Darkhaven

I had to trust Liam. I stumbled to my feet, but before I could reach Luci, the strike of a match sounded. I looked up as Sean tossed one to the ground on his left and another to his right. Now the petrol smell made sense. Like a wildfire, flames raced around either side, leaping high and surrounding the Darkhaven building – and all of us – in a wide circle. The spotting rain was not heavy enough to stop the dry scrub igniting. Luci and Dad and the Jag were caught outside the circle, blocked from my view by smoke and fire, and the only gap in the ring of flames was where Sean stood. A tongue of fire brushed his sleeve, singeing the fabric, and he stepped sideways. I slipped on the pebbly ground, landing hard on my knees in the gravel. I could feel them bleeding, stinging, then the skin scabbing over and healing.

‘It’s decision time, Gabby. See, I know you too. I know how you enjoy deliberating over the options. So you have a choice. These flames are not ordinary fire, not the kind that usually occurs on Earth.’

I heard the fight behind me stop. Keraun, his usually cocky voice filled with fear, whispered, ‘Everfire.’

Sean’s eyes glittered. ‘Everfire burns too hot for even someone of Donovan’s strength to survive. It needs fuel to burn like that, but your building is coated with it. You have about ten minutes to get them all out, or they burn to death. Even your god.’

‘No!’ I scrambled to climb to my feet. Sean held up a hand, stopping me.

‘Not so fast. You have to choose. Your friends – Cecelia and Zenna?’ He said it like a question, but I was sickened. He had been playing me all along.

‘Zenna has been asking for you. She’s going in for surgery to repair an artery, in about half an hour. Did you know she’s allergic to antibiotics? A pity her admission form doesn’t say that.’ He held up a copy of a hospital admission form with the allergy box circled in red pen. Blank.

‘And Cecelia, she is a cold bitch, isn’t she? Leaving your friend in a time of need. That put a small hole in my plans, but it’s worked out for the better. I had meant for you to only have two choices and now you get three. After your people left her house, she did go back to the library for you. Alex took out my guard and went with her. I’ve had to rearrange some things to make sure one of my best men is waiting on the second floor. He is a creature of particular … appetites.’

I felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach.

Sean smiled. ‘You can fix any one of these things. You can stay here and get your Darkhaven friends out of the everfire before it spreads. You can go to the hospital and speak to my anaesthetist there. Or you can rush to the library and intercept Cecelia before she runs into my man. He won’t touch her if he sees you.’

My mind whirled. If I messaged Cecelia, and helped evacuate Darkhaven, then rang the hospital … how allergic was Zenna? Perhaps she had time.

Sean watched my expression. ‘Before you start thinking you have time to do all three, stop. You don’t. But I’m not completely unfair. I’ll give you time to get to the location you choose. A ten-minute head start. But know that if you spend those minutes here, you will be too late to save either of your friends.’

‘You can’t ask me to choose,’ I whispered. Sean lowered his face to mine. I recoiled from the personal invasion, screwing up my nose.

‘That’s not even the best part. See, I lied. It’s a problem, I know, but I can’t seem to help it. I didn’t know where this place was. I put a tracker on you when you came to see me. That needle wound never did heal properly, did it?’

My hand went to my neck, which was still red and sore. I’d thought it was maybe a reaction to whatever drug they had been trying to give me. But it shouldn’t have affected me at all. I should have healed. I kicked myself for not getting Stephen to check it.

Sean sighed as if he’d just realised something silly. ‘And I’m lying now. Maybe this fire is perfectly ordinary, and your friends here can just walk through, or wait for it to die out. Maybe I haven’t altered Zenna’s paperwork. Maybe Cecelia didn’t even go to the library. But one of them – one – is a real threat. You have to choose which one is real. Get it right, and you save them all. But if you choose wrong? Someone is going to die, Gabby, and it will be blood on your hands.’ He leaned in close again, centimetres from my face, the corners of his mouth curling. ‘Use your intuition,’ he whispered.

He stood and folded his arms, waiting, smugness radiating from his whole body. Desperate, I reached in as far as I could, seeking that quiet place. But it was an unfathomable ocean, miles deep. I couldn’t reach that far. My stomach roiled, nausea rolling up my gullet. ‘Please. I’ll give you the disk back. I’m sorry I ever stole it from you.’

