“Yes, yes, I trust you.” Raven felt absolutely defenseless looking into those black eyes. His answer was sincere, but he wondered if he’d have had the strength to deny something to Nilia if he’d needed to. In spite of the fact that it was apparently he who was in danger, he couldn’t help but worry about her. “Won’t you be in trouble with your people for killing Zegen to save me?”

  “Don’t worry about that.” Nilia started walking again, pulling on him so he had to follow her. “When the time comes, I’ll blame you for his death. Don’t look at me like that.” Nilia didn’t even need to turn around to know his face had gone pale. “They’ll think you killed him, anyway, so it won’t take much to convince them. After all, they had the same fate reserved for you, so they’ll just figure you were defending yourself.”

  “Why do your people want to see me dead?” Raven hurried to keep up with the pace set by Nilia. She was still holding on to his arm, pulling him along insistently. Raven almost fell when they turned a corner and he slipped on an icy patch.

  “It’s extraordinarily simple. If our enemy wants you alive, we want you dead. In different circumstances, we’d invest whatever necessary to finding out the reason for that, but fortunately for us, my people are short on time and can’t afford to waste it on you. Suspending the hunt for you is the option that infringes least on their plans.

  “What circumstances have them so worried?’

  “The war,” she said matter-of-factly.

  Raven contemplated all this as they continued walking. There were too many unknowns swirling around in the maelstrom of things he’d been through recently. The constant pursuits, his strange powers, the amnesia, the incomprehensible dreams. And the latest surprise, if he’d managed to understand anything at all, was that he had to hide because a group of immortals who’d come from another dimension to start a war wanted him dead. Lost in a sea of confusion, he kept walking behind Nilia who was the only glimmer of reality he could cling to right now to keep from totally losing his sanity.

  They walked for what seemed to Raven like hours, even though when he saw the time on a digital clock in a store window he realized only forty minutes had passed since they’d come out of that basement. The feeling that he was living a nightmare gripped him; he had no desire to keep asking questions whose answers he either didn’t understand or that just brought some other kind of danger to light.

  Nilia continued walking purposefully. She seemed to know exactly where she was going. From time to time she looked around but she never stopped walking. On one occasion, an obese man that must have weighed at least three hundred pounds ran into her as he came around a corner. Raven was afraid there’d be a scene but Nilia shook him off like he was a fly; a quick left backhand and the guy was thrown into the wall beside them. The woman didn’t even slow her step.

  Raven was completely lost. He was not familiar with London, and after as many blocks as they’d walked he knew he wouldn’t ever be able to find that basement again —even if he’d wanted to. He thought about asking Nilia how long it would be before they’d get to where they were going, or why they couldn’t take a car, but he told himself it would probably only serve to make his beautiful protectress angry.

  When he saw part of the London Wall at the end of the street, Raven knew the poor area they were walking through was near the border of the city. It occurred to him that the hiding place Nilia was taking him to might be outside the city, and that made him nervous. He could not leave London. The feeling that had drawn him there had not gone away, and he felt strongly that it was in the city where he would find whatever it was that had been calling him there. He hadn’t said anything about that strong pull to Nilia, and now didn’t seem like the right time. But with every step they took, the Wall and the edge of the city were getting closer and closer.

  To Raven’s great relief, Nilia went into a subway entrance where maintenance work was a thing of the long distant past. The handrail on the stairs was bent and sagging. A ton of trash was piled up on the first step and a small boy was digging through it with both hands. He shot them a hostile look when they went past him but as soon as they went down a couple more steps, he relaxed and went back to rummaging through the trash.

  A homeless man was coming up the steps. His clothing was filthy and torn in several places, and his smell suggested it had been a long time since the last time his skin had seen soap and water. The foul-smelling vagabond stared at Nilia as she came down the stairs and then twisted his neck around to keep her in his sights, finally tripping and falling amidst a string of curse words.

  “This station looks abandoned,” Raven commented when they stopped at the barriers where travelers would normally have to insert a ticket to enter. “I don’t think the subway comes through here.”

  There were several people crowded together around a trash can fire a few yards away from them. Nilia started walking again, heading toward two men that were on the floor covered in newspapers and blankets so dirty it was impossible to tell what color they were. At first Raven thought for sure Nilia was going to step right on top of them as though they were just part of the floor, but she easily negotiated her way between them. They arrived at an escalator that wasn’t working and started down it. Nilia’s steps produced an echo that, though it wasn’t loud, was the only sound that could be heard. Just when it seemed they would never get to the bottom, Raven saw the end of the steep tunnel over Nilia’s shoulder.

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  “Help!” they heard a woman call out. “Someone help us!”

  Raven tried to see where the voice was coming from but they were still a couple of yards away from the end of the escalator. Nilia did not increase her pace in the least after hearing the woman’s pleas.

  “My daughter!” the woman cried out between sobs. “Please, someone, help her!”

