Chapter Twenty Six
Summary: Rei told the Blitzkrieg Boys that BEGA had been spotted in the city but none of them passed that message onto Ian. Suspecting that something is up, Ian tried to pry it from Spencer but getting nowhere, he stormed off with Hilary in tow. Now they're on their way to Amber's. But Amber's got a surprise guest. Meanwhile, Eoin is still being Eoin. And Kai doesn't like any of it. Not to mention it's Summer in Ireland and it's weirdly cold.
The light sprinkling of rain had given way to hail when Ian emerged from the arena. The balls of ice bounced along the pavement and coated the road. Pedestrians ran for shelter while cars slowed to an almost imperceptible crawl. He stopped at the base of the steps. The chill settled into his bones as he concentrated on breathing, in and out, in and out. His blood thundered in his ears, his hands shook within his pockets.
He couldn't linger here, he had to go before they came looking for him.
Tugging his hat out of his pocket, he slapped it over his hair and jerked up the collar of his jacket. It wasn't ideal, but it offered some cover from the pellets of ice. He set off towards the pedestrian bridge. The hail continued to scatter in front of him, turning the street white. A moment later he noticed Hilary keeping pace, her breaths coming quick, the hood of her jacket dipping low to obscure her face.
"So, why are we visiting Amber?"
His mouth twitched into a grimace. "You said you wanted to visit her."
Hilary made a sound of derision. "Yes, during the tournament. The tournament hasn't started yet and we've left without finding out if any of our teams are doing the singles matches. What if one of your team gets called up? Don't you want to be there to support them?"
Ian flinched and dug his hands deeper into his pockets, hunching his shoulders against the cold wet sneaking down his neck. "They don't need me for that."
"What happened?"
"Nothing."
Hilary fell into step with him which only infuriated him further. If he were tall, he could leave her in his dust but no: he was short; he was weak; he was incompetent. Fucking typical.
"Something happened." She paused and his skin itched. "Spencer looked upset you were leaving."
Ha, well, poor Spencer shouldn't have lied, should he? Except it wasn't Spencer's fault. Spencer always told him things unless Tala specifically ordered him not to. Like last time. He hated being at odds with his team, but if they would not treat him like a teammate, then why should he behave like one? Still, didn't mean he would pour his heart out to a Bladebreaker.
"None of your business."
"Maybe not, but friends worry about each other."
He snorted. "We're not friends."
Hilary stopped. The movement was so sudden that Ian turned to make sure nothing had happened to her. She stood in the middle of the bridge and dropped her hood to look at him, a furrow forming between her brows. "We could be."
Right. Sure. He turned away from her again to continue his path. "I don't need friends. I have my team."
Footsteps slapping against the slushy pavement told him she was hurrying to catch up. "Well, if you had other friends, you could tell them what your team did. Talking about things is good, Ian. When Tyson upsets me, I always talk to a friend—I talked to you and you helped me see that I was being unfair to the rest of my team. I couldn't see that myself. Maybe if you talk about—"
"And give you weaknesses to exploit? I don't think so. You forget Hilary, we're rivals."
"No, we are not. Our teams might be rivals in the beydish, but for the important things, my team will always support your team. When Garland injured Tala, Tyson visited him in the hospital because—"
"Don't!" He barked out the word as he rounded on her, his hands fisted in his pockets to stop them from lashing out. "Don't mention that," he continued, voice soft but fierce. "I didn't get to be there. They stopped me from going and now they're doing it again. Deciding things and not including me and it's not fair! I'm not a baby, I'm not a child. I was a soldier in the Abbey just like they were. I—" He froze, inhaling sharply, and turned away from Hilary as pedestrians gave them a wide berth. The hailstones stung his cheeks and bounced off his hat and shoulders. "Boris."
"What?"
The cold sank into his bones as his whole body prickled in alarm. "It's Boris. It has to be. The last time they got secretive about things Tala found out that Boris was sniffing around the BBA."
