Liv wanted to touch his shoulder now—just a soft brush, to let him know someone was listening—but ifshedidn’t want to be handled, she couldn’t inflict it on someone else.“I’m sorry.”That put a different shine on things altogether.
Would Erik do that?Something to himself, rather than hurt her?Was that what the whispers wanted?
Funny, they talked about the Mad God all the time, but nobody mentioned Jesus.Her grandmother would have some thoughts about that; Gramma Poe had been Baptist through and through.Mom marrying a Catholic had been a Big Deal.
Not that it mattered in the end, with Dad dead in a car crash and Mom…
Unless the fellow came in through the chimney, the detective told Gramma, while young Liv huddled on the staircase, watching solemnly despite all attempts to insulate her from the news while a victim’s advocate tried to interest her in a stuffed toy.
There was no insulation—or distraction—from finding your mother torn to pieces in the living room.Ever.
“Me too.”For a moment a shadow of deep age lingered in Daniel’s eyes.“It isn’t fair and it isn’t right, but it’s what we have.And we make people safer every night.”He stepped back, ran a critical eye down her outfit.“Are you sure that’s what you’re wearing?Sara always wears heels.”
“I don’t fight in heels.”As if she’d ever fought at all, beyond a few playground tussles in elementary school.Use your words, everyone said.Girls weren’t supposed to punch, kick, scream.
“They won’t let your feet touch the ground much anyway.”Daniel was clearly not in the mood for further emotional sharing.He rolled his shoulders again, stretched one side of his neck, then the other.“Sara’s dealing with a new batch of trainees; it’s good to have anotherliraihere so we can keep the city swept too.”
“Trainees?”It was nice to have a chance at answers, even if she suspected her questions were amateur-silly.You had to start somewhere.
“Sons aren’t born.”Daniel brightened, glancing over her shoulder.“They’re made.”
“My lord.”It was River, armed to the teeth and observing a careful distance from Liv.“We’re almost ready.My lady.”A single nod in her direction.
“Thank you, River.”Daniel took a single step sideways, examining Liv’s face.“Just remember, it’s instinctive.You know what to do.Trust your Sons.”
Except the ones who might want to hurt me, right?Liv nodded.Daniel looked like he might say more, but simply gave a tight smile—probably meant to be encouraging—and was whisked away on a stream of heavily armed men.
Liv found she was hugging herself, staring at the end of the armory where barred windows glowered, baleful crimson eyes.
The sun had almost set.
* * *
An iced-over city at night, twinkling freeze-jewels clinging to concrete, glass, road, and window.Unfortunately, Daniel was right—she was too warm.Each Son was a living heater, invisible force passing through her in steampipe-lines, and he was right about something else, too.
They barely let her boots touch the ground.
She started out liking it.In fact, for the first hour or so the night was flat-outamazing, a superhero dream of flying between jewel-frosted spires, her hair barely stirred by cold, questing air.The Sons moved with the eerie flowing speed of travel in flying dreams; Erik carried her for a while, then Dakshi while others spread out in looping patterns, leaping from rooftops, streaking through alleys, running and jumping with graceful, incredible, unnatural authority.She was the middle of a moving flower, its petals dark streaks of Sons tearing through reality with their hard, invisible personal shells, and the strange thing wasn’t how fast they were going, the sudden changes in direction, or the deep undeniable warmth.
No, the strangeness was hownaturalit felt.The nightmares always lingered, but her pleasanter dreams tiptoed back into memory too as the Sons poured through downtown, a tide of unseen motion.Nobody looked up to see them on rooftops, silhouetted against the swiftly clouding sky; nobody peered into the dark throats of alleys, and even when they streaked alongside cars with bright diamond headlights, Liv felt invisible.
Best of all was spiraling up a tall granite-sided building, alternately squeezing her eyes shut against vertigo and staring in disbelief until Dakshi set her gently down on a shuttered observation deck, carefully tucked away from a security camera’s glassy eye.She wouldn’t have even noticed the camera if he hadn’t pointed it out with a quick smile before turning to gaze at the glimmering city.A moment later Erik hopped blithely over the railing and skidded to a stop next to her.
“My God,” Liv whispered.
A wonderland vista spread out like a banquet—snow, headlights, taillights, streetlights, golden windows behind which human lives were proceeding at their usual pace.Even at this hour there was plenty of activity; an ambulance’s mournful cry rose in the middle distance, echoed through concrete canyons.
“Yeah.”Dakshi gazed over the railing, his hair teased by a strong cold breeze which died before it could reach her.“Never gets old.”
Erik drifted closer.“Everyone’s in position.”His shoulders were tense.“See if you can feel anything wrong down there, Liv.Just close your eyes and reach out.”
All you have to do is let it happen, Daniel said in the sparring room.Normally when a man said that Liv wasn’t inclined to go along.
At all.
But Erik was looking at her and he obviously believed she could do this, even if the hideous roaring pressure of so many normal, thinking people lurked just outside a small sphere of peace.The sound retreated all the way when inside the temple, but out here she could feel it just beyond the fence of Sons, their net keeping her from drowning in an abyss of lives crowded together, a paved warren crammed to the brim.
So Liv closed her eyes and gasped again, because the lights didn’t go away, simply changed color and location.A broad, dense field of stars surrounded her, the bright ones trembling with voiceless cries.
