Collision: The Alliance Series Book Three (13 page)

I grinned at him. “Ha. I don’t know how you come up with these ideas.”

“The battery life’s shit,” said Jeth. “That’s the one thing we never found a way around with the Chameleons, too.”

“Oh yeah, how’s your computer?”

“Still not responding. Wonder where Nell is?”

“On the moon.” Alber appeared the top of the stairs. “Nah, she’s at the other shelter. She’ll be back soon.”

“I’m heading out later.” I shot a meaningful look at Jeth.

“Hey, I’m not going to stop you,” he said. “You can make your own decisions.”

“You’re not the only person looking out for me.”

Jeth sighed. “I doubt that’s the first thing on his mind.”

“I can guess who you’re talking about,” said Alber. “He finally made a play? Last time at the hover-port, I thought you two were gonna rip each other’s clothes off right there in the back of one of those cars.”

“Please say no more,” I said. “Firstly, we’re meeting friends. Secondly, I don’t need to hear the phrase ‘rip each other’s clothes off’ from my little brother.”

“And
I
don’t need the mental image,” said Jeth. “I’m going to check on my computer.”

“I’m going to change,” I added, climbing the stairs. “Not a word,” I added to Alber.

Nell still hadn’t come back by the time I set off. The lights were off downstairs, so when Jeth appeared from the shadows in the hall, I jumped violently.

“Whoa, only me,” he said. “You’re not heading out alone, are you?”

“No, Kay’s coming to pick me up.” I peeked through the letterbox. I was early, but then, he always arrived dead on time. “I did say you weren’t the only person looking out for me.”

“Yeah, but I’m your family. He doesn’t know you.”

“He knows more about me than I’ve ever told anyone else,” I said. “When are you going to let this go? Kay saved me. Saved Nell, and Alber, too. He got both of us jobs, and he’s the one who stopped the Alliance arresting the people who run the shelters. He’s probably the reason Nell can keep running her business. It came together way too fast to be coincidence.”

“Because he wants to score with you,” said Jeth. “Come on, he might be an Alliance guard, but he’s also a guy. You can’t think it’s never crossed his mind. I don’t want you getting hurt again.”

I shook my head, though I wished he’d give it a rest. Okay, so I’d got close—both physically and emotionally—to a guy a couple of years ago, only for him to back off when it started getting serious. I was usually the one to do the backing-off, because of my once-secret double life sneaking around the Passages and helping Enzarians. So it had kind of hurt. A lot. Still, that was ancient history.

“He already turned me down,” I said pointedly to Jeth.

“Oh.” Jeth blinked. “Well, then he wants to make up for nearly getting us all killed.”

“Jeth,” I said. “He’s not like that. At all. He doesn’t have anything to gain by helping the shelters, but he’s the one who stopped them going under. And he doesn’t have any family. He has no one.”

He sighed again. “All right. I’m here for you whatever, sister.”

The sound of a motorcycle outside. My heart flipped over again.

Yeah. Maybe I needed a reality check.

***

Simon waited for us outside the bar. “Hey, Ada. Did I mention it’s weird to skip time zones through the Passages? Reckon it counts as time travel?”

“Nah, not quite.” Kay appeared to be avoiding my eyes. Seeing as I’d taken the time to dress nicely and put on makeup, it was kind of disappointing.

The general mood in the Blind Wyvern reminded me of a storm about to break. People glared and shouted and argued with the bar staff. And there were more offworlders here than before, I couldn’t help noticing as we ordered drinks and sat at the table closest to the door.

When someone started a fight at the bar, Kay stood up to intervene.

“Don’t bother,” said Simon. “They’ve got it.”

He sat down again, with another glance over his shoulder. “They’re magic-wielders. If the magic level kicks up again, they might set this place on fire.”

“Yeah, but it’s not up now,” said Simon. “It’s not our job, either.”

“The whole reason they’re here is to complain to the Alliance,” said Kay.

So that’s it.
Offworlders would have been the most affected by all the magic-related chaos.

“So they’re hanging out here until Central sorts out their problems?” I asked.

“Same thing’s happening in New York,” said Simon. “When it comes to offworld district, there’s a fifty-fifty chance of running into a brawl on every street. People are easily insulted,” he added. “Earth people who don’t know better will try and pin the blame for anything magic-related on them. Or on the Alliance. And they blame each other, of course. High-magic worlds take the blame usually.”

“Whatever the problem is this time, it’s bigger than our world,” said Kay. “I don’t understand how it could have such a major effect and then just vanish. No warning or anything.”

“Eh, never mind,” said Simon. “We can’t deal with all their problems. Half of them aren’t ours, anyway, they’re Earth people who’ve bought something from offworld without checking the instructions and are looking for someone to blame.”

“Yeah, I’d file those unicorn people into that category,” said Kay, resting his elbows on the table. The scars on his left arm gleamed under the dim light.

“Unicorns?” asked Simon.

“Yeah, a family bought a unicorn thinking it was a fancy breed of horse,” said Kay. “It went apeshit when the magic level rose, and ran off. We had to catch it.”

“Epic,” said Simon, cracking a grin. “I wish I’d seen.”

“They still thought it was a horse,” I said. “Even with the horn.”

“Some people will believe anything,” said Simon.

“Damn right.” Kay looked over his shoulder, where the bar staff had broken up the fight. “They didn’t send you after that griffin?”

“No, I was in the Passages. Had to stop a bunch of teenagers with magic implants going crazy.”

“Magic implants?” I echoed, a chill racing down my spine. I couldn’t help meeting Kay’s eyes then, but his expression didn’t give anything away.

“Yeah,” he said. “Klathica sells temporary enhancements. They’re not supposed to work offworld, but a guy with one almost started a fight yesterday, too.”

