Nemesis (7 page)

I’d beaten a wyvern, but I’d fought alongside two other people and it had already been injured. I didn’t want to die, even in virtual reality.

“That’s not to say it’s impossible, but you want to get the most out of the experience. Don’t do anything you aren’t ready for.”

“I’ve fought these things most of my life,” I said. “I reckon I can handle this.” And I selected a certain pain-tripping concrete monster.

The Passages shifted, warping before my eyes. And there… was a monster.

A chalder vox towered over me, seven feet of concrete-like skin, four tree-trunk legs, and five brutish arms. Drool dripped from a mouth of curved tusks, and manic pain-crazed eyes spun, resting on me. A familiar scenario. I relaxed into the fighting stance that came naturally from years of practise. A dagger appeared in my hand, and although I knew it wasn’t real, I could actually feel its shape in my hand. But there was one thing I’d expected to feel even though rationally, I’d known I wouldn’t. Magic.

I missed it almost more than I missed my old life. But I couldn’t use it again, not after it had taken me hostage, used me, almost destroyed the Earth. I’d been learning to defend myself ever since I was old enough to throw a punch, magic or no magic. Besides, killing this particular monster was easy. Just get to the weak point.

“Remember it’s not real,” said Amanda, through the headset. “The simulation’s made for ground fighting. Jumping too high tends to confuse the system.”

Oh, crap. I couldn’t try my usual manoeuvre, not that I could jump six feet in the air without a magic boost anyway. Still, I had all the tools at the ready. As the monster lunged, teeth snapping, I ducked to avoid it. The sound and sensation of teeth just missing my feet was disarmingly lifelike. I crawled between its legs, forcing it to lumber around to find me. As its head bowed, I seized my chance to throw my dagger at the neck, but missed.

“Don’t throw away your weapon!”

Oh, crap. I’d relied on magic to get around that obvious error. Stupid mistake to make.

A new weapon appeared in my hand, and we danced around each other, me mostly crawling, as forcing it to keep low was the only way to reach the weak point.

The chalder vox lunged again, and I dodged, backflipping to land on its head. Quickly, I drove the point of the dagger in before gravity caught up and I fell to the ground. At least I landed on my feet.

“Nicely done,” said Amanda. “Kay was right. You’re a natural.”

I grinned.
That’s more like it.
I was where I belonged.

Also: Kay had said that? I hoped Amanda would think my flushed cheeks were a result of the exertion.

“Let’s try again, okay?”

Simple, I thought, and then my heart started beating faster when I reached a certain name on the menu. Dreyverns. Goblin-like monsters which had almost killed Nell.

I’ll kill them
. They worked in packs to overwhelm you, but as long as you disarmed them fast, a human could take on several of them at once. Three five-foot-high, scaly creatures wielding wicked knives appeared before my eyes. Grasping my own weapon, I faced them down, delivering a kick that sent the knife spinning out of the leader’s hand. I grinned as it pierced the foot of another dreyvern.
Ha.

The other one waved its knife at me, and I feinted a strike and then went for its weapon. Not quite fast enough. The blade grazed the top of my hand, and the sudden flare of pain jarred me so much I froze–
it’s not supposed to be real!
And the second dreyvern stabbed its dagger into my shoulder.

Blunt agony tore through my body. I struck back with my knife, but my arm felt limp, heavy. Shallow breaths came too fast, and instinct warred with what my senses were telling me.
It’s not real.
But it
felt
real. Every stab of pain.

A voice echoed through my head, barely restraining a laugh:
You’re gonna kill worlds, Ada.

The thud of a body hitting the wall of a warehouse. Sobbing. The world caving in–

Gasping, I ripped off the helmet, dropping to my knees. Lucky the floor was padded. My hand jumped to my shoulder, but the pain had disappeared when I’d taken off the helmet. Though the echo remained, as though my mind needed a minute to grasp that I hadn’t actually been stabbed.

