But what?
It was because I didn’t understand. I’m like all diviners: I need to know things. I’d learnt bits and pieces but that wasn’t enough. I had to know how they fit together. The assassination attempts, Belthas, Rachel and Cinder, Arachne …
Start at the beginning. Which part related to me the most?
The assassination attempts.
There had been four. The construct in my shop, the sniper on the Heath, Cinder burning Meredith’s flat, and the bomb-maker in the factory.
Why did someone want me dead so badly?
The obvious explanation was because I’d stopped that first attack on Meredith. I’d prevented Rachel and Cinder from killing her so they’d turned their attention to me. The sniper and the bomb-maker had tried to kill me, and Cinder had tried to kill both of us. I remembered that last glimpse I’d had of Cinder, staring at me as Starbreeze snatched me and Meredith out of the window.
I frowned. Staring at me … There was something nagging at me. What was it?
It was the method. It didn’t fit. The construct and fire had been brute-force magical attacks. The sniper and the bomb-maker had used modern technology, precise and deadly.
And now that I thought about it, I’d never seen Rachel or Cinder use guns. Like most mages, they rely on magic for pretty much everything. If they wanted me dead, they’d either send a construct or do their own dirty work.
But that was stretching things. It made sense that the same group would be behind all the attacks. I knew Rachel and Cinder had been trying to get me killed …
…didn’t I?
Again I remembered how Cinder had looked when he’d seen me in Meredith’s flat, the way he’d stopped to stare. Except …
…if he’d been trying to kill me, why had he stopped?
I knew how fast Cinder was. He’d had more than enough time to get off an attack. But he hadn’t.
And the only way that made sense was if Cinder hadn’t been trying to kill me at all.
What if Cinder hadn’t known I was there? Meredith had been Rachel’s target when she’d sent the construct. Maybe Meredith had been Cinder’s target, too. It had been Meredith’s flat; even if he’d been expecting anyone else, Cinder would have had no way of knowing it was me. Which would mean he hadn’t known I was involved at all.
But the sniper had been targeting me, not Meredith. And the sniper had tried to kill me before I’d met Cinder at the flat …
A nasty feeling crept up inside me. That meant Rachel and Cinder hadn’t sent the sniper-and probably not the bomb-maker, either. Someone else had done it. Which meant that someone else was still out there. And odds were, they still wanted me dead.
But who?
I shook my head in frustration. It didn’t make sense. I wanted to blame Belthas. He had the contacts and the resources, as well as Garrick, who I still suspected had been the one shooting at me on the Heath. But I’d been working for Belthas-in fact, I’d just won a battle for him. Why would he want me dead before I’d told him where Rachel and Cinder were hiding? And if it was someone else, like Levistus, why would they choose to strike at me now?
I was missing something.
I tried calling Meredith and got her voice mail. I hung up and called Luna, and this time I got through.
Luna took a long time to answer, and when she did, her voice was blurred by the sound of wind. “Hi.”
“Luna, it’s Alex. Are you free?”
“What was that?” Luna said loudly.
“Where are you?”
There was the sound of voices and I heard the crunch of footsteps. The background noise dropped slightly. “Hi, Alex?” Luna said again. “Sorry, it’s hard to hear.”
“Where are you?”
“On the Heath.”
I blinked. “Why are you on the Heath?”
“Um … I was going to see Arachne.”
There was something in her voice. “Is Martin with you?”
There was a pause. Luna’s not a good liar. I closed my eyes. “Luna, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“We were just going to talk to her. To see if she knew about the monkey’s paw.”
“She said she was leaving.”
“But that wasn’t going to be for a few days, right? If I asked her …”
I sighed inwardly. Luna’s one of the very few people whom Arachne’s willing to let inside her lair. It was possible; I just didn’t like the idea of Martin being there. “Have you seen anything unusual?”
A loud rustling drowned out my words. I heard someone talking and recognised Martin’s voice. “Just a minute,” Luna called back to him, then spoke into the receiver again. “Sorry, what was that?”
“Forget it,” I said. “Just drop by first chance you get, okay? I need to talk to you. Privately.”
“Okay,” Luna said. “Um, I don’t know when Martin and I’ll be done. I’ll call you afterwards?”
I was really sick of hearing about Martin. “Sure.” I heard Martin say something else as Luna cut the connection. I dropped my phone back into my pocket.
I’d been indoors all day. I locked up the shop and started walking. Maybe some exercise would help me think.
The city was bustling in the sunset. I crossed the canal and walked up Kentish Town Road, watching the rush-hour traffic pile up nose to tail. The air was filled with noise and car exhaust.
After a while I realised my feet were leading me towards the Heath. Usually when something’s bothering me I go and talk it over with Arachne. But Arachne was either gone or busy with Luna, and I didn’t want to deal with Luna and Martin. I changed direction, heading for the southern part of the Heath instead of the deeper regions that hold Arachne’s lair.
By the time I reached Parliament Hill, the sun had set and the light was fading. I climbed the hill and sat on one of the benches facing south. It’s a beautiful view. Ahead, through the branches of the trees, were the jagged skyscrapers of Liverpool Street; to the right was the looming ugly Tetris block of the Royal Free Hospital. The towers of Canary Wharf were away to the left, small and squat in the distance. The sky was the dusky blue of twilight, and lights were coming on in the windows as I watched.
I noticed my phone was about to ring and pulled it out. I was a bit disappointed to see that it was Sonder but I kept it out anyway and answered on the second ring. “Hey, Sonder.”
“Hi.” Sonder sounded worried. “I’m glad I got you.”
“I found some of those books.”
“What?”
“The ones you said you needed. About the monkey’s paw.”
“About- Oh, oh. Right.”
“Okay,” I said. “So I’m guessing that’s not why you called.” Although the Heath was darkening, there were still people scattered across the hill. A spaniel ran past, nose to the ground, stumpy tail wagging. “Something’s bothering you.”
“Yeah.” Sonder seemed to get hold of himself. “Okay. You know the thing we agreed I should check up on?”
“Not the monkey’s paw.”
“The other thing.”
I thought back to the conversation and remembered. “About Martin.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you talk to Luna?”
“Um …” Sonder hesitated. “She said she was busy.”
I’ll bet. “Okay.”
“So, um …”
“You went sniffing around anyway,” I said. I couldn’t honestly say I was surprised. It was the kind of thing I might have done.
“Yeah,” Sonder admitted.
It sounded from the echoes as though Sonder was in a corridor. “Are you at Luna’s flat?”
“…Yeah.”
“You didn’t break in, did you?”
“No! Well … not exactly.”
“Sonder …”
“I didn’t go inside! And she’d said she might be around, I was just waiting to see if-”
“Okay, okay.” I knew Sonder would get sidetracked if I let him, and I didn’t really want to hear the details. “What did you find?”
“Well … it was Martin. He made a phone call.”