Thoughts fired through Anna’s head as she held the ladder while Garrick opened the attic hatch. The elegant, controlled way he moved and spoke reminded her of the officers who had come on regular visits to the labs to assess progress on her work. The size and solidness of him gave her reassurance. She was smart enough to realise there was a place for brute strength in this new world.

The angles and width of his arms left her in no doubt there was plenty of brute strength under the covers with Mr. Garrick. What kind of name was that anyway? Was it his first name or last name? Did soldiers like him have first names? Fine dust shimmied from the ceiling above her as he cracked the hatch door open. She coughed as it caught in her throat and filled her nostrils. Crap. I’m ready for today to be over.

Garrick disappeared into the dark void of the attic, leaving Anna alone in the corridor. The landing was silent and dark. Pitch-black dark.

In the attic above, he was hidden from view, but the floor boards creaked under his weight.

Screw this.

She put her hands on the smooth wooden rungs and climbed, pulling herself up into the loft space. The air was dry and the shadows impenetrable. Garrick was nowhere to be seen, forcing Anna’s ears to strain to find him in the inky blackness. She turned as something protested with a screeching wrench, and then grey light flooded the attic as Garrick levered a skylight open on the far side. He balanced on two joists, moonlight playing on the ridges of his biceps as he pulled himself up through the opening in one swift, effortless movement.

Jeez. Can’t he stay still? It’s like chasing the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.

She darted to the space under the skylight, balancing on the beams so she didn’t go crashing through the ceiling to the rooms below. Under the skylight, her fingertips grazed the bottom edge of the window. She was too short to pull herself up.

“Garrick,” she whispered. The wide-open sky above made her uneasy.

Nothing.

Stars winked in the clear night air. The thought of him abandoning her sent a flutter of panic through her body. She was a survivor, she knew that, but inexplicably, the thought of him leaving her made her belly contract.

“What?” His face suddenly blocked out the sky as he hung through the skylight.

She wobbled on the narrow timber below her feet. “Don’t disappear like that. I can’t climb up.”

He ducked his head down. “No. You’re not tall enough.”

“Are you trying to tick me off?”

His tone was dry. “I don’t think I need to try to do that.”

A gloved hand shot down into the gap. She grabbed it with both hands, her fingers closing around his forearm as he jerked her up through the skylight in one clean motion. He lifted her like she weighed nothing, catching her on the roof, and wrapping his arms around her. For a split second, she rested on him, solid muscle and heat under her body. Temptation coursed through her as her hands pressed against the ridges of his abdomen. She swallowed, her mouth parched. Every time he touched her, her brain completely derailed. It was thrilling and infuriating. He released her, and her feet touched the slates. Keep your crap together, Anna. Life’s too hard for distraction now.

A few short steps up an incline and the roof levelled out. Anna held her breath. Everything was bright with moonlight. A silvery wash illuminated the landscape. The office building sat at the top of a hill, and below, London spilled out in a broken, disjointed mess for several miles, the dark pinnacle of the Shard and the metallic glint of the Heron Tower visible in what little remained of the financial district. It was the most complete view of the devastation she had seen since everything had begun.

It hit home how protected and isolated she had been in her lab while the rest of the world went to hell. Everything she’d seen until now had been only small fragments of the story. But this? This was something else. She found herself turning in a circle, her eyes scanning the horizon in all directions. The broken-jigsaw block of Canada Square sagged into the landscape. Fire raged to the east in bursts of red and orange, filling the sky and obliterating stars with long pillars of filthy black smoke.

As she stood watching, dark swarms obscured the moon, momentarily blotting it out. Chittrix patrolling the sky that now belonged to them. Everything she knew and loved was gone. She blinked, rubbing her arms to dispel her shivers. There was nothing to be gained in losing herself in memories; they only got in the way and distracted you from survival. She’d learned that the hard way.

Garrick stood behind her emptying his backpack, pulling out metallic boxes that she assumed must be the radio equipment. Concern softened his eyes.

Ignoring his regard, she straightened her back. “What about the radio?”

He grunted in response, plugging wires into a black, faceless box. Green and red lights danced across the front when he flicked a switch, and fizzy static filled the air between them. She squatted down beside him and waited while he scanned the air space for a signal.

Garrick ran the dial from one side to the other but shook his head wearily. “Nothing. Nothing from the rest of the team, and we’re still too far away to pick up a signal from the base. We can try again in the morning. We need to keep moving, whatever we do. The rest of my group will be doing the same.”

He must have noticed her frown. “I’m sure they’ll have Julia with them. She’s in the best hands to bring her home safe.”

“Yes,” she whispered. Anna gestured at the desolation all around them. “I’ve never really appreciated everything and everyone are gone. It’s so complete.”

“You were pretty protected in that lab.” A statement, not a question.

She nodded in agreement. “That’s how it goes a lot of the time in weapons development. If we were in contact with the real world too much, we might develop a conscience.”

“What you’ve developed is defence. We can use it against the Chittrix. That has to be good.”

“What did you do before all of this?”

His eyes slid away, down to his hands. He turned his palms over. “Special forces. SAS. My team was involved in countering the first wave of the invasion.”

She waited for him to continue. She wanted to know his story. What had made him the man he was now, fighting on when there was barely any world left to fight for?

“It didn’t go well. You know that. The government had no idea what they were dealing with. Most of our forces were sacrificial lambs, mine included.” He dismissed the topic by standing up. “We should be under cover.”

She suspected there was more. He was holding back on her, giving her tiny snippets that barely explained what she saw before her.

She let it drop. He would tell her when he was ready.

* * *

Back in the attic, they made a makeshift bed from the throws downstairs. Garrick pulled up the hatch in the floor, securing them from the rest of the building. He left the skylight open a crack for air, and moonlight pooled on the ceiling beams below.

Once they had finished the bed, he climbed back out on the roof, leaving her alone. She sensed she had touched a raw nerve earlier, and that he wanted to be alone with his demons, so she left him to it.

She lay down with a rolled-up throw under her head as a pillow. It was scratchy and uncomfortable against her cheek. Eventually, Garrick returned to the attic space. She opened her eyes. His presence burned like white heat against her shoulders as he lay down beside her. She shifted slightly as if asleep and used the pretence to move a few inches closer to him. Warmth from his body soaked into her spine, relaxing the muscles in her neck.

For the first time since the invasion, she fell asleep feeling safe.