Disbelief spread across Isabelle’s face – clearly she hadn’t expected this rebellion. ‘Lucinda has made it clear she won’t allow Allie to attend the parley and I agree with her decision—’
‘What? Nathaniel wants to have a parley with you?’ Carter said to Allie. ‘Why would he do that?’
‘He doesn’t want to meet me. He wants to meet Lucinda. But he says he’ll only do it if I come, too,’ Allie explained patiently. ‘Because he’s a mentalist.’
The others exchanged a look.
‘A trap,’ Sylvain said. ‘It would be a perfect time to snatch her. No arms. No guards.’
‘Exactly.’ Isabelle appeared relieved, as if she’d just won the argument.
‘Not every trap catches its prey,’ Dom said.
‘Many do.’ Raj shot her a narrow look. ‘Too many to just take a chance with Allie’s life.’
‘It’s my life,’ Allie protested. ‘It should be my decision what to do with it.’
Dom kept her focus on Raj. ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked him quietly. ‘We can fend off more attacks, keep him out for a while – days. Weeks maybe. Not months. No system is unhackable – you taught me that. If he keeps trying, eventually he’ll get in. Then it’s game over. We lose.’
Allie looked at Dom in surprise. She worked for Raj but seemed to feel perfectly comfortable openly disagreeing with him. Most of his guards were of the ‘Yes, sir!’ variety. This one was clearly different.
Raj’s jaw was set. ‘If we bring in extra guards, cover every inch—’
‘You would need a thousand men.’ There was no rancour in Dom’s voice, only calm rationale. ‘Have you got a thousand men?’
‘Enough.’ Raj, who never raised his voice, nearly shouted the word. His face was red with frustration. ‘She can’t go. It’s too dangerous.’
Turning to Allie, Dom scrutinised her, as if she was a car she was considering purchasing. ‘Well, I’d say that’s up to her. She’s not a child. And from what you’ve all told me she’s extremely capable. There’s no reason to assume she’d fail.’
Uncertain, Allie stared back at her. Nobody stood up to Raj like this. Ever. But Dom seemed to see herself as his equal.
How does she know whether I’m capable or not?
Dom’s voice cut through the haze of her thoughts. ‘What do you say, Allie Sheridan?’ The daylight was fading and it was hard to read the American girl’s eyes behind her glasses but Allie could hear the challenge in her voice. ‘Everyone tells me you never back down from a fight. Want to try and save the world?’
Allie’s gaze skated from Raj to Isabelle, waiting for them to argue, but they’d both fallen silent. Isabelle looked unhappy.
Somehow Dom had done it – they were letting her choose.
Now that she had the choice, though … what did she want?
It was a trap, she was certain of it. Although it wasn’t like Nathaniel to be quite so obvious. Still, there was no reason for her to be present unless he had something planned.
Something awful.
But if she didn’t go to him, he’d come to her, and she knew from brutal personal experience that was worse.
Trepidation made her pulse race.
She thought about Jo and Ruth, about Nathaniel with a knife to Rachel’s throat. About how the knife had felt when it parted the skin of her arm, and her visceral fear when Gabe raised a brick over Carter’s head to finish him off.
In the end, though, they’d stood up to Nathaniel – the students and guards together. They made him back down. There had to be a way they could do it again – only this time, permanently. He wasn’t a god, after all. He was just a man. A delusional, obsessed man.
If she could talk to him – find out something she could give him that he wanted – maybe she could stop this. Or even if she couldn’t, maybe she could make it better in some way just by being there.
If she kept hiding and did nothing, how would that do any good? Nathaniel would attack, Raj would parry, more people would get hurt. Maybe even die. And it would happen over and over until finally they were defeated. Then Nathaniel would have what he wanted anyway, and what would have been the point of anything?
Yes, she was just a kid and he was a rich and powerful man. But a tiny twig can stop a clock ticking. A speck of dust can do a lot of damage to a delicate machine. She thought of Sylvain’s voice the other night on the roof.
