They gingerly rested Jem on the empty bench. His skin was slick with sweat. Catarina pulled his shirt open to expose his chest and cool him, and Tessa could see the runes of the Silent Brothers on his skin and his veins throbbing in his throat.

“I don’t know how much farther we can get him in this state,” Catarina said. “The effort is too much.”

Once on the bench, Jem’s limbs began to jerk and twitch as the poison moved through his body once more. Catarina set to work on him again, putting her hands on the wound. Tessa scanned the road. She made out a large shadow coming in their direction, with two dimmed lights like heavily lidded eyes.

A bus. A great red double-decker London bus was making its way through the night, because nothing stopped the London buses, not even a war. They were not at a stop, but Tessa jumped into the road and waved it down. The driver opened the door and called out.

“You sisters all right?” he said. “Your friend, ’e doesn’t look so good.”

“He’s injured,” Catarina said.

“Then you get yourselves inside, Sisters,” the driver said, shutting the door after they had done so, dragging Jem between them. “You’ve got London’s best private ambulance at your service. Do you want to go to St. Bart’s?”

“We’ve come from there. It’s full. We’re taking him home to care for him, and we need to go quickly.”

“Then give me the address, and that’s where we’ll go.”

Catarina shouted their address over the sound of another, slightly more distant explosion, and they got Jem over to a seat. It was instantly clear that he would not be able to hold himself sitting up, as he was too exhausted from the effort of trying to walk. They rested him on the ample floor of the bus and sat next to him on either side.

Only in London, Jem said, smiling weakly, would a bus keep making its rounds during a massive bombing.

“Keep calm and carry on,” Catarina said, feeling Jem’s pulse. “There now. We’ll be at the flat in no time.”

Tessa could tell from the way Catarina was becoming more and more chipper in tone that things were getting worse quickly.