Sean laughed. ‘The disk. Luci wrote everything that is on that disk, and she has perfect recall. I’m just making sure you don’t keep the encryption key. My men will take care of that.’ He waved a casual hand at the crowd on the steps, all stopped to stare at the fire licking the edges of the building. ‘Or the flames will.’

I despaired. It was almost worse, knowing that only one of the threats was real. I had to make the correct call. I wondered, as if I had spare brain cells to ponder any question other than “who do I need to save”, what the point was. What did Sean want from me so badly that he would stage such an elaborate trap?

It didn’t matter. I had to make a decision. And I was floundering, my mind sinking, unable to come up for air, unable to form rational thoughts. Smoke stung my eyes, and I pressed my palms to my temples.

Sean unfolded his arms. ‘How about l give you a way out? Come and work for me, and I’ll fix everything.’

‘Never.’ I spat at his feet.

‘Then make your choice.’

‘Gabby!’ an impossible voice called.

I turned. ‘Stephen?’

Stephen was propped up on one elbow, blood staining his shirt, his breathing ragged. Sean had shot him in the chest but must have missed his heart. My own heart lifted. Keraun took advantage of the momentary surprise to hit back at the suits, resuming his dogged battle, stopping them from getting to Stephen. One of them broke away, but there was a yowl and a flurry of grey fur. The man went down screeching as Savah clawed and scratched at his face. In shock, I stumbled and scrabbled up the drive to get to Stephen.

‘Keraun, duck!’ Stephen called. A magpie swooped low over the roof as Keraun dropped his head, talons extending and clutching at the middle of his back. It lifted away with the white film dragging from its curled feet. As soon as it was clear of Keraun’s skin, the film evaporated into nothing. The bird cut a swift arc through the air and was joined by several more magpies, diving in and out in black and white blurs, slashing at the heads of the suits. Stephen’s face was tight with focus.

With a crash, Donovan and Dr Whittaker emerged from the front door, sharp bruises already fading from both their faces. The doctor staggered down the steps and fell to Liam’s side, shaking his shoulders. The birds swarmed Sean. Donovan pulled a gun on one of the remaining suits, then the next, and turned in time to catch another charging at her with a fresh syringe. A ragged suit broke away from the magpie flurry, launching at her back.

Keraun surged, a larger blur of black and white as he shoved the man aside. Donovan fired at the suit in front of her, then turned, her pistol clicking as it ran out of ammunition. She finished the last suit with a dull crunch of bones. The suits were all down. Keraun smiled at me briefly, then looked up, eyes glowing gold, and deep clouds developed over us. Fat drops of rain tumbled down to the earth. I supposed it wouldn’t stop everfire – if it was everfire – but it might buy time.

I turned my attention back to Stephen. ‘What do I do?’

‘Do what Liam said. You’ll know.’ He spoke softly, so Sean wouldn’t hear over the sound of flames roaring and raindrops hissing, half his attention still on the birds. Stephen must have heard Liam’s instructions. Tell Stephen I’m sorry.

I swallowed. ‘Liam said to tell you…’

But he cut me off, placing a hand on my shoulder and meeting my gaze with serious grey eyes, giving me full focus. Magpies swooped away in my peripheral vision. ‘It’s okay,’ he said. ‘I’m proud of you, Gabby. Go get her.’ He practically shoved me away.

Gritting my teeth, I climbed to my feet. Time to face Luci. Except she and Dad were stuck on the other side of the fire. I still had to get past Sean.

‘Stephen.’ Sean’s voice was molten rage. The magpies had fallen back without Stephen’s direct influence, but not before they’d ruined Sean’s face. Shreds of skin were torn away, half an eyebrow dangled down the side of his cheek and his face ran with blood from brow to chin, dripping onto his shirt.

Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out his pistol again and marched up the driveway, his shoes munching the gravel. This was my opportunity to duck through the gap in the flames, to get to Luci, but I crouched just a metre away, transfixed, horrified, my feet cast in concrete, like some part of me knew what was about to happen.

