Read Collision: The Alliance Series Book Three Online
Authors: Emma L. Adams
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
She smiled, moving closer into my arms. “I thought I might be dreaming. It’d be a lot nicer than my usual dreams.”
“Hmm.” I closed my eyes for a brief moment. I’d lucked out and snatched a handful of hours’ sleep before my subconscious had decided to replay the moment when lightning had pierced the sky and I’d almost lost her. A dozen bruises from the fight reminded me of their presence, but it could have been much worse. We’d been lucky. Really lucky.
And yet, I swore I’d overlooked something crucial. I checked the time on my communicator. Six a.m. We didn’t have to be in work for a couple of hours, but I grabbed my clothes.
“What are you thinking?” asked Ada, as I started to pace the room. “You’re trying to figure out who had control over that doorway, aren’t you?”
“How’d you guess?”
“Because you can’t stand not being able to solve a problem.”
I had to smile. “I suppose. Come on, though. I can’t believe the dragon just let that one slide.”
“We did drop a bombshell on her,” said Ada. “Hope the council listens. This is… big.”
Yeah. Obviously, there was a force bigger even than Veyak and Cethrax at play—but
what,
I had no idea. I just couldn’t conceive of anything powerful enough to subdue one of Cethrax’s leaders.
“Damn right.” I shrugged my jacket on. “To open a doorway, you need a world-key, whatever that’s made of. So they must have had a magic source on the other side. I suppose it might have been those chains, but if they’d been adamantine, you wouldn’t have been able to break them.”
“
We,”
she corrected. “I couldn’t have done it without an amplifier.”
“Hey, I have to be useful in some way.” But the situation bugged me. Cethrax hadn’t been making trouble. They’d been… what? Had they opened the doors, or someone else? More to the point, to move between worlds, there was usually only one place to go. The Passages. And the Alliance watched every inch of the place, even with the chaos happening now. They’d have noticed high-magic creatures travelling through, like these ‘masters’ supposedly were.
“This doesn’t add up,” I muttered. “Doorways. They’d
need
Passage access for their plan to work.”
“Huh?”
“To get to Cethrax,” I said. “The Passages
are
the only legal way. The Alliance might not understand everything about magic, but that’s not just a truth, it’s a goddamned principle. And they watch every single inch of the place…”
“God,” she breathed. “I’m such an idiot. I didn’t realise–I should have known. I think I know how they did it.”
Wait. “You don’t think–”
“The hidden Passage,” she whispered. “New doorways to Cethrax open in there all the time.”
“Shit,” I said. “You’re right.” Why had it slipped my mind? “You didn’t see anything…?”
“Apart from the monsters?” She gave a shaky laugh. “No. But I can’t think of anything else. And they said magic was leaking out onto Earth from somewhere. We left the door near my old house open, didn’t we? When we used it to find Alber.”
I shook my head. “No, I closed it.”
“But it isn’t under extra security like the others,” she said, hitting herself in the forehead with her palm. “Dammit. Why didn’t I think of that before? The hidden Passage is right near Cethrax.
And
one of the hidden staircases is near the door to Vey-Xanetha.”
Hell. Could she be right?
“I suppose we can check,” I said.
“It’d be the obvious place to hide,” she said. “Even we didn’t know all the paths. I never checked… Oh, God, Kay, I totally forgot–some of the pathways are invisible to non-magic-wielders. Like the shielding they put on the stairs to the upper level, but stronger.”
I stared. “What? Are you sure?” Stupid question. But I’d never even considered it. The hidden Passage had been taken out of my hands once I’d made my report following Ada’s escape from custody, and aside from when we’d used it in an emergency, it honestly hadn’t crossed my mind since.
“Yeah.” She shifted from one foot to the other. “I didn’t think. I mean, no one asked me about it when I joined the Alliance, and I forgot how few magic-wielders there were at Central–on Earth.”
Which meant there was a high chance no magic-wielders had even been near the area. Carl would have mentioned it if he had, and none of the other magic-wielders had been guards, unless you counted Aric…
“If it’s true, it’ll have to be closed.” Something didn’t quite add up, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. “All right. I’ll check it later.”
“
We’ll
check it,” she said, sternly, and then grinned. It was almost enough to make me give up on the whole idea and stay with her all day instead. I could get on board with that plan. Unfortunately, we had to be at work, to file written reports on the Vey-Xanethan fiasco. I wouldn’t mind a quick detour into the Passages.
***
The shortcut was easy to find, and no one saw us–we were invisible, just in case, but we’d picked a time during guard changeover so there was nobody inside Central’s Passage entrance. We climbed down the hidden staircase.
Just a look
.
I stopped.
No way.
Facing the stairs was a door, one which hadn’t been there before. Magic buzzed in the air, almost tangibly. No way it came from Cethrax. I switched off the invisibility.
“Cethrax played us for fools,” I said, unable to take my eyes off the door. “They must have known London’s Alliance would cover up a hidden Passage and keep it a secret from the other Alliance members. It makes them look bad for not knowing it existed.”
