Only when we reached Holborn did we start making turns. I took the opportunity to glance out of the side windows, trying to see if Colin was following. I saw the headlights of other cars, but between the darkness and the tinted windows I couldn’t tell whether any of them was his.

  It was only when I caught a glimpse of barred white-and-black walls and peaked roofs that something stirred in my memory. But before I could get a closer look, the van turned off the street. Through the windscreen I saw a yellow traffic barrier rising, then the car tilted downward and we were driving down a ramp through a tunnel with concrete walls.

  We came out into an underground parking garage. Diesel pulled the van into one of the parking spaces and switched off the engine. Scar slid back the side door and got out. I followed him and looked around.

  The garage was big and bleak, all grey concrete and straight lines. White paint on the floor marked out parking spaces, but few were occupied. There were only two ways out: the ramp that we’d come in by, and a single small door at the far end, with a green glowing EXIT sign.

  Scar had taken out his phone; he’d dialled a number, and as I watched, he put the phone to his ear, waiting for an answer while he kept an eye on me. Diesel was getting out of the other side of the van. Something was tickling at my senses. I focused on my essentia sight—

  Light surged out at me. There was a Light Well, above us and in the direction of that door, massively powerful. More than that, it was familiar. Where had I—

  And then in a flash I put it together. We were under the Well in Chancery Lane, the same one that I’d found back in April, and the Well that Bridget had told me Calhoun had been put in charge of. All of a sudden I understood exactly why I’d been brought here.

  “We’re here,” Scar said into his phone, then waited for a reply. “Yeah . . . Okay.” He hung up and turned to me. “Let’s go.”

  “No,” I told him.

  “I wasn’t asking.”

  “You’re going to raid this Well and blame it on me,” I told Scar. “Aren’t you?”

  Scar’s expression didn’t change, but from his lack of reaction I knew instantly that I was right. It had never made sense that they’d want me to do a job. Anything the Ashfords could want, they could find someone who could do it better than I could.

  Except if the “job” was to be the fall guy. Then forcing me into it made perfect sense.

  “In there,” Scar said, nodding towards the door with the EXIT sign.

  “What, so I’ll show up on the security cameras?”

  “We don’t have time for this shit,” Diesel said angrily. “Just beat his arse and throw him in.”

  I glanced from Scar to Diesel, measuring distances. Scar was about three strides away, Diesel next to the van. Whichever one I didn’t target would be free to go after me.

  Okay, I decided. Let’s do this. I felt adrenaline start to race through my body.

  “Listen, kid,” Scar told me. “One way or another, you’re going through that door. You can do it the easy way, or . . .” Scar tailed off with a frown, his eyes shifting past me as a soft, rapid pattering echoed through the garage.

  I turned.

  A grey blur came racing down the ramp and then shot like an arrow towards Diesel. I had just enough time to see the glow of the enhancement sigl before Hobbes leapt onto Diesel with a banshee yowl.

  Diesel yelled, staggering back. Hobbes had latched on to Diesel’s leg, his feet going like four tiny buzz saws, and Diesel tried unsuccessfully to kick him off before grabbing at him. But by that point I’d sent a beam from my haywire sigl right into Diesel’s chest.

  All the work I’d put into that sigl—from injuring myself to learning what I’d done wrong to turning that same mistake into a weapon to be used against someone else—paid off in that moment. As my beam touched the Life sigl on Diesel’s chest, the regulator in the sigl shut down and the essentia flowing into his body surged out of control. Diesel’s grasping hand missed Hobbes and he tried again, but overcorrected with a jerk. I saw his eyes go wide in pain and knew he’d probably just torn half a dozen muscles; his leg went out from under him, and he went down with a crash.

  I caught a flicker of movement at the corner of my eye and turned to see Scar grabbing for me. I dodged, but his fingers caught my sleeve and yanked, trying to pull me in. Instead of fighting it I went with the pull, and in the split second before I crashed into him, I triggered my flash sigl.

