The Light Within (Shadow and Light Duology #2)

31. Darcy

thirty-one

Darcy

I f you wanted something done properly, you had to do it yourself.

It was the first lesson Darcy’s father ever instilled in her; it was the motto she lived her life by. And it had never rung so true as it did that day.

So when Elliot started to spiral into a hopeless panic, and Cinn started threatening to leave that very second, Darcy demanded they go see Eleanor that exact instant.

As much as Darcy wanted to get to Paris as soon as possible, she’d never underestimated Lucien Montaigne. The man was ruthless, cunning, and always two steps ahead. If Julien really was in danger, they’d need more than the three of them—they’d want a small army to lead into battle. Darcy could almost hear her father’s voice reminding her to stay sharp, to never underestimate an opponent. The stakes were high, and she wasn’t about to let her guard down. Not now. Not when everything was teetering on the edge.

Eleanor might not be the army they needed, but she was a start.

So, she collected Cinn from his room, from his position slumped on the floor, leaning against the bed frame, staring vacantly at the floorboards.

Five minutes later, they were in the alley at the side of the corner shop, banging on the metal door with no handle and no lock. Harder and harder they pounded, determined that there must be some member of the AP down there who would eventually hear them .

“Hello?” shouted Elliot. “We need to talk to someone.”

“What are you doing?” an accented voice shouted from behind him. A thick Swiss-German accent.

The three of them spun to find a balding, middle-aged man glaring at them.

“Hi,” said Cinn. Then, of all things, he waved . “It’s me. You know me.”

“You?” spat the man, eyes wild. “Yes, you’re in my shop buying my cheapest cigarettes, flour and eggs almost every day. Great for me. But this does not explain why you bang!” He shook a pointed finger at the door.

Did the shop owner know about the secret moteblessed organisation operating from the depths of its basement?

If Darcy had to guess, she’d say no.

The metal door flew open, hitting the brick wall with a crash. Specks of dust floated to the ground. From within the dark entrance, Malik stepped into the light of the alley. He smiled at everyone, as if not surprised to see a stand-off between an angry shopkeeper and the three suspicious people banging on his basement door.

At the sight of Malik, the man’s expression changed from anger to mild annoyance. The pair of them proceeded to have a hushed, rapid conversation, which resulted in the shopkeeper huffing before wheeling around to head back down the alley.

“You three sure know how to make an entrance.” Malik paused, frowning. “Where’s your prat of a leader?”

“Julien’s not our leader,” mumbled Elliot.

“That’s who we’re here to discuss,” stated Darcy calmly. Thank goodness she was here, or the whole thing would be descending into chaos. “We need your help. And we need it right now.”

Madame Sinclair, sat on the very chair she’d swivelled around on last night, looking between them, obvious exasperation written on her face. Her usual impeccable demeanour had unravelled further since they last saw her—purple bags under her eyes, crinkles in her power suit. Had the woman slept at all?

Moments prior, Darcy had relayed, with impressive conciseness, the entire situation, and outlined exactly what she wanted from Madame Sinclair. Elliot and Cinn had stayed quiet the entire time. It was glorious. Even more glorious was how much she could get done without Julien dragging her down.

“I didn’t realise you were capable of so many words,” Madame Sinclair said eventually, appraising Darcy as if seeing her for the first time.

Darcy tipped her chin up. “Needs must.”

“This is all extremely concerning. And very unfortunate timing.”

Unfortunate . Darcy pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth.

The older woman jerked her head towards her consoles and screens. “With the continuation of the calamities imminent.”

“With respect, if we find Julien, we might be able to destroy the machine, and in turn, solve all of our problems at once.”

“‘Might’ is the keyword there. Look, believe me, I care for Julien’s safety more than you know.”

Elliot did not contain his snort.

Madame Sinclair pierced him with a glare so fiery it could melt an iceberg. “I have no children of my own, you know. No siblings. Isabelle was the closest thing I had to a sister. I failed her, in so many ways, but when she died, I did my damnedest to look out for her children. Including sitting through dinner after dinner with their insufferable father, pretending for years we had a strong alliance. Including trying desperately to keep Julien away from all this for the last year.”

“Now’s the time Julien needs you the most,” Cinn quickly interjected. “Surely it’s enough that he’s run off to see his father! How is that going to end well? Now he knows what he knows?”

Closing her eyes for a moment, Madame Sinclair leaned back in the chair. “I agree. Of course I’m concerned. If the entire gendarmerie hadn’t been dispatched to tackle various umbraphage attacks, I’d be on the phone to Salvatore Gallo.”

