The Fandom(89)

For a moment, I’m tempted. The stink of the smoke and the burning flesh have yet to penetrate this far. I smell only the Pastures – crisp and pure and laden with pollen. But I know it’s all a lie.

He pushes my hair from my face. ‘Plenty of Gems have Imp lovers. But you would be more than that, of course. I mean, eventually, I would have to marry a Gem girl, but it would be for show.’

A plan starts to form in my head. I squint slightly with the effort of thinking. I wish I had a pen and paper to write it all down so I don’t get snarled up in all the layers. If I get captured by the Gems tonight, Willow could still declare his love for me at the Gallows Dance tomorrow. I just need to get away from him without rousing his suspicion. Then I need to get Nate, Ash and Katie to safety before surrendering to the Gems.

This could actually work. The excitement builds on my earlier panic so that I feel like I’m about to overflow with adrenalin. I could still incite a revolution. Still go home. Still save the Imps. Hope starts as a little flower.

I snake my arms around Willow’s waist, hoping to add weight to my words. ‘There’s nothing I want more than to be with you. But I need to get my friends to safety first. Will you help?’

‘Of course.’

‘Just fly us clear of the guards, and when I know they’re in the clear, safe inside the city walls, I’ll return to the estate.’

‘I’ll come with you.’

I shake my head, remembering that lynch mob with a shudder. ‘The Imps will kill you if they figure out you’re a Gem.’ And then you can’t complete the canon, I think to myself, followed by a spike of guilt.

He sighs, giving up a little too easily perhaps. ‘Please be careful.’ He kisses me on the mouth. Only it doesn’t feel like kissing any more – it just feels like two people bumping lips.

I gently pull away. ‘I will, I promise.’

‘Quickly then.’ He crosses to the hatch.

‘Willow?’

He pauses and turns, his hand drifting above a shiny, green button.

‘How did your father know about the raid on the Meat House?’

He shrugs. ‘He didn’t say. Why?’

This has niggled at me since I heard the roar of the Gem helicopters. How could the Gems have known we were going to raid the Meat House? In canon, Willow made the raid happen. But in the current, I made it happen. Not a single Gem could have known, unless there’s a mole in our midst.

‘I was just curious,’ I say, waving a blasé hand.

He hits the button and the door pops open. He strides across to the entrance. ‘Send in the two boys, please.’

Ash and Nate emerge from the darkness. I hear the hatch swoosh as it seals behind us. After staring into Willow’s clean, perfect face, Nate and Ash look like a couple of dirty, half-dead rats, covered in grime and blood and bruises. I feel an overwhelming urge to hug them both.

‘What’s he doing here?’ Ash asks.

I shake my head, urging him to fall silent.

Willow loops an arm around my shoulder and plants a kiss on my cheek. ‘I’ll fly us away from the soldiers then.’

I’ve never seen Ash scowl quite so deeply.

But I can’t help but grin – I’ve just had an idea. I wink at Nate. ‘We just need to find a manhole cover.’

‘Manhole cover?’ Willow says.

‘Oh my God!’ Nate squeals in delight. ‘We’re going into the sewers.’





The iron rungs of the ladder feel gritty and damp beneath my fingers, like I’m grasping at wet sand, and the cylindrical walls close around us – the rhythmic peristalsis of a giant throat. I feel grateful to the circle of light hanging above, delivering a blast of fresh air, a sense of escape. But Ash begins to slide the lid back into place, and I feel anxiety taking hold. The grind of metal on concrete, the shrinking crescent which eventually clunks to black; it’s like watching a terrifying lunar eclipse. And it reminds me briefly of the Dupes, stuck in that windowless room with only a circle of ceiling removed.

I hear several splashes as Nate jumps from the ladder. The torch Willow gave him clicks on, highlighting the texture of the bricks, the jagged rungs stained red and orange by time. I follow him into the water, which soaks into my boots, thick and cold.

I survey my surroundings. A tunnel, similar to the ones in canon, arched above and flat beneath my feet, stretching endlessly in both directions. Smaller tunnels branch from it – a row of black, staring eyes. I can stand in the passage with ease, but I still feel confined, thinking about the tons of earth pushing down on us, held back only by a network of ancient, damp-mottled bricks.

Nate sloshes up to the wall and runs his finger over a yellow marking. It looks like an angle, two lines connected at a point. ‘The lovebirds never figured these out, remember? They ended up hideously lost.’

I nod. The markings were made by the rebels years ago, signalling the various exit ladders. But they were coded, a precautionary measure in case the Gems ever made their way down here. And Rose had never been told how to interpret them. Eventually, she found a rebel bolthole – an old garage with a Humvee stashed inside – but it took her several hours. They ended up crossing the rest of the city in it so they could reach the river. We need that Humvee, I think to myself.

I look at those yellow markings and can’t help but smile. It’s like the canon never gave up on us, like it knew we would catch up eventually. Just like Baba said – a story needs to unfold.