Free The Name of the Blade, Book Two: Darkness Hidden by Zoe Marriott

everyone in that place. Everyone except…”
    Inexorably, my head turned to look at Jack’s sister, who was sitting in the seat on the other side of me. Shinobu followed my gaze. “Except Rachel-san?”
    Rachel shifted away from us. Her eyes looked huge and tense. There was a long, uncomfortable pause.
    “Rachel?” I said finally. “You want to chime in here? How did you do it? You broke out of his – his freeze-ray effect. You actually managed to
hurt
him with your bare hands.”
    “I – I … I’m not really…” Her nervous eyes darted away from us. She looked down, fiddling with the ends of her black-and-white scarf. Pity twinged under my ribs.
    Rachel had been through so much in the past twenty-four hours. She probably shouldn’t even be out of bed yet. But what she had done to the Harbinger … that should have been impossible. It was impossible for me, even with my katana-boosted muscles and speed. Something was going on, and I needed an explanation. I tried to put as much compassion into my voice as possible. “Come on, this is me, not the Spanish Inquisition. Just talk to me.”
    She shoved her glasses up her nose. Her eyes stayed down. “I remember having a really weird dream,” she said, her voice barely audible. “I was stuck. I couldn’t move or see or hear.”
    “Right.” I nodded encouragingly. “That would have been when the Harbinger froze everyone.”
    Rachel’s trembling hands knotted together. “But then there was this – this voice. This … awful, scary voice.” She shuddered. “It said – she said –
The little birdie needs you. Awaken. Move
. And I woke up.”
    I could feel my eyes bulging.
Little birdie?
    “And then?” Shinobu was leaning into me now, his chest a warm, solid wall against my back.
    The announcement for our stop came on the Tannoy. The Tube grumbled to a halt and the doors hissed open. Before I could even get my feet under me, Rachel was up and bolting out of the carriage.
    I shouted her name. She didn’t look back. I was so shocked that I almost forgot we needed to get off here too.
    “Quickly!” Shinobu hauled me upright and out of the doors. But we were already too late to catch a glimpse of where Rachel had gone. We jogged up and down the platform peering through the tiled archways.
    “Why would she run away like this? It’s pointless. She needs to get on the next train out of here to get home, just like we do.” A sudden image of the way we had found Rachel last night – her wide, staring eyes as she fought the Nekomata’s bonds – made my stomach do a queasy flip. What if it was all finally catching up with her? She could be having a flashback, freaking out – and who could blame her? I tightened my grip on Shinobu’s hand. “Come on.”
    Now it was me dragging him as I slapped my Oyster card on the ticket barrier. If an invisible man fails to pay his fare in a busy Tube station, does anyone notice? Not this time. We walked out into the blinding orange light of the low winter sun without interference.
    The pedestrianized area between the Tube stop and the main train station was lightly scattered with people – not half as many as I would normally have expected, but still enough for someone to hide among. Light glinted off the windows of the buildings towering over us. The Gherkin’s sleek form almost blinded me. Shielding my watering eyes, I scanned the crowd, trying to make out Rachel’s curly hair and red jumper before she disappeared completely.
    “There!” Shinobu pointed.
    I saw Rachel’s small form almost opposite me. She was hustling up the steps of the main train station, past one of the giant white mushroom-lights that stood in the courtyard.
    We wove through the crowd, dodging briefcases and shopping bags. “Rachel!” I yelled.
    All around me people turned around to stare. Rachel froze for a second, then sped up.
    “Perhaps we should let her go,” Shinobu suggested. “She might simply wish for some time to