The Fandom(13)

‘Oh, now you’re just taking the mick,’ Matthew says, the smile gone as quick as it came.

I look at Alice, her fists clenched and trembling slightly. I take a deep breath. ‘I’ll tell you if you leave us alone. Deal?’

Saskia moves towards me, slow and almost seductive. ‘Go on.’

‘The headquarters are in the bombed-out church.’

Saskia’s features draw together. ‘OK.’ Her voice changes, suddenly guarded, like she’s scared of giving anything away. But she knows I’m right.

‘Saskia?’ Matthew says.

‘Shut up. I’m thinking.’ She pushes her fingers into her eyes like she can reach into her brain and arrange her thoughts. ‘OK, but that don’t mean your Gem friend ’ere is a spy. What can you tell us, princess?’

Alice looks nervous, her voice pinched. ‘It’s by the broken bridge. Down by the River Thames.’ She cringes as she realizes her mistake; they don’t call it that any more.

‘The river what?’ Saskia says.

‘The river, down by the river,’ Alice garbles.

Saskia raises her eyebrows. ‘OK, you know too much. We’re going to see Thorn. Then he can stick you all in the belly.’ Her fingers play with the fabric resting just above her collarbone. I remember this backstory – Thorn slashed her a few years ago when she bodged a mission. And it’s as though she’s remembering too, tracing the ridges of the scar through her overalls. She laughs, unexpectedly. ‘We was meant to be introducing him to Rose today, the newest member of our rebel family. But he gets to meet you instead. Lucky bastard.’

‘But you said you’d let us go,’ I say.

‘Never trust an Imp.’ Saskia smiles again, and this time it extends to the rest of her face. Her sapphire eyes flash.

Nate knocks me with his hand, low down so nobody sees. ‘It’s OK, Violet. We need to see him anyway. We can all go together.’

I don’t know why Nate wants to see Thorn. He would string us up in a second if he thought he couldn’t trust us. Maybe we can dupe Saskia and Matthew, but there’ll be no duping Thorn.

Matthew takes a sharp breath over his teeth, like he’s testing the air. ‘What we gonna do about . . . that?’ He gestures to Alice. I can’t tell if the cold or the anxiety makes her shiver.

‘He’s right,’ Saskia says. ‘Two minutes on the main street and the Gem lookalike will get lynched for sure. And you’ll be no good to Thorn if you’re dead.’

Alice’s tremor becomes more apparent. I want to wrap my arms around her, but I’m afraid I’ll make her look weak.

Saskia wriggles her arms into her overalls and somehow unzips the front from the inside. It drops to the floor and wrinkles around her feet like she’s a python shedding an extra skin. Beneath it, she wears grey hessian trousers and a cream shirt, stained with brown. I hadn’t realized how thin she is under all that material; the sharpness of her shoulders and hips jut from beneath the cloth. I can’t help wondering when she last ate.

She uses the toe of her boot to flick the overalls across the floor to Alice. ‘’Ere, put these on, try and blend in a bit.’ She turns away and mumbles into the cold, ‘And you look like you’re freezing your tits off.’

I supress a little smile, it’s the first glimpse of kindness I’ve seen in her since we arrived. She was much nicer to Rose.

Katie and I help Alice into the overalls, and I notice her feet remain shoeless and slightly bloodied from the mad dash through the city.

‘Christ, Alice, your feet,’ I say.

‘Oh yeah, I hadn’t noticed.’ Her voice sounds a little numb, and she pokes at a sole like it belongs to someone else, a mannequin perhaps. The overalls are far too small for her, and the material pulls around her crotch as she tries to inch her shoulders in. ‘I think I’m too tall.’

Saskia kneels in front of her and rips the fabric between her legs. Alice looks slightly horrified at the indignity of the situation, but she keeps quiet and manages to wriggle her shoulders in. The fabric yawns a little between her legs, revealing a flash of electric blue.

Nate laughs. ‘You look like a giant baby, you know, with the opening so you can get to the nappy?’

Alice looks like she’s going to cry.

‘Shut it,’ Saskia snaps at Nate. ‘Or I’ll plonk you over my knee and smack your arse, then we’ll see who looks like the baby.’

Matthew nudges Saskia. ‘And what’s this all about?’ He gestures to Katie, who is still wearing her helix outfit.

They start to laugh again.

Katie wrinkles her nose. ‘It’s a long story.’

‘And you talk funny. Which city you from?’ Matthew asks.

Her eyes flick to mine, slightly panicked.

‘Liverpool,’ I say. I’m sure Liverpool is one of the Imp cities still standing in canon. I look to Nate, who nods a confirmation.

‘Figures.’ Matthew yanks on the tights twisted into the sort-of helix.

‘Hey,’ she says – a token objection at best. The safety pins buckle and give way, and the tights flop to the ground. She looks less conspicuous all in black.

Matthew grunts from the movement and lets his shoulder slump forwards. Blood drips from his fingers and spots the floor. He grimaces, clasping his hand to his shoulder. His shirt sleeve is sodden with blood, fresh blood – one of those bullets must have nicked him. He never even winced. ‘At least she’s clearly an Imp.’ His words slur a little from the pain.