The Man with the Golden Torc

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Time and Time Again

"So," I said to the Mole, "is there by any chance a back way out of this place? I’m really not too keen on fighting my way back through tunnels full of seriously pissed-off trolls just to get back to Blackfriars station. Which is probably swarming with unfriendly people on the lookout for Molly and me anyway."

"Of course there’s another way out," said the Mole. "You don’t think I’d allow myself to be trapped anywhere, even in my own lair, do you? I may be paranoid, agoraphobic, and unhealthily addicted to eBay, but I’m not stupid. No. I’ve always known that one day my many enemies will track me down, and then I will have to leave my comfortable little bolthole. Probably running. Yes. So, if you would care to make your way to the back of the chamber, preferably without knocking against or in any way upsetting my very delicate equipment, you’ll find an emergency elevator, ready and willing to take you straight to the surface."

"Where on the surface?" said Molly.

"Anywhere on the surface," the Mole said smugly. "Just tell the elevator where you want to go, and it will deliver you there."

"Anywhere in London?" said Molly.

"Anywhere in the world," said the Mole. "You always did think too small, Molly."

"An elevator to anywhere in the world?" I said. "How is that even possible?"

The Mole smiled on me pityingly. "You wouldn’t understand even if I did explain it to you. Let’s just say that quantum uncertainty is a wonderful thing and leave it at that. It was nice to meet you at last, Molly. And you, Edwin. But don’t come back. You’re just too dangerous to have around. Bye-bye. Safe journey. Why are you still here?"

Molly and I took the hint, nodded good-bye, and headed for the back of the cavern. Where there was indeed a perfectly ordinary elevator door set flush into the black basalt cavern wall. The door was polished steel, and beside it was a big red button, marked UP. I looked at Molly.

"On to the next rogue, I suppose. For want of anything better to do. You do know of another rogue?"

"Of course. Sebastian Drood. He has a nice little place in Knightsbridge, just down the road from you."

I may have blinked a few times. "I never knew that."

"Lot of things you don’t know that I do," said Molly. "You’d be amazed. Sebastian’s been around for ages, though he doesn’t bother to make the scene much. Likes to be thought of as a gentleman thief, but he’s really just a professional burglar with delusions of grandeur."

"Can’t say I know the name," I said. "Probably got scrubbed from the family history, like the Mole. And me."

"Sebastian’s a lot older than you," said Molly. "And though he’s not averse to involving himself in the odd plot or intrigue, he’s always been a behind-the-scenes kind of player. A real let’s you and him fight kind of guy. Never does anything unless there’s a profit in there somewhere for him. But he might help you…just to get back at the family that dared to outlaw him. Sebastian’s always been a great one for nursing a grudge."

She hit the UP button and announced the name of a street in upmarket Knightsbridge, and the elevator door hissed open. The interior looked just like any other elevator. We stepped inside, and the door shut quickly behind us. There was no control panel and no sensation of upward movement, but just a moment later the door opened to reveal a street I recognised that was only a few minutes’ walk from where I used to live. I stepped outside and looked around cautiously. There was no sign of any Drood agents. Whatever surveillance there was was probably concentrated around my old flat, just in case I was dumb enough to go back there.

The sun was high in the sky. Half a day gone, and damn all to show for it. It was hard to think, to plan properly, under such constant pressure. I looked back at Molly and wasn’t surprised to discover that the elevator door had disappeared behind her.

"How is it you know Sebastian?" I said. "Have you worked with him too?"

"You have got to be joking," said Molly, curling her lip. "I wouldn’t touch that man with a disinfected barge pole. He works alone because no one else trusts him. He’s a two-faced, treacherous little turd who’s screwed over pretty much everyone at one time or another. However…he can be the man to go to when you need to get your hands on a certain item that no one else can supply, legally or illegally. Sebastian can get you anything, for the right price, as long as it’s firmly understood that there isn’t going to be any provenance. Or any protection if the original owner discovers you’ve got it. You can also be absolutely sure that there won’t be any refund if the item in question turns out to be not entirely what you thought it was. It’s up to you to be sure before you hand over any money. Buyer beware, and carry a bloody big stick."

"And this is the man you thought might help me?" I said.

"I’d better phone ahead," said Molly, producing a bright pink phone with a Hello Kitty face on it. "Make sure he’s in and that he’ll agree to see us."

"Might not be wise, using my name over a standard phone, on an open line," I said. "My family have people who listen in on everything."

"Don’t teach your grandmother to throttle chickens," said Molly.

