Twenty-five
I was cold.
Slowly, I became aware of other things. My knees hurt. There was a crick in my neck. All I could hear was a soft wind. When I moved, it made a scraping sound like gravel. But mostly, I was cold. I shifted my head, and something soft and chilly moved under me. I let my eyes slit open. My backpack. My head was resting on my leather backpack like it was a pillow.
I tried to remember where I was, how I'd gotten there. I had a sense of urgency. It was all very, very important. If I could just put my mind back together...
I sat up. The city spread out below me, streets marked by the glowing yellow lines of their lights, the shifting red of taillights in traffic. The western sky was red and gold, the sun already set. All around me was pebbled gray gravel, wide sheet-metal ductwork on raised steel beams. Something partway between a radio antenna and the Eiffel Tower rose up to my left, a red beacon glowing at its tip.
A skyscraper. I was on top of a skyscraper. I tried to stand, but my knees were weak beneath me. I turned slowly. There was a door-green and rust with a dead bolt lock. Coin was sitting beside it. Five inches above his open hand floated a small cylinder of metal that came to a point at one end. The bullet.
The thing in Coin's body looked over at me, then back at the artifact floating above its hand.
"Nasty piece of work, this," it said. Its voice was conversational, deep, inhuman. "Ya'la ibn Murah and St. Francis of the Desert both. Unpleasant."
I tried to think, to focus. I had to say something.
"Fuck you," I slurred.
It made a soft tsk-tsk and shook its head.
"It isn't yours. I know that," the thing said. "Heller designed it. It's his style. Oh yes, I know my enemies. And I've known Heller quite well. You, though, I confess I didn't expect. You're Jayn¨¦, yes?"
He knew how to pronounce my name, and for the first time since I'd come to, I felt the deep, penetrating rush of fear. Far to the south, a storm cloud still hung on the horizon, lightning flashing so far away there was no thunder. Coin nodded.
"The niece," it said. "The heir. Eric's next incarnation. I thought we had put an end to all that, but here you are. And Alexander gone because of it. I suppose I should have guessed. Heller was the past master of putting things in motion."
"You killed my uncle," I said. My voice sounded steadier now.
"Yes," Coin said.
"You're going to kill me," I said, sure as I did that it was the truth.
The rider narrowed its stolen eyes. The bullet slid down through the air to land on its upturned palm.
"Possibly," it said. "If it's necessary."
I almost had my feet back. The city below us glittered and darkened. Somewhere out there, down below us, Midian and Chogyi Jake were running for their lives. And Candace and Aaron and Kim. Every minute I kept Coin focused on me was one that its attention wasn't turned to them.
Run, I thought. Wherever you are out there, get the hell away from here. Live.
"How much do you know?" it asked.
"Enough," I said. It was silent for a long moment, then nodded.
"And you have made yourself part of this," he said. It was almost a question.
"Yeah," I said. The thing in Coin's body sighed.
"You are a woman of great power. Great potential," it said. "You needn't take your uncle's path. Even with the hurt you've caused me, you don't have to die here."
I looked at it. The ink marks on its pale flesh seemed to shift, letters forming and re-forming. Something in the pit of my stomach warmed and rose, and against my own expectations, I laughed. Coin looked nonplussed.
"You're saying I could join up with you?"
"That's an option," it said, vaguely offended.
"Next you offer me all the nations of the world?" I asked. When it looked confused, I gestured to the wide, empty air around us. "Temptation. High place. Devil."
"Ah," it said, nodding. "No, I'm not Satan, and you've little enough in common with Christ, for that matter. I wasn't offering to purchase your soul. Only that I would rather we not end this in violence if there isn't need. If alliance isn't interesting to you, armistice at least remains a possibility."
"What? 'Oops, my bad. Won't do it again,' and you let me go?"
"Of course not. I've underestimated Heller's reach, but that doesn't make me a fool. Renounce your vengeance and there will be an agreement. A binding of intention. Then, yes, you can walk away."
"Really can't," I said.
Coin stood. The man's body was only a little taller than mine. The business suit looked perversely in place with the arcane designs on its skin. I raised my chin.
"You killed my uncle," I said again, and shrugged.
"And you are determined to walk in his footsteps," Coin said. It wasn't a question, but it was the last chance I had.
I shifted my feet, the gravel crunching under me. I was a thousand feet above the ground, facing a supernatural evil that had already said it was willing to kill me. I didn't have another bullet or a rifle with which to fire it. Eric's protections might have been stripped away by Kim's cantrip. I didn't have any friends or allies. I was alone, and if I didn't do what the thing in Coin's body wanted, I'd be killed. Or I could say no, accept whatever binding it had in mind, and live as its slave and subject until I found a way to slip my leash. If I ever did. But at least I'd be alive. All I had to say was No, I'm not.
"Yeah," I said. "Really am."
Coin nodded, its expression resigned and unsurprised.