  Raven began to get anxious. He saw in his mind the image of a poor, helpless mother with an injured daughter in her arms. They got to the last step and Raven made his move to go searching for the woman crying for help.

  “It’s not our problem,” said Nilia, stepping in front of him and blocking his path. “We have much more important things to deal with.”

  Raven didn’t listen to her. He pushed past her and went out onto the platform. At the far end was the woman with her daughter, crying inconsolably. Without thinking twice, Raven took off running toward them. The scene was painfully familiar to him.

  “Maya!” he yelled as he ran.

  The memories of the girl he’d tried to take care of, whose death he’d caused, came rushing back to torment him all over again. He remembered the time he’d seen Maya with her mother and, oddly enough, warmly recalled how she’d commented on his nose just after they’d met.

  “What happened?” he asked, out of breath from dashing over to them.

  The mother was holding the little girl in her lap. She was convulsing violently. One of her hands, the fingers spattered with blood, clutched at her neck. Her other hand was shaking frantically. Her skin was noticeably discolored and purplish, and her eyes were opened wide. Her jaw was hanging open; she appeared to be choking. The mother was trying to say something but it was impossible to understand her between the sobs.

  “Who is Maya?” demanded Nilia, who was now standing beside him. He hadn’t heard her coming.

  “It’s not important.” He knelt next to the child and tried to take her hand away from her throat in an effort to see why she was suffocating. It took some effort but the small hand finally released its hold. The blood was coming from a small, S-shaped cut in her neck. It didn’t look deep, so Raven didn’t think that was the cause of the choking. “I can heal her,” he announced to the great relief of the mother who was now managing to control her sobbing a little.

  “You’ll do nothing of the kind.” Nilia grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him to his feet. “If you do that, Diago will find us. They’re still looking for us and we’re very close to where we had our last encounter with them. Is that what you want?”

  “Please, save her,” begged the mother. “The same thing happened to my son just a few minutes ago . . . and now . . . he’s . . . over there . . . dead.”

  Raven followed the gaze of the mother’s eyes and saw there was a small body lying a few feet from them. He shook off Nilia’s hand and went over to the little boy. He was face down, and when Raven turned him over, he stared in astonishment at the same S-shaped cut in his neck and the same purplish skin. He stood up and went back to the mother’s side. The little girl was getting worse. She was now foaming at the mouth. Raven took her in his arms.

  “This is insanity. I’m warning you,” said Nilia from behind him.

  “I don’t care!” Raven saw Maya in the face of the little girl dying in his arms. “I’m not going to let her die.”

  He cleared his mind of everything but healing the little girl. He didn’t know what she was suffering from but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. He remembered the catastrophe he’d caused when he’d tried to save Maya from freezing to death, how he’d lost control of himself and how his force had resulted in an explosion of heat that had ended the child’s life. That would not happen this time; destiny had offered him a chance to redeem himself and he wasn’t about to waste it.

  Raven stretched his hand wide, placed it on the little girl’s chest, and let his energy flow into her body. He felt the familiar burning in the palm of his hand and saw it shining with a golden glow. Just like before, he felt the child’s body as if it were his own. His force moved through her, revitalizing her. He suddenly knew—but didn’t understand how he knew—that it had been some kind of poison that had caused the asphyxiation. When he sensed that everything was all right and that there was no trace left of the poison, he quickly removed his hand. The burning disappeared and the golden glow gradually dissipated.

  The color of the little girl’s skin had returned to normal. Her breathing was deep though somewhat rough, like a swimmer who’s just returned to the surface after being submersed a long time. The child rewarded Raven with a smile. This time, he’d done it.

  “Thank you, thank you so much, sir . . .” The mother continued showering him with thanks and praise as he returned her daughter to her arms.

  Raven looked at them a moment, intoxicated by the feeling of satisfaction from having been able to save the child’s life.

  “Forgive me, Maya,” thought Raven, “for not having been able to do the same for you.”

  He hoped with all his might that his message would make it to the little girl.

  “What happened?” he suddenly asked the mother, remembering the cuts on the children’s necks. “How did they get those wounds on their necks?”

  Nilia grabbed his arm and jerked him around to face her.

  “If you’re done saving the world, I suggest we get moving right now. Have you forgotten they’re after us?”

  “I’m just trying to find out what happened,” he defended himself. “Someone had to have made those strange cuts to get the poison into them. And maybe Diago didn’t pick up on it this time; not every time I use my—”

  “They’re already here, aren’t they?” asked Nilia, seeing the look that flashed across Raven’s face. “How many are there? Tell me!”

  “At least eight.” Raven remembered he hadn’t felt the presence of some of them the last time. “They’re coming really quickly.”

  “I warned you,” growled Nilia. “You humans understand nothing.” Raven was going to respond, but she turned him toward the end of the platform and gave him a shove. “We have to get out of here fast.”