Page 229 of The Bone Season

‘I have to help them,’ I said faintly. ‘I need … my gun. The drop on Bear Lane.’

‘You can retrieve it soon.’

‘Crina is dead.’

‘Michael is leading the amaurotics. We will follow,’ Warden said, ‘but your dreamscape is damaged. You cannot go back to London like this, Paige.’

‘Michael was … meant to get Gail and Faz.’

‘I sent one of my other allies for them.’

Port Meadow was over a mile from the Guildhall. We were going to have to run all the way. With this in mind, I tried to kick off the red shoes of anguish. Noticing my predicament, Warden unbuckled them for me.

Only a few candles lit the gallery. The pendant caught their light, a cool weight on my neckline. Warden watched my face, clasping my cold fingers to his chest. Their tips and nailbeds had turned a purplish grey.

Another pair of gunshots rang out from below. When I opened my eyes again, a vicious light scalded them. I tried to block it, my head in agony.

‘Paige.’ A hand in a tactical glove clasped my shoulder. ‘Paige, it’s me. It’s Nick.’

Nick had a ski mask on, but I knew his voice, his aura. He wore a winter boiler suit, like an engineer.

‘Nick,’ I whispered. ‘You found me.’

‘I told you I would.’

‘Vision, we have to go, right now,’ Nadine said from the balustrade, holding a pistol. ‘We can treat her when we get back to London.’

As she spoke, she made a precise shot. I distantly sensed a dreamscape wink out.

‘It could be too late by then.’ The light gleamed back into my eyes, and a hand took mine. ‘Cyanosis, and no pupil response. She’s not doing well.’

‘You said cyanosis was normal for her.’

‘She has it persistently in her lips. Now it’s in her fingers, too.’ Nick breathed in. ‘She needs more oxygen. Fury has the mask.’

‘I’ll get it.’

Nadine swung a leg over the balustrade. I watched her drop out of sight.

Another blackout. When I stirred, there was something fastened over my nose and mouth. I recognised the smell of it. Someone was feeding me extra oxygen. Nick cradled me in the crook of his arm, keeping the mask cupped over my mouth. I breathed deep, heavy-eyed.

Warden was gone. I looked for him in the dark, my chest heaving. Instead, two covered faces hovered above me.

‘It’s not working.’ Nick sounded grim. ‘She’s pushed herself too hard.’

‘Our train will not wait, Vision.’ The other voice had an edge. ‘Drag her if you must. I will not be left here when it proceeds to London.’

‘Jax, I think she’s dying.’

‘Save her, then. Aren’t you a medic?’

Just then, Warden returned. He knelt beside me and looked at Nick.

‘Paige was attacked by four spirits, controlled by a binder of exceptional strength. I suspect they have damaged the barrier of her dreamscape. Her overuse of her gift has not helped,’ he said. ‘I have a remedy.’

‘Excuse me,’ Jaxon said icily. ‘Nobody – including you, whatever you are – will be feeding poison to my dreamwalker without my express permission.’

Warden ignored him, which I would have found mildly funny if I hadn’t been an inch from death. Nick looked at me, then at Jaxon.

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