Hilary sidled up to him, footsteps tentative. "I'm not sure it's Boris. He's in jail, right?"
Ian sneered. So naïve. "Guys like Boris don't stay in jail."
"What if it's something else? If it were Boris, they would tell you. It would be safer for you to know."
"You'd think," Ian muttered, grabbing Hilary's elbow and tugging her along behind him. "Let's deal with the Amber problem first."
His eyes darted along the tall buildings looming around them and the spot between his shoulder blades itched. There were too many windows overlooking the street. Perfect places to get a good vantage point of the arena, he mused. Most of them were self-catered apartments rented out to people who wanted to stay in the city but didn't want to pay for a hotel. His team had looked at them when the BBA first announced the tournament but the cost had put an end to that idea.
His fingers turned numb within his pockets as he rounded the corner. An open space spread in front of him. A layer of crushed ice covered the dark flagstones, the wind having herded the hail towards the wall as it continued to spit and bounce along the ground. The windows in the apartments were shut; the lights burning within the dwellings the only sign that there were people inside.
He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Hilary still followed him and crossed to the entrance. He lifted his gaze to the floor where he knew Amber stayed and frowned. No light that he could see. Was she home? Hilary sidestepped him and scanned the intercom but a shadow moved beyond the door. He caught her elbow just as the doors swung open and a figure in a green raincoat darted out. Ian lunged forward and caught the door before it closed. He ushered Hilary inside with a quick tug and she scowled, eyes flitting towards the intercom.
"We should ring up and announce that we're here."
"This is much more fun," Ian told her, his hushed voice bouncing off the plastered walls and up the staircase with its metal railings.
Mailboxes lined the wall opposite the staircase—having checked previously, Ian knew they were devoid of anything interesting. Mr Benson received an inordinate amount of junk mail but nothing of importance. Either he had his mail sent somewhere else, or the man had signed up for a paper free life. Frustrating, but smart. It made Ian's spying game difficult. He needed to learn some new skills. Balkov hadn't pushed technology, seeming to believe the strength of bitbeasts would outweigh everything else. In full out war it would but Ian had never envisioned himself as a soldier but more a saboteur. Tala had seen the same potential in him but Balkov never had.
Ian squashed the thought. No need to travel down that road. Much better to focus on the here and now, and on finding out Amber's little secrets.
"What if she calls the police?" Hilary asked.
"Who?"
"Amber."
"She won't," Ian said, waving his hand.
With the way Amber had injected herself in their lives, he doubted she'd do anything but invite them in. After all, she wanted them to believe in her. Now she had her chance to convince them—though considering their conversation in the arena, she might not even try now. She'd been annoyed when she'd stormed off and they hadn't heard from her in days. His stomach turned queasy, and he grimaced. He did not need a heaping dose of guilt for her on top of the guilt he had for Spencer. He could still see the stricken expression on Spencer's face when he left—stormed off really, just like Amber had. Wounded Egos 'R' Us.
"What if she's dead?"
Ian blinked, his thoughts derailed. "What? She's not dead." Why would she be dead?!
Hilary rolled her eyes. "Her skin was burned, she probably had heatstroke, and she looked to be in bad shape when she left. What if she got worse? She's alone in her apartment. We might find her body up there and then we'll have to call the police—"
Ian threw his hands in the air and stomped up the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Hilary demanded.
"To find her body!"
Hilary watched him stomp up the stairs and stifled a sigh. On the plus side, Ian seemed to have pushed his team issues to the side. Which left her wondering, was she a good friend? She told him he could confide in her but she had mentioned nothing to him about BEGA. Except was that her place? What if the Blitzkrieg Boys didn't know about BEGA? Maybe the secret they were keeping from Ian had nothing to do with BEGA at all.
Except, it had to be BEGA. Mariah knew, which meant Rei knew and he would definitely tell Kai. So, she was nearly 90% certain that their reticence towards Ian involved the sudden appearance of Brooklyn and Co. Still, there was that 10%.
