A towering pall of angry gray smoke shot from the implosion. I thrust my hands out, an instinctive warding off of the heat and debris, as a boiling mountain of ash and smoke rolled toward me. My body shield triggered—my full body shield—bursting around me in a crystalline barrier of deep gold. The smoke spilled over me like a wave hitting a cliff, then raced up the street and swallowed the remaining fighters. It passed, becoming less dense, but not dispersing.
My head burned with a cold fire. I trembled with power, but a power I didn’t understand. Something had changed. I not only had my body shield back, I could control it. I didn’t have time to question it but was glad of it. The dark mass felt different, like it was generating energy instead of absorbing it. My skin danced with an electric sheen.
Ceridwen lay on the ground not far off, no spark of essence in her body. I leaned over and felt for a pulse. She was dead again. I stared for a moment, then left her there. She was Dead. She would wake up in the morning as if nothing had happened.
I stalked toward what was left of the Guildhouse. Firefighters wandered through the smoke, empty-handed and helpless, their trucks and gear buried under rubble. Shattered walls rose ghostlike around me. I circled around burning stone to the front entrance. It was gone, nothing left but the fractured remains of the dragon head. The lobby was gone, too, a crater of fire burning where bored receptionists once sat.
Shocked, I fell to my knees. I stared, trying to make sense of what I was seeing—what I was not seeing. Endless piles of stone and fire rose around me. Smoke bled through the filter of my body shield and irritated my eyes. The only sounds were the crackle of fire and the high-pitched beeping of rescue-worker alarms. I don’t know how long I sat there before someone touched my shoulder.
“Connor? Are you all right, buddy?”
I lifted my head, the world asserting itself around me like I was waking from a deep sleep. Murdock stared at me, his face filthy and scratched.
“Yes,” I said.
“Are you sure? You were screaming,” he said.
“She was in the basement,” I said.
Horror etched across his face as he stared into the fire. I got to my feet. “I have to get to the subway,” I said.
“It’s collapsed,” he said, his voice rough.
“I have to get to the subway,” I said.
I wandered out into the square. Haze filled the air. I didn’t remember anything about the walk from Park Square to the Boylston Street T station except stumbling through debris, Murdock beside me like a shadow. Transit workers stood at the entrance, directing people several blocks away to where buses waited. A man stood in front of me as I tried to enter.
“Move,” I said. I didn’t raise my voice, but it sounded odd in my ears. His face went blank, almost ashen, and he stepped aside. Murdock caught my arm as I walked down the stairs where a gate was open to the platform. I didn’t bother using the gap in the fence, but walked onto the tracks and into the tunnel. Smoke trailed along the ceiling. I kept my body shield on until I reached the concrete niche, and we stepped through the glamour.
It was a long, dark walk down the stairs to the tunnel passage. Dim light marked the end, a dull glow of emergency lights. Murdock and I entered the empty office. We stared at dust hanging in air, the computer monitor flickering blue. I went into the outside corridor and froze.
Meryl ran down the hall and into my arms. I hugged her in shocked relief like I had never hugged anyone before. She tilted her face toward mine, surprise coming over her features.
“Holy shit, what happened to your eyes?” she asked.
41
I spun a rack of sunglasses and found a pair of designer knockoffs I liked. They covered the upper half of my face with wide dark lenses but didn’t make me look like I was on a bus tour for retirees. I handed the vendor a few bills. As I pushed back into the crowded lane, someone stared a little too long. Anxiety twinged at me, but I tamped it down. Everyone stared in the Tangle. It was part of the game. People pretended not to notice each other and avoided conversation but cast sidelong glances at anyone near them.
Intermittent pressure pushed at my mind. Despite everything else, scrying still bothered me. My body shield protected me from the pain, but I hadn’t learned to ignore the constant irritation yet.
I reached the end of the stalls and slipped through an essence barrier across a doorway. Silence surrounded me in the empty tunnel. At the exit, another barrier let me through to an outside street. The air held the scent of sea and smoke, but it was fresher than the contained alleyway of the market. I turned the corner onto the main drag of the Tangle and tugged my hat down.
Within a few minutes, Meryl was beside, matching my stride. She paused to examine some apothecary wares at a decrepit stall. The vendor dressed in rags and spoke in broken Welsh. Meryl bartered with him in his dialect until a stone was exchanged for a small bottle containing deep purple leaves. She slipped it in her pocket.
“He doesn’t appear to be a purveyor of fine goods,” I said.
She looked at me from beneath her bangs. “On the contrary, he’s one of my best suppliers. The look and the talk are all bogus. It keeps the fools and timid away.”
I pulled her into the shadow of a boarded-up storefront and kissed her. “I’ve missed you.”
She leaned against me with a smile. “One of these days, Grey, you’ll live somewhere with air freshener and maybe a bed, and I’ll visit more often.”
“I have a bed now,” I said.
She tugged at my jacket. “Something bigger than a twin, please.”
“Any updates from Gillen Yor?” I asked. Three nights ago, I had snuck into Avalon Memorial for an exam. Gillen thought it best to be discreet. I was a wanted criminal again. MacGoren had accused me of complicity in the destruction of the Guildhouse, and Briallen’s denials were falling on deaf ears. I didn’t blame her for anything. It was out of her control. It was out of everyone’s control.
Meryl gazed at the passing crowd. “Gillen thinks you still have the dark mass. There’s something else in there now, a chunk of essence that burns blue. I saw the MRI scan. It looks like a sun in eclipse.”
“It’s the faith stone,” I said.
She gave me a lopsided grin. “Yeah, you have a rock in your head.”
I feigned a pout. “Technically, it’s a gem.”
Meryl tilted her head up. “Take off those glasses.”
I pushed them up on the fold of my knit cap. Meryl’s eyes shifted back and forth as she stared into mine. My irises had crystallized, facets of light blue framed in lines of white. When the light hit them right, flashes of red, yellow, and blue twinkled. They reminded me of the eyes of an Old One, the sign of long life and ancient ability. Only, I didn’t have any ability. The pain of the dark mass was gone, replaced by a cold pulsation. At least my body shield was back—my full body shield. Whatever the faith stone was doing to the dark mass, it was letting me access the shield again. Without other abilities, it was a comfort.
Her smile faded, and she looked away. “Does it hurt?”
I frowned. “Did Gillen say I was dying?”
She dropped her head against my chest. “No, but that doesn’t mean I’m not worried.”
“It doesn’t hurt, at least not the same. I don’t really feel it. It’s like it’s weightless,” I said.
“These things tend to be metaphors for the power they represent. It’s not really a stone. We see what we need to see to make sense of the ineffable. It’s power that was embodied by the stone, but it’s all energy now,” she said.
I hugged her. “I always get nervous when you get religion.”
She giggled. “Nice to know I can make the guy who killed the Elven King nervous.”