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  FLIGHTS

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  ALSO IN THE SERIES

  Shades

  Echoes

  Speed

  Twists

  Flights

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  FROM THE PUBLISHER

  ALSO IN THE SERIES

  Chapter One

  Gasping for air, Jade sat bolt upright and tried to push away the fear that gripped him; Amethyst-with-red-hair telling him Amethyst needed his help. He blinked away the image of his twin, and the sweat from his eyes. Nightmares were just nightmares, and not to be dwelt upon. The sweat that covered his body had nothing to do with the man whose bed he shared. It was a good big bed, too opulent for Jade’s taste and purse, but Douglas, fast asleep at his side, liked to share it.

  So much for saying goodbye. A grin spread across Jade’s face. It had been good, all things considered. But goodbye was still the right thing to say.

  Carefully, he eased himself from the bed. The embers of the fire gave out just enough light to see by. He found his clothes and started to dress. As he tucked in his shirt, movement told him is bedfellow was moving.

  “Are you sure about this?” Douglas asked.

  Jade turned and looked at him, sitting up, naked with nothing but the sheet up to his hips. As Douglas looked over Jade, his hand strayed under the sheet and began to play there. He had the face of a Greek god, androgynous and eternal in his beauty. And the perfect figure, thin and delicate, musculature clearly defined, but not overdeveloped. Not a spare ounce of flesh, except for the growing six inches. Another perfection.

  “I’m sure,” said Jade, and pulled his braces up to his shoulders. “As I said last night, it’s the best long-term solution.”

  The flesh-stroking grew rapid. “And the fact that you spent last night with me doesn’t tell you anything?”

  The apparent youthful innocence was belied by the fact that Jade knew Douglas was an accomplished philanderer. “Tells me you’re very good at seduction.”

  “My stock in trade, dear boy.” Douglas grinned back at him. “I won’t wait for you, you know.”

  “Good.” The jacket settled on Jade’s shoulders as he moved to the bed. “I want you to be happy.” He leaned down to kiss Douglas, enjoying the hand that moved to harden his length too. Douglas lived off seduction, took many a man’s favors. “You’re a very naughty boy.”

  “And you’re going to miss me.”

  “Yes I am.” Jade straightened and stepped out of reach. “Take care of yourself.”

  Douglas chuckled. “That’s what I do best.”

  It certainly was. At the front door, Jade stopped and checked himself in the mirror on the wall. Hair straight, tie knotted, all presentable. Respectable enough for this early hour.

  Kneading bread dough was calming, therapeutic. This was familiar, which at the moment he was grateful for. Anything familiar was welcome in a world where he recognized nothing, not even the man in the mirror.

  His earliest memory was three days ago. He woke in an infirmary bed, his head aching. His memory had forsaken him. He had had to be told his own name, and even that didn’t sit right.

  Samuel Levinson.

  A good Jewish name. Nothing to be ashamed of. Yet it was a coat that didn’t fit.

  He worked the bread as his father had taught him.

  He stopped.

  Suddenly the memory was clear. The warmth of ovens, the smell of yeast, the flour hanging in the air. He was little, a child, his small hands struggling to stretch the dough as his father’s larger, more practiced hands could. He remembered his father’s smile, the bottom and fringes of the tallit katon revealed under his waistcoat.

  The smile grew naturally with the warmth and familiarity of the memory. He had learnt the trade of bakery from his father. It was the first time anything had felt real.

  He kneaded with renewed vigor.

  The sun rose as Jade strolled up to the factory where they were producing DMACs and where his own apartment lay. The workday had already started. Jade checked in with the foreman. Everything was well, so he headed for the office. Even as he functioned, he was all too aware of that image of Amethyst in his head. Did she need him?

  His gut said she did. The last week, well the last few weeks, had been difficult for her. She did need him, just like he needed her. He’d visit later, but for now he had to work. Only it didn’t divert him; worries about his sister filled his head.

  “Problem?” Jasper asked as he walked in.

