The Thief (34 page)

She pushes him away, aghast and trembling.
“Simon!”

“
Everything that’s
happening,” Simon states, focused on me, “is your fault. I want you
to remember, when you look at the ruin I’m going to make of your
life, that
you ruined mine
first.”

“
Simon - ” I protest, but
the windows by the doors begin to melt, the glass peeling away and
twisting into jagged shapes that hang in the air. They float around
him, an airborne barrier of crystalline knives.

“
Has my mother told you
where my father’s mirror is, yet?” he asks, advancing. “His
masterwork. The one that goes In Between.” The glass knives twirl
around him. “Give me the mirror and maybe I’ll go
quietly.”

I back up, an arm out to shield Charlotte.
Good god, she’s carrying his child, is he insane? I reach for the
part of me that keeps my students in check, but it’s unchanged. The
same ever-present heaviness I’ve felt since I was small. The
heaviness that had unknowingly kept Simon from his true strength -
from the part of him that had no place on this side of the
mirror.

He chuckles at my confusion.
“I’ve been building up an immunity to undisciplined
Tailors
for years,” he
snarls, saying the name like a curse. “You’ll need better training
if you want to compete with the likes of me. Now let’s see,” he
says, withdrawing a handmirror rimmed in silver vines from the
interior of his coat. “Where is your lovely daughter?”

Jul

My mouth was cool as Gabriel suddenly took
his hand away, reaching inside his jacket. He pulled out a vial and
hurled it over the banister. It shattered on the floor at my fa- at
Simon’s feet, furling sickly yellow smoke. The three of them
coughed, collapsing unconscious. Simon’s glass barrier clattered
lifeless to the floor.

“
Was that a spell?” I
asked.

“
Or science,” he said.
“Depends on who you ask. I doubt when Charlotte gave it to me that
she expected she’d be on the receiving end,” he said, descending
the stairs swiftly.

I followed, my steps tentative.

“
I’ll have that back...”
Gabriel picked up the handmirror from Simon’s grip and tucked it
inside his own jacket. Then he pulled a small scroll of paper from
another interior pocket. He put it in Tailor’s hand, curling his
slack fingers around it.

“
If only that were
enough...” he murmured.

I looked down at the two men
on the ground. Even unconscious, Dad - Simon - looked haunted, hand
outstretched for something that wasn’t there. Tailor’s glasses had
slid down his nose, showing long eyelashes that I’d seen in my own
mirror. So he really hadn’t known, after all. So I was a mistake
he’d made.
Born of absolute power and
nothingness.
What had Dad meant by
that?

“
You said you wanted to help
Camille,” Gabriel said, looking toward the hall that led to the
gymnasium. She’d be in there now, warming up for the exhibition
match. “How far are you willing to go?”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
She is the Wolf,” he said,
and I gasped. “The one Meredith has come to destroy. But we can’t
use the Tailor’s Sword on Meredith without exposing Camille to the
full brunt of her own powers. She would be lost. There is, however,
another way to neutralize Meredith,” he said, his black hair
swinging around his face as he turned to me sharply. “I wasn’t
quite sure how to reach it, until just now. A weapon, hidden inside
a mirror. I think you know the one I mean. We have to get there
before Simon. Camille will never be safe as long as Meredith runs
loose - and no one will be safe if Simon claims that
mirror.”

Bea had said never to show anyone that
mirror. But if Simon wasn’t my father, then Bea wasn’t my
grandmother. Not really. My heart constricted. What did I owe her,
really? Maybe she’d vowed to hide it, but saving my friend was more
important than some dusty old promise.

Guilt flared up like a warning sign. Bea had
helped me. Helped all of us, even Camille, despite her distrust of
Gabriel. But the thought of Meredith reaching Camille...of finding
her a pile of ashes, when I could have saved her...

“
It’s just finding a
weapon?” I asked.

“
In and out,” Gabriel said.
“No need to be In Between any longer than we have to.” He seemed
nervous, somehow. Reluctant. It sealed my decision.

