In the few seconds that I’d been out of sight, Scar had come out onto the far balcony. His gun was in his hand, and he leant out over the railing, scanning the courtyard below.

  I peered over the balcony to see that the battle was still raging. Calhoun was fighting hand to hand with a soldier who was wielding a baton whose tip sparked with electricity. The baton lashed out; Calhoun ducked with inhuman speed and struck; essentia flashed and the soldier went flying, tumbling over and over across the floor. Before Calhoun could follow up, one of the other soldiers opened fire and Calhoun had to bring up his shield again. I could see it now that I knew what to look for, a curved invisible barrier, flashes of light sparking on it as the kinetic energy of the impacts was converted into essentia, causing the bullets to drop harmlessly to the floor.

  On the balcony above, Scar hesitated, then aimed his gun down at Calhoun.

  I acted on reflex, channelling into my haywire sigl and firing in a single motion, pouring everything I had into making that Primal beam as precise and far reaching as possible. It hit Scar’s strength sigl dead-on, and even at this range, the effect was instant. Scar staggered, falling heavily against the railing; his gun jarred against the metal and fell from his hand, clattering to the paving stones below.

  I lowered my hand, wondering if that had been a bad idea. If anyone spotted me—

  Suddenly I realised I was seeing in colour, not in shades of blue. I’d lost concentration on my other sigls when I fired at Scar. I looked down to see one of the soldiers below looking straight at me.

  I threw myself backwards, landing on the balcony hard enough to jar the breath from my lungs. I heard the deadly chatter of gunfire, followed by shattering windows; shards of glass rained down, and I scrambled frantically back into the building. I could hear voices shouting orders: the soldiers below and a closer one that sounded like Lucella. I crab-walked backwards, came to my feet, and darted around the corner just in time to run into Diesel.

  Diesel reached for a weapon, but I’d had just enough warning to be ready and I was sick and tired of this guy. I blinded him with a flash, then gave him another haywire blast. If Diesel had been smart, he would have taken that strength sigl off by now, but he hadn’t, and he went down with a crash to reveal Lucella in the corridor behind him, staring at me with wide eyes.

  Lucella turned and ran.

  I started after her, then nearly fell as a half-blind Diesel grabbed my ankle. I hit him with my haywire sigl again, then kicked him in the head with my free leg until he let go. The corridor shook as one of the soldiers was slammed into the wall just outside before falling back down to the courtyard below. I ran after Lucella.

  The time it had taken me to deal with Diesel had given Lucella a head start. I reached the end of the corridor and looked left and right just in time to see the door to the stairwell swinging shut. I made it into the stairwell, heard the sound of running footsteps from above, and raced up the stairs after Lucella, two at a time.

  I burst out onto the rooftop thirty seconds later. The London skyline was all around, yellow and white lights against the darkness, and I had to scan the roof for a few seconds before I made out Lucella’s shape fleeing through the gloom. I ran after her; the route took me around the top of the courtyard, and I caught a glimpse down to see that the battle was still going on. The Tyr soldiers were retreating, one dragging a fallen teammate while the weapons of the others spat fire back at Calhoun. Then they were out of sight, leaving only me and Lucella.

  I let essentia pour into my enhancement sigl. I’d kept it deactivated until now so as to have more to spare for my invisibility, but I wasn’t hiding anymore and I felt strength flow through me, my legs driving me forward through the night. We were running alongside the main road, and I saw cars driving below, their headlights sweeping over the streets.

  The flat roof ahead turned into a peaked one, and Lucella clambered across it. I could see the glow of Motion essentia around her, some effect that I didn’t have time to recognise, but she was moving fast and with no apparent concern for the drop. Maybe she thought I wouldn’t dare to follow. Wrong. I went scrambling after her, slipping but managing to catch myself and jumping off the other side onto a wider roof coloured a pale blue. Lucella was ahead of me at the roof’s far side, but as she drew close to it she checked, turning south.

