Bar the Gates by Jon Kaneko-James

Author:Jon Kaneko-James [Kaneko-James, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Sheep Books
Published: 2020-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

9

Darkness, and rapid typing. For a while, that was all SÄ«d could comprehend: a distant sound of mechanical chattering that resolved itself into something like the sound of typewriter keys, clattering faster than should have been possible.

Dimly, she knew everything should hurt more, although she was comforted that it didn’t. Drifting in the darkness wasn’t a choice at this stage – she was just a glimmer of consciousness, unaware of anything so complicated as being Sīd Courting. Whoever she was, it felt as if she was lying on a couch. Cold leather pressed against her bare wrists and feet.

There was something wrong with that, she was sure. What it was, she couldn’t put her finger on, but it wasn’t right.

Slender arms lifted her head and shoulders. She was curious as to whom they might belong, but opening her eyes felt like lifting one of the Atlas Stones from World’s Strongest Man. Curiosity turned to faint alarm when the fingers carefully opened her mouth.

The edge of a cup touched her lips and warmish liquid trickled into her mouth. Someone tilted her head back. By reflex, she swallowed.

The world came rushing in. She was SÄ«d Courting, and she was in the Ministry.

Eyes open, the cracked white ceiling of the Ministry’s headquarters in Whitehall looked down at her. She knew this view fairly well – it was Cunning’s office.

She’d drunk something at the Ministry. Fear tried to pick her up from the couch and hurl her onto her feet, but her body wouldn’t respond. Her arms moved weakly; the person holding her head – feminine, if not a woman – made odd, birdlike noises.

“Sīd?” Cunning’s voice came from somewhere she couldn’t see; a hand that wasn’t the bird thing’s pressed against her cheek. “You hit a fence falling from Hornsey Bridge. You were quite badly hurt, and you almost certainly broke several major regulations of Project Prospero, but you are alive and likely to stay that way. I had you moved here until you start to put yourself back together.”

She tried to ask about Ash, but her voice wouldn’t come. In the astral plane, the demon’s form stirred faintly, but showed no sign of awareness.

Cunning read either her mind or expression. “Ash is depleted. You couldn’t kill a demon of her standing that easily, but she’s too badly hurt to heal you. We’re going to have to do it.”

She tried to move again, with similarly minimal results. It was getting hard to stay conscious. Much better to slip into the darkness—

“Sīd?” Cunning asked, the edge of concern slipping into his voice. “Listen to me: we’ve given you a lot of morphine, but I don’t want to send you to hospital until I’m sure Blessing won’t find out.”

It made sense: with Conroy dead, there was a chance Blessing would settle scores, or use an injured officer of the Mirandola as an excuse to get her claws into the Ministry. She managed to nod, settling back into the arms of whatever was cradling her. She could sleep it off.

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