I glanced at Cori, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully. If the enemy took her from me again, and she never woke up… her life was in their hands. Malkin had already said explicitly that he didn’t need more than one dragon. He’d picked me—why, I didn’t know—and would have executed my sister if we hadn’t broken out. I wouldn’t take any more chances. If this Moonbeam was the only way to wake her up, we had to find it.

  3

  Magic Avenue was in one of London’s busiest tourist areas, winding between Leicester Square and Soho. Only the fact that it’d been hidden by glamour until two years ago kept it from being overrun by non-supernaturals. We’d once gone via our underground route, but our new home was too far away—and that’s if you ignored the fact that the hunters now knew our routes. We flew instead. Or rather, Will flew, and I hung on for dear life and hoped nobody looked up and saw a human riding a gargoyle.

  We landed in Trafalgar Square. The National Gallery was surprisingly intact, though I suspected the mages had had a hand in protecting the exhibits from the oncoming destruction. I couldn’t say the same for the surroundings. Though the streets had been cleaned of broken glass and abandoned vehicles, the absence of the usual crowds still jarred me, two years on from the invasion. The lion statues by the now-empty fountain had gone. There was some speculation about whether they’d actually been gargoyles in disguise. Anything was possible. The pubs, however, were packed with people sheltering from the rain. Some things never changed.

  Will walked alongside me—he’d won the coin toss this time. He wasn’t a fan of this branch of London’s supernatural underworld. Firstly, because of a fight between the local gargoyles and the hunters two years ago when we’d first moved into the shop. Secondly, because his ex had ratted us out to the hunters not far from here.

  I wasn’t sure anyone even went to the Avenue anymore, after the hunters had sacked it in their unrelenting hunt for us. Which was a pity, because witches needed somewhere to buy spell ingredients. Some of the spells the witches could make—healing spells, illusions—were life-saving under the right circumstances, but relied on expensive ingredients which weren’t available in abundance anymore. Once supplies dwindled to nothing, that was it. Like most witches, Will knew how to make basic healing spells, but that didn’t mean a lot without the means to replenish them. The Avenue didn’t look too overtly supernatural at first glance—as the first group of supernaturals to suffer open persecution in this country, witches knew better than to advertise their supernatural nature even when it was acceptable to do so now. As the ordinary-looking brick buildings drew closer, the smell of smoke tickled my nostrils. Oh, no. There’s trouble.

  Potions Paradise was on fire. A pretty impressive one, too. The whole shop was ablaze, flames licking at the windows. One look told me we’d never be able to get inside. I grabbed Will’s arm and pulled him into the nearest alley as someone walked past, but they didn’t look at us.

  “Okay. That’s not good.”

  Will peered out of the alley. “No. I sort of hope Carter was inside it.”

  “Yeah. But I thought it already burned down.”

  “No, we just saw a bunch of hunters in there last time we were here,” said Will. “Probably questioning Carter. That was right before they caught us.”

  “So they never burned his place down before,” I mused. Some of the other shops hadn’t been so lucky. Charred doors hung from their hinges and there was an emptiness in the air even with the absence of hunters. I’d been so wrapped up in looking after Cori and keeping a roof over our heads in the last few weeks, I’d forgotten about checking up on the witches who might have been tangled with the League. Well, I hadn’t wanted to come back, in case the hunters were hanging around. Will had spoken to a few of the witches and said Carter hadn’t been seen since his betrayal, but it was weird for anyone to wait until now to set the place ablaze.

  “We should go,” Will said. “Nobody’s getting into that place. Not even you.”

  “I’m pretty sure I can’t catch on fire.” I dropped my voice.

  “Nope, but your clothes probably can. Wait until the smoke dies down. We don’t want to be here. Nobody who starts fires is ever on our side.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Okay, nobody who starts fires and isn’t a dragon. Whatever. Come on.”

  “Don’t you want to check out the shop? It’s not on fire.”

