“I’m not either of those things. I am—”
What was she? A name, whirling through space. A collection of memories: a mother’s hands scented with rosemary, a friend declaiming poetry over coffee, a tower room littered with tables of figures…
“I’m—a scientist,” she finished with wonder. In a sea ofwavering memories, it was reassuring to find something about herself that felt certain.
“How unusual,” the stranger said, sounding delighted.
The sun was lower in the sky than she liked, the shadows like deep bruises. It was too easy to imagine a dark shape looming, and the outline of cruel tusks.
“Could we move? A little? The sunlight’s going.”
“Even my charm cannot halt nightfall, my lady. Much as I weep at my shortcomings.”
“But that monster—”
“Will walk easier as the shadows grow stronger, yes. But I think we may be cunning enough to evade him.” Eyes crinkling with mischief, he offered Emma his arm. “Come, O beauteous fugitive. It would be my honor to escort you to safety.”
They waded through undergrowth until the riverside wall of Beaufort College loomed above them. It was overgrown with swathes of wisteria, pulsing and pale in the gathering dusk. The stranger heaved aside a swag of vines to uncover a door. The fleshy scent of the wisteria rolled thick into Emma’s throat, and her head swam with it. As she passed through the door, she seemed to see strange lights play across the flowers. For a crazed moment, she thought of nothing but drawing closer to those lights, of stretching her tongue to the sweet heady secrets at the base of those flowers.
“Come now, lady.”
The stranger’s hand on her arm was firm. He towed her away through the Beaufort College gardens. Emma shook her head, clearing the scent. What was her tongue doing outside her mouth? She tucked it away.
“Should they be—doing that? The flowers?”
The lights were still pulsing over the wisteria. She could hear the hum of desire in her mind. Her tongue crept toward her lips.
The stranger spared a glance over his shoulder. “Far be it from me to deny any pleasure of yours, O star among ladies. But there are other enchantments more worth your time.”
“Enchantments?”
“That one being more suited to insects and bats.”
“But—enchantments?”
“Oh yes.” He opened a panel carved into the college wall and bowed her through. “At the fading of the sun, it is not just the monsters that have free rein of the streets. With the dark, the beauties of the Night City also come into their own.”
The messenger led her through an earthen passageway and opened an answering panel at the end. Emma stepped out. They had cut through to the corner between Granville College and the Senate House.
Dusk had fallen on the cobbled streets. But above, a strange light shifted across the walls of the colleges and faculty buildings, climbing and swaying like something alive. It was as though the northern lights had fallen from the sky and come to rest in the stones.
Emma watched the play of pinks and greens in awe. “I’ve never seen anything so—beautiful. It’s strange, I always felt something was here. In the streets, the buildings. Calling me, almost. The University’s famous for it, that feeling. But I couldn’t have imagined this. This light…”
“The Night City sits upon the mortal city like a veil of shadow. They share the same streets but not the same qualities.This light is but one of our beauties. You did not see it when you were mortal?”
Emma shook her head. Then unease flashed through her mind. He had spoken of her mortal self in the past tense. As something gone. And for the first time, she had not argued with the idea. Not even in her head. When had she crossed that invisible threshold?
As they passed Granville College, the statue that guarded its gate—a griffin rampant, with furled wings—moved one stony claw to its nose and gave it a good scratch. Beside it, a group of students strolled on with no sign of having seen.
“Thatnever happened before,” Emma said emphatically.
“The statues are all such fidgets. I had no idea mortal senses were so dulled.”
“How does it work, that glow? I wish I could study it.” She swiped her fingers across the college wall. The glow did not rub off. Instead, it fled her touch. “Fascinating. Is it bioluminescent? Like an algae of some kind, or—”
“I hate to disturb, lady. But the beast on your trail is still loose.”
“Oh.” Emma wiped her fingers on her skirt and hurried after him. “So the Night City is like… a layer? On top of the normal city?”