"I haven’t spoken over an open line in years. The angels themselves couldn’t listen in on one of my calls without actual divine intervention on their side."

She moved a few steps away while she punched in the number. I leaned back against an ornamental stone wall and considered my situation. I wasn’t impressed with the two rogues Molly had introduced me to so far. Oddly John had gone mad, and the Mole was well on his way in the same direction. Both of them trapped in prisons of their own making. And this Sebastian sounded like a real scumbag. How could I trust anything a man like that might tell me, even if I could persuade him to talk? But time was pressing, and I had to get answers from somewhere. If nothing else, I was pretty sure I’d know the truth once I heard it. That I would recognise it somehow. My left arm hurt like hell, even though I had my hand tucked into my belt to carry some of the weight. I massaged the muscles with my other hand, but it didn’t help. The pain beat sickly in my left shoulder and down into my chest. The strange matter was spreading inexorably through my system. Three days, Molly had said. Maybe four. Maybe not. I had to get my answers soon, while they were still some good to me.

Time was against me…

Molly turned off her phone and put it away. "He says he’ll see us, but only if we come over right away. It’s just a few minutes’ walk from here. But Eddie…try to be nice to Sebastian. He can be a real pain in the arse, but…he really does know things that no one else does. Is there anything you might know that you could offer him in exchange? Some family secret, perhaps, from after his time? Sebastian loves secrets. He can’t sell them on fast enough."

"I am wise," I said, "and know many things. And I shall be perfectly polite to Sebastian. Right up to the point where he refuses to tell me something I need to know, and then I will bounce him off the nearest wall until his eyes change colour. I really feel like beating the snot out of someone obnoxious. It’s been that kind of a day. Is any of this going to be a problem for you?"

"Hell," said Molly. "I’ll hold his arms while you hit him."

Sebastian turned out to have a magnificently appointed second-floor apartment over a very refined and upmarket antiques shop called Time Past. I took a quick peek through the window. The shop was full of those delicate kinds of items where, if you have to ask the price, you definitely can’t afford them. Molly peered over my shoulder, sniffed dismissively at the lot, and then rang the bell beside the discreet side door. There was a name card beside the bell, and it wasn’t anything like Sebastian Drood. After a lengthy pause, while Sebastian checked us out in some unobtrusive and probably highly arcane manner, the side door swung open before us. Inside was a narrow set of stairs leading up. Narrow enough to ensure that anyone ascending to Sebastian’s lair could only do so in single file. Good defensive thinking. Molly went first. I followed after, sneering at the terribly passé hunting prints on the wall.

The stairs ended in another door, solid oak barred with cold iron and silver. It opened by itself as Molly and I approached, and we filed through into the gorgeously laid-out apartment beyond. Sebastian was waiting for us. He stood, carefully poised and elegant, in the middle of a bright spacious living room, and waited for us to come to him. Sebastian was tall, handsome, and oh so sophisticated. You could tell. He’d put a lot of effort into making sure you could tell. He had to be in his late sixties, but his hair was still jet-black, and his face had a certain taut look to it that spoke of frequent face lifts and regular Botox injections. He had cold blue eyes and a smile that came and went so quickly it meant nothing at all. He wore a white roll-necked pullover above casually expensive slacks with the kind of handmade shoes you have to take out a second mortgage to pay for. The roll neck hid the gold collar around his throat, but I could tell it was there.

"Molly! Eddie!" he said in the kind of deep rich voice you only get by practicing, probably in front of a mirror. "Do come in. Delighted to see you both."

He shook us both firmly by the hand but didn’t sit down or invite us to. It seemed we weren’t expected to stay that long. Sebastian produced an antique silver snuffbox from his pocket and opened it with a flourish. A hidden mechanism played a tinkly version of "The British Grenadiers" while Sebastian tapped out two small mounds of dark powdered tobacco onto the back of his hand and snorted them up one nostril at a time. He then sneezed explosively into a silk handkerchief before putting it and the snuffbox away again. It was a performance designed to impress. If it had been anyone else, I would have applauded.

"That stuff’s worse than coke," said Molly. "You’ll see; one of these days the whole inside of your nose will just drop out."