  “It’s also royally fucked.” Will looked uncharacteristically angry as he cast a glance down the street, where our old hideout lay abandoned, the windows boarded up and the smell of burning lingering.

  “We already walked here,” I pointed out. “Might as well check on the shop. We never retrieved everything.”

  “It’ll have been looted by now,” Will said. “Or trashed. The hunters will have taken everything.”

  “You don’t think they stole your witch ingredients, do you?”

  “Not to use. Though… Actually, some of the shit I found in their labs looked pretty damn similar. I think they might have more than informants.”

  “You think they have a supplier?” I stared at him.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s unlikely, but they probably wanted to make sure we never came back to get the ingredients again.”

  “It can’t be someone on our side,” I said. “They killed people. As for the witches, the hunters were the ones who got them burned at the stake, for crying out loud. Half their history is marked by them. Who the hell overlooks that?”

  “A half-wit who apparently had something to gain from allying with depraved, torturing—” Will broke off. “Speak of the devil.”

  A single figure walked past, wearing dark clothes. Astor. If he wanted to drive me over the edge, he was doing a damn good job. He didn’t look at the alley—his attention was elsewhere.

  “Let’s follow him,” I said.

  Will gave me a strange look. “I thought you weren’t speaking to him.”

  “No, but he followed me for ages yesterday. Let me have my fun. Besides, it’ll be a way to confirm if he was lying about hearing the rumours here.”

  Will sighed. “Call it intuition, but I brought one shadow spell. You can have it if you promise to be good.”

  “When have I ever got you into trouble?”

  “You really want me to answer that? Be careful.” He handed me the band-shaped spell. I slid it onto my wrist and hit the switch. At once, my body faded out. Not invisible, but shadowy. I was invisible in dark places, whereas when I stood in direct sunlight, everyone would be able to see the shadowy outline of a person. Lucky it was so cloudy today.

  I left the alley, careful to avoid treading in any puddles or tripping on the cobblestones. Astor watched the burning building, and I skirted around to see his expression. He was frowning. Astor’s hands dug in his pockets as he walked closer. He moved like an assassin, light on his feet, but wasn’t making an effort to hide.

  Eavesdropping on eavesdroppers. Apparently this was my life now. I looked back at the alley to see Will had disappeared. Where’d he go?

  Answer: the shop Astor approached. I hung behind him, spine prickling in irritation. Will had struck up a conversation with Keira, the witch who he bought ingredients from. She was a middle-aged black woman with greying hair. If Will trusted her, she couldn’t have been involved with Carter, but that didn’t make the fire any less suspicious.

  “So you didn’t see who started the fire?” asked Will.

  “No,” she said. “I’d just cleaned the smoke from my house from last time. Bloody pranksters.”

  “You think someone was pulling a prank?” Will frowned at her. “Not arson? Why target a witch’s place?”

  “The hunters aren’t here,” she said. “If anything, it looked like magic-related sabotage. Neither of the houses on either side are burning.”

  “Yeah, but the hunters torched half the street a few weeks ago.”

  “Including your place,” said Keira. “Didn’t something involving fire happen with one of your friends?”

  Oh no. I stood as still as possible, aware that the effects of the shadow spell wouldn’t last long, and witches had sharp eyes for this kind of illusion.

  Will took in a breath. “Did you hear anything about a new artefact on the market? Recently?”

  “If you mean the underground market, you should know better than to get involved, son. Look what happened to Carter.”

  I gaped at her. So did Will. “What?”

  Keira snorted. “You should have known, fool. Why else would he have chosen to betray his fellow supernaturals? He had a debt to pay.”

  “That’s why he sold us out? Why not tell me before?”

  “I thought you knew.”