She reached for her phone, then put it away. No, she would deal with Amber first and then think about what they would do if it turned out that Boris had escaped. If he had, surely the authorities and the WBBA would keep tabs on him. That was their job. No point in her worrying about it or annoying Ian with it. She would just be careful.
"Oi! Are you coming or not?" Ian hissed, head popping over the bannister from two flights above her.
She pressed her lips together and started up the stairs after him, hurrying her pace to catch up. She didn't want to let him out of her sight. He'd probably annoy the neighbours and get them kicked out. Once they reached Amber's floor, she immediately felt a flood of relief and a wave of silliness. She'd half expected police tape, but the hallway looked exactly as it had on her last visit. Amber was fine. She probably hadn't even thought of Ian and Hilary since that day and now here they were on her doorstep.
A prickling flush worked its way up her neck.
She reached forward to stop Ian but his fist reverberated off the door with three precise and loud knocks. There was silence on the other side.
"She's probably out," Ian said after a while, studying the empty corridor.
Hilary bit her lip. She still couldn't shake the image of Amber lying on the floor of her apartment. "Knock again."
With an exasperated sound, Ian knocked—more like thumped his fist against the door so it rattled in the frame. "Oi! Benson, you dead?"
"Ian!"
He held up a hand and stepped back, studying the bottom of the door with a tilt of his head. A smirk curved his lips. "I can see your shadow, idiot."
Hilary peered at the floor but… how could Ian see a shadow against the carpet floor? But before she could question it, there was a scraping sound of a bolt being drawn back. The door eased open and Amber stood in the gap, arms folded and a look of extreme disdain on her features.
"What are you two doing here?" Amber hissed, rising on her tiptoes, eyes scanning the hall. "You need to leave."
Mildly affronted, Hilary shook her head. "We came to check on you. You haven't been around and you didn't look very well the last time—"
"I'm fine. See?" Amber gestured to herself and Hilary had to agree, on the surface, Amber looked fine. The angry red skin had faded to pink with a few dried, flaking patches most noticeably on the bridge of her nose and her forehead. But the agitated manner in which she bounced on the balls of her feet, the frantic darting of her gaze and flushed features made Hilary suspicious.
"Now, really I have to go. Things to do, people to see. You know. Stuff."
Ian slapped his hand on the door before Amber could close it and her eyes flashed with annoyance. "Actually," he said, "we have a few questions for you."
Again Amber's eyes darted down the corridor. "I don't have any answers."
Why was she trying to get rid of them? Hilary wondered. Only a few days ago, Amber had been determined to recruit them into her little plot to save the world and now they were superfluous? That didn't seem right. Was it because they'd disproven her claims about Eoin? That was hardly their fault; he'd been in the arena when Amber claimed he'd attacked her and yet… she'd seemed so shaken. If Hilary hadn't been so focused on her team, would she have listened? Tried to see beyond Amber's claims to the truth? Was it loneliness or something more? Or maybe that was just wishful thinking. Maybe they should just go. Amber didn't want them there, and she was missing the tournament to be here.
"Ian, maybe we should—"
"No," he snapped, wedging his foot into the door frame. "I am not going back to the arena without getting the truth. You can go if you want to Hilary."
Of course, Ian wanted to stay. He'd stormed off on his brothers, he would hardly slink back to them not even half an hour later. With a roll of her eyes, Hilary curled her fingers into the cuffs of her sleeves. "I'll stay."
"No, you won't. Both of you need to leave. Go away. I don't want to talk to either of you. You had your chance. You blew it."
Ian shifted and Hilary saw the determined jut of his chin. "Look, you brat, if you don't let us in, we'll just stay here and annoy you and your neighbours. Trust me, you don't want to deal with that."
"I'll phone the police."
Hilary bit her tongue and glanced down the corridor. She could almost feel the neighbours hovering by their doors and she knew if they didn't get into the apartment they would make good on Amber's threat for her. She racked her brain trying to come up with some way to coax Amber into letting them inside.