"I like my vices old-fashioned," said Sebastian, quite unconcerned. "I find the qualities of the past so much more satisfying than those of the present. As you can see…"

He indicated the contents of his apartment with a graceful wave of one long-fingered hand. It was sumptuously appointed, every item of the highest quality. Upon the waxed and polished bare board floor stood antique furnishings from a dozen different periods carefully arranged and presented so the different styles wouldn’t clash. Original paintings on the walls, each carefully illuminated by concealed track lighting. Plus a handful of Victorian pen-and-ink erotica, ranging from the cheerfully vulgar to the actually appalling. There was even a glass and diamond chandelier hanging from the ceiling. And yet for all the effort that had gone into it, I couldn’t help thinking Sebastian’s living room looked more like a showcase than a room where someone actually lived.

"Very nice," said Molly. "Very…you. Is that antiques shop downstairs yours as well?"

"Oh, of course. It makes for very good cover when I want to bring in something new that I’ve just…acquired. I have this delightful young lady who runs the shop for me. Charming little filly. She’s really just a golem with a concealing glamour spell, but the customers never seem to notice. Now then, Eddie; let us talk business."

"Yes," I said. "Let’s."

He looked me over as though I was something he was considering buying, probably against his better judgement. "So; you’re the latest rogue. Old goody-two-shoes Eddie, no less. The whole area’s been full of family looking for you. I’ve hardly dared step outside my flat. I was actually quite shocked when I heard the news. I’d gone to such pains to hide my presence from you, all these years…and now you’re an official disgrace, just like me. Do you know why I left the family, Eddie?"

"No," I said. "But I’m sure you’re about to tell me."

Molly hit me in the ribs with her elbow, but Sebastian didn’t notice. He had a story to tell, and nothing short of an appearance by Death herself was going to stop him.

"The family sent me out into the world to be their agent," he said grandly. "But I decided that I liked the world much more than I liked the family. Never any room in the family for personal ambition or advancement or the acquisition of lovely things. So I just walked away, disappeared behind the scenes, and set about using the torc for my own purposes. To enrich my life and make it so much more comfortable. And I have! I have become quite extraordinarily successful at my chosen profession, and I am one of the most admired professional gentleman thieves in London. It could have been the world, but I do so hate to travel.

"With the help of my armour, I can break into any establishment and walk off with anything I take a fancy to. And I do. Alarms and security mean nothing to me when I’m in my armour. I come and I go, and I take what I will, and no one ever knows anything about it until it’s far too late. Scotland Yard, baffled again! I have the very best antique furniture, everything from a Louis Quinze chair to a Hepplewhite sideboard. Famous paintings, in their original frames! Whatever catches my eye. Nothing is safe from me.

"You know how I track it all down? I simply make it my business to patronise all the best auctions and make a note of who buys what. There are those who hide behind anonymous bids, but auction house security is a joke to such as us, Eddie. All the lovely things in this flat originally belonged to someone else who couldn’t hold on to them. Probably didn’t appreciate them, anyway. Not nearly as much as I do. I’m sure the pretty things are all much happier here, with me."

"Wait just a minute!" Molly stalked over to a side table and snatched up a stylised statuette of a black cat. "This is mine, you bastard! I always wondered what happened to it…This is the Manx Cat of Bubastis! I went through all manner of hells to get my hand on this, and then it just disappeared from my old place four years ago!"

"Really?" said Sebastian airily. "I honestly don’t remember where I acquired that particular piece."

"It’s mine!" said Molly dangerously.

"It’s only yours if you can hang on to it, Molly dear. But if you’re going to make such a fuss about it…"

"This leaves here with me," said Molly, striding back to my side with the Manx Cat firmly in her grasp. "And if I hear one word of objection from you, Sebastian, I’ll rip your nipples off."

"Dear Molly," said Sebastian. "Gracious as ever."

"I thought we were going to be polite," I said, amused.

"You be polite," she growled. "He wouldn’t believe it if it came from me. The Manx Cat has power I invested in it long ago. It can restore a lot of the energies I’ve been using up recently. Though it’ll take a while."

I turned my attention back to Sebastian, who didn’t seem in the least put out by Molly’s actions. "How have you stayed hidden from the family for so long?" I said. "Hell, how did you stay hidden from me?"

"Oh, I’m pretty sure the family has always known roughly where I am," he said easily. "But they know better than to rock the boat. You see, some years ago I took the precaution of leaving certain very detailed information packets with a number of journalists, and other interested parties, all over the world. In well-sealed caskets, set to open automatically in the event of my death. Even our family couldn’t be sure they’d got all of them, so they leave me alone. In fact, they’d do well to ensure that nothing ever happens to me…"

"How very…practical," I said. "But you could still die in an accident. What then?"

