“Stop looking at me like that! It’s his fault!”
“Del,” Cinder said. He didn’t shout this time; he spoke clearly, simply. “Drakh’s not taking you back.”
“No.” Rachel’s voice wavered. “No, he told me. He told me this was my last chance. If I proved . . .”
“You’ve served him long enough,” Cinder said. “It’s time to stop.”
Rachel drew a breath, looked away. Then she turned back, suddenly calmer, and I felt the futures shift. “Maybe,” she said. “But not till I kill him.”
Uh-oh. I sped up my working through the dreamstone.
Cinder’s voice was flat. “Not an option.”
“No, I have to, you see?” Rachel’s voice was suddenly bright, persuasive. “He’s the one who set all this up. You just can’t see it because he’s fooled you too. He does it to everyone, except me. He’s laughing at you right now. Look!”
“Forget. About. Verus.”
“You should call him Alex,” Rachel said absently. “I don’t—oh. Wait.” She turned and stared into empty space, her head tilted.
I felt a chill. Shireen.
“I thought you couldn’t come when he was around?” Rachel asked. She paused, then nodded. “Oh, that makes sense. But you see, don’t you? He killed Tobruk and he killed you. So I have to kill him. I’m all that’s left.”
“He didn’t kill Shireen, Del.”
“Yes, he did.” Rachel sounded as if she were explaining things to a child. “If it hadn’t been for him, she’d be fine.” She paused, frowned. “Well, you would say that.”
This isn’t working. I finished the shaping through the dreamstone. The gate was almost ready. All it would need was a push.
“This ends,” Cinder said. “Today. You got two choices. Back up the stairs with me. Or—”
“Or through that other archway and go after Alex,” Rachel said. “You know, there’s a reason I got bored of you.”
“Del—”
“Shh.” Rachel put a finger to her lips. “No more talking.”
Rachel took a step towards Cinder, then another, smiling to herself. I tensed.
“We made a promise,” Cinder said quietly. He didn’t move as Rachel closed in.
Rachel laid her hands on Cinder’s shoulders. She had to reach up to do it. Blue eyes gazed up at Cinder’s face. “I know,” she said. “And I always keep my promises.”
Cinder hesitated.
Rachel’s smile deepened. “It’s just that sometimes the important promises are the ones you make to yourself.”
“Cinder!” I shouted.
Green-black light formed at Rachel’s hands. Cinder’s black flame sprang to meet it, just a heartbeat behind. There was a flash and a roar. I caught a glimpse of Cinder staggering, then Rachel was darting towards me, light steps flying across the stone.
My spell completed and a gateway appeared in the wall to my right. I leapt through.
I held my grip on the spell, making sure the gate would stay open a few seconds longer than usual. I needn’t have bothered. Rachel jumped through with blinding speed. “Ah-ah!” she called. “No running!”
I backed away. We were in a room that looked much like the one we’d left, except that instead of being dark it was clearly lit in grey and blue.
Rachel didn’t seem to notice. She moved forward, graceful and balanced, still smiling. “Here we are again,” she told me. “Do you remember?”
“Oh, I remember,” I told her.
“I knew you’d come back,” Rachel said, as if telling me a secret. “But you shouldn’t have done that with Richard. He’s supposed to be mine.”
“You wanted to keep Richard for yourself, you shouldn’t have given him Anne.”
Rachel nodded. “You’re right. You are right. I should have made sure, shouldn’t I? If she’d died in that attack, it would have been fine. Richard would have been angry, but he’d have come around. But I can fix that. If I just—”
“I really don’t care.”
Rachel frowned. “I’m not finished.”
“Rachel, how many times have we done this?” I said. “It’s been six years now and we keep running into each other. Sometimes you’re more crazy, sometimes you’re less crazy, but it never makes much difference, does it? Nothing ever changes.”
“Well, of course it doesn’t.” Rachel sounded as if she were explaining the obvious. “You’re you.”
I’d been backing away as Rachel approached. She could have closed the distance in a lunge, but instead she paced me, watching me closely. Strangely, I hadn’t got any closer to the edge of the room.
“But I have changed,” I said. “It’s been painful, but I’ve learned. You, though? You’re frozen in time. You’re still the same broken angry teenager standing over Shireen’s dying body.”
Rachel’s smile faded. “Don’t say her name.”
“Why not?” I nodded to one side. “She’s right there.”
“Rachel!” Shireen came striding out from the archway, tension and alarm in her movements. “What are you doing?”
“Not now,” Rachel said absently, not looking at Shireen.
“No!” Shireen said. “You have to get out!”
“Oh, and don’t forget your jinn,” I said, gesturing to the other side of the room. “Looks like the gang’s all here.”
A slender, almost-human shape was standing in the shadows, unnaturally still. It watched us both, unmoving. Rachel shot it an uninterested look. “They’re always here.”
“Has it occurred to you,” I told Rachel, “that you’ve managed to kill or drive away every single person who’s ever cared about you? First there was Shireen. She was your best friend and you murdered her in cold blood. Then there was Richard. He might have put Anne above you, but he still would have kept you on. At least until you managed to ruin years of his work by freeing her. Oh, I was the one who manipulated you into it, but it was still your choice, and Richard knows it. He’ll never trust you again.”
Rachel’s expression had become fixed. All traces of a smile were gone. “Shut up.”
“And finally there’s Cinder. God only knows why, but he’s stayed loyal to you for years. Even today, you still could have taken his offer and walked away. Or you could have done, until you tried to kill him yet again.”