"Really?" Ian leaned into her space. "Call the police then. They'll have to call your parents since you're a minor. I'm sure your dad will come to the station, right? Doesn't he live here?"
Amber's eyes widened, then narrowed as the blood drained from her face. With a snarl, she swung the door open and stepped back, lips pressed into a mutinous line. Hilary followed a triumphant Ian into the apartment and looked around. The placed looked as lived in as before, still relatively clean but for the blanket tossed on the sofa, the abandoned shoes by the coffee table and the dishes in the kitchen. Amber hadn't put them away, allowing the plates to gather up in the drying rack. She sniffed and frowned. There was something astringent lingering in the air overlying the sweet fragrance from the diffuser on the mantlepiece.
She sniffed again. Amber's arms closed around her body and she shifted to pick a jar up from the coffee table, screwing the cap back on. "For my burns," she answered, before the discomfort faded and the hostility from earlier replaced it. "Now what do you two want?"
"We wanted to make sure you were okay and we have a few questions."
"I told you, I'm fine and I don't have any answers for you. Like you said, I'm just making shit up and—"
"The gate is open," Ian said, shoving his hands into his pockets and moving to the sofa, dropping onto it and studying Amber with an expectant look.
Amber blinked and jerked her gaze to Hilary with a confused expression but Hilary had no clue what kind of cryptic point he was making.
"I'm sorry what? What gate?" Amber asked.
"In the woods. The tree? That gate is open."
Hilary whirled to face him. "You went back to the woods? Why didn't you tell me?"
Ian's lip curled in a sneer. "Didn't need a babysitter, and you didn't take me with you when you went to see it."
Hilary bit back the urge to remind him that he hadn't wanted to go with them. He'd left her right here in this apartment with Amber knowing she might be insane. She knew she had no right to feel betrayed but Hilary couldn't help the sour feeling curling in her gut. They were, if not friends then at least partners in this, so why hadn't he asked her to come with him? What if something had happened to him now that this gate had opened?
Amber eased herself onto the arm of the couch and eyed Ian warily. "How do you know the gate is open?"
"You said it was," Ian replied, then he shrugged, lacing his hands over his stomach, gaze averted. "My bitbeast confirmed it."
Pushing aside her irritation with him because she knew it was illogical—she and Ian were tentative friends and she was smart enough to know that come the end of this they would go back to being rivals or worse, strangers—Hilary glanced at Amber. "What does that mean? That the gate is open?"
"Well, usually when a gate or a door opens, something comes through," Amber sniped.
Hilary scowled and opened her mouth to snipe back. A key scraped against the door. All three froze and looked over their shoulder. Alarm zinged through her as the door opened and she considered grabbing Ian and hiding, but all plans dispersed when Mariam stepped inside, brushing ice from her brown cloak.
"Hey, it's coming down outside. Is it normal to have hailstones—"
Hilary couldn't say who was more surprised. For a moment they all stared at each other and then Mariam recovered, straightening to close the door firmly behind her. "You should have told me you were expecting guests."
"I wasn't expecting them," Amber groused, rising from her seat and crossing the apartment to take the bags from Mariam. "Did you get the teabags?"
Hilary watched the byplay and her stomach twisted. They were too familiar with each other. They knew each other which meant Amber must have lied about her beyblading knowledge. And Mariam had a key to the apartment. What was going on?
"I got everything you requested," Mariam answered, removing her cloak and lifting it onto the hanger, eyes lingering on Hilary. She smiled. "Hello Hilary, it's good to see you."
It's good to—Hilary blinked and shook herself. "Mariam? What are you—? How do you—?" She caught sight of Amber's smug look and pointed a finger at her. "You owe us some answers."
"Who is she?" Ian demanded, sidling up beside Hilary, all but bristling with irritation and Hilary felt a surge of relief. He would take her side. She wasn't facing two opponents on her own.
Amber snorted as she filled the kettle. "I don't owe you two anything. You didn't want to help, so I found someone who would."
