Free The Madness Underneath: Book 2 (THE SHADES OF LONDON) by Maureen Johnson

blow. The pain of that blow was still evident in her expression, but like me, she was shuffling onward.
    “I’m doing some research,” she said, patting some folders that sat next to her on the sofa. “As soon as this cast comes off, I start my training. I’m either going to go in as an Underground employee, like Callum, or I’ll do an apprenticeship at British Gas.”
    Boo told me some more about her future job prospects, showing me glossy brochures of people in coveralls looking intently at pipes and wires and going down ladders into dark underground places. The prospect really did seem to delight her. Stephen went to a desk by the window and poked at his laptop in a way that suggested he was just trying to stay out of our conversation for a moment.
    “Gas company workers can get in anywhere,” she said, “all the good underground spaces. I’d look good with a safety helmet, yeah? Toolbelt?”
    “You don’t even need tools,” Callum said, passing by with some cups of tea balanced on a large book. “You’ve got thosetalons. You could probably pry open a manhole with those things.”
    Boo stretched out her fingers, displaying her long, fake purple nails, then slashed playfully at Callum’s hip. She accepted the teas, passing one to me, and Callum moved on to Stephen.
    “That’s my atlas,” Stephen said, observing the object Callum was using as a tray.
    “Sorry, love.”
    “I’ve told you about that.”
    “No one needs an atlas,” Callum said, passing him the last mug. “What with the Internet and all. Here’s your tea.”
    Stephen came over to join us, and the atmosphere in the room settled instantly.
    “Right,” Stephen said. “So, tonight, we had a meeting with Thorpe…”
    “I still don’t understand why you had to have a meeting at two in the morning,” Boo said.
    “That’s when it had to happen,” Stephen said.
    Callum glanced over at Boo.
    “And we have official clearance to continue,” Stephen finished.
    “Clearance to continue?” Boo asked. “They were going to shut us down?”
    “It was being discussed.”
    “And you didn’t mention this?” Boo said.
    “They were concerned because we don’t have the termini anymore,” Stephen said.
    “And so am I,” Callum said, his voice edged with anger. “Please tell me this solution involves getting some new ones.”
    “It does,” Stephen said. “It involves Rory.”
    Callum and Boo looked at me expectantly. Stephen cleared his throat a bit.
    “She…is a terminus.”
    I can’t fault Callum and Boo for not knowing what to say to that.
    “You’re shitting me,” Callum said, after a moment.
    “I’m not,” Stephen said. “I can only assume that it happened at some point after the final Ripper attack. Which is why you need to tell us everything that happened to you from the minute of impact.”
    Now the focus was back on me. Julia had been trying for weeks to get me to this very point—the point of the knife as it went in, those minutes when I was slumped on the floor, when I saw the blood coming out of my own abdomen. When the Ripper—his name was Alexander Newman—told me that I was going to die.
    It was not something I felt like talking about. But there did seem to be a compelling reason for me to do so—there was a logic to telling them.
    “He cut me,” I said. “He said he did it in such a way that I would bleed and die slowly. He gave me the terminus.”
    “He gave it to you?” Callum said.
    “I couldn’t move. He said he had this theory that if someone with the sight died connected to a terminus, that person might come back…because he had died holding one. He wanted to see what happened when I died. And then…Jo came through the door.”
    “The door was locked,” Stephen said.
    “She went through the door.”
    “That would have hurt her,” Boo said quietly. “She told me that hurt. She said it felt like being ripped apart.”
    I paused for a moment out of respect for that. I didn’t know Jo