He shrugged. "If I’m dead, I won’t care. I’m sure the family will think of something. They always do." He looked at me thoughtfully. "I really don’t think I can help you, Eddie. Whatever it is you want, I can’t supply it. The family is very upset with you, and I don’t care to get caught in the middle. I look out only for myself these days. And before you ask, no, I have no idea why you were made rogue. I have no contact with anyone inside the family. I don’t even speak to the other rogues. You’re just wasting both our time by being here."

"Then why did you agree to see me?" I said, feeling a slow hot anger build within me. "I don’t have time to waste."

He sneered at me. "I always wondered if you’d be the one they sent to kill me. If they ever did find a way to dismantle my little safeguards. You killed poor Arnold, after all, and you did live just up the road from me."

"How did you kill the Bloody Man, Eddie?" said Molly. "I mean, I thought the armour made all you Droods invulnerable."

"Only when we’re wearing it," I said. "I staked him out, learned his routine, and then shot him through the head from a safe distance using a rifle with a telescopic sight. He never knew I was there, never got the chance to armour up. Very effective; if not especially honourable. But I was a lot younger then, and he was the Bloody Man. You don’t take chances with a man like that."

Sebastian smiled. "Funny you should say that, Edwin."

There was a sudden sting in my neck even as I heard the window glass beside me shatter. I started to turn. I thought, I’ve been shot. And then my legs were buckling, and I sank very slowly to my knees. I put my hand up to my neck, and it seemed to take forever to get there. Sound slowed, and my vision blurred, as though I was underwater. My numbing fingers found a feathered dart in the side of my neck, just above the torc, and I pulled it out with the last of my strength. Tranquilizer dart, I thought, and the words seemed to echo around and around inside my head. I tried to call up my armour, but my thoughts were already too dulled to concentrate on the activating Words. I slumped to the floor, hitting it in a boneless heap, and I didn’t even feel the impact.

This all happened in a few seconds. Molly threw herself down beside me, below the shattered window, out of the line of sight of any more darts. She put her hands on either side of my face and muttered urgently under her breath. I could feel her touch when I couldn’t feel anything else, and then I felt subtle magics flowing into me, fighting off the effects of the tranquilizer. My body was still numb, still helpless, but my thoughts slowly began to clear. Molly glared up at Sebastian.

"You bastard! You sold us out!"

"Of course," he said smoothly, giving all his attention to the adjusting of a cuff. "It’s what I do. Rest assured, I got a very good price. For both of you. A certain Mr. Truman of Manifest Destiny was very pleased to learn exactly where and when he could be sure of finding you. I was on the phone to him the moment I stopped talking to you. And then all I had to do was keep you entertained here until his people could get into position."

The door burst in, and a dozen armed men streamed into the apartment, all of them in familiar black uniforms. They looked quickly around to make sure the place was secure, their guns constantly trained on Molly and me. She stayed very still. I twitched my fingers ever so slightly. Molly’s magics were fighting off the drug, but only very slowly. I looked at the guns and wondered why the soldiers weren’t already shooting. I would have. One of the men knelt down beside me, checked the sluggish pulse in my neck, and then stood up again, satisfied. He yelled out the open door, and his group commander sauntered in. And if I hadn’t been so tranked, I would have yelled out in shock and anger.

I knew the group commander. She wore battered old army fatigues still stiff with dried black blood from fighting in a hell dimension. She wore her black hair cropped short, so enemies couldn’t grab at it during close combat. Her scarred face was no longer pretty, and her bare muscular arms were scarred too. I knew all these things about her because I knew her. She was Janissary Jane, an old friend and colleague to Molly and to me. Except it wasn’t her. Not really. Around her neck she wore a Kandarian amulet on a chain, and that meant this was really my old adversary Archie Leech.

Archie Leech, serial possessor, occupying another stolen body. Only this time he’d taken someone who mattered to me, no doubt in revenge for what I’d done to him in that cellar under Harley Street. Archie/Jane swaggered forward into Sebastian’s apartment and grinned down at me, proudly waggling the gun she’d used to shoot me. And then she shot Sebastian in the neck with another tranquilizer dart. Sebastian crashed to the floor, thrashed awkwardly for a moment, and then was still, an almost comical look of shock on his face. I would have laughed if I could. The betrayer betrayed. Archie strolled over to him, his exaggerated masculine movements out of place in Jane’s body.

