“Yeah.”
“Figures. Alex, she really scared me. I’ve met Dark mages out to kill me and Light ones out to kidnap me, and she frightened me more than any of them. I’d rather be back in Onyx’s mansion dodging fireblasts than spend another ten minutes alone in a room with her.”
“Why?” I said slowly. “What are you afraid she’ll do?”
“I don’t know,” Luna said. She fell silent and we walked a few steps, her shoes tapping on the gallery floor. “It felt like a recruitment pitch. I think she’s trying to get a bunch more jinn-bonded mages, with her as the boss.”
I frowned, thinking. “I’ve been learning some things about jinn.” I told Luna what I’d heard from Sonder. “Maybe that’s her plan. She wants hosts for those four ifrit.”
“And then what?”
“God knows.”
“Do you think the jinn’s making the decisions?” Luna asked. “Is she that far gone?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “The jinn might be nudging her, but she’s still the one in control. For now, at least.”
“Yeah, that was the feeling I got too,” Luna said. “But I don’t think that’s the good news you seem to think it is.”
“Why not?”
Luna was silent for a few seconds before answering. “Why do you think Anne fell in love with you?”
I looked at her in surprise. “Is this really the time?”
“There’s somewhere I’m going with this.”
“Fine . . . Because she trusted me, I guess. And because I was smart enough and good-looking enough and got on with her well enough and all the rest. But I always had the feeling that the biggest reason was that she’d spent most of her life having everyone pull back from her and be afraid of her, and I didn’t.”
Luna made a face. “I was afraid you were going to say something like that.”
I looked at her in annoyance.
“Argh.” Luna ran a hand through her hair. “I’m not good at explaining these things. Look, Anne and I have spent a lot of time together. Visiting at the apprentice programme, meeting at the shop, watching anime in the evenings. She might have liked you the most, but I’m pretty sure I understood her the most, better than anyone except maybe Vari. Now, I can’t remember when it was that you told me about her dark side, but I do remember it wasn’t actually much of a surprise.”
“Okay . . .”
“What do you think were the things you did that made the biggest impression on her?”
I shrugged. “The whole business with Fountain Reach, I guess. And then what happened with Sagash.”
“Right.”
I waited. We’d done a full circuit around the walkway. I stopped, leaning on the railing, and looked at Luna. She looked back at me.
“What are you getting at?” I asked.
“None of those things involved you trusting her.”
“Well . . . maybe not.”
“Okay, Alex, harsh truth time, okay? Anne didn’t fall in love with you because you trusted her. And it wasn’t because you’re tall and fit and good-looking and owned your own house, though that helped. She fell in love with you because you were stronger than her.”
I gave Luna a disbelieving look. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Why?”
“Well, for one thing, I’m not.”
“I know that’s how it looks to you,” Luna said. “But think about how it looks to her. You saved her from those gunmen at Archway, you rescued her from Vitus’s shadow realm, you rescued her again from Sagash’s shadow realm, you got her away from Lightbringer and Zilean . . . you get the idea? Every time she’s been in real trouble, you’ve been there to save the day, either by outsmarting the people who get in your way or by flat-out killing them. I know Anne’s got more raw power but she can’t do what you do. Light Anne likes that because she feels that when she’s with you, instead of having to take care of everyone else, she gets to be the one taken care of for a change. And Dark Anne likes that because strength is the only thing she’s got any respect for.”
“Okay, look,” I said. “Whether I agree or not, how is this going to help?”
“You’re thinking that it doesn’t matter if Dark Anne’s evil, she still cares about you,” Luna said. “She does, but not in the way you think. She’s going to push you to see what she can get away with, and she’s going to keep pushing, and being nice to her is just going to make things worse. It won’t matter that the jinn’s not in charge.”
I looked down at Luna. She looked back up at me, leaning on the railing, her gaze clear and serious. “You’re not just worried about me, are you?”
“If Anne does go ahead with this recruiting spree, I don’t think she’s going to want strangers.”
“I’ll do what I can to step on it,” I said. “But right now the Council comes first.”
“It’s not the Council I’m worried about.”
I watched Luna walk away, disappearing into the blue-white light of the palace, before turning away to open a doorway back into my own dreams. Between my arm, Anne, and the Council, there were a lot of clocks running. I wished I knew which was going to run down first.
chapter 6
When you’re hitting a stationary target, there’s always a trade-off between time and preparation. If you’re willing, you can spend weeks staking out a place, working out your attack plan. The more information you can gather, the more you’ll know what you’re getting into, and the more prepared you’ll be.
The other option is to wing it, which usually involves brute force. Back when I was a Keeper, I’d noticed that elemental mages had a tendency to just throw up a shield and kick in the door. It seemed to work for them, but I’d always preferred to lean towards the planning end of the scale. The way I saw it, I had a lot less safety margin than other mages, so the more risks I could control, the better.
Things were different now. I had more power, less time, and was playing for much higher stakes. Still, I’d been given a little room to prepare, so I made the most of it.
“Come on, make one!” Starbreeze said.
“No.”
“Come on.”
“No.”
“Come oooooon.”
“No.”
The inside of the van was cramped. I was sitting by the doors with my eyes closed. Cinder was at the other end, his bulk fitting awkwardly into the tight interior. And floating in the air above him was Starbreeze, looking like an elfin girl drawn in lines of vapour. I’d tried to explain what I’d need her to do, and she’d promptly ignored me and started bugging Cinder to make a flame for her.