  Jade looked up at his brother. Three years his senior, Jasper seemed older, wiser. Though Jasper was the business head, calling the shots Jade
couldn’t even see, he had no idea when it came to the actual engineering. That was why they made such a good team. Working together had taught Jade a new respect for Jasper. It had also brought them closer as brothers after a time when Jade had been disowned by their father and believed he’d lost his family forever.

  “I’m worried about Amme.”

  Jasper nodded as he tossed the newspaper onto his desk and sat down. “She is struggling,” Jasper agreed. “But think of all she’s lost. Maker’s gone, Jenson’s dead. Great-Aunt Flora’s gone back to Glenarch. Even the cat’s disappeared. She’s grieving. She needs a little time.”

  “What if she needs more than that?”

  “I have considered writing to ask Great-Aunt Flora to come back,” Jasper admitted.

  Jade shook his head. “She’s only just moved. Maybe I should take Amme up to her for our birthdays.”

  “That’s a good idea.” Jasper considered it. “I can hold the fort here. Yes. Why don’t you do that?”

  With a nod, Jade agreed, but Jasper ended up frowning at him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Jade swallowed. “You’ll think I’m crazy.”

  A grin grew over his brother’s face. “I know you’re crazy. What is it?”

  “I dreamt of Amme last night. Only it wasn’t Amme. Her face, but her hair was red and she was … different somehow.”

  All amusement fell from Jasper’s face.

  “What?” Jade demanded.

  Eye contact faltered; Jasper swallowed before he looked up again. “We need to talk.”

  Amethyst let Vostock take her arm and lead her. She didn’t actually remember how they had reached the airship, or even which airfield they had left from. It wasn’t just the headache that drew her attention away from the present, it was her lack of interest. What happened here didn’t matter, what happened when she got to Quinn did. Vostock had taken care of everything and got her seated. Now she sat in the window seat and watched the clouds go past. The scenery didn’t matter much.

  All she saw, every hour of every day, was Dean Jenson. The way he’d looked the first time she’d seen him, all serious and grey, that thick moustache straight and impenetrable. The way he’d looked that night in the Lords when he’d kissed her, the tickle of his facial hair. The way he’d looked when she’d met him at Sharnwick Station, eyes crinkled with warm welcome, the upward twitch of his moustache. The way he’d looked when she woke up and he was there, serious, loving. The way he held her close that night in his home. The way he’d looked at her, his soul in his eyes, when he’d given her that heart and sacrificed himself for her, for everyone in London. Her hand closed around the heart shaped amethyst in her pocket. Every demonstration of love though never a statement.

  The problem was, she all too often misread the signs of love. She’d made mistakes in the past, and her feelings then had been youthful, and just a touch stupid. She didn’t think she was stupid anymore, and she loved Dean, whole heartedly. She’d even told him so. Several times. But he’d never said it back. Why hadn’t he said it? It was too late now.

  Losing the man she loved left her feeling uncertain of how to carry on. There was no filling the Dean-shaped hole in her heart now.

  In the end, practicality directed her.

  She had stopped the vortices that had arisen across London, using enough force to send damaging shock waves back to damage the originating machinery. But someone still had to stop that machinery forever. Lagina, the only operative she knew of The Queen’s Own, said he would try to get someone in from his organization, but ‘try’ wasn’t a certainty. She knew she could get in and stop Quinn. She wouldn’t let him destroy any more lives.

  She blinked dry eyes and ignored the pull across her bruised forehead. Then she noticed the speed with which the clouds passed under the ship. She turned her face to Vostock. “What time is it?”

  He shifted to take the fob watch from his waistcoat. “Twenty-three minutes past one.” His west country accent still surprised her. He returned the watch to his pocket.

  She glanced again at the passing water vapor, then studied Vostock’s face. With that overhanging brow and the eyebrows so thick they met in the middle, he really wasn’t a handsome man. The lines on his face spoke more of frequent scowling than any attempt to smile.

  “We’re moving very fast,” she pointed out.

  He shrugged. “No need t’linger.”

  “So how long will it take to get to our destination?”

  “’Nother hour,” he said.

