Spirit Read online

  I try to steady my gaze. His only vulnerable point is right between his eyes: that is what Nicholas had told us. Was it the truth, or was he deceiving us all along, inventing a weakness that doesn’t exist? It doesn’t even matter at the moment, as I can’t make out a forehead, or a head at all. My hands trace slow runes.

  Let me tell you the truth, Sean Hannay. You have no powers. Your blood is as common as dirty water. Your runes are a joke. You are a joke. It’s pathetic how you want to be a Secret heir, when you never can be and never will be.

  Does he think this is going to hurt me? Sarah is dead. What do I care whether I have Secret powers or not?

  Deadly ribbons appear in the air. The King of Shadows laughs again. Dirty water! That’s what you are! Blood as common as muck.

  But his words can’t touch me. I don’t care about dying, not with Sarah gone, but I’ll do my duty as a Gamekeeper as long as I draw breath. In spite of what this devil is saying, without Gamekeepers there would be no Secret heirs left alive. I’ll do what I was trained to do, what I swore I’d do.

  One of my red ribbons ties itself around the King of Shadows’ swirling mass, wrapping itself around it, slowly caging it. All of a sudden, the mass shudders and shakes and solidifies into a weird shape: a bull’s head over a human body – a minotaur. Its horns shake and dance as he tries to get rid of the scarlet ribbon, to no avail. I feel sweat roll down my forehead and fall into my eyes, and I’m suddenly aware of the blood trickling down my side. My life force flowing out of me.

  The King of Shadows growls in fury. I am hurting him. It’s my runes doing this to him, the runes he said were a joke. I trace another ribbon, murmuring the secret Ancient words, and it ties itself around the King of Shadows’ body. As I try to sustain both ribbons it feels like my body is going to snap in two with the effort, all my muscles hurting and stretching. The ribbons expand and flow until they join, tying his arms together. The King growls, and more blue lightning falls from the sky, all around me. I don’t stop. I don’t move. I don’t waver. I pray I don’t die before I can kill him – that’s all I want. After that, I hope I go up in blue flames until there’s nothing left of me but ashes, and my spirit joins Sarah’s.

  The scarlet ribbons tighten around his wrists and cut into them. With one last effort that makes me roar in pain, I tighten the runes even more. We both fall to our knees. The minotaur’s body lands on the ground with a thud that resounds in the sky and echoes in the earth. I create one more ribbon, and tie it around his throat this time, but the King of Shadows throws back his face and opens his mouth. It all happens very fast: blue lightning comes rolling out of his eyes and mouth and envelops me, blinding me. I can’t see and I can’t hear anything. A burning smell fills my nostrils. It’s my own flesh, I realise. Everything sways, and I feel the soft grass under my cheek.

  It’s the end.

  The blue light fades, leaving dots dancing in front of my eyes, and I can make out the King of Shadows towering over me, the red ribbons still tied around his wrists, black blood seeping from his wounds. He raises a fist, and I close my eyes . . .

  But the blow I was expecting never happens. Something holds him back. Something stops him from hitting me and smashing my skull, but I can’t see what. I can make out a pair of white hands on the King’s shoulders, as if someone has jumped on his back – black liquid seeps from where the hands are touching. The King of Shadows collapses face down, and finally I can see what is hanging onto his back.

  It’s Sarah. Sarah is alive. Her lips are still black, her face so white it glows, her hands sunk deep inside the King of Shadows’ skin, dissolving him as he yells; echoing screams and yelps fill everything around us. And then there’s someone else there – Nicholas. My heart sinks as he raises his hands, flaming blue. He’s going to set Sarah alight, and I can’t move. I can’t save her . . . The pain in my side is so bad it’s started affecting my eyes. Black dots shiver through my vision.

  Nicholas cries out, something I can’t decipher. In response, Sarah leaps away from the King of Shadows.

  She stands and watches as Nicholas sets his father on fire.

  53

  Fate (part two)

  And all that sorrow

  Was meant