The screen behind her showed flashing dots over Hong Kong, New York, and a couple of other major cities. Darcy slid her eyes to Elliot, who twisted his lips. After Julien had summoned him to Cinn’s house, he’d called in to work and made excuses. He probably felt terrible about it.

“Most of them correlate to locations predicted to be hit by climate disasters in under twenty-four hours. Manpower is at a premium right now.”

Darcy made to talk again, silenced by Eleanor raising her hand.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to help. I’m explaining our situation.”

Malik cleared his throat, shuffling slightly away from the console he was monitoring. “Ma’am? If I can support, I want to.”

Madame Sinclair swung back and forth on her chair until Darcy itched to stick her leg out to stop her.

“I need four hours. Maybe five. I’ll see who I can gather. It won’t be many.”

“No!” Cinn’s voice was so choked with emotion that Darcy herself felt it. “That’s not good enough! One hour, then we leave! We might be too late already!”

“Fine then, you leave in an hour. I’ll take the Displacement Baths, and we’ll see who gets there first.”

The woman stared at Cinn calmly, awaiting his response .

“Fine,” Cinn spat. “If you can get us into the Baths, I guess we’ll do it that way.”

“Go, quickly. You’re delaying everything. We’ll meet you outside the Baths.”

Malik moved towards the ladder. “I’ll show them out.”

Madame Sinclair gave him a withering look, like that was obvious.

As Elliot and Cinn followed Malik up the ladder, Darcy called after them. “I’ll be there in two minutes.”

Cinn paused on a rung, giving Darcy a curious stare, then continued onwards when she revealed nothing. When she and Madame Sinclair had the room, the other woman waited.

It seemed strange that Darcy had once found Madame Sinclair intimidating. Now, the woman only looked time-worn, diminished, exhausted.

“I want a reassurance from you,” Darcy started, choosing her words carefully. “If AP is successful in destroying the Machina Tenebris, then the world’s supply of motecells will cease, correct?”

Madame Sinclair became statue-still. She regarded Darcy, unblinking. “You’re worried about your father. The pacemaker your parents are fighting to get approved?”

The woman’s face hadn’t softened. Darcy hadn’t expected it to.

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure why you think this is a negotiation.”

“Because your negligence has resulted in Julien coming to harm, so now you owe me. You can fix it by helping another person I love. My father is the kindest soul I know. He doesn’t have long left with us if they don’t get the pacemaker fitted.”

“I can’t promise anything,” said Madame Sinclair. “It’ll be a brave new world if we succeed in destroying the machine. Decisions will have to be made on how we proceed. ”

“You’re on the consortium. You’ll be able to do something in his favour!”

“The point of the consortium, when it was established, was to ensure that no single moteblessed individual could wield unchecked power.”

Darcy laughed. Madame Sinclair cracked a small smile.

“I know. We’ve come so far from that, haven’t we? If we manage to take down Lucien, then we need to go back to making decisions for the greater good, not individual cases. I can’t promise you anything specific. But I can promise that we’ll consider the human cost in our choices.”

Darcy’s heart pounded in her chest. “The human cost is everything, Madame Sinclair. Don’t forget that.”

With that, she climbed up the ladder without looking back. Left to navigate the dark corridors alone, it took her a fair few minutes to reach the exit.

Her eyes adjusted to the brightness. Cinn lingered by a stack of compressed cardboard boxes, smoking. Elliot stood a fair few strides away from him, close to Malik. Very close.

“What’s going on?” Darcy asked Cinn.

“I don’t know. We were waiting for you. Though we’ve apparently got some hours to kill, anyway.”

Cinn then had the audacity to offer Darcy the end of his cigarette. She glared his hand away, storming down the alley.

Malik appeared to be in the process of consoling Elliot—both of his hands were clutching the other’s. “We’ll find him,” he promised, in a low voice. “I know we will.”

“I hope so,” Elliot replied, gazing at Malik in a nauseating way.

Hadn’t Elliot met this random guy only the other day? He was milking this situation for all it was worth, clearly.

“We need to head back and come up with a strategy for when we arrive in Paris,” Darcy barked at Elliot .

Malik raised his eyebrows, shooting Darcy a questioning gaze. “To your cottage?”

Darcy’s stomach tensed at the familiarity in Malik’s tone. How many times had he watched them all there, from the shadows? And now Elliot was putty in his hands, just like that? “I won’t bother giving you the address. I’m sure you know it intimately.”

“There’s no need to be rude, Darce,” muttered Elliot.

Cinn peeled himself from the wall to join them. “Yeah, Malik’s on our side. He was stalking us on Eleanor’s orders, but he’s here to help, now. Right, mate?”

Shaking her head, Darcy strode off without a second glance back at them.

She’d need to save her energy, if this was what she was to deal with.