"You really should have seen that one coming, Sebastian. You got soft, living on your own. Playing at being the gentlemen thief. Got cocky, thinking no one could touch you. You should have realised two Droods were always going to be worth more than one." She turned abruptly back to look down on me and smiled happily. "How do you like my new body, Eddie? I thought I’d slip into something a little more comfortable this time. You know…I hate it when you destroy my bodies before I’m finished with them. Before I’ve squeezed every last bit of fun out of them. So this time I went out of my way to take a friend of yours just to prove that I’ll always be able to hurt you so much more than you can hurt me."

She kicked me in the ribs a couple of times just to make his point. The force of the blows was enough to lift me up off the floor, but I hardly felt them. My hands and my feet were tingling, and my face wasn’t as numb as it had been, but that was all. Molly’s magic was working. My head was clearing fast. I probably could have armoured up, but I didn’t want to risk it, not just yet. Not with so many guns trained on Molly as well as me. So I lay still, watching and listening and biding my time. Molly stayed down beside me, also keeping very still, giving Archie no reason to trank her too.

"What happens now?" she said, her voice carefully calm and nonthreatening.

"I deliver the three of you to Mr. Truman," said Archie. "My current and very generous employer. He can’t wait to get his hands on two Droods and their torcs. I understand he has a whole team of surgeons standing by, ready to take his two new prizes apart one piece at a time, until they find out just what it is about a Drood and his torc that’s so special. A very slow, very painful process, I should think…Maybe Mr. Truman will let me watch, if I ask nicely. Apparently he was very impressed by what three armoured agents were able to do to the very well-trained and expensive army he threw at them. He can’t wait till he’s able to put a torc around the neck of every Manifest Destiny soldier, and then turn them loose on the world. I do so admire a man with ambition…"

"He won’t learn a thing from vivisection," Molly said flatly. "Except to remember what happened to the goose that laid golden eggs."

Archie shrugged with Jane’s shoulders. "I don’t think he cares that much. He just needs someone to take out his rage on. He really is very upset at what those three Droods did to his fine army. You should have heard him! I suggested he just kill Eddie and Sebastian, and then bring them back as zombies. Then he’d have two Droods with torcs who’d do anything he told them to. But apparently that wasn’t enough for him. The Droods have torcs, so he has to have them too. It’s a parity thing. But you shouldn’t feel left out, Molly; I gather he has quite detailed plans for you too. He keeps special torture cells for those of his own people who turn on him."

Strength flooded suddenly through me as Molly’s magics stamped out the last of the drug’s effects. Sensation flooded back through every part of me, and my thoughts were clear and sharp. I looked up at Molly, caught her eye, and mouthed the word Now. She grinned back at me and lashed out at the watching armed men with a simple tangle spell. All twelve of them crashed to the floor at once, their muscles spasming helplessly as witchy lightning crawled all over them, spitting and crackling. The spell hit Archie Leech too, but she just staggered backwards, fighting the spell with the strength the amulet gave him.

I was already up on my feet, heading for Archie. And thinking desperately on how to stop him without killing or even damaging Janissary Jane. I’d had to kill Archie’s last host body to stop him, but I couldn’t do that here. No more dead innocents on my watch. Unfortunately that gave him the advantage. He wouldn’t care what happened to Jane’s body; he could always jump to another. I slammed into Archie’s stolen body just as she shrugged off the last of the tangle spell, and the two of us hit the floor together. The gun flew from Archie’s hand, and she struggled fiercely under me, fighting to draw the knife at her belt.

I grabbed the Kandarian amulet in both my hands. It tried to evade me, twisting this way and that, but at such close quarters there was nowhere for it to go. I closed both my hands around the awful thing, squeezing them tightly shut, and the amulet burned my palms with a cold fiercer than any heat. I subvocalised my activating Words, and the golden armour surged around me in a moment even as Archie finally got her knife free and thrust it at my ribs. The heavy steel blade slammed and shattered against my armour as the living metal flowed over both my hands and what they contained. The Kandarian amulet was now inside my armour with me, sealed off and insulated from the rest of the world. And that was all it took to sever Archie’s connection to the amulet.

I rolled away from Archie as he screamed like a damned soul, Jane’s body thrashing and kicking as his possessing spirit lost its hold on her, and she forced him out. Archie had nowhere to go; his original body had been destroyed long ago. I used my Sight and saw Archie’s real shape superimposed over Jane’s, just for a moment. And then his soul fell away from the world, howling horribly, summoned at last to the Hell that had been waiting for him for so long. I turned off my Sight. I didn’t want to See what was waiting for him.