"This gives me no pleasure," it said, and drew in its breath. I jumped at it, swinging low. Coin danced out of reach, lifted its hands, and shouted a single syllable. The sound was louder than anything I'd ever heard-like a jet engine about two feet from my face. There were other voices inside it. I heard a chorus of shrieking words, a high wailing, and something deep and chthonic and inhuman. Sound pushed at me like a storm wind.
I set my feet, leaning forward toward Coin's gaping mouth and outstretched arms. The gravel under me shifted as I slid backward. My mind was jumping in a hundred different directions. I tried to pull up my qi, to force my will down into the soles of my feet to stick me to the spot. There was nothing.
The edge of the building came up behind me faster than I'd expected. The raw force of Coin's will had shoved me a dozen feet or more. The parapet came up to my thighs, the void on the other side. I dropped to my knees, trying not to pitch over it. My ears rang, and my eyes felt dry and scoured, like I'd been staring into a sandstorm.
And then I was in motion. I curled to the side, pushing through my legs as I did. I landed on my shoulder, rolling gracefully through my back to end up catlike on my fingertips and the balls of my feet. There was no surprise on Coin's face. It lifted its raised fists, and I jumped to the side as the roofing where I had been burst open, pebbles flying like shrapnel. I felt something dig into my leg, but I ignored the pain. My backpack was inches from my hand, and I swept it up and threw it, the leather singing against the air. It took Coin in the belly. Nothing more than a moment's distraction, but I was running forward, teeth bared.
My blood was a song, my body a weapon. My mind let go and let my flesh take control without me. Coin blocked a claw-fingered swipe at his neck, but not the kick that I sent hammering into its knee. I wanted to see surprise in its expression, but there was only momentary pain and then grim determination. I danced back, and Coin flipped up a handful of gravel, the unnaturally powerful stones hissing past my ear like gunfire.
It didn't speak. That time was over. We circled each other, waiting for a break, a moment. A chance. I thought I saw a tremble in the knee I'd kicked. I lunged forward, but it had anticipated the move. It stepped into the attack, taking the momentum on its arm, grabbing the front of my shirt and twisting. I lost contact with the ground, flew through the air out of control. I reached down with one hand, willing myself down to the gray stones. My hand slapped the parapet as I sailed past. For a fraction of a second I was over the edge, looking down the endless drop of black glass and chrome to the distant, glowing street. Then I was hugging the wrong side of the parapet, my legs kicking against the void.
Coin stood above me, both hands raised. I could feel the air change as it gathered its will. I think I screamed, but what I remember thinking was Oh, well. That's it.
The world became a clockwork. My arm, slung over the edge, carried a certain mass at a particular angle. The friction of my feet against the side of the skyscraper held a particular and measurable force. Coin's hands were only hands, its will a faint echo of what it had been only seconds before. Someone had performed Kim's cantrip.
Coin stepped back, real shock in its expression now. Something metallic banged, and I got an ankle up over the parapet's edge and hauled for all I was worth. I felt weak, but it was enough. I landed hard on my side just as I heard the first shotgun blast.
Coin's back was to me now, one hand pointed as it advanced on the green door that had been closed until now. Ex stepped out onto the roof, Eric's shotgun held before him, and fired twice more. I heard Coin grunt at the impact. I saw the small figure of Kim in the stairwell behind Ex.
"Run!" I tried to shout, but it hardly came out louder than a groan. "He'll kill you!"
The concussion wasn't physical, but it was stunning all the same. A low hum like something electrical gathering a charge, and then the blast like a head blow from a brick. The world smelled like an iron skillet left on the burner by mistake. I forced my eyes open.
Ex lay on his back, blood running from his nose, his eyes wild with fear. Kim was no more than a low shape in the doorway. Coin stood over Ex's fallen body like a punch-drunk boxer who'd put his opponent down for the count. Who'd killed him. The suit jacket had come open, and Coin's chest was raw hamburger and blood where the shotgun's load of iron, salt, and silver had struck. It shook its head, trying to orient itself. Ex tried to say something, his jaw working without sound. The sense of a clockwork universe faded as Kim lost consciousness, and I felt my own strength coming back, at least enough that I could do something more than tremble.
Something glittered at Coin's feet. There in the stone litter of gravel, something shone brass and blackness. Coin was breathing hard. I shifted, getting my weight under me again. Ex tried to raise the shotgun, the barrel making a hushing sound as it dragged across the rooftop. Coin lifted its foot with slow deliberation and slammed down on Ex's chest. I imagined that I heard ribs snapping.
I launched.
I hit Coin in the small of the back, shoulder first and all my weight and power behind it. It felt like I'd tackled a concrete post, but Coin stumbled. Ex rolled once, from his back onto his belly, the shotgun underneath him now. Coin swung at me; the back of his hand grazing my cheek was enough to knock my head to the side. I dropped, scrabbling in the gravel for the glimmer I'd seen.
My fingers found the bullet, the weird energy of the sigils dry and mobile as a snake. I clenched a fist around it and jumped back. Coin's rib cage was falling and rising like a bellows. I stayed in a crouch, the bullet in my left hand, my eyes on the enemy.