  Light exploded and Scar swore, blinded. We bounced off each other, but Scar kept his grip on my sleeve; I twisted around and used my slam sigl, hammer blows of compressed air smashing into Scar’s head. Scar took five hits from my slam sigl, shrugged them all off, then punched me in the chest.

  It felt like being kicked by a horse. The impact drove the breath from my body and sent me to my knees; grey specks swam in my vision but I managed to stay conscious. Scar scrubbed at his face with his free hand, blinking, but as he turned his eyes angrily down towards me I triggered another flash burst right in his face.

  Scar shouted and this time he let me go. I fell to the concrete, did a backwards roll, then came up with my haywire sigl levelled and hit Scar with it at full power.

  The effect was more dramatic this time. Scar had just been straightening up; as the sigl on his chest went wild, he overbalanced and went over backwards. His head hit the concrete with a crack and he lay stunned.

  I turned on Diesel, only to find him curled into a ball and staying very still. Hobbes was prowling around him, tail swishing; every time Diesel made a move, Hobbes would spring forward, claws out and ready to slash until Diesel froze again. Looking around, I saw that I was the only one left standing. The fight was over.

  “Guess this was the hard way,” I said to no one in particular.

  Hobbes made a guttural, threatening noise.

  The sound of running footsteps made me look towards the ramp just in time to see Colin come jogging around the corner and skid to a stop. He looked at me, then down at Scar, Diesel, and Hobbes.

  “Nice of you to show up,” I told Colin.

  Colin stared at the men on the ground, then at me. “Dude. What the hell?”

  I took a last glance to make sure that Scar and Diesel weren’t getting up, then walked to the van to try to fetch Hobbes. “Okay, first, thanks for following me,” I told Colin. “Second, why is Hobbes out of his cat carrier?”

  “Because he ripped it open!” Colin said. “Then as soon as I opened the door, he took off like a guided missile. What have you been feeding him?”

  “Long story . . . Okay, Hobbes? Hobbes! Come on. You’ve won. Let’s go.” I tried to pick Hobbes up and the cat hopped away, circling Diesel with a baleful stare. He ignored Scar completely.

  Well, if nothing else, now I know which of them did it. Diesel’s gun was lying on the floor a little way away. He wasn’t going for it, but I kicked it under the minivan just to be sure.

  “Is it safe for us to be here?” Colin asked.

  “No.”

  Colin looked at Diesel and Scar. “Did you actually take these guys down by yourself?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “Conspiracy bullshit, remember? Hobbes, come on.”

  Hobbes gave Diesel a threatening yowl . . . then stopped. His head snapped around and he looked towards the ramp, his ears flattening and his tail curling back between his legs. Then without a backward glance, he fled across the garage, disappearing under a car at the far side.

  I looked at Hobbes, then back at the ramp. The garage was silent.

  “I think we should go,” I told Colin, and started walking quickly after Hobbes.

  “Go where? Hey, wait up.” Colin jogged to catch up with me. “Why—”

  “Shh!”

  I could see Hobbes’s yellow eyes shining from beneath the car. He looked scared, and just as I noticed that, I heard the distant sound of footsteps from the direction of the ramp.

  Colin opened his mouth to say something and I put a finger to my lips. I grabbed him by the arm, dragged him around behind the car, and pulled him down with me so that we were both out of sight. Then I poked my head up to look through the windows of the car.

  Two people came walking down the ramp into the parking garage, a man and a woman. The woman was shorter, and even at this distance I recognised her instantly: Lucella. Her eyes came to rest on Scar and Diesel, and I saw her frown.

  But it was the man beside Lucella who caught my attention. He wore a black suit with a flat-brimmed hat tilted down to hide his eyes and had long blond hair that fell down his back in a braid. His clothes on their own would have been strange, but something about him made me pause.

  I felt something push against my leg and looked down to see Hobbes pressed against me. His eyes were fixed on the man in the hat, and his ears were flat against his skull. I looked from Hobbes to the man.