  I charged straight for Lucella and tackled her.

  We went tumbling to the rooftop, bouncing off a ventilator and rolling to a stop. Lucella slashed at me with something on one of her fingers; I caught the green flash of Life essentia and twisted away, coming to my feet. All of a sudden everything was still. Lucella and I faced each other on the rooftop, maybe ten feet apart, both of us crouched and ready to strike.

  The lights of the office building across the street shone down, yellow-white squares in their geometric rows, but our rooftop was shadowed and dark. I heard a flutter of wings and caught movement out of the corner of my eye as a bird alighted on one of the ventilators, but I didn’t take my eyes off Lucella.

  “What is your problem?” Lucella said viciously. Her face was twisted with anger, the lights of the city reflected in her eyes.

  “What’s the matter, Lucella?” I asked. “Things not going to plan?”

  “God, you’re annoying!” Lucella told me. “What are you even doing here?”

  “You tried to kidnap me, kill my cat, and frame me for a raid,” I said. “You really didn’t think I’d have a problem with that?”

  Lucella gave me a blank look. “Why would I be thinking about you at all?”

  I looked at Lucella for a second, then barked a laugh. “That really is how it works in your world, isn’t it? People like me, we’re supposed to just disappear into the background when you don’t need us. Would never occur to you that I might exist and be doing things on my own.”

  “Oh, get over yourself,” Lucella said contemptuously. “So you managed to find someone to buy you a couple of crappy attack sigls. Who was it, Tobias? It was Tobias, wasn’t it?”

  I stared at Lucella, then let my lips curve upwards. “I am going to really enjoy teaching you a lesson.”

  I began to circle, trying to put Lucella between myself and the ventilator. Lucella reacted quickly, moving sideways; despite her words, she was watching me closely. I could see essentia glowing from both of her hands: two sigls, one Motion, one Life. I couldn’t tell what they did, and I was wary of getting too close. From the way Lucella had struck at me, I had the feeling that at least one of them worked by touch.

  I heard the sound of wings again as another bird came flapping down to land on the ventilator. There were five of them now, crows, watching us with black eyes. One of them opened its beak to caw.

  I saw Lucella’s eyes flick towards the crows; sudden confidence flashed across her face.

  I took a deep breath, measuring the distance between us. I’d use my flash sigl to dazzle Lucella, then try to close the distance before she could recover. I took a step—

  Two claps came from the darkness, making me jump. “All right,” a voice said from our side. “Break it up.”

  Lucella and I turned.

  The man who’d called himself Byron stepped out of the shadows, continuing to clap. “Break it up, break it up.”

  Lucella looked from me to Byron. “Excuse me?”

  “I’ll admit a duel between the two of you would be amusing, but I’m afraid blood sports just don’t have the same appeal to me as they did in my younger days,” Byron said. “Besides, I’d rather not have either of you falling off the roof. So let’s put a pin in this, shall we?”

  I’d backed up a few steps as soon as Byron had shown himself, watching the two of them warily. All my thoughts of going after Lucella had vanished; I knew I couldn’t take on her and Byron at once.

  Lucella pointed at me. “Get rid of him!”

  “Are you giving me orders?” Byron asked mildly.

  Lucella opened her mouth, then clenched it shut. I saw the muscles in her jaw work as she stared daggers at me.

  “Better,” Byron said after a pause.

  “He’s going to be trouble,” Lucella said. Her voice was tight, but she seemed to have got herself under control. “The raid on the Well—”

  “—is nothing I care about,” Byron interrupted. “Honestly, Lucella, I’m not one of the Mountains. If you want to rule House Ashford, that’s your affair, but I wish you’d stop running to me for help.”

  The sound of gunfire from the courtyard had stopped. I couldn’t hear any police sirens yet, but I had the feeling it wouldn’t be long. “You don’t care about House Ashford or their Wells,” I told Byron. “You don’t care about money or power. What do you care about?”