She found someone? To do what? How could Mariam possibly…? Cold panic seized Hilary's chest. "You found someone who seals bitbeasts? Honestly Amber? I thought you understood, the bitbeasts are our friends. How could you join up with someone like that?"
"Because if it's a case of saving your bitbeasts or saving my world, guess who wins?"
"Enough!" Mariam's voice cracked through the apartment and Hilary averted her gaze, hands balled by her sides.
"Ian, we need to go." She had to tell Tyson, warn all the beybladers that the Saint Shields were here. Her brow furrowed. Hadn't Ian said a blue-haired girl had been watching the Blitzkrieg Boys? The quicker they got back, the faster they could alert everyone. Even now Ozuma and the others might be moving against them. Her heart lodged in her throat, a frantic fluttering thing threatening to suffocate her.
"Hilary, wait." Mariam heaved a sigh and shot Amber a quelling look. "Whether you want to believe me, I'm not here to seal your bitbeasts."
"Ha, like you could," Ian scoffed.
Hilary caught his sleeve. "Ian, this is Mariam of the Saint Shields. She's from that village I told you about."
Beside her, tension vibrated through Ian's body as he fixed his gaze on the new threat in the room.
Mariam raised her hands, palms out, a gesture of surrender. "I'm not here to seal the bitbeasts. Why don't we all sit down—"
"We're not sitting down with you. We're going back to the arena now," Hilary stated, gripping Ian's arm.
He yanked out of her grip. "I want answers."
"Ian!"
"Please, Hilary—"
"Mariam, we don't need them. I tried to get them to help and they wouldn't."
Mariam shot a sharp look at Amber. "We do need them. They're integral to plan A."
Amber rolled her eyes, shoulders slumping as she muttered something under her breath but Hilary couldn't hear it over the roaring in her ears.
"What do you mean you need us? I won't betray my team and I won't let you use us to hurt them."
"Told you," Amber sang. "They don't want to help. They'd rather people die so they can win a stupid cup. We should go with Plan B."
Mariam didn't respond, instead her attention locked on Hilary, gaze pleading. "You have my word as a Saint Shield that I don't want to seal the bitbeasts. I know what they mean to you." She reached into her pocket and withdrew her own blade, studying Sharkrash's bitbeast before showing it to Hilary. "I'm one of you too. That's why I'm here, I want to stop them from being harmed but if you walk out that door without hearing me out then I can't guarantee their safety. So please, sit down and let me talk."
Hilary's lips parted, wanting to refuse, to walk back to the safety of the arena but once again she found herself at the line between a normal life and the unknown. And once again she faced a choice. Except just like that moment in the forest, it really wasn't much of a choice if she wanted to keep her friends safe. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and surrendered to the inevitable. "Fine, I'll listen."
A strange atmosphere settled over the arena as the green beyblade flew out of the dish and clattered against the floor. The winner nodded in satisfaction and stepped closer to the dish, dipping down to snag his wobbling blade. Once collected, he looked up into the stands, locking onto the VIP area, before he left the stage with as little fanfare as he'd arrived.
The crowd burbled their dissatisfaction while the loser stood in place, looking lost and confused. Even DJ Jazzman seemed stunned, his mic hovering in front of his lips but no words escaped for a long moment. Eventually, he snapped back to life, and he looked around the dazed arena.
"Eoin wins." The words were unenthusiastic, much like the match.
A smattering of applause rippled through the stands. From his position up in the sparsely populated VIP area, Kai drummed his fingers against the arm of his chair and glanced up at the mounted screen as it showed the replay in slow motion. A lucky strike. That secured the victory for Eoin and nothing more. No unnatural show of skill, no display of true talent, just a fortunate hit.
"So, that's Ireland's golden child," Tala murmured from his seat behind Kai. "I have to admit, I'm underwhelmed."
Kai echoed that sentiment. As matches went, it was uninspired and lack lustre. And frustrating. They still knew nothing about him. Eoin was the unknown factor in the European team and that made him dangerous.