  “Hey,” Lucella called, her voice echoing through the garage. She stalked over to Diesel and gave him a kick. “What are you doing, taking a nap?”

  “Who is it?” Colin whispered from beside me.

  “Trouble,” I whispered. “Stay quiet.”

  “You said he was here,” Lucella was saying. “So where is he?”

  Diesel mumbled something.

  Lucella’s voice rose dangerously. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  Mumble.

  “A hellcat? Are you high? You just called me five minutes ago and told me—”

  The man in the black hat spoke. “Do we have a problem?”

  “No,” Lucella said, glancing quickly at Black Hat. “No problem.” She bent down and carried out a quick whispered conversation with Diesel.

  Beside me, I felt Colin trying to lift himself up for a better view. I put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

  Lucella finished with Diesel, then turned to face Black Hat and took a breath. “They lost him.”

  Black Hat looked back at her. “They lost him.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And how did that happen?”

  “Because they’re idiots!”

  “If you thought they were idiots,” Black Hat said mildly, “why did you give them the job?”

  Lucella shot Black Hat a look, then kicked Diesel again. “Get that useless piece of shit on his feet and find him!”

  Diesel scrambled to his feet, jogged over to where Scar was stirring, and pulled Scar up. The two of them began to look around the garage.

  I spoke quietly in Colin’s ear. “I’m going to hide us. Stay quiet and don’t move.”

  Lucella had stepped next to Black Hat and the two of them were arguing, their voices too low for me to overhear. Scar and Diesel split up and began to search, Diesel limping in our direction.

  The garage was big but open; as soon as Diesel got around to this side of the car, we’d be in clear view. I leant in close to Colin, slipped on my headband, and activated my vision and diffraction sigls.

  The world went blue. I felt Colin go stiff; I put my hand on his shoulder and gave it a warning squeeze, then poured as much essentia into my diffraction field as I could. If I’d judged it right, it should be just barely enough to cover us and Hobbes.

  Diesel came into view. I froze, holding my breath as I focused on keeping the light-bending field smooth and steady. Diesel’s eyes swept over us . . .

  . . . and moved on. He turned and limped away.

  I heard Scar say something and Lucella replied, her voice loud and angry. “We just came from there, you meathead! You had one job! One! Job!”

  Scar started to answer but was cut off by the scrape of a door. Both he and Diesel turned towards the door with the “EXIT” sign just in time to see a boy step through and start walking across the concrete. It was . . .

  . . . Tobias?

  I held very still, trusting to my invisibility field. What the hell was going on?

  “Hey,” Tobias called.

  I saw Lucella roll her eyes to the ceiling. “Oh, for God’s sake.”

  Tobias marched across the garage, coming to a stop a little distance from Lucella. He gestured at Diesel and Scar. “You have something you want to tell me?”

  “Hello, cousin dear,” Lucella said. “Everything ready?”

  Tobias looked from Diesel to Scar. “Why do they look like they’ve been in a fight?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  Tobias stared at Lucella. “Did you have them kidnap Stephen?”

  “No.”

  Tobias kept staring at Lucella for three seconds, then took a deep breath. “Are you serious?”

  Lucella sighed. “Here we go again.”

  “We talked about this! As few people as possible, remember?”

  “Oh, get real,” Lucella told him. “You really thought Charles was going to say ‘oh well’ and forget the whole thing? No, he’s going to go fucking ballistic. Someone is paying for this, and it’s not going to be me.”

  “It didn’t have to be him, either!”

  “What’s the matter?” Lucella said with a smile. “Feeling guilty?”

  “We had a plan,” Tobias said tightly.

  “Yeah, and it was a stupid plan, so I changed it.”

  Tobias looked from Scar to Diesel, who both seemed to be trying unsuccessfully to fade into the background. “Where is he?”

  Lucella scowled. “I don’t know, ask Holmes and Watson over here.”

