Cursed

Both of them stared at me. “What do you mean?” Martin asked.

“It’s what it’s made to do, isn’t it?” Luna said.

“If it were that easy, everybody would be using these things.”

“Unless they didn’t know how to use it right,” Martin pointed out. “People are smarter now.”

I restrained the urge to hit Martin over the head. “Look,” I said. “You don’t need my help to use the monkey’s paw. It wants to be used. Not using it is what’s hard.”

Luna and Martin looked back at me, and I knew I hadn’t convinced them. “I know it’s dangerous,” Luna said at last. “But it’s the best chance I’ve got.”

And that was that. There was some desultory conversation between me and Luna, but Martin’s presence put a damper on it. “I’ve got some new work,” I told Luna. “We’re going to do some investigating. Want to come?”

“When?”

“About an hour. Same place as Friday. I could use some help.”

Luna hesitated. “…I can’t.”

“You can’t?”

“Martin and I were going to do some more research.” Luna looked awkward. “Sorry.”

I looked at Luna. She shifted uncomfortably. “You’ve been asking to come on these jobs for months.”

“It’s not that,” Luna said. “It’s just …” She looked at Martin.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Martin glanced at his watch. “We better go.”

I looked between Luna and Martin. Luna avoided my eyes. “Okay, then,” I said at last.

“So yeah, great talking,” Martin said cheerfully, getting up. “Sorry again about the whole Saturday thing. Really appreciate you being so big about it.”

I didn’t answer, looking at Luna. “See you later,” she said at last, and walked to the door. Martin held it open. As the door swung closed I saw him put his arm around her again. And then they were gone.

I sat there for a long time, staring out the window. There was an odd feeling inside me. It had been a long time since I’d felt it, and it took me a while to remember what it was. It was the feeling you get when a relationship that’s been fraying finally breaks.

What do you call an apprentice who doesn’t train and doesn’t join their master on jobs?

You don’t call them an apprentice at all.

I started to get angry. I’d known Luna for more than a year. In all that time I’d helped her whenever I could and hadn’t asked for much in return. And now she was disappearing. I got up and started pacing up and down.

I might have kept doing that a long time, getting more and more pissed off, but a knock snapped me out of it. The help I’d been waiting for had arrived. I took a deep breath, cleared my head, and opened the door.

The boy standing on the doorstep was about average height, with glasses, untidy black hair, and scruffy clothes. He looked like a research assistant and the hand he stuck out was ink-stained. “Hey, Alex,” he said with a grin. “Need some help?”

I found myself smiling back. “Hey Sonder.” I stepped out into the street. “I’ll tell you the story on the way.”

chapter 6

We took the Tube to South London, changing at Bank. I’ve had an aversion to taxis ever since an incident with a fire mage five months back—it’s a lot harder to ambush someone underground. The noise of the train is also handy when you don’t want to be overheard.

I first met Sonder during the business with the fateweaver (the same day Cinder blew that taxi out from underneath me, in fact). Back then he was on probation, having just completed his journeyman tests. Although he was working for the Council, I found myself liking him, and to my surprise the feeling turned out to be mutual. After everything settled down he started dropping by, and kept dropping by even after my brief flurry of publicity faded. He’d helped me out several times since, usually without asking for any particular reward.

For that reason, I made sure he knew about the possible dangers on this one. “So it’s Cinder and Deleo?” Sonder asked.

“Cinder definitely,” I said. “Deleo almost definitely. I haven’t seen her but it’s a safe bet she’s around.”

“Any others?”

“Maybe. I’m hoping you can narrow it down.”

Sonder nodded. “I was wondering what those two were up to.”

It was a pretty calm reaction, but as I’ve learnt, there’s more to Sonder than meets the eye. He looks like a history geek (which, to be fair, he is) but he’s smart and surprisingly cool under pressure. The biggest reason I like him, though, is that he’s honest. If you ask Sonder a question, his first reaction is to tell you the truth. That’s pretty rare among mages.

“So is Luna coming?” Sonder asked.

Of course, his social skills could use some work. “No.”

“Is she meeting us there?”

“She’s not coming.”

“Why not?”

I resisted the urge to tell Sonder to stop asking. It wasn’t fair to take it out on him and he was Luna’s friend too. “She’s gotten involved with some idiot who’s taken up the monkey’s paw.” I sketched out the story in a few short sentences.

“That’s … really bad,” Sonder said. His eyebrows had climbed up beneath his hair.

“Yeah.”

“But she knows the thing’s dangerous, right? You’ve told her?”

“Yes, Sonder, I told her.”