  “And how long to get from there to Redland?”

  “We go direct.”

  Jade stared at Jasper. He was both struggling to comprehend and in total accepting. To have been born one of triplets, not twins. The part of him that had always felt like it was missing, was. But to find out now, just before their 21st birthdays! He’d always known he was ten minutes younger than Amme, but apparently, she was several minutes younger than her identical twin sister, Amber. Amber who Jasper thought had died that same day, had been putting in appearances. She was alive and communicating.

  “Jade?” Jasper prompted eventually. “Say something.”

  “How am I only finding out about this now?”

  Jasper considered before he answered. “We were waiting.”

  “What for?” Jade shot to his feet. “Amber to knocking on my door?”

  He watched Jasper swallow. “Your birthday. We didn’t want to upset you before your twenty-first. Amme argued that we should tell you a couple of weeks ago when she found out, but then there was her work with the vortices. And then Jenson.”

  “So Amme knows? Am I the last to find out?”

  Jasper shook his head. “Neither Emerald nor Ruby have been told. I’ve already spoken with Father about that, and he’s adamant that they don’t need to know.”

  “But if Amber turns up-”

  “When,” Jasper declared.

  “Exactly.”

  “Ruby’s a little young and having some issues of her own. I’m tempted to tell Emerald myself. With Marlon to support her, she’ll understand. But for now, I want to let Father stew on the idea. I’ll give him his silence for the time being, but I will ensure that Emerald and Ruby are told.”

  Not knowing how to deal with this, Jade sank back down to his chair. This was a shock. “So Father gave one of us away, but it’s Amme and I that he hates.”

  “He doesn’t hate you.” Jasper sighed. “In fact, I think it’s quite the opposite. He’s tried to protect you two. Too much. He lost one of you, so was determined not to lose the others. Only he tried to control you both to the point where he drove you away. I realize that it would be difficult for both you and Amme to forgive him, but I’d really like to see you try and mend your relationship with Father. I’d like our family to be healed.”

  The idea of even seeing their father again made Jade tense. They hadn’t been in the same room since Emerald’s wedding and that had been uncomfortable at best. His father had snubbed him, and only spoken to Amethyst to criticize. “It’s not so much our forgiving him that’s the issue. I don’t see he’ll ever forgive me for being what I am.”

  At least Jasper had the decency to look away. “In his heart, no, probably not.” He tapped the newspaper in front of him. “But today’s announcement will help.”

  Jade looked at the printed item. Today it carried an advert taken out by Lady Eugenie Garrington-Smythe to announce the engagement of her daughter, Lady Roberta Davenport to one Mr. Jade Forester, Esquire.

  “Are you sure about this?” Jasper asked.

  “She’s a good woman.”

  “I know,” Jasper agreed, having met Bobbie on a number of occasions. “But she dresses like a man.”

  Jade grinned. “One of the things I like about her.”

  The eyeroll was typical. “Well, take her with you and Amme to Glenarch. If Great-Aunt Flora approves, you’ll be fine.”

  “You’re sure you’ll be fine alone with this place?”
r />   Another eyeroll.

  Chapter Two

  Amethyst blinked at Vostock, her jaw slightly loose in her lack of understanding. “Direct?”

  He nodded.

  She looked around the gondola. It was a simple short haul passenger craft, rows of four seats, two on each side with a central aisle, between thirty and fifty passengers - she couldn’t see enough to count the rows. Journeys of up to two hours. “All these people are hoping to get into Redland Academy?”

  “All these people have been accepted into Redland Academy.”

  She looked around at those she could see. Redland had a reputation was for taking the brightest and the best. If that was this lot, it didn’t show. Though, under the grime, she couldn’t see one ugly one, and most were female. “They look more like servants and navvies,” she whispered.

  “Who are grateful for the prospect of a better life outside the smoke and smell of London.”

  Amethyst blinked. This didn’t match with the ideals she expected. “I don’t understand.”

  His lips twisted up at her. “Could you do what you do if you had to wash your own clothes, clean your own home, cook your own meals?”