“Holy shit,” I whispered.
Breathe.
I had to remind my lungs taking in air was kind of necessary. My pulse raced, and light-headedness swept through me.

“Ada! Are you all right?” Amanda’s voice came from nearby.

“Oh. Sorry, I freaked out when I got hit. I’m okay.” Somehow, I kept my voice even. My heart still beat too fast.

“Happens to the best of us. You did well for your first time.”

No. I didn’t. I shouldn’t still be freaking out. It was weeks since that day. I was safe. Delta and the others were gone.

Thanks to me.

***

Every muscle ached when I left the complex later. When caught up in virtual reality, I lived in the moment, and the sudden energy drain came as a shock. At least I didn’t have any bruises from getting hit. Which was more than I could say from Nell’s over-enthusiastic combat lessons. Still, Alliance guards weren’t supposed to panic when faced with monsters. I’d
never
panicked before, not even the first time Nell had taken me to the Passages and we’d run into a couple of dreyverns. I’d kicked one of them in the head, and Nell had had to drag me away.

Eight-year-old me was more hard-core than twenty-one-year-old me, apparently.

I headed back to Central to meet Jeth. But there was someone else I wanted to see, too. I didn’t know if he’d be there, and God knew it’d be all kinds of awkward if my brother saw us together, but of course I wanted to. Though I hoped he wouldn’t find out about how I’d screwed up in the simulations. I gave myself a mental shake, hoping to displace the lingering shame and anxiety. I didn’t quite succeed.

Pull yourself together.

The gates were open as people were driving home, so I crossed the car park, heartbeat kicking up. Someone stood just outside–a dark-haired guy I recognised instantly.

I stopped. He was talking to a tall girl dressed in Alliance guard gear, her long auburn hair tied back, and her pretty face twisted in a scowl.

“Just wondered if it’s true that you saved Central,” she was asking.

“If I was dead, it’d be a bit difficult,” said Kay, in the offhandedly sarcastic manner that had irritated me so much when we’d first met.

“Oh, for God’s sake.” Her scowl deepened. Common sense told me I should back away and not get involved, but curiosity won. “I’m not going to shout it from the rooftops, you know.” Now she moved between him and the front doors to Central. “Well? Did you?” she asked him, hands on hips.

“No, whoever told you that is a liar,” said Kay, in icy tones. “That information’s classified. Read the papers.”

The girl flushed, eyes bright with anger. “Don’t talk to me like that.”

Kay just shrugged. “It’s true. Not my story to tell.”

“Who the hell’s is it, then?”

“Mine,” I said. And then wanted to bury myself in a hole as Kay turned to look at me. The expression on his face suggested he wanted to do the same thing.

I felt about eight inches tall.

“And you are?” From her tone, I might have been one of Cethrax’s ten-foot long worm-creatures.

“A friend.” Or something. “What the hell is your problem?”

“My problem’s with him.” She jerked her head at Kay, whose eyes narrowed. “Not you. So you had something to do with the business at Central?”

“What’s it to you?” I folded my arms and gave her my best Death Stare. “You keep looking at me like that and I’ll give you a real problem.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kay completely failing to hide his amusement. Damn him.

“I’ll do whatever I like,” she said. “Word of advice: don’t trust anything he says. I’m done here.”

She stalked off. I glanced at Kay, who was no longer smiling.

“Angry ex-girlfriend?” I queried.

“Something like that.”

We looked at each other. Awkward, not at all how I’d pictured our–reunion? It had only been a couple of days, but today alone felt like it had lasted a lifetime.

“So is this likely to be a common thing?” I asked, breaking the silence. “Did you leave a trail of broken hearts behind you at the Academy?”

He raised his eyebrows in incredulity. “That’s what you think?”

“Well, what did you do to upset her so much? Wait, I don’t think I want to know.”