"What an anticlimax," Tyson muttered, from the row in front. He whipped around to face them, his hand clutching the phone he hadn't released since Mariah announced that Hilary had returned to the hotel complaining of a stomachache. "He had to be faking it, right? No one on a WBBA sponsored team could be that bad, right? He wasn't even trying. "
"It was a ploy," Tala answered. "He knows everyone here tonight is watching him, assessing him for weaknesses. He successfully guaranteed that none of us discovered his strengths and weaknesses."
Still, Kai mused, it was a risky plan. Set up against a ranked amateur of no real standing, Eoin lost the first match, drew the second and barely scraped a win in the third. If it were any other blader in the tournament, the others would have dismissed him instantly. As it was, they were now more curious than ever.
"He's a strange one," Tyson muttered, his gaze lifting over Kai and Tala to the entrance to the VIP area.
A few seconds later Bryan joined them, dusting snow from the shoulders of his dark burgundy coat. "Spencer called, Ian's not at the hotel."
Tala frowned. "Well, where the hell is he?"
"Ian's missing?" Tyson asked, his fingers flipping his phone around in his hand.
Kai bit back a sound of annoyance. He could tell where this was going. Those two bumbling idiots had gone to see the Irish girl. He should have known not to take his eyes off them but the match with Eoin had distracted him.
"He got annoyed with us earlier and left," Tala muttered. "Have you found him, Bryan?"
"Not yet."
"How can you find him if you're not out there looking for him?" Tyson asked, scratching the back of his head.
Kai rolled his eyes. He was surrounded by idiots.
With a grim smile, Bryan leaned over his seat and held up his phone. "With this."
"A phone? You're gonna call him?"
"You really are an idiot, aren't you Tyson?"
"Hey! Who are you—"
Around them the crowd began to chant as if sensing new blood. On stage, Ming-Ming walked out in one of her usual outlandish outfits, waving to her 'adoring' fans. At least three young men tried to scream themselves hoarse to capture her attention. Kai pressed his fingers to his temples and massaged slowly.
Tyson sank back into his chair and craned his neck to get a better view of the stage. Placards shook and whistles pierced the air as the crowd grew louder. Enjoying their volume, Ming-Ming strode to her podium.
"Are you ready for the next match?" Her voice boomed; the crowd roared.
"Hey, guys!" Max greeted, scrambling in next to Tyson, while Mariah and Rei took up the vacant chairs in Kai's row. "How did Eoin's match go? Unearth any details about him?"
"I can't hear you! I said, are you ready?"
"None," Tyson grumbled, slumping back into his seat. "It was like watching kids with their first beyblade. No finesse, no power, no skill. Just attack and try to push the other blade out of the dish. Tala says it was his tactic to keep his secrets."
Max nodded. "That makes sense. Well, at least we're guaranteed a good match now. Rick is up against one of the guys from the Australian team."
"Let's give a warm welcome to the Matthew Robinson!"
The crowd whooped and the heartthrob from the Australian team joined Ming-Ming on the stage, squinting against the glare from the spotlights.
"You find Ian?" Tala asked.
Kai glanced over his shoulder as Bryan mumbled under his breath.
"He's across the river." Bryan held up his screen and pointed to a pulsing dot on the digital map of Belfast, right at the spot where Amber lived.
Surprise, surprise, Kai thought. He was right. And he would bet anything that Hilary was there with Ian. Because those two could leave nothing alone.
"Now, get ready for one of your favourites and mine! Rick Anderson from the PPB All Starz!"
Rick stepped out onto the stage, stereo braced on his shoulder as he sauntered up beside Ming-Ming. The crowd and Max went wild.
Tala studied the screen, blue eyes sharp. "All right, let him sulk. We'll track him down after the tournament."
Kai stretched out his legs and crossed his ankles. That sounded like a good plan to him. He doubted the Irish girl posed much of a threat to both Hilary and Ian, and if he was lucky, they'd both be back at the hotel by the time they returned. That would save him the hassle of having to fetch them.
TBC
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