gold-hair girl stared at Luna in confusion, trying to understand where her spell had gone.
Luna pivoted smoothly and brought her whip around for the backswing, the strand leaping out eagerly to wrap around the other girl. Luna’s curse is invisible to anyone who doesn’t know exactly what to look for; to Will and the others, she would just look like a girl waving a wand. “What are you doing?” Will demanded. “Finish him!”
Gold-hair girl tried again, and this time she put more power into the spell. Luna’s whip was already moving and the fire didn’t make it even halfway before the strand hit it. The silver mist simply erased the spell, destroying the magic before it could reach her. Again Luna’s backswing hit the girl, the silver aura around her growing.
Fire was spreading all around the room, and the heat and smoke was making it hard to breathe. We were the only ones left on the casino floor; everyone else had fled. I desperately wanted to help but it was all I could do to stay conscious.
“Screw this,” Will said angrily, striding forward towards Luna, sword ready. He tried to grab Luna and throw her aside, but she twisted and shoved him back, the silver mist surging gleefully into Will as he entered the lethal danger zone of Luna’s curse. The gold-haired girl aimed at me again, and she looked pissed off. Fire ignited as she cast her spell.
I felt the snap as Luna’s curse took hold. The ground fire twisted, missing badly. Instead of burning me it homed in on Will, the wall of flame engulfing his legs.
Will screamed and jumped back, shoes and trousers alight. He hit the floor, flailing desperately to put the fire out. The Indian boy rushed to help, and gold-hair girl stared from him to Luna in horror. For an instant she was frozen, and so she was standing still when half the bar exploded with a roar and a thump that sent a heavy bottle flying with laser-guided precision into the side of her head. There was a thud of glass on bone and she dropped like a rock.
Captain America darted to the girl’s side. Luna stood on the balls of her feet, whip poised, ready to strike again. Will came up, legs charred and smoking, eyes crazed with pain. From outside I could hear the wail of sirens, growing louder. “Will!” Captain America shouted, hoisting the girl; he staggered as he did. “Time to go!”
“No!” Will shouted. “He’s right there!” He started towards us but stopped almost instantly; the fire was still burning, forming a wall of flame between him and us.
“Will, it’s time to go!” the Indian boy shouted. He grabbed the taller boy, dragging him away. Captain America was already on his way out, sprinting with the girl in his arms without giving us a backwards glance. Will fought the Indian boy for a second, then snarled at me from across the flames and turned and ran.
Luna’s eyes tracked them all the way out, then as they disappeared from sight she sagged in relief, stumbling and then coughing from the smoke. She looked at me and flinched as her eyes reached my stomach. “Oh crap. Alex? Alex, can you hear me?”
The sirens were right outside the casino. Luna fumbled a handkerchief from her bag and held it over her nose and mouth, looking from side to side. The whole far end of the room was in flames and the fire was getting closer. “Shit, shit, shit,” Luna said to herself. “Look, you’re going to be okay, all right? I just need to move you . . . but I can’t . . . oh crap. Uh—”
Don’t need to move, I thought dizzily. Sixty seconds and the firemen’ll be here. Call and it’ll be forty-five, I wanted to tell her but couldn’t manage speaking. The pain was getting worse, and I was vaguely aware I was going into shock.