a Seeker, but his family was well known, and her parents considered that valuable.
Archie is so handsome. Perfect, really, Anna had said over the phone, in a gushing tone that sounded genuine but probably wasn’t. Tough, a real man, but intelligent. Each word had seemed chosen by its potential to make Catherine feel less, to make her feel unworthy. He’s head over heels about me, Cat. It’s kind of embarrassing. I’m sorry they haven’t found a match like that for you. Don’t fret, though—there’s someone out there for you somewhere.
As if Catherine had nothing better to do than sit around waiting to see what monstrous boy her parents would try to thrust upon her. She’d gone to Hong Kong to leave all of that behind.
But the joke was on Catherine, of course. Her parents had found someone just like Archie for her. Anna was gone, but the connection to Archie’s family was apparently as important as ever, and Catherine was on her way to meet her parents and Archibald Hart right now. They intended that she should marry him in Anna’s place. Archie’s family name and Catherine’s family athame—a perfect partnership.
Hopefully he’ll hate me, she thought, not for the first time. Please let him hate me.
The train had stopped, and new passengers were pouring on. She spotted Briac Kincaid as soon as the car began moving again. He hadn’t come through the glass doors from the platform with everyone else. He’d entered through the door at the end, from another car. And he was obviously looking for her. Had he followed her to the station where she boarded? Maybe she hadn’t been as alert as she thought.
Briac stopped when he saw Catherine’s eyes on him. He was seventeen now, as Catherine was, and he’d gotten taller since she’d last seen him. He was wearing jeans and a sweater, like any normal person on the Tube, but the clothes looked like a costume on him. She could see him only with a whipsword in his hand, his black cloak hanging from one shoulder, his eyes hard and cruel. Now, however, his eyes looked less cruel. There was something almost pleading in them.
He mouthed: Speak to me.
Automatically Catherine’s hands brushed over her back, feeling the whipsword hidden there. She flicked her right wrist lightly, and a small, sharp knife dropped into place in her palm.
Of course I’ll speak to you, she thought, running her thumb lightly along the blade.
She pushed her way through passengers in the aisle until she was right next to Briac. He reached for her arm, but she slipped away between the final few people in the car. Shoving through the door at the end of the carriage, she stepped into the noisy dark of the connecting platform between train cars. Just over the edge of the platform, the tunnel floor streaked by, illuminated in bursts of brightness by intermittent lighting fixtures.
As soon as Briac stepped out of the carriage behind her, Catherine yanked him away from the door, where he was visible to passengers inside, and pushed him against the metal hide of the train. The knife in her right hand was at his neck.
“Were you part of it?” she asked. “Did you help kill her?”
“Who—Anna? You think I killed your sister?”
Briac held his arms up in a gesture of surrender, letting her know that he wasn’t trying to fight.
Liar, Catherine thought. You’re always ready to fight.
“You hated us, Briac,” she said. “Were you part of it?”
She touched the skin of his neck with the knife so he was forced to press himself into the train.
“No, I wasn’t part of it, Catherine!”
“Was he part of it? The same one who attacked me?”
“Someone attacked you?” Briac looked honestly surprised by this revelation.
“On the same day as Anna. A Seeker…looking for something that belongs to me.”
She moved her hair aside to show him the yellowing bruise that was still visible on her jaw from the attack in Hong Kong, a fading pattern of rough fingers on her face.
“But you got away,” he said. His voice held relief and something else. Possibly admiration, though that didn’t seem likely. “You’re a good fighter, you—”
“I didn’t just get away. I killed him.”
“Well, that’s—that’s good.” Briac still looked shaken by the news that Catherine had been attacked. It surprised her to see the open worry in his eyes.
“No, it’s not good,” she snapped, “because I can’t beat his name out of him if he’s dead.” She was proud of herself for saying these words