As long as it breaks skin, we're fine.
Coin stepped back, arms spread wide and eyes closed. I felt its will gathering like a high wind full of knives. The shredded flesh of its chest wept blood without drenching it. I had the time it took to draw a breath, and if I failed, we were all dead.
I stepped forward and pressed the bullet to the shotgun wound. Something between my fingers shifted and squirmed. Coin's eyes opened in shock.
"Tag," I said. "You're it."
Imagine a balloon the size of the world. Touch a pin to it. Coin's death was that loud and that sudden, and then it was over. The husk of his body fell to the rooftop, took three slow wheezing breaths, and went still. I stood there for what seemed like an hour and wasn't more than five seconds. Slowly, I crouched down. Coin's eyes were still moving, looking up at me with horror and despair and then shifting to focus on something in the distance that only it could see. The bullet rested on its ruined sternum, the metal bright and unmarked, the engravings gone. I lay back.
The gravel felt comfortable as a feather bed. When I knew I was going to vomit, I rolled to my side. When I was empty, I rolled back. Far above in the dark sky, an airplane pulsed. There was no sound of traffic. We were too high up for that. There was only the hollow sound of the breeze in my ear, and then unsteady footsteps.
Kim came into view. A streak of blood darkened her cheek. I smiled at her.
"Jayn¨¦?" she said. "Are you okay?"
I managed a weak thumbs-up. My voice didn't seem to be working. She knelt beside me, her hand smoothing back my hair. I had the weird thought that Kim would have been a good mother. A little June Cleaver for my tastes, maybe, but perfect for someone else. There was a scrape, a cough, and a grunted obscenity as Ex started to move. It reminded me of something.
"How?" I managed.
"Your friend, Ex?" Kim said. "He put a GPS tracking device in your backpack. It was how he knew where we were before too."
I closed my eyes, frowned, opened them again.
"Creepy," I said.
"Needed to happen," Ex said. He was sitting up now, his arms around his chest. His face was pale with pain. I raised my hand and pointed a single finger at him.
"Creepy stalker bullshit," I said. And then, "Thanks."
"Welcome," he said.
"Aaron and Candace are downstairs guarding the stairwell," Kim said. "Can you walk?"
I nodded, sat up, shook my head, and lay back down.
"Give me a minute," I said.
"I'm going to get the others," Kim said. "Don't go anywhere. Either of you. Just stay here."
I heard her walk away. My body felt like rubber. Like chewing gum that had lost all its flavor. Ex tried to stand up, groaned, and went still.
"GPS tracker?" I said.
"Seven hundred bucks, online," he said. "Little smaller than a pack of cigarettes. Put it in the side pocket. Took us a while figuring elevation, though."
"Deeply, deeply creepy."
I tried to think of something else to say, but there was nothing left in me. Ex and the shell that had been Randolph Coin and I all communed in silence. The last rays of sun glow dimmed in the west. Ex said something about very, very stubborn, but I wasn't listening closely enough to know whether he meant himself or me. I turned my head to see Coin's body. With eyes closed and mouth slack, it seemed to be sleeping.
Coin seemed peaceful. I wondered if death was always like that. I wondered whether some part of Eric could see us, wherever he was. If he still was at all. Heaven or the Pleroma or Philadelphia. I wondered if he knew I'd finished the job. Would he have been proud of me? I had screwed everything up from the start, but I'd seen it through. No plan had ever worked the way we'd meant it to, but then Coin's hadn't worked out either. I imagined Eric would see that as a win.
I hoped so.
I didn't sleep, but I wasn't perfectly conscious either. It surprised me when a man's broad hands lifted me to sitting. Aaron was beside me, looking concerned. Kim was at my other side, ready to lift me if needed. Candace was helping Ex walk to the stairway.
"We need to go now, okay? Jayn¨¦? Can you stand up?"
"I killed Randolph Coin," I said. "I can do anything."
Aaron grinned. He looked young when he did that. Like a little boy.
"Yeah," he said. "I think you can."
I rose slowly and started toward the open stairway. At the doorway, I stopped.
"Backpack," I said. "I need my pack. We can't leave anything here."
"It's okay," Kim said. "We've got it covered."
"Laptop?" I said.
"Yes, we got your laptop too," Aaron said. "Don't worry about it. How bad are you? Do we need to go to the hospital?"
"The hospital," I said. "Aubrey! We need to see Aubrey!"
"It's okay," Kim said. "We'll take care of that once you're all right."
"I'm fine," I said. "I'm perfect."
I didn't remember walking downstairs or out to Candace's car. A bump in the road brought me back to myself, and we were driving down the highway toward the house, Aaron and Kim in the front, Candace in the back with me and Ex slumped beside her. Ex's mouth was pinched with pain, but there was a light in his eyes. I thought that was what redemption must look like. When he saw me looking at him, he smiled. When I smiled back, he took my hand.
I was asleep before we got home.