  “Ah, our mystery guest speaks!” Byron said. “So that was you, back there in the garage. I am interested in . . . potential.”

  “Potential for what?”

  “For something more,” Byron said. “Haven’t you ever felt trapped, in your old life? Restricted, kept from doing what you really care about? As though there’s something better, that you’re being kept from?”

  I paused.

  “You’ve been fighting on the wrong side, Stephen,” Byron said with a smile. He nodded back towards the Well. “The Ashfords are part of the old order. Do you really want to be like them, spending your life chasing money and power? Haven’t you ever wanted to be something more?”

  “Like what?” I said. “What do you stand for?”

  “Freedom,” Byron said. “Why should we be less than what we could be? Why should you be limited by what you were born into? We offer power, yes, but not for its own sake. Power to overthrow injustice, to break the shackles of the past.”

  There was an intensity to Byron’s words; his voice had become resonant, deep and commanding. I could feel the pull of it, the appeal . . . but I held back. I didn’t trust Byron, and I hadn’t forgotten who he’d come here with.

  As I thought that, my eyes lit on Lucella. There was an odd expression on her face, yearning and bitter, and a thought flashed across my mind. Is this the same speech he gave her?

  “Sorry,” I told Byron. “Not convinced.”

  Byron cocked his head. “Oh?”

  “You were the one who gave Lucella her powers, right?” I asked Byron. “Well, as far as I can see, all she uses them for is to step on anyone who gets in her way. I don’t get the feeling you’re the good guys.”

  Byron didn’t seem fazed. “If self-protection is what concerns you, then why not seek such powers yourself?”

  “What, so I can be a little monster like her?”

  “We don’t want anyone to become monsters, Stephen,” Byron said. “We’re working towards utopia. A world where anyone is free to become their true self, without constraint or pain or suffering. Where the structures and institutions that restrict people and force them into unhappiness are swept away. Isn’t that worth sacrificing for?”

  I looked back at Byron for a moment before answering. “No.”

  Byron paused. “I’m sorry?”

  “First, your utopia wouldn’t work,” I said. “You can’t have a world where everyone’s painless and happy, because if your world’s set up to be suited to one person, it won’t suit another. Second, sweeping everything away wouldn’t do anything, because people have got inborn inclinations to evil as well as to good, so even if you got rid of every institution in the world, a new bunch of selfish bastards like the Ashfords would just show up and do the same thing all over again. And third, and most importantly, I don’t trust you. So take your sidekick, or whatever Lucella is, and go away.”

  The three of us stared at each other across the rooftops for a moment. I could hear the first police sirens now, distant but drawing closer. Then abruptly and unexpectedly, Byron threw his head back and laughed.

  I watched Byron sceptically. I had my invisibility sigl ready to go, but it felt to me as though the time for that had passed. If he’d wanted to attack, he would have done it by now.

  It took Byron a while to stop laughing. When he finally stopped and looked at me, there was genuine mirth in his eyes, and for the first time since I’d seen him he seemed to be really enjoying himself. “You know, I really thought that line would work,” he told me. “Where did you learn to talk like that?”

  “None of your business,” I told him. Inwardly, I was deciding that once I got out of this, I’d give Father Hawke an apology.

  “You sounded like—ah, never mind. Well, I was going to save this for later, but I have to admit, this is a lot more interesting. What if I gave you a more personal incentive?”

  “Like what?” I said warily. Up until he’d burst out laughing, Byron had seemed amused but detached, as though he’d done this all before. Now all of a sudden he was looking me up and down with an interested expression that I didn’t particularly like.

  “Work with us,” Byron said, “and I’ll tell you about your father.”

  I froze. “What?”

  “What?” Lucella said. She was staring at Byron.

  “Really, Lucella?” Byron asked her. “You didn’t know? As soon as you heard the name Oakwood, I would have thought you’d have made the connection.”

  “The same—”

  “Yes, the same one. Honestly, I know you have trouble remembering anything that doesn’t directly relate to you, but this is ridiculous.”