Sean fired, point-blank, into Stephen’s skull. The crack snapped through my eardrums, ricocheted off the bare walls of the Darkhaven building and faded away in echoes. A wordless cry escaped my throat, and the world went dizzy in front of me. Savah yowled.

A rough hand grabbed my shoulder.

‘You!’ I screeched, twisting in Sean’s grip and clawing mindlessly at what was left of his face, my hands slickening with his blood. I stilled as gunmetal pressed into my temple.

‘That’s it, Gabrielle. You’ve had enough time. And the irony is, if you’d just made a decision earlier about school, about this’ – he waved his hand towards the building – ‘you and I might not even be here. But now you have to make a real decision. Who will you save?’

In my peripheral vision, I saw Dad step through the gap in the fire. ‘Sean,’ he warned.

‘One.’ Sean’s voice was cold and metallic.

Dad stepped closer. ‘Sean, that’s enough.’

Sean didn’t release me. I stared into the mud, mind in a blank panic, quiet place gone, drowning in the roar of flames and the stench of ash and the rain splashing over my skin.

‘Two.’

Out of the corner of my eye, Dad raised his arm, reaching out to Sean. The clouds darkened to black.

‘Thr—’

There was a shot, a flash and a searing, deafening crack. White fire engulfed me, but it was gone almost before my brain registered it, leaving me unharmed.

Sean fell to the ground, blood pooling around a small bullet hole in his forehead, hair and clothes blackened from the lightning strike. Keraun and Donovan looked at each other. Keraun’s eyes were ablaze, but Donovan was still replacing her magazine. She hadn’t fired. I looked around. Dad stood behind Sean, pistol still raised in his hand.

I climbed to my feet and stepped away from the body. Stephen had known. Liam had seen it, and Stephen had known he would die by sitting up and calling out. Whatever this was, it was more important than anything. As I felt the trust in him and in Liam, I felt my trust in myself build. The island of calm was on the horizon. I paused, sceptical, afraid that if I rushed to grasp it, it would slip away again. But it stayed there.

I walked through the gap in the flames. Luci still stood on the other side. I looked her in the face. She just stared at me, mouth open in slight surprise. I glanced at Dad, who met my eyes with inevitable sadness.

Before I could reach Luci, Donovan charged past, barrelling into Dad. She pinned him against the bonnet of the Jag with the barrel of her gun. ‘Whose side are you on?’ she growled.

‘There are factors at play that you can’t even comprehend,’ he said, his voice calm, although his eyes flashed with annoyance. ‘So I suggest you let me handle things as I must.’

In his awkward position, Dad’s Taskforce swipe card had slipped halfway out of his pocket. Donovan kept her gun in place and flipped it over in her fingers. ‘Jon,’ she sneered. ‘How many names do you have?’

A strange look flickered over his face. ‘More than you know.’

‘Donovan, let him go,’ I said. I wasn’t sure if I minded that she was beating him up, but I couldn’t deal with anyone else getting shot today, let alone my dad.

She flashed me an unreadable glance, then returned her icy stare to the man lying on the bonnet. Donovan relaxed her grip and he stood, straightening his jacket. For a moment, it felt like time hung still in the air, giving us a chance to pivot. Pain still lanced through me as I thought of Stephen lying in the driveway, but I took a deep breath. Enough delayed decisions.

Now was the moment. If I was going to choose, I was out of time. Rainwater ran through my hair, down the back of my shirt and into my eyes, washing the salt and fear sweat away. I reached gently, deep, deeper than I’d ever reached before, to some dark foundation of myself that I hadn’t known existed.

And I felt it. Certainty. Sean was lying. He was lying about the whole thing. He knew about Zenna in hospital and Cecelia going to the library because he’d tapped my phone. Things I hadn’t seen when I was caught in panic sharpened into focus, and I realised I’d been in a state of panic since the fiasco at the Taskforce. If everfire was something that made even Keraun tremble, Sean would not have stood so close to it, so carelessly. Zenna would be in surgery long before I could get to the hospital. It seemed too convenient, but even if Sean had changed her medical records, it was already too late, and I’d have to hope the doctors had saved her. I didn’t know what floor of the library Cecelia and Alex were on. But I knew, in this new foundation, that he was bluffing.