  Will fell silent. His expression was a mixture of anger and confusion, and I fervently wished Astor wasn’t here to overhear this, too. I could see both their minds ticking. Carter had been the one who’d set us up with a false mission to track a monster, orchestrated by the League. If Carter had been in debt to someone, it’d explain why he’d willingly sold us out. I’d thought loyalty to fellow supernaturals would rank higher, but maybe he’d felt he had no choice. After all, the pay for handing a dragon shifter—let alone two—over to the hunters was nothing to sniff at.

  I hadn’t been involved in the supernatural underworld of London, but I’d have to be pretty oblivious not to know it still existed. It even had before the invasion. Rhea had helped many a shifter escape its clutches. Carter had probably owed money to someone dangerous. Okay, maybe I wanted to believe nobody without good cause would sell out their fellow supernaturals. It wasn’t right.

  “All right,” said Will. “Any chance you can give me the name?”

  “Do you have a death wish? Whoever it was, Carter wasn’t telling. It’s not worth getting tangled in these things. It’s too late now he’s dead.”

  Will’s breath caught. “What?”

  He’s dead?

  The witch squinted at him. “I thought that’s why you were here.”

  “He died in the fire?” Will asked her.

  “No, he was found dead in the river.”

  “That’s nowhere near his shop.”

  I couldn’t hide my curiosity this time. I moved closer.

  “No,” said Keira. “It isn’t. I’m sorry about Carter, but you shouldn’t go poking around. It’ll only end badly.”

  “Do you know anything else about his death? Were the hunters involved?”

  “If they were, they’re not here, and I’m intending it to stay that way.”

  One of them is here. I glared at Astor, who didn’t see me. As the witch made it clear she didn’t intend to carry on the conversation, he moved away. Keira went back into her shop, and Astor waylaid Will.

  “Gargoyle,” he said, walking out of the shadows. “I was looking for you.”

  “Thought I smelled a rat.” Will didn’t have much reason to grieve the man who’d betrayed us, but he was clearly pissed. “What do you want, Elite scum?”

  “That’s not very kind of you. Whatever Ember told you—”

  “Oh, don’t worry, she told me everything,” Will said. “She didn’t tell me you had a habit of eavesdropping on private conversations, though.”

  “You’re in the middle of the street,” said Astor. “Is Ember here?”

  “She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

  I’d had about enough. The burning smell lured me in, and I had only a few minutes of the shadow spell left. I moved up the street, leaving Will and Astor glowering at one another. If Astor let anything else slip, Will would tell me later. If Astor intended to attack him—well, nobody crossed a witch or a gargoyle, for good reason.

  The burning smell choked my human lungs. Sure would help if I could partially shift them into a dragon’s. I’d only managed to shift my hands and feet before. I knew I was more resilient than a human, but I wasn’t sure how that extended to non-dragon-related fires. Peering through the window, I tried to figure out where the fire had started.

  Wait. The smoke came from one of the rooms upstairs. It hadn’t spread downstairs yet, though the entire top floor of the house was ablaze. Might there be clues inside?

  The door hung open already. I crept in, seeing the fire hadn’t touched the front of the shop at all. There was nothing in stock, though—all the shelves were empty. But if Carter was like most witches I knew, he’d have gone to a great deal of trouble to protect his records.

  Especially if there was something incriminating in there.

  I reached the front counter. My eyes watered from the smoke creeping down from upstairs, but I vaulted over the counter and opened the top drawer. Locked. No surprises there. I carried a lock pick for a reason, though. I made a point of not stealing to survive, but it was a practical item to have around. And it was worth it. A stack of folders in the drawer listed the various transactions that had taken place. I stuck it awkwardly inside my jacket and zipped it, then ran for the door before my oxygen ran out. My lungs expanded, taking in air. A human would probably have passed out. I shoved a fist in my mouth to mask my coughing fit and ducked into the nearest alley until it abated.