“We broke up
two years ago,”
he said, the slightest edge to his voice. “Apparently, Aric’s been spreading rumours that I’m dead. If you weren’t so quick to jump to conclusions, I’d have told you.”

I folded my arms. “Oh, that’s right, try to make
me
feel bad. Hang on. No way.” I laughed, more in surprise than anything. “
She
ditched
you?
Oh, my God.”

I pressed my hand to my mouth, sorry for laughing already. Because I might not be an authority on the subject, but I knew enough to know being dumped hurt like a bitch even if the relationship was casual. I’d been on the receiving end of
that
conversation more than once.
Idiot.
It wasn’t the first time I’d got completely the wrong end of the stick.

Kay shook his head, and started to walk past me, towards the gates.

“Hang on.” I spun around, hurrying after him. “Sorry, that was tactless. I’m just… Ms Weston’s been tormenting me all day.”

“I did tell you what to expect, didn’t I?”

Ouch. “Yeah, I know. She thinks I’m going to cause trouble.”

No response. Kay turned left out the gates and I hurried to keep pace. We passed the bright-haired tourists again, who were now arguing with one of the guards. It sounded like my guess that they’d been trying to snap a photo of monster claw marks on the road around the back of Central had been spot on.

“Yes, I know I did end up causing trouble,” I muttered, after we’d crossed the road and he still hadn’t responded to me. “But–come on. I said I was sorry.”

“It’s becoming a habit.”

Ouch. Again. “For God’s sake, slow down!” Gritting my teeth, I marched after him across the road.

“Don’t you have to meet your brother?”

Damn. “I just thought… wait.” I dodged another group of tourists, who appeared to be angling for a close look at Central. “Where are you going?” We’d turned into the street to the Alliance’s training complex.

“To beat the crap out of virtual monsters,” he said, without stopping. “And not think about bloody centaur politics.”

“Centaurs?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“That’s becoming a habit, too,” I retaliated. “Quit deflecting my questions. I don’t want to argue with you.”

“Well, there’s a simple solution, isn’t there?”

I stopped, speared by the genuine anger in his voice. Without looking at me, he used his key card to open the gate. And went inside.

The fury drained out of me, making me feel even more tired than before.

And that’s how you ruin everything, Ada.

KAY

As opposed to beating up monsters, I felt more like beating my own head against the wall.
Dammit, Kay.

Instead, I fired up the highest setting on the virtual training menu, and an eight-foot-high, winged lizard exploded into life in front of me. The wyvern slammed its tail down with a noise that never failed to surprise me at how lifelike it sounded. Its fangs were bared and wicked-sharp claws gleamed white. One dagger versus twelve claws. Seemed a fair match.

I’d killed dozens of these things in simulation–as opposed to reality–since the real-life version had nearly killed me. The sure-fire way to deal with fear was to face it head-on, and kick the crap out of it. Worked for me.

Except I wasn’t dealing with it, really, I couldn’t help thinking as I dodged the wyvern’s claws, spun and kicked and stabbed the dagger point through the weaker joints in its thick armour. I was running away. I’d completely panicked when Tara had brought up how I’d killed those magic-wielders—one of whom had been Ada’s friend. Ada had used magic against others in self-defence, not with the intent to kill like I had, and she most likely wanted to forget the whole experience. But I couldn’t afford to, not if I wanted to stop it happening again. Just the thought of her looking at me like Tara had made me feel sickened and angry with myself, even though I was jumping to conclusions as easily as she had. I didn’t know Ada well at all, but maybe it was for the best she didn’t know
me.
She’d suffered more grief than anyone should have to at the hands of the Alliance already.

Damn Tara. And Aric.
Of all versions of the story about the attack on Central, I hadn’t heard that one before… obviously. It was a pretty stupid lie. Probably, he’d just wanted to wind both of us up. As for what the hell he’d even been doing over at the West London Alliance branch, I had no idea. Let alone the tech office. I was pretty sure the moron could barely operate a communicator.