Page 55 of Never a Hero

‘Did you care to know? Do you care? Maybe you should be concerned about your own people.’ Liam’s eyes burned. ‘Or are we your people? How do you think of yourself? Monster or human? Where does your allegiance lie?’

It was a strangely familiar question. Joan had said something like that to Astrid earlier. Sometimes she even talked about herself as half. Half-monster, half-human. Half-English, half-Chinese. As if she were made of construction blocks that had been put together and could be disassembled again. But that wasn’t how she felt inside.

Jamie’s voice sounded, startlingly close. ‘All right,’ he said. When had he come into the room? Joan hadn’t even heard him.

‘It’s not all right.’ Liam sounded close to tears.

‘I know,’ Jamie said gently. ‘I know it isn’t.’

Liam made a choked noise at the back of his throat. Joan stared after him, shaken, as he headed for the door.

How could Astrid have fought alongside Nick? How could she have made a choice like that? Joan couldn’t imagine anything worse than what Liam had described of the Liu house massacre. Than the massacre of Joan’s own family. But … She saw again the dull horror in Astrid’s face. I’ve seen the end. People will die. So many more than he ever killed or saved.

How bad was the calamity that Astrid had seen? How could it be worse than all this?

‘Joan,’ Jamie said. It took Joan a long moment to register her own name. ‘I might have found something.’

Joan felt like she was about to burst into tears. ‘What?’ she heard herself say. Liam’s words were still echoing in her head. He broke her neck. I tried to fight him. Where does your allegiance lie?

‘Ruth was right. Your grandmother was investigating something,’ Jamie said.

‘Investigating what?’ Joan’s own voice sounded hoarse, as if she had been crying. He killed so many of us. She had a flash of herself running through Holland House, trying to escape Nick’s people. She could feel Gran’s blood on her hands again, the sharp-edged branches of the maze again.

‘I don’t know,’ Jamie said. ‘Your grandmother vanished a year ago. But before that, she was looking into something. We have records of her visiting a place near Covent Garden three times in the week before she disappeared.’

‘Is it near here?’

‘Near enough,’ Jamie said. ‘I can take you. We’ll need to be careful, though. There are still Court Guards on the streets.’

‘We’ll be careful.’ Joan needed to get out of here. She needed to get Nick out of here. She needed to clear her head.

seventeen

Tom moored the boat by the Hungerford Bridge sometime before dusk. The Houses of Parliament loomed beyond the netting-like frame of the bridge.

Joan felt a jolt of disquiet as they disembarked. The events of the other timeline seemed to lurk, ghost-like. One street away, the gate to the Monster Court had opened. Just beyond that was St James’s Park and then Buckingham Palace, where Joan and Aaron had first arrived in 1993.

‘Are you allowed to moor here?’ Nick said doubtfully. ‘Isn’t this a river bus stop?’

‘Allowed?’ Tom shrugged. ‘Don’t know about that. But that symbol means something on the water.’ He nodded at the two-headed hound. ‘We could leave Tranquility here for a year, and no one would touch her.’

They walked up the concrete pier, around a shuttered booth for river cruises. The roller door had a marketing photo of people laughing on a speedboat, the picture crimped by the lines of the door.

Joan found herself beside Nick. She searched his face for signs of the Argent power, but he looked like his ordinary self. ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked him.

‘I’m fine,’ he assured her. ‘I don’t even think that guy used his power on me—I don’t feel any different.’

Cold wind gusted over the water, making Joan shiver. She found his lack of concern unsettling. ‘Nick—’

‘Hey,’ he said. He caught her elbow gently. ‘I didn’t want to hurt monsters before, and I still don’t. I don’t think it’s affected me at all.’

Joan swallowed, trying not to think about how warm his hand felt through the sleeve of her shirt. ‘Maybe it’s already worn off,’ she said, hoping. ‘Corvin Argent’s power didn’t last long.’ And, according to Corvin’s chop, his father was a head of family. His power must have been strong.

Ruth interjected from up ahead. ‘There must be a way to test it.’

‘You could try hitting one of us,’ Tom suggested over his shoulder. He had Frankie in his arms, and she was already starting to snooze. ‘Try hitting me.’

Nick laughed. ‘Maybe later.’

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