Cursed

There was the sound of voices and I heard the crunch of footsteps. The background noise dropped slightly. “Hi, Alex?” Luna said again. “Sorry, it’s hard to hear.”

“Where are you?”

“On the Heath.”

I blinked. “Why are you on the Heath?”

“Um … I was going to see Arachne.”

There was something in her voice. “Is Martin with you?”

There was a pause. Luna’s not a good liar. I closed my eyes. “Luna, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“We were just going to talk to her. To see if she knew about the monkey’s paw.”

“She said she was leaving.”

“But that wasn’t going to be for a few days, right? If I asked her …”

I sighed inwardly. Luna’s one of the very few people whom Arachne’s willing to let inside her lair. It was possible; I just didn’t like the idea of Martin being there. “Have you seen anything unusual?”

A loud rustling drowned out my words. I heard someone talking and recognised Martin’s voice. “Just a minute,” Luna called back to him, then spoke into the receiver again. “Sorry, what was that?”

“Forget it,” I said. “Just drop by first chance you get, okay? I need to talk to you. Privately.”

“Okay,” Luna said. “Um, I don’t know when Martin and I’ll be done. I’ll call you afterwards?”

I was really sick of hearing about Martin. “Sure.” I heard Martin say something else as Luna cut the connection. I dropped my phone back into my pocket.

I’d been indoors all day. I locked up the shop and started walking. Maybe some exercise would help me think.

The city was bustling in the sunset. I crossed the canal and walked up Kentish Town Road, watching the rush-hour traffic pile up nose to tail. The air was filled with noise and car exhaust.

After a while I realised my feet were leading me towards the Heath. Usually when something’s bothering me I go and talk it over with Arachne. But Arachne was either gone or busy with Luna, and I didn’t want to deal with Luna and Martin. I changed direction, heading for the southern part of the Heath instead of the deeper regions that hold Arachne’s lair.

By the time I reached Parliament Hill, the sun had set and the light was fading. I climbed the hill and sat on one of the benches facing south. It’s a beautiful view. Ahead, through the branches of the trees, were the jagged skyscrapers of Liverpool Street; to the right was the looming ugly Tetris block of the Royal Free Hospital. The towers of Canary Wharf were away to the left, small and squat in the distance. The sky was the dusky blue of twilight, and lights were coming on in the windows as I watched.

I noticed my phone was about to ring and pulled it out. I was a bit disappointed to see that it was Sonder but I kept it out anyway and answered on the second ring. “Hey, Sonder.”

“Hi.” Sonder sounded worried. “I’m glad I got you.”

“I found some of those books.”

“What?”

“The ones you said you needed. About the monkey’s paw.”

“About— Oh, oh. Right.”

“Okay,” I said. “So I’m guessing that’s not why you called.” Although the Heath was darkening, there were still people scattered across the hill. A spaniel ran past, nose to the ground, stumpy tail wagging. “Something’s bothering you.”

“Yeah.” Sonder seemed to get hold of himself. “Okay. You know the thing we agreed I should check up on?”

“Not the monkey’s paw.”

“The other thing.”

I thought back to the conversation and remembered. “About Martin.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you talk to Luna?”

“Um …” Sonder hesitated. “She said she was busy.”

I’ll bet. “Okay.”

“So, um …”

“You went sniffing around anyway,” I said. I couldn’t honestly say I was surprised. It was the kind of thing I might have done.

“Yeah,” Sonder admitted.

It sounded from the echoes as though Sonder was in a corridor. “Are you at Luna’s flat?”

“…Yeah.”

“You didn’t break in, did you?”

“No! Well … not exactly.”

“Sonder …”

“I didn’t go inside! And she’d said she might be around, I was just waiting to see if—”

“Okay, okay.” I knew Sonder would get sidetracked if I let him, and I didn’t really want to hear the details. “What did you find?”

“Well … it was Martin. He made a phone call.”

“What, right now?”

“No, on Saturday night.”

“Saturday—okay. And you were listening?”

“Yeah, a few minutes ago.”

You really need a couple of extra tenses for a conversation about time magic. “Okay,” I said. “Who was he talking to?”

“Belthas.”

I stopped. “What?”

“I know,” Sonder said. “He’s not supposed to be working for Belthas, right?”

“…No. He’s not. Working for him?”

“That was what it sounded like. Martin was giving a report and then he said he was on his way to meet him. As in, right then.”

I tried to figure out what was going on. I’d missed something, something big. “What was he telling Belthas about?”

“About Luna.”

I went still.

“He said he’d spent the evening with her and things were going well.” Sonder sounded worried. “Then he said something about two or three days. Then he said he was on his way.”

Two or three days from Saturday night would be … about now. “Sonder, I’ve got to go. We’ve got a problem.”

“Why?”