Jump.
She held Dom’s gaze.
‘I’m in,’ she said.
17
Seventeen
Next to her, Sylvain let out his breath. Carter turned to look at her, concern written on his face.
‘Awesome,’ Zoe muttered.
Instantly, Isabelle and Raj began to argue. Dom appeared composed as the voices swelled around her.
‘We should go, I think,’ Sylvain said quietly.
He was right – there was nothing to be done. The leaders would fight it out now. But Allie’s mind was made up. One way or another, she was going to that parley.
The adults didn’t seem to notice the students leaving the chapel – no one tried to stop them. Outside, the air was cool and smelled clean. Allie took a deep breath. Now that the decision was made, she felt lighter; a bit dizzy from her own bravery. Tilting her head back she let the soft summer rain fall on her face.
The others were still oddly silent; she could sense their disapproval.
They were well into the woods before Nicole broke the silence.
‘We’ll have to prepare.’
She seemed to be avoiding Allie’s gaze. ‘We know how Nathaniel and Gabe fight. How they operate. We will need to be ready to defend Lucinda.’
‘And Allie.’ Sylvain’s face was creased with worry.
‘And ourselves,’ Carter said.
‘Will we all get to go with her, I wonder?’ Zoe asked, looking around the group.
‘We’ll go.’ Nicole’s voice sounded tight and Allie turned to look at her more closely.
Rain clung to her dark hair and ran down her face like tears. The set of her shoulders, the tight line of her jaw, told her she was upset. ‘We don’t have any choice.’
She emphasised the last word.
No one argued with her. Only Zoe didn’t seem to know what she meant.
‘What?’ Allie scanned the closed faces around her. ‘Are you all mad at me for agreeing to go to the parley? What else was I supposed to do?’
‘I’m not mad,’ Zoe said. ‘I’m excited.’
Allie ignored her. ‘Nicole?’ The rain grew heavier. Water ran down her face in rivulets, trickling down the collar of her soaked blouse. ‘Is there something you want to say?’
The French girl kept her eyes on the ground. ‘I think you make these decisions that affect other people’s lives and you don’t think about what it means. It’s dangerous. You’re dangerous.’
Stung, Allie looked around the group for support. Sylvain stared into the distance, his jaw tight. She could see his disapproval in the tense line of his shoulders.
When she met Carter’s gaze, he held out his empty hands in a gesture that said ‘What did you expect?’
Anger flared in her chest. Nicole had basically stolen her best friend and now she was going to take everyone else, too?
No way.
‘Well, maybe you’d just rather hand me over to Nathaniel so you can all be a little safer.’ Allie’s tone was cutting. ‘Or maybe you’d like to just side with him now and get it over with. Cimmeria could always use another spy. I hear the pay is great.’
She heard someone’s breath catch. Nicole looked shocked.
‘Allie,’ Sylvain said. ‘Don’t—’
Allie whirled on him. ‘Don’t tell me what to do. I hate that.’
He flinched away from her.
Without a word, Carter walked away, leaving them to fight it out. Somehow, this bothered Allie most of all.
‘I don’t get it,’ Zoe said, clearly puzzled. ‘Why is everyone pissed off?’
>
‘Forget it, Zoe,’ Allie snapped. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
The rain finally stopped that evening but the skies stayed grey. The tensions didn’t ease as the hours passed.
At dinner that night the mood at the table was decidedly icy, and Allie couldn’t wait to get away. As soon as the meal ended, she pushed back her chair, but before she could stand up, Sylvain leaned over to whisper in her ear, ‘We should talk.’
His tone was curt, and her heart sank. She didn’t want to fight about this with him. She wanted him to back her up. To understand that she had no choice.
To trust her.
But it was clear there was no getting around it. With reluctant steps, she followed him out into the hallway and up the staircase to the relative privacy of the landing.
At the top, the tall windows had been left open to let in the damp air, cool and fresh from the rain. His expression unreadable, Sylvain led the way into a nook, hidden away behind a tall marble statue.
