City of Halves by Lucy Inglis

Author:Lucy Inglis
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Chicken House

Lily and Regan walked back towards the Temple, both with their hands in their pockets. Regan didn’t speak.

‘What was all that about? Blood girl? If this is the moment where you tell me I have some sort of superpower, I want a better name than Blood Girl.’

He said nothing.

‘And the war? The war is definitely coming?’

‘Yes,’ he said dully. ‘That’s what they foresaw. Your arrival—’

‘Wait, my arrival? I haven’t arrived anywhere, I’ve always been here. And what have I got to do with anything anyway?’

‘I don’t know. I didn’t make the prophecy. It’s a war that may destroy the City, if we don’t win it.’ He shrugged, voice flat. ‘Then again, it may destroy it if we do.’

‘Should I tell Dad to leave?’

‘What would you tell him?’

‘That he has to go! Somewhere, anywhere.’

‘And he’d go without you?’

Lily halted. ‘No.’

‘Then there’s no point, is there?’ he bellowed, exasperated.

Lily stood, shocked. No one ever shouted at her. ‘Are you still angry with me?’ she asked slowly.

‘Yes.’

‘Please don’t be.’

He seemed about to walk away, then he rounded on her. ‘I went to get breakfast for us and you left.’

She stood still, mouth open, trying to form a sentence. ‘I didn’t know. I thought you’d gone back to work. Or something,’ she said finally, awkward.

‘So you go to the East End to try and get yourself sold as so much . . . why would you do that?’ He hissed between his teeth in frustration.

‘I was trying to help Dad with the case.’ This didn’t appear to make any difference to how angry he was. ‘Look, I get that I made a mistake. I won’t put myself in that sort of danger again.’

He pulled a face. ‘You don’t understand, do you?’

‘Understand what?’

‘I live by a set of rules. You’re changing them. I don’t like it. And I don’t want to be involved in human problems. The squalor of that place . . . of what you people do to each other.’ He cursed, disgusted.

‘Fine,’ Lily snapped and hurried to get ahead of him. ‘If you can’t stand us so much, then you shouldn’t have bothered getting me out of there.’

She heard his growl of frustration as he caught her easily. His fingers wound into the strap of her bag and pulled her to a halt, turning her round to face him. ‘I wasn’t going to leave you there, was I?’

Folding her arms, Lily looked out at the grey churning water, dangerously high against the Embankment wall. The traffic flooded past them on the other side, yellow lights beaming through the icy air. ‘I don’t know. You obviously think I’m a problem.’

‘You are!’

They stood, not looking at each other, neither of them willing to move.

Lily bit her lip. ‘You’re the one giving me magic marbles.’ She held up her wrist.

He looked away. ‘It’s a talisman. It’s supposed to keep you safe from any Eldritche that might try to hurt you. But it buys you nothing in your world, and I didn’t realise you liked to put yourself in danger quite so much.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.