“
Okay,” I said, looking down
at Tailor. “For Camille.”

“
Lead the way,” Gabriel
said.

The monster to end all
monsters
, Dad had said. That was just his
jealousy talking...right?

The sky was bright over Bea’s house as
Gabriel pulled his weathered car into the driveway. Smoke billowed
up from the chimney, and bursts of flame spit up, threatening to
catch the roof.

“
What on earth...?” I
wondered.

“
So it’s here after all,”
Gabriel said grimly. “I was so sure it was at the school. I
underestimated her paranoia.”

“
What’s here?”

“
Beatrix thinks she can
contain the uncontainable,” he said. “Hurry, we need to rectify her
mistake before the house goes up in flames.” He exited the car
swiftly. I followed, and we entered the house.

He immediately made for the tearoom,
inspecting the wall with the bookshelves. “There used to be a door
to the basement here,” he said, pulling books out of the way. His
eyes caught on the chesspiece bookend. “The queen, is it?” He
twisted it, and there was a grinding sound as the shelf slid back.
He made an appreciative noise, looking at the steps that appeared
at his feet. “She’s been quite busy in the last decade,” he
said.

The computer monitor showed a figure
wreathed in fire in a room made of stone.

“
Clever girl,” Gabriel said,
staring at the screen. “Clever, and also very stupid.”

He picked up a headset and put it on.
“Meredith?” he called. “Meredith, can you hear me?”

The flames dwindled, leaving the image much
darker. A bedraggled woman in charred, stained leather looked up
curiously.

“
Who’s there?” she
demanded.

Gabriel cast me a brief look and answered,
“An old friend. Give me a moment and I’ll have you out of
there.”

“
Let her out?” I exclaimed.
“Are you crazy?”

“
Look at her,” he said,
setting down the headset. “Do you see those walls?” The marble
slabs that formed her prison still glowed from the firestorm she’d
been brewing moments ago. The smoldering stubs of what used to be
cage bars dotted the floor around her. “Your grandmother is clever,
but she doesn’t know Meredith like I do. The prison is already
melting, if the roof doesn’t catch first. The stone will keep her
at bay for maybe another hour, and when she gets out... Have you
ever seen hellfire with a temper?” He descended the steps swiftly,
and I followed.

“
You said she wants to kill
Camille,” I said. “How does letting her out help
anything?”

“
Your house will remain
intact, for one. I can direct her where I want her to go, for
another. I’ve got a much better temporary solution lined up, one
that if executed properly, will prevent her from harming Camille
for the near future. And while that’s in place, you and I can
unearth a permanent solution In Between.”

At the base of the steps was a heavy stone
door, and a keypad recessed into the wall. Gabriel approached it,
inspecting its design.

“
Five letters...oh,
Beatrix,” he chuckled. He punched a code into the keypad.
SOREN.
“Paranoid, but
sentimental,” he said, and pressed enter. A noise of denial came
from the pad. Blinking in surprise, Gabriel glanced back at the
chesspiece that had opened the door and immediately punched
in
GAVIN.
The
light turned green.

“
How did you know that?” I
asked. “Who’s Gavin?”

“
Ask me later,” he said.
“You might want to go hide somewhere.”

I swallowed, remembering her grip on me at
the lumbermill. “I - I don’t think she can hurt me.”

His mouth twisted. “Lucky you,” he said, and
pushed the door open.

“
There he is,” Meredith
grinned, stepping around the molten pillars. Smoke rose from her
leather attire. “Hey, handsome. Delivering my Wolf at last? I had a
feeling about this one - ”

“
It’s not her,” Gabriel
said, pushing me behind him. “She’s a Null, or couldn’t you
tell?”

“
What’s a Null?” She quirked
an eyebrow.

Gabriel waved a hand in annoyance. “You
forgot. Never mind. The point is, I found it for you.”