“The bloody idiots,” said Ada, staring, too. “How do we close this one?”
“I’ll call someone,” I said. “Get hold of a world-key or whatever they use to close doors in here. You run and fetch the nearest guards, I’ll make sure the door stays shut.”
Ada hesitated, biting her lip. “All right.”
Crash.
The door cracked apart before our eyes like something heavy had struck it down the middle. Another crack appeared, widening by the second—and a group of figures pushed their way through the remains of the door. Human-like figures. I took in the details while my brain struggled to catch up—their greyish skin had an odd, marbled cast under the cotton-like garments they wore, and all were bald, though half the group were female. Six in total, and more waiting behind the door, blocking whichever world lay on the other side.
“That was more dramatic than I expected,” one of them said. In English.
I backed up, pulling out my dagger.
Who are these people? They’re not from Cethrax!
Nor did they belong to any other world I’d recognise.
“You are not the one we want,” said the first man who’d spoken. “We have come for the girl. The girl they say is unbreakable.” He looked at Ada with flat black eyes gleaming. “This is she?”
“Who in the Multiverse are you?” I demanded.
Don’t you look at her.
“Yes,” said one of the females. “This is Adamantine.”
“You’re not taking me anywhere.” Ada crossed her arms in a familiar gesture, ready to draw her weapon at a second’s notice. “Who even are you?”
“We are Stoneskin,” said the leader, baring his teeth in a wide smile. “And it was you who set our prisoner free.”
These
were the ones who’d imprisoned the Vox?
Impossible.
“You enslaved Veyak?” Ada’s hand rested on her dagger in its sheath.
“Veyak was bound to the same chains we used on the Vox. You’ll have plenty of time to question our master, Adamantine.”
“What part of
I’m not coming with you
do you not get?” said Ada. “You almost destroyed the Multiverse.” But her voice shook. How did it know her real name? I’d thought only her family knew.
This is wrong.
“You will help us, Adamantine. We are unbreakable, like you.”
“Like hell.” Screw caution. I let magic flow into my palm, striking him with a second level shot. The magic dissipated as it touched his skin, and I followed it up with a punch that he blocked. Pain jarred my wrist, throbbing like I’d hit a wall, not a person. Ada was already using her communicator, calling for backup.
“Don’t try it,” said another, moving towards Ada. I blocked the way and agony exploded across my vision as my head connected with something as hard as concrete. My eyes widened, reactions slowing down–until I saw three of them held Ada between them. She struggled and kicked and screamed as the side of her hand struck one of their heads.
I raised my arm to block the strike of another attacker. Something cracked in my wrist and I clenched my teeth against the pain. They weren’t human…
Stoneskin. They’re made of adamantine.
But they were taking Ada. Disconnected thoughts jarred against one another in my head, but that one notion obliterated all others, and I ran through the doorway.
Jungle surrounded us in an instant. Vey-Xanetha? They were using Vey-Xanetha as a doorway? I shook off the dizziness and ran after them.
A Stoneskin challenged me, stony teeth bared in a grin. I went for my dagger, ignoring the pain, and brought it in a stroke across its neck. The enemy didn’t even try to block—but the blade shattered in my hands like cheap glass.
A roaring rose in my ears, insistent, powerful.
Ada.
The three dragged her between them, and two more barred my path. I had no weapon. Only magic. And another doorway lay open a few feet away. I couldn’t see the world on the other side—
Pain exploded all over my body as a dozen steel punches hit, all at once. My head snapped back, vision blurring even as I knew magic wouldn’t help.
They’re not human.
The thought drifted through my mind, the world breaking into fragments. Somehow I was on the ground. A foot stamped on my hand and I felt the bones shatter.
Ada.
No.
The edges of the world fell away into blackness like an opening chasm, and the last thing I saw was the sliver of the door closing.
The doorway had closed. And she was gone.
Thank you for reading!
I hope you enjoyed
Collision.
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The Alliance Series
Delinquent: An Alliance Novella
About the Author
Emma is the author of various fantasy novels, including the universe-hopping Alliance series, the Darkworld series, and the Indestructible trilogy
.
Having spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing speculative fiction with magic and monsters. She lives in the middle of England, but dreams of exploring the Multiverse. When she's not immersed in her own fictional worlds, Emma works as a freelance editor and proofreader and reads an improbable number of books.
You can find Emma in the following places:
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Acknowledgments
Thank you to everyone who supported me while writing the eleven (!) drafts of this book. This was a tough one, and I’m grateful to my beta readers and critique partners for pointing me in the right direction and giving spot-on advice! Thank you to Cole, Laura and Jess!
Thank you to Amalia Chitulescu, for your stunning work on the cover art for the Alliance series.
As always, thanks to my friends and family, and to everyone supporting my writing. In a career built on dreams, one kind word on a bad day can make all the difference.
Thanks to my street team for your continual support of the Alliance series, and to everyone who’s following Ada and Kay’s adventures. :)