  Then I spotted the tunnel entrance hidden in the wall. I missed our tunnels, but the idea of the hunters invading made me feel like they no longer belonged to us. Just thinking of walking into the dark conjured up images of the elevator descending through the earth, into the heart of the Orion Stronghold. My fist clenched, threatening to turn into a claw. Wait—the shadow spell had worn off. I was totally visible now.

  A noise came from behind the tunnel entrance. My heart thudded against my ribs, and I made for the road. Surely Will and Astor would be done arguing by now.

  Another noise from the tunnel. I ducked out of the alley and swiftly walked away with my head down. Smoke drifted over from the burning shop. My shifter’s hearing picked up the sound of footsteps from the alley. So someone was using the tunnel. If I’d had another shadow spell, I’d have dared to check, but I’d cleared half the road before I risked a look behind me. I didn’t see anyone, but I knew what I’d heard. Had whoever’d been in the tunnels started the fire?

  A familiar screeching noise came from overhead. There you are, Will. I passed by the shop where Will and Astor had been talking—there was no sign of either of them now, nor Keira. I didn’t stop until I’d put a good distance between me and the fire.

  Will’s gargoyle form dipped out of sight then reappeared, turning human again as he landed outside an empty theatre. “There you are,” he said. “Please tell me you didn’t go inside the shop.”

  “I had good reason. Thought you and Astor had run away together.”

  “I’d rather put a screwdriver through my eyeballs. What in hell made you think going back into that place was a good idea?”

  “Clues. Where is Astor?”

  “Buggered off back to whatever hole in the ground he’s living in now.”

  “Speaking of holes in the ground, I think someone’s using our tunnels. I heard noises, and I swear someone came out of there just after I left. I was hiding in the alley by the shop.”

  “Seriously?” said Will. “We weren’t the only people to know about the tunnels, but… did you see who it might have been?”

  “Nope. Shadow spell ran out.”

  “I’ll fly back and have a look,” he said. “You can get home okay?”

  “I’m not five.”

  “You have a lot of enemies.”

  “Speak for yourself. Be careful,” I warned him, as he transformed again and flew away. Will’s gargoyle form wasn’t made for stealth, but he was good at hiding himself. I’d catch up on what Astor had told Will later. I needed to get Carter’s papers home before someone realised I’d stolen them.

  4

  Will didn’t come back until a couple of hours later, when Becks and I were going through Carter’s documents on the living room sofa. He stormed in, dripping rainwater everywhere.

  I glanced over my shoulder at him. “What’s with the dramatics?”

  Will sneezed. “Bloody gargoyles.”

  “What happened this time?” asked Becks.

  “I followed the dude in the alley. Lost him somewhere along the waterfront. It’s hard to follow by air when there are so many other gargoyles swooping around.”

  “Who was it, anyway?” asked Becks, who’d heard about our misadventure as soon as we’d got back.

  Will shrugged. “He didn’t look like a hunter. Maybe a shifter, maybe not. He just disappeared. I don’t remember there being a tunnel entrance there, though I might be wrong.” He looked at the papers strewn on the floor in front of the sofa. “What’s that lot for?”

  “I burgled Carter’s shop,” I said. “These are the records of all his transactions for the last few years. I want to know if he saw the Moonbeam. Or anything else incriminating. It’d help to know what he was mixed up in that made him think selling us out to the hunters was the only way to survive.”

  Will frowned at the document in my hand. “Maybe the gargoyles. Come to think of it, the place the dude vanished is around gargoyle territory.”

  “Why would a gargoyle use the tunnels, though?” asked Becks. “Anyway, we’re probably chasing a dead end, but Ember insists on combing these records. We’ve learned a few things.”

  “Like?”

  “A lot of witches buy anti-flea remedies for their pet cats.”

  Will rolled his eyes. “Sorry, Ember, but I think you’re looking in the wrong place.”

  “Maybe,” I said. “The place the Moonbeam might have last been seen was set on fire after he was murdered. Both things are linked to the Orion League. I’d say that’s no coincidence.”

 

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