Page 51 of Never a Hero

Tom chuckled as he joined them on the balcony. ‘You’re going to get yourself banned from the Liu houses again,’ he told Ruth. ‘Jamie’s a stickler for cutlery.’ He placed the fish-and-chip bundle on the table, and Frankie on his lap. ‘We’ve got fried cod for those of us with taste. And grilled haddock for the rest.’ This was directed over his shoulder to Jamie, but his expression wasn’t even teasing—it was full of adoration.

‘Some of us want to eat fish, not batter,’ Jamie said, but his smile at Tom was just as adoring. He dropped a kiss on the top of Tom’s head as he put down the plates and cutlery.

‘I like it grilled,’ Joan said automatically, and knew without looking that Ruth was making a face in one of those family exchanges that was more ritual than argument. ‘Otherwise—’

‘Otherwise, all the textures are the same,’ Ruth said, singsong. ‘Crunchy and more crunchy.’ In her normal voice, she added, ‘That’s not even true. The chips are fluffy inside.’

Nick grinned. He tore open the butcher’s paper. Joan’s heart skipped a beat at the smile, and then another beat when he passed her one of the grilled fillets. She could almost buy this fantasy, this shadow of the true timeline. But that timeline was long, long gone; it had been replaced with one where Nick was a monster slayer. And then Joan had made this timeline—where, apparently, a terrible event was imminent.

Joan didn’t want to believe what Astrid had told her. But she couldn’t stop thinking about Astrid’s expression as she’d looked out at this view of the canal. Like it was something precious; something to remember.

Was something terrible coming? Would all this soon be gone? Would Joan remember this moment as fleeting and precious too?

Something of Joan’s feelings must have been on her face because she caught Nick looking at her with a slight frown.

‘That woman downstairs …’ he said. ‘Who is she? Why did she want to talk to you?’

‘Her name is Astrid,’ Jamie said. ‘She’s a head of the Liu family.’

Nick’s expression didn’t change. He really didn’t remember Astrid—didn’t know that he and Astrid had once been a team, standing against everyone else in this room.

‘She …’ Joan hesitated. She’d never been superstitious, but she almost felt like saying it aloud might make it true. ‘She wanted to warn me about something.’ A breeze drifted from the canal, ruffling her hair and smelling faintly of stagnant water. She looked at Tom and Jamie. ‘How much do you know about future events?’

‘Future events?’ Jamie seemed confused, and so did the others.

‘What do you mean?’ Ruth said. ‘Does she think you’re going to be attacked again?’

‘No, she—’ Joan hesitated again. ‘She told me that something bad is going to happen.’ The superstitious feeling was growing stronger. ‘She made it sound like an apocalypse.’ Joan had hoped it would sound absurd out loud, but if anything, it felt more real, more concrete.

‘What are you talking about?’ Ruth said.

Nick sat up straighter, alert. ‘What do you mean? What’s going to happen?’

‘I don’t know.’ Astrid hadn’t given any details. Joan turned to Jamie again; all monster families kept records of events—past and future—and the Liu ones were the best. ‘Is it in the records?’

‘You mean … is some cataclysmic event coming?’ Jamie just seemed confused. He looked at Tom, who shrugged his own puzzlement. ‘No.’

People will die. People on both sides—monsters and humans in uncountable numbers. Maybe it just wasn’t true, Joan thought. Maybe Astrid had been messing with her. Except that she’d seen Astrid’s horror; she’d seen her fear. And Joan knew that events could be hidden, even from monsters. Nick’s massacres had been removed from all the family records. No one had seen him coming.

‘Well … is it true?’ Nick said, frowning. ‘We need to find out.’

In profile, he reminded Joan again of a classical statue, of a hero of old. He’d pushed past confusion almost instantly. You want to know why I fought with him? He would have stopped it. Nick really had been a hero; he’d fought monsters and he’d saved humans. And if Astrid was right, he would have saved even more people than that.

‘Can we talk to her?’ Nick asked.

‘She’s left this time. She said the calamity was inevitable.’

‘Why would she say all that to you?’ Ruth said. She was getting angry. ‘Why would she say that and leave?’

Joan swallowed. ‘It’s complicated. It’s … it’s part of that long story I haven’t told you yet.’ Before Ruth could ask, Joan made the later hand signal again.

Ruth blinked once. There was only one reason for Joan to use a Hunt signal. Ruth made a subtle signal of her own. With her hand by her side, she gestured quick signs—forefinger out: trust; thumb pointing to Jamie and then Tom; fist clenched: question mark.

Joan put her own forefinger out. She trusted them. Ruth pointed subtly to Nick, and that was a much harder question to answer. Joan made the later gesture again. Ruth’s eyes widened, and she gave Nick a more assessing look.

Aloud, Joan said, ‘Astrid said she has a strong version of the Liu power—that she can remember the future like she remembers the past.’

‘Astrid told you that?’ Jamie said, looking troubled. ‘That’s not her recorded power.’ He ran a hand over his mouth. ‘She is a head of family, though,’ he said, almost to himself. ‘They keep all kinds of secrets.’

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