  The wail of sirens sounded from below as the first police cars pulled into the street beside us. I saw the blue strobing flash of their lights reflected from the buildings. “Well, I believe that’s our cue to leave,” Byron told Lucella. “Shall we?”

  Lucella shot me a final venomous look and disappeared into the night. Byron turned to follow her.

  “Wait!” I called.

  Byron glanced back over his shoulder with a smile. “Oh? Did I get your attention?” He pulled out something small and white from inside his jacket. “Give me a call when you’re ready. Though I wouldn’t wait too long.” He tossed the sliver of white to the rooftop, then walked away, the shadows closing in around him.

  I stared after Byron until I was sure he was gone, then walked forward to pick up what he’d dropped. It was a business card, black ink on a white background. There was no name, only a strange symbol that looked like a spread of five feathered wings. Underneath was a phone number.

  I looked up. The crows that had been perched on the ventilator were almost all gone. Only one was left, watching me with black eyes.

  “What are you staring at?” I asked.

  The crow cawed.

  The sirens from the street below had stopped, though the strobing blue flashes had grown stronger. The police were here, and that broke my hesitation. I was still trespassing, and if I was caught here, it’d mean trouble. I turned in the opposite direction from the one in which Byron and Lucella had disappeared, and started looking for a way down. Between my strength and invisibility sigls, I should be able to get off the roof and meet up with Colin.

  Behind me, the last crow watched me go, then flew away into the night.

  CHAPTER 21

  It was the next day.

  The morning had dawned bright and sunny, puffy white clouds floating in a bright blue sky. Despite the sunlight, the air was cool and the breeze carried enough of a chill to make me glad I’d worn my fleece. Autumn was coming.

  I leant against the tree at the bottom of The Bishops Avenue and scrolled through my phone. I had five missed calls, two from an unknown number and three from Colin. I’d answered the unknown number on the third call to receive a terse message informing me that Charles Ashford required my presence, right now. In the case of Colin I hadn’t picked up any of the calls, but that hadn’t stopped him texting.

  Colin: Hey, call me back.

  Colin: We need to talk.

  Colin: Dude, pick up your phone

  Colin: PICK UP YOUR PHONE

  Colin: PICK UP

  Colin: CALL ME BACK or I swear to God I’m going to come around to your house and beat some answers out of you

  I sighed. This was going to be a long conversation. I texted Colin back, telling him that I’d call him tonight, then slipped the phone into my pocket and started walking towards the Ashford mansion.

  Given the sheer amount of crap the Ashfords had put me through in the past six months, I would have really liked to ignore Charles’s message, but I knew that was a bad idea. I wasn’t sure how things would go if I managed to seriously piss off Charles Ashford, but I was pretty sure the answer was “badly.” And although I’d come prepared with my full combat sigl loadout, I had the feeling that against the kinds of problems someone like Charles could cause, sigls wouldn’t help much.

  I arrived at the mansion and was buzzed in. A man was waiting for me at the front door. He was wearing a strength sigl like Diesel and Scar’s, and the blue-and-silver Ashford crest. “Stephen Oakwood?” he asked, and at my nod he ushered me inside.

  The man led me up to Charles’s study on the first floor, where I got my first surprise: Tobias and Lucella were waiting out in the hall. Lucella was leaning against the wall with her arms folded, while Tobias was slouched with his hands in his pockets. Both gave me unfriendly looks, but another Ashford armsman was watching and neither spoke. I kept a wary eye on both as the armsman who’d led me in knocked on the door, then motioned for me to enter.

  “You’re late,” Charles told me as the door clicked shut behind me.

  “Yeah, well, take it up with your niece,” I told him.

  The study looked much the same as last time. There seemed to be a few more glass beads on the map; looking at it, I saw a large pale blue bead pinned to a spot in Central London that I thought might be Chancery Lane.

  “Give me an account of your part in last night’s events,” Charles said.