‘What is it?’ Allie said, eager to get this over with. ‘Is it about what happened today? Because I don’t really want to talk about it.’
He looked at her steadily, blue eyes blank and cool. ‘Don’t you?’
His challenging tone threw her off balance. No matter what she did, Sylvain never got angry with her. She didn’t think she knew how to argue with him.
‘No …?’ she said, her hesitant tone betraying her sudden uncertainty.
His gaze didn’t falter. ‘I would think you would want to defend your position. Tell me why everyone else is wrong,’ he said. ‘And you are right.’
Heat rose to Allie’s cheeks. This was worse than she’d expected. He seemed genuinely upset.
She needed to change tactics.
‘Ok, I’ve obviously upset you. And, like, everyone. So, that can’t be good.’ She tried to look as conciliatory as possible. Noble, even. ‘I’m sorry if you think I made the wrong decision.’
He didn’t wait to hear any more.
‘Allie, you could die.’
His words cut across her faltering logic and she stared, at him, wide-eyed. All her excuses evaporated.
‘If you go to the parley, Nathaniel could kill you. That may be his plan. And if we go with you, to protect you, we could die, too. Nicole could die. I could die. Carter could die. Do you understand that?’ His tone was measured but his words stung. ‘I need to know that you understand what you are committing us all to do, without asking us what we think. What we want. Whether we are ready to die.’
A sudden image of Jo, blood encircling her body, flashed into Allie’s mind.
She breathed in an audible gasp, and jumped to her feet. ‘I have to go.’
But before she could turn away, his hand flashed out and grabbed her wrist.
‘You should stay and listen to me, Allie. If you won’t listen to anyone else. At least listen to me.’ She struggled in his grip, not wanting to hear any more. ‘Please, Allie. This is important.’
‘I know that.’ Tearing her arm free from his grasp, she stared at him reproachfully, her chest heaving.
How dare he imply that she didn’t know this was dangerous? How dare he talk to her like she didn’t know what dying meant?
Did anyone know better than her?
She knew if she said half the things in her mind right now he’d never forgive her and she’d never forgive him. She had to get away, before more damage was done.
Hands clenched into fists, she raised her chin and forced herself to keep her voice low.
‘I’m sorry you’re angry at me, Sylvain, but I can’t do this.’
Then she spun on her heel and fled.
After that, Sylvain kept his distance.
He wasn’t alone.
Nicole avoided Allie in the hallways, which meant Rachel avoided her, too, as they were so often together. Isabelle and Raj were similarly cool and distant, and the issue of the parley had not been brought up again. It was as if they’d decided not to discuss it with her.
Carter seemed to disapprove of the entire situation, and Allie rarely saw him. She got the feeling he was avoiding everyone.
As the days passed, she went through the paces of classes and training, but she did it mostly on her own. She felt cut off and isolated, but she wouldn’t back down. The meeting between Lucinda and Nathaniel had to happen. It was their only chance. And she had to be there, whether the others liked it or not.
Only Zoe seemed immune to the disharmony in the group, and she stuck resolutely by Allie’s side.
One night during Night School training, Allie found an excuse to ask her what she knew about Dom.
‘She’s cool,’ Zoe enthused, aiming a kick at the side of Allie’s head. ‘She invented some new software for computer monitoring – Raj says the Secret Service use it.’
Ducking the blow, Allie feinted in a zigzag pattern, coming up, arm raised, poised to attack. Zoe blocked the blow with vicious quickness.
Jerry, who’d been watching them spar from a distance, walked up to them. ‘Beautifully executed, both of you. I’ve never seen it done better.’
Relieved that at least one adult wasn’t angry at her, Allie smiled at him gratefully. ‘Thanks.’
‘Keep it up.’ Patting Zoe on the shoulder, he walked on to the next pair of students.
Zoe accepted the praise without hesitation. ‘He’s right. We’re freaking awesome.’
Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she picked up a bottle of water from the mat.
Allie looked across the room to where Rachel and Nicole were practising the same move. Nicole’s moves were fluid and easy. By contrast, Rachel looked awkward and jerky, recoiling as if afraid when Nicole practised her kick. Raj was watching them, too, and Allie saw him shake his head in exasperation. But Nicole just rested a hand lightly on Rachel’s arm and said something that made her laugh, then demonstrated the move again.
It was the right way to work with Rachel – the way Allie would have done it herself.
Again, she felt a knife stab of jealousy.
‘She dropped out of Harvard after one year.’ Zoe was still talking about Dom as she took a swig of water. ‘She was already minted from the software so she didn’t see the point in staying there.’
Around them, Night School students kicked and punched each other in complex, violent manoeuvres.
‘Isabelle said Raj brought her in. How do they know each other?’ Allie asked.
‘Dom went to school here. She was an exchange student.’
‘Seriously?’ Allie couldn’t hide her surprise. Nobody had ever mentioned Dom was legacy.
‘Raj was her Night School instructor and mentor,’ Zoe explained. ‘But when they took all the computers away she went back to America. Or at least, that’s what everyone says.’
Allie knew that would have taken guts. Nobody just walked away from Cimmeria.
If Dom was the kind of person who trusted her instincts like that, it made sense that she would want Allie to do the same.
Jump.
As she thought it through, her gaze fell to where Carter and Sylvain were practising together – they made the complex series of moves look more violent and potentially deadly than anyone else in the room. They swung at each other so hard she winced, but each pulled back at the last second, just before a foot could hit a neck, or an elbow cut deep into an eye socket.
The force they were using made it hard to believe they weren’t genuinely angry, but between rounds she saw Carter make a joke and Sylvain crease up with laughter.
It struck her they were at ease with each other in a way they were never at ease with her.
There was always something between her and each of them – a kind of force field of sex and love.
They didn’t have that with each other. So they could just be friends.
And there’s that jealousy again.
With a sigh, she turned her focus back to Zoe. ‘So why did Dom come back to Cimmeria now?’
‘Because I asked her to
.’ Raj’s voice made them both jump and they spun round to see him standing behind them; his expression was dark. ‘We needed her help. But right now I’m not convinced that wasn’t a mistake. Zoe, your kick is coming from your lower back, not your abdominals. Work on that.’
As he strode off with silent steps, Zoe said in tones of reverence, ‘He walks like a ghost. It is amazing.’
When training ended that night, Allie began to follow the others out to the dressing room but Sylvain walked up to her.
‘Could you wait a second, please?’
She looked up at him in surprise. They’d barely spoken since their argument.
‘Sure,’ she said cautiously. ‘What’s up?’
He looked around the room. The other students were streaming out into the changing rooms. ‘It’s… Well. I will explain in a minute.’
She searched his face for clues but his blue eyes were unreadable. As the room emptied, Carter came over but stayed some distance away, hands shoved in his pockets. Allie tried to catch his eye but he seemed to purposefully avoid her gaze.
Then Zoe, Nicole and Rachel came to stand with them, too.
‘What’s going on?’ Allie asked suspiciously. ‘Is this an intervention or something?’
No one smiled.
Only when they were completely alone in the training room did Sylvain answer her question. ‘If you’re going to the parley, we have to prepare.’
Allie was confounded. ‘I thought that was what we just did. Isn’t two and a half hours of kicking the crap out of each other preparation?’
‘It helps,’ Carter said. ‘But you’ve dealt with Nathaniel before. You know what he’s like. He doesn’t play by the rules.’
Walking to the edge of the room, he crouched down and felt for something underneath the rubber matting. After a moment, he pulled out two objects Allie couldn’t quite see.
Then he turned round. In one hand he held a lethal-looking dagger. In his other he held a gun.
The blood drained from Allie’s face.
Unnerved, she stared at the knife. The scar on her arm throbbed.