Some of the items were recognisable, most were not. Some obviously belonged inside a body, not without. Whereas before he would have been excited about such a haul, now they chilled him to the core. Along with the relic he had stolen away and left back in the world, these were the items that had so nearly given Mallian control over the fairy Grace.

Things would have been very different if that had happened.

I might still be with Angela, he thought, but he might also be in a world where humans and Kin were facing up to each other. He knew Mallian as well as any human being, perhaps as well as some Kin. The Nephilim would have never backed down from a fight.

He still could not quite work out why the fairy had allowed him to retain the relics. Perhaps she had been mixed up and confused by Mallian’s attempts at control. Or maybe once the Fold had closed for good, she realised that she had won.

Mallian certainly seemed to accept that he had lost.

“I might have saved the world,” Vince muttered as he looked down at the relics, and the whole idea felt ridiculous. He was so far away from the world that he would never know.

5

5

After almost half a century alive, Bone was presented with an opportunity he’d thought he would never have. He’d have to do his best to not fuck it up.

He found it whilst performing a regular search online. He made the search so often that he tapped in the name and hit the necessary links almost without thinking. Foo Fighters were playing through his speaker, he was into his second glass of wine of the evening, and within the next hour a woman called Jayne would arrive. They had been messaging each other for a few days, and the previous day it was her who’d cut out the bullshit and posed the question: So shall we meet for some fun?

It was the sort of interaction Bone liked. Some text flirting, a few photos, then meeting for a fuck. If it went well and they liked each other he might suggest another meeting or two, but then he’d cut it off. He didn’t want a relationship. He’d been there and done that, and falling in love with someone hadn’t suited him. Ten years ago he’d had his heart broken, and like any scar tissue, when it mended it was knotted and raw.

He entered “Longford” into the search, hit matches from the past seven days, and then sipped at his glass of wine. He was looking forward to Jayne’s arrival. She liked red wine, she said, and rock music, and she insisted they use protection. He was a careful person, and he respected such caution in other people.

Another place, another time, perhaps they might have become lovers.