Janissary Jane lay unconscious on the floor, twitching and shuddering. Physically exhausted and in psychic shock, probably. But she’d recover. She was a fighter and had known worse in her time.

The Kandarian amulet writhed inside my enclosing hands like a living thing, burning colder than the fiercest winter. A coldness of the heart, and of the soul. I could feel its presence inside the armour with me, fighting to impose its will on mine. The armour couldn’t protect me while the amulet was inside it. I seemed to a hear a dark inhuman chorus of voices drawing slowly closer: Join us. Join us. Just the sound sickened me, as though something had trailed slime across my mind. I armoured down, and the moment the living metal disappeared from my hands, I threw the nasty thing away from me.

The amulet skidded across the floor and Sebastian snapped out of his apparent stupor, rolled to one side, and snatched it up. He scrambled to his feet, smiling terribly as he clutched his prize to his heart. "You’re not the only one who can play possum, Eddie; I protected myself against all poisons years ago. And now…I have power beyond dreams. Because if you haven’t got the balls to use this, Eddie, I have. I shall enjoy hundreds of bodies, young bodies, and live lifetimes…"

"Throw it away," I said, rising slowly to my feet. "It’ll destroy you."

"Like that fool Archie Leech? I don’t think so. I can control it."

"No one can control it," I said. "It corrupts. That’s what it does. You’ll end up just like Archie, a spiritual rapist."

"I need a new body," said Sebastian. "This one’s getting old. It’s slower, and it lets me down. People like me shouldn’t have to grow old. Not when we enjoy life so much. Appreciate its pleasures and its qualities so much. It isn’t right that someone like me should die just because an old body is wearing out." He smiled at me, and it wasn’t his smile, not anymore. "Maybe I’ll take your body, Eddie, just for a little test drive. See what it can do. And maybe I’ll do awful, awful things with your body, just for the fun of it."

Molly hit him over the head from behind with the Manx Cat statuette, and he crumpled to the floor, unconscious. He’d been so taken up in taunting me that he never even noticed Molly sneaking up behind him. The Manx Cat cracked into pieces, crumbled, and fell apart. Molly looked at me, shrugged and smiled, and brushed the last few bits off her hands. The Kandarian amulet had spilled out of Sebastian’s hand as he collapsed, and now it lay on the floor between us. Such a small thing, to be so evil. I stepped forward and stamped on it, and the ancient stone crumbled into dust under my heel.

But with the Manx Cat shattered, the power sustaining Molly’s tangle spell was gone too, and the dozen black-uniformed men scrambled to their feet again, raising their guns. Mad as hell at being taken out so easily, they all opened fire on Molly. The bullets hit her again and again, sending her staggering backwards under the repeated impacts. Blood spurted from dozens of wounds, snapping her head back and forth, and she couldn’t get enough breath to scream. Finally the men stopped firing, and Molly fell, as though that was all that had been holding her up. I fell to my knees beside her and grabbed her hand. She tried to say something to me, blood gushing and spraying painfully from her mouth, and all I could do was hold her hand until at last the life went out of her eyes. I looked up at the armed men, and they all fell back a step, afraid of whatever it was they saw in my face.

But I wasn’t going to kill them. That wasn’t enough.

I finally thought to hit the button on my reverse watch and rewind time. I’d almost left it too long. The watch didn’t want to take me far enough back, but I just hit it again and again and again, until finally it took me back to the point where the armed men were just starting to train their guns on Molly. I threw myself in front of her, between her and the bullets, armouring up as I went. The living metal swept over me even as the bullets flew through the air; and fast as the bullets were, the armour was faster. Every single shot that would have killed Molly ricocheted off me instead.

I threw myself upon the armed men, beat the crap out of them, and tossed them around the room for a while, until Molly finally stepped in and stopped me. Not for their sakes, but for mine. She knew I’d feel bad afterwards, if I killed them. I armoured down and smiled tremulously at her. I’d come so close to losing her.

"I’m a witch," Molly said slowly, holding my eyes with hers. "I see things, and remember things, that others can’t. I remember lying on that floor, dying…and then you rewrote history, changed the world itself, just to save me. And risked your own life doing it. You couldn’t have been sure the armour would cover you in time to save you from their guns. Why would you do that, risk that, to save me?"

"Because I had to," I said.

"Eddie…" she said.

"Molly…" I said.

"Oh, God," said Molly. "Are we having a romantic moment?"

We looked at each other; and it would be hard to say which of us was more appalled at the thought.