So I did nothing about Sean’s dilemma. He was just a henchman, bigger than a pawn perhaps, but still another piece in the game the Taskforce was playing. I had the queen right in front of me and I knew, without knowing how, what Liam wanted me to do.

I reached out and put my hand on Luci’s sternum, skin touching next to the collar of her blouse. Too late, she moved to block me. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise, and our eyes locked, but I didn’t see her. I saw her DNA.

Like a code laid out before my eyes, in a language I could understand, I could read her DNA and see what she’d done to it as clearly as if I was reading a book. I could read her genome, and then some, information I’d had no idea could be conveyed by DNA, or perhaps I was seeing more than DNA. I could see her intelligence, her gift as a geneticist. I could see the gene that gave her physical regeneration. That was strong for her. I could see others, less strong, but I could understand how it worked, giving advanced strength, muscle growth, speed. Even a gene governing intuition and psychic abilities. I could see her DNA morphing too. The Praegressus program danced over her code like magic, swirling flashes of light ribboning before my eyes. But there was something changing in her DNA, even now, and it was impairing her physical abilities. That was what Sean had meant when he’d said she was weak. When – or if – she recovered, she would be stronger, closer to immortality than ever before.

There was a trace of another set of DNA too, a man’s. There was something familiar there, but I couldn’t quite place it. The entwinement suggested a partnership. I even saw events, marks on her DNA made by traumatic experiences, going back for generations.

Then I noticed an odd thing. There was a section that was somehow clumsily designed, like a piece had been cut out and the remaining ends forced together, leaving an ugly weld. I searched for what was missing.

Ethics. And empathy. Ingrained love for family. That was just the start. There should be compassion for humanity, and for the planetary system. Then life and the universe. A governing code of morality, shaped by her life experiences. It had been burned out of her. I recognised it because I knew what her genome should look like. She was my mother, and because we shared DNA, she couldn’t break this connection. Somehow, I was in control. While I had my hand on her, she couldn’t touch me.

Her driver punched me in the side of the head. Lights flashed across my eyes. I doubled over and vomited into the dirt.

The pain faded quickly, but the blinding light increased, filling the whole space. I realised it wasn’t from the punch and turned to look for its source. A column of light was forming on the other side of the fire. Before Luci or her driver could grab me again, I rushed back through the gap in the flames. Tyres scrunched on the gravel behind me, but I didn’t look back. Keraun stood at the centre of the light column, horrified. I was in front of him in an instant.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked, reaching out to him. Like the film Sean had put on him, I couldn’t feel the column, only see it, but his shoulder was solid under my hand.

‘I’m not,’ he answered. His voice had lost all its velvet. It was hollow and sad, like water dripping onto a lost, undelivered letter. ‘The Uzrun are taking me in.’

I glanced back at Sean’s blackened form lying in the mud.

‘But that … that was probably saving lives … and he’s an evil … ’

Keraun grinned. ‘Oh, I’m not apologising. But I might have to pretend at the trial. No excuses, remember?’

‘Trial?’ I asked, putting my hands on his shoulders. ‘Where?’

‘A long way from here,’ he answered. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll tell them I am sorry. They don’t need to know that what I’m sorry for is leaving you.’

The rainfall slowed and the heavy clouds receded as Keraun’s eyes dulled to normal brown. I gripped him. ‘You can’t go now!’ I fought back the tears threatening to replace the rain washing down my face. I was not going to cry over this boy, not after one kiss. But the kiss. I bit my lip.

He took my wrists and pulled me close. ‘I will come back for you,’ he murmured. ‘I’ll even get a hybrid.’

‘Keraun Thephyeu,’ an officious voice said. Out of nowhere, a huge grey cube appeared, and two figures with translucent white hair and a third eye blinking on their brows stepped out of a door in the box. ‘You are to be tried for the murder of a stage two human. Until the time of your trial, you will remain in confinement.’

Keraun let go of me and stepped back. The two officials flanked Keraun and escorted him into the giant cube as the light surrounding him faded. The box shimmered and vanished, and he was gone. The rain stopped. Tears like smudged ink rolled over my cheeks and dripped off my chin into the mud, and the fire kept burning.