“But why would you even want that?” I said. “Magic implants? For what?”

Kay gave an offhand shrug, but by now, I could work out when he was faking casualness. Like whenever anyone mentioned magic. And he’d been on edge since we’d entered the bar.

“Super-speed, super-strength. That kind of thing. I dealt with some people on Klathica a few days ago selling them illegally. They’re temporary, not like regular magic-wielders.”

Not like us
. Magic lived in our skin, a permanent part of us.

“That’s what went wrong in the main Passage yesterday, right?” asked Simon, eying him curiously.

“Yeah. Idiots. Those boosts aren’t even supposed to work if they leave Klathica.”

“Damn,” I said. “There go my plans for becoming a cyborg.” Though I wasn’t overly keen on the idea of any more questionable offworld substances being injected into me.

“It sounds like a cool idea until you set off every scanner or metal detector,” Kay said. “I always wondered why you don’t see many cyber-sorts in Valeria. Their security’s too tight.”

“I’d rather have magic.” Simon grinned at Kay.

“It’s overrated,” said Kay.

Simon glanced at him, then at me. “Yeah, guess it is. Just saying why it’d appeal to other people. Anyway. I’m going to get another drink. You two up for that?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be going back into the Passages in an hour?” said Kay.

“Lighten up,” said Simon. “Ada, you need to get him to chill the hell out every once in a while. Your job isn’t your whole life, you know. Even now.”

“Yeah, but I hear Cethrax is having a pest problem again. They might set you after the latest rat outbreak.”

“They’d better not,” said Simon, with a slight shudder.

“Didn’t you have to deal with that kind of thing at the Academy?” I asked.

“Only in final year,” said Simon. “That was kinda intense. Somebody—” He raised an eyebrow at Kay— “decided to drag us through Cethrax’s swamp.”

“That same someone saved all our asses,” said Kay.

Simon leaned back, rolling his eyes at him. “Lunatic.”

A spark shot over our heads. Kay spun around and I immediately spotted the source of his attention. Markos the centaur stood in the middle of the floor, facing off against Evan, a guy around my age I vaguely recognised from the admin department as one of the asshats who’d found it amusing when I’d been arrested. The two squared up to one another, while everyone in the vicinity edged as far away from the centaur as possible. Markos’s back feet kicked up.

“The door,” said Markos, “is right there. If you’d like a close-up view, I’d be more than happy to arrange it.”

Evan took a couple of steps towards him, hands curling into fists.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” said Kay.

“My money’s on the centaur,” said Simon.

“Not helping!” I shot an alarmed look at Kay. As I predicted, he moved in their direction.

“Get out of here,” said Evan. “You’re not welcome.”

“I’ve been here longer than you have,” Markos said to Evan. “And I have impeccable sense in style, which is more than I can say for you. Get out.”

“Like hell. You and your offworlder sorts are who screwed up the magic here on Earth.”

“Evan,” Kay said, warningly. “I wouldn’t do something you’ll regret.”

“Stay out of this, magic-wielder,” Evan spat, anger twisting his face.

Oh shit. They knew each other, all right.

The gathered crowd muttered amongst themselves, and more than a few had left the pub.

“Tell him to leave,” someone said.

“Shouldn’t let their sort into here.”

Centaur and human both turned on the crowd. And then Kay moved between them.

“Hold it,” he said. “Who started it?”

Nobody answered. Evan glared at both Kay and Markos, while the centaur’s expression could have frozen everyone on the spot.

Kay, however, looked unimpressed. “Either leave or stop arguing. Simple enough.”

The centaur tapped a hoof, accidentally knocking several glasses over with his tail. “I was minding my own business until
he
started making personal comments.”

Kay glared at the novice. To Markos, he said, “He’s trying to wind you up. Leave it.”

“It’s a little too late for that, human,” said the centaur, then looked around at the audience, which kept a safe distance from him. “But it seems I have outstayed my welcome.”

He swept around and left, tail swishing. Evan dusted himself off with a rather self-satisfied expression on his face.

“Don’t think you’ve won this,” Kay said to him. “You’ll be lucky to have a job by the end of the week.”

Without giving the novice the chance to reply, he re-joined us.

“So some things haven’t changed,” Simon said, with a glance at Evan. “Jesus. He’s still being an asshole, then?”

“You know each other?” I asked.

“Yeah, he was one of Aric’s cronies,” said Kay, crouching to carefully move a piece of broken glass away from the nearest table. His aura of
don’t mess with me
was so potent everyone edged away from him even though he hadn’t used magic. The scars on his arm were warning enough.

“He’s right about one thing, though. Magic
is
changing on Earth. I just wish I knew why.”

I looked past him, at the worried crowd, the bar staff picking up more pieces of broken glass. “Me, too,” I said.

CHAPTER SEVEN

KAY

There was a decidedly edgy atmosphere in Office Fifteen the following day. Evan scuttled around, shooting wary looks at Markos, who I gathered had ‘accidentally’ shoved him into the front doors of Central. And more reports were coming in from all over Earth of yet more magic-related disasters as the level kept rising and falling.

With no instructions, I returned to pacing the back of the office, and I sent a quick message to Simon: “Any more giant rats?”

Simon messaged me back telling me where to shove it. When we’d left the Blind Wyvern last night, he’d met the other New York Alliance members and gone back to the Passages. I’d got a message yelling at me about giant rat-creatures crawling up from the lower Passage again. Apparently, Cethrax was having issues. Like the Alliance needed anything else to worry about.

Right now, we were stuck in the office while Ms Weston tried to get in touch with Vey-Xanetha again. From what I gathered, they had some kind of computer at their base, but were having ‘technical difficulties’. They weren’t the only ones.