“It’s a stir-fry with tuna.” Anne was over the stove; she’d washed the blood from her hands. “Sorry, there were only so many things in the fridge so it’ll be a bit makeshift.”

“Knowing you, it’ll still be better than anything I could come up with.”

“That’s not saying much.”

I laughed. Anne never used to say things like that out loud, but she’s a lot more relaxed around me these days. “There’s a catch, you know,” Anne said.

“With tuna?”

“What you were asking. About whether I can heal anything.” Anne had turned to look at me and her face was serious again. “I have to be there. If I’m next to someone, I can bring them back, no matter how close they are. But if you bleed out, or if that shard had hit you in the brain or the heart . . .”

“I know.”

“This was why I wanted you to have a gate stone for my flat.”

“You’ve got one for here. It works out about the same.”

“What if I hadn’t answered my phone?”

“I’d have had to think of something else,” I admitted. “But you’re pretty good about that kind of thing.”

“That’s because you never ask for help unless it’s something incredibly serious.” Anne had been opening a can; now she drained off the water and poured the contents into a frying pan with a hiss. “Um, by the way, don’t you have a set of armour?”

I sighed.

| | | | | | | | |

Luna and Variam arrived just as Anne was finishing up; she’d called them and given them the news, which come to think of it was something I should have done myself. They took a little time catching up on the story, then once they were sure I was okay, promptly started critiquing my performance.

“So let me get this straight,” Luna said. “You have a set of imbued armour designed specifically to stop attacks like this one, and you left it at home.”

“Yes.”

“Because you forgot to wear it.”

“I didn’t forget, I just didn’t realise I was going to get attacked.”

“Even though you’re a diviner.”

“. . . Yes.”

Variam and Luna shared a look. “You know,” Luna said, “I think that has got to be one of the stupidest possible ways to get killed.”

“Yeah, seriously,” Variam said. “What’s the point of having armour if you’re not going to use it?”

“It’s armour,” I said. “I can’t walk around London every minute of the day looking like I’m going to a SWAT raid. Anyway, I didn’t think it was going to be dangerous.”

Variam stared. “You didn’t think a police investigation could be dangerous?”

“Well, none of the others have been.”

Variam and Luna looked at me.

“All right! It was stupid, I get it. Look, you don’t have to worry about this stuff. You can just throw up a shield whenever you feel like it.”

“Honestly, doesn’t work as well as you’d think,” Variam said. “I can dispel anything that’s magic, but not if they just shoot through.”