Rachel Caine - Thin Air

They blocked Cherise. “Hey!” she protested, and looked beseechingly at Lewis. “I’m with them! Just ask!”

“Nobody but Wardens in the secured area,” one of the guards said.

Kevin was looking dangerously angry, but Lewis solved the whole thing by moving the guard back, taking Cherise’s hand, and saying, “She comes with us. No arguments.”

The guard looked at Marion, who shrugged. “Technically, he’s still the boss,” she said. “I’d make an exception.”

I blinked at Lewis. “You’re the boss?”

“Pretty much,” he said. “Long story. Believe me, I hate the job as much as they hate me having it. We’re working through succession planning.”

Lewis held the door open for me. Kevin had already stalked through it, following the low whine of Marion’s power chair. Cherise followed, glancing back at me with mute appeals to stay close. This door shut behind us, too. This time it was positively disquieting. I hung back, let Lewis go ahead of me, and pretended to need to adjust my shoe. While I was doing that, I leaned back and tried the doorknob.

It didn’t open.

Who’s being protected here? I wondered. And from what, exactly?

Lewis glanced back. I gave my sock another token pull and hurried to catch up.

It was a short, narrow hallway, and it had an antiseptic smell. Even if you have your past and memory damaged, you don’t forget that smell, and you can’t avoid its giving you a little unpleasant tingle somewhere in the back of your brain. Something was telling me to get the hell out, but I didn’t know if that was good instinct or bad. We passed three closed doors with plastic folder bins on the outside-none of them occupied, apparently, as there were no charts in the bins-and the hallway opened into a large, warm sitting area. The furniture looked industrial, but comfortable, and I sank gratefully down in a chair when Marion nodded at me. Someone in a lab coat came in from another entrance, head down, checking over something on a clipboard, and looked up to smile at Marion with an impartial welcome. “Ma’am,” he said, and extended his hand. He was a small man, neatly groomed, with ebony hair and eyes and a golden tint to his skin. “Dr. Lee. I wasn’t informed you were dropping in today.”

“Unscheduled visit,” she said. “Hope that isn’t a problem, Doctor. We have some urgent needs.”

“Not at all. We have a light caseload today-most of those who were injured during the fires have been rotated out to other facilities. We were strictly serving as triage here. I have two Wardens in critical condition who haven’t been moved, back in ICU-Leclerq and Minetti. You here to visit?”

“I’ll be happy to drop in,” she said. “Meanwhile, if you could have a look at the boy, I’d really appreciate your help.”

Dr. Lee turned his attention to Kevin, and those large, dark eyes widened. “I see,” he said in a much quieter voice. “Your name?”

“Kevin,” he snapped, but he directed it toward the carpet.

“Would you mind coming with me, Kevin?”

“Yes. I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Marion sighed. “I see the boy hasn’t changed. Kevin, no one is going to harm you. I swear it.”

He glared at her. “No drugs.”

“Don’t worry. We wouldn’t waste them on you.”

Kevin shot Lewis an utterly mistrustful look, then made it a group thing, because it was the same look he gave Marion, then me. Me, he seemed to trust least of all.

“Can I go with him?” Cherise asked in a small voice. She’d slipped her hand in his. “Please?”

“I don’t see why not,” Dr. Lee said. “We’ll see about getting you food as well. And some fresh clothing.”

I don’t know if Kevin would have gone on his own, but Cherise’s presence gave him an excuse to conform. He took her hand and followed Dr. Lee through the door and into what I presumed was a treatment area.

Leaving me with Lewis and Marion, who weren’t saying much.

“Well?” I asked. “What now?”

“Now,” Marion said, “we see if we can determine the extent of your damage.”

“Here?”

“Here’s fine. I don’t need you to wear a funny open-back dress for this.”

Lewis walked away. I stared at Marion for a few seconds, frowning, and then nodded. “All right. What do you need me to do?”

“Relax and let me drive,” she said. “Eyes closed. I want you to focus on a sound.”

“What sound?” I closed my eyes and immediately felt drowned by darkness. I fought the urge to open them again.

“This one.”

For a brief second I didn’t hear anything, but then I did, a low musical tone, steady and unchanging. Like the sound a deep-note chime makes. A sustained ringing.

“Do you hear it?” Marion asked. Her voice was soft and slow, blending with the sound of the chime. I nodded. “Concentrate on the sound. Only on the sound.”

It got louder, and the more I focused, the purer it seemed. It made me imagine things…a bright crystal, turning and reflecting rainbows. A flower slowly unfurling its petals. A chair rocking on a porch on a fresh, cool morning.

I could feel something moving through my body like a warm wave, but it wasn’t alarming, and somehow I wasn’t afraid of it. The sound compelled me to stay quiet, stay still, suspended in time…

“Hey,” said a new voice. I opened my eyes, or some part of me did; I could tell that my actual, physical eyes were still closed tight.

But part of me was somewhere else entirely. In another reality.

“Hey,” I replied blankly. I felt like I should know the man who was sitting across from me-there was definitely something familiar about him. Tall, lean, athletic; a little bit like Lewis, but more compact and certainly just as dangerous, if not more so. A graying brush of light brown hair cut aggressively short. A face that seemed harsh one moment, and amused the next. When he smiled, it seemed kind, but also mocking.

“You don’t know me,” he said. “My name’s Jonathan.”

“Um…hi?” It felt like the real world, but somehow, I knew it wasn’t. Illusion, most definitely. So what was this guy? He smiled even wider, not giving me a clue.

“We don’t have a lot of time for this little drop-in, so I’m going to be brief. You just acquired some skills that you’re not ready for. Wasn’t my choice, but hey, done is done.” He shrugged. “You’re going to need them, no doubt about that, but your adjustment’s going to be a little rocky. Just thought somebody should warn you.”

“Who are you ?”

He laughed. Chuckled, really. “Used to be a lot of things. Human, then Djinn. Now-well, there’s not really a word for what I am. But there’s a word for what you are, kid. Trouble.”

This made no sense. It had to be a dream. I was sitting on a couch in a living room-stone fireplace, clean lines, masculine furniture. Warm throw rugs on the wood floor. A big picture window overlooking a field of nodding yellow sunflowers in full bloom, which was wrong, wasn’t it? It should have been fall at least, or full winter. But here…here, it was summer. Bright, cloudless summer.

“Stay with me, Joanne. I’m going to bounce you back in a second, but first I had to tell you something.”

“What?” I asked.

“What’s happening to you has never happened before. Never. That’s a big word, in my world-it was big enough to make a whole lot of forces pay attention. David’s right to look for Ashan, but you’re going to have to do your part, too. If you screw this thing up, I can’t help you. Nobody can.”

“Could you be a little less vague?”

“Yeah,” he said. He leaned back on the leather sofa to take a pull on the beer in his hand. Cold, frosty beer. It made me thirsty, and I didn’t even know if I liked beer. “Do not, under any circumstances, think about throwing your life away. If you die-if you let her kill you-you have no idea what kind of hell will come calling.”