  “Are you telling me you lost him?”

  “Fascinating as this little family drama is,” Black Hat interrupted, “I’m going to have to ask that you put it on hold. Lucella, I assume this is the one you were telling me about?”

  Lucella shot Tobias a dirty look, then took a breath. “Yes. My cousin.” She gestured to Black Hat. “This is my . . . friend.”

  Tobias looked at Black Hat. “Friend.”

  “You’ve been wanting to meet him,” Lucella said. “Well, here you go.” She stepped back. “Enjoy.”

  Tobias gave Lucella a long look, then turned to Black Hat. “Nice to meet you, uh . . . ?”

  “You can call me Byron,” the man said, his mouth curving in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “And what can I do for you, Lucella’s cousin?”

  Tobias took a deep breath. “I want in.”

  “To what?”

  “You know what.”

  “That all depends on what you think you’re getting into,” Byron said with a raised eyebrow. “I’m more curious as to why you’re interested.”

  “Lucella met you two or three years ago, right?” Tobias said. “Through one of the other girls at King’s. That was when she started acting differently. She stopped acting scared of Charles, and she started ordering other people in the family around. And they’d do what she told them. It was like she had some new sigl that could control people.”

  I glanced sideways at Lucella. She was watching Tobias without expression.

  “And?” Byron asked.

  “And you can’t do that,” Tobias said. “I checked, and there’s no such thing as a ‘mind control sigl.’ There are a few Life sigls that can do bio-emotion control, but nothing like what she did. I asked three different experts and they all told me it was impossible.”

  “Perhaps you were asking the wrong experts,” Byron said. He looked amused, but was studying Tobias in an appraising sort of way. “Well, you’ve done your research, but you haven’t answered my question. What is it that you believe we are?”

  “I don’t really care.”

  “Really?”

  “You can do things no one else can,” Tobias said. “I’m guessing that’s how you could make this deal with Tyr, right? I want that kind of power. Where I have to get it from . . . I don’t see how that matters.”

  Byron looked at Tobias for a long moment. Then he broke the silence with a small sigh. “How disappointing.”

  Tobias looked taken aback.

  Byron looked sideways at Lucella. “You haven’t told him?”

  Lucella shrugged, studying her nails.

  “Hey,” Tobias said. “Did you hear me?”

  “I heard you,” Byron said, turning back to Tobias. “You think this is about power? Some set of tricks or techniques that you can take for yourself, then use to scheme and manoeuvre until you rise to the top of your House? Is that what you came here hoping for?”

  Tobias hesitated.

  Byron sighed. “Go home, little boy.”

  Tobias looked between Byron and Lucella before pointing at his cousin. “I can do anything she can!”

  “No, you really can’t.”

  Tobias glared angrily at Byron. “I’ll tell Charles!”

  Byron looked back at Tobias, then began to laugh.

  Tobias looked shocked, then furious. He tried to speak, but Byron just kept on laughing. Tobias looked around at Lucella, Diesel, and Scar; none of them would meet his eyes.

  Something in Tobias seemed to snap. He ran towards the ramp, Byron’s laughter echoing around him. Only once he reached the tunnel mouth, and the way out of the garage, did he turn back towards Byron and Lucella. “Someday I’ll be stronger than any of you!” Tobias shouted at them, his voice cracking. “You should have helped me when you had the chance!” He turned and fled up the ramp.

  Byron’s laugh rang out for a few more seconds, mixing with Tobias’s fading footsteps, then he stopped. “Well,” he said with a chuckle. “At least that was amusing.”

  Lucella was still studying her nails. “Cringe,” she said shortly, then looked at Byron. “So . . . ?”

  “Not so fast,” Byron told Lucella. “I said it was amusing. That doesn’t excuse you wasting my time.”

  “There’s still Tyr.”

  “Yes, yes,” Byron said with a sigh. “You and your inheritance. All right, Lucella. Go play your games. Just don’t forget who you really serve.” He turned and walked away.