“
And here I thought you’d
never come through,” she grinned.

With a glance at me, he stepped forward and
whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widened, and then she
laughed. “No wonder,” she said. “Those Uminos are always a pain in
the ass. It’s like their whole purpose is to piss me off.”

“
Not their whole purpose,”
Gabriel says, stepping back.

“
Well, hopefully next time I
see you, I won’t remember I owe you one,” she said. “Sure you don’t
want a good-bye kiss?”

“
I’ll pass on the burns,
thanks,” Gabriel said.

“
Too bad, too bad,” she
laughed, striding out the door.

I watched her go, apprehensive. “Are you
really sure that was the right thing to do?”

“
Sloppy, last minute
execution, perhaps. A risk, I won’t deny. Nothing here is ideal,
but it’s going to work out in the end,” he said. “Well, as long as
Tailor figures out his present.”

Chapter 19

Mac

“
Oh no...oh no, Mac, look,”
Destin says, nodding at the front of the gym.

I turn; there’s Meredith, scanning the room
intently. I turn around, hoping she won’t spot us easily from the
back.

“
What’s she doing here?” I
say in hushed panic. “Did she burn down the house? I mean, that
fast? That was like three feet of solid granite!”

“
We don’t know what she’s
capable of,” Destin points out.

“
Ok, what do we do, what do
we do?”

“
We’ve got to get Camille
out of here,” Destin says.

“
Alright, you get little red
riding hoodie and I’ll get the big flaming wolf,” I say.

“
She’s gonna torch you,
man,” Destin warns.

“
Just get going!” I say,
pushing him towards the dojo where Camille will be warming up. She
and Hyde are supposed to have an exhibition match any minute
now.

I move towards the front of the room,
dodging between clusters of people admiring the science exhibits.
Meredith couldn’t look more out of place, clad exclusively in
stained brown leather, tangled hair sticking out every which way.
People instinctively shy away from her, but she seems to take no
notice. Her eyes land on the most official-looking person in the
room.

I have to do something before this gets
really out of hand. I check on Destin’s progress but he hasn’t even
made it to the dojo yet, caught in a cluster of families.

Meredith marches up to Principal Umino,
who’s preoccupied with conversation she’s having with a
bored-looking man in a suit.

“
You can assure Ms.
Sorvari,” Umino was saying, “that her son recieves the utmost
consideration, and has been scoring some of the highest marks we’ve
ever seen.”

“
And where is Rhys?” the man
asked.

“
He was just here, I saw him
only a moment ago - ”

“
Hallo, I’m Meredith,” the
British woman interrupts with a grin. “Let’s have the Wolf, then,
shall we?”

“
Excuse me?” Umino says,
regarding her like a ripe bag of garbage.

I check on Destin again. He’s with Camille,
but Hayley seems to be arguing with them about something. When will
my stupid sister get a clue and leave us alone?

“
Tell me where he is,”
Meredith says in sing-song, “or I burn this school to the
ground.”

“
Pardon me,” the man says,
leaving swiftly. Now there’s someone with brain cells.

The principal continues to look at her with
disdain. “We have no...wolves...here,” she says. “And pretending to
be the Ender is not amusing.”

Meredith grins. “Everyone’s a critic.”

She flings out her hand, and a fireball
crashes into the banner overhead. People start screaming.

“
Am I amusing yet?” Meredith
asks.

Umino backs away from her, eyes wide.
“You’re not...you can’t be...”

Suddenly Hyde is here, dressed in his gi.
Something catches fire and he goes looking for the source?

“
What’s your problem, lady?”
he demands.

“
Hyde, remove her from the
premises!” Umino commands, backing away, voice pitched a shade too
high.

“
Get out of here!” I shout
at him. “She’s insane!”

Meredith is looking between me and the
principal, interest piqued by my involvement. “Too late to help
your buddy, munchkin,” she grins at me. “A little birdie told me
all about it.”

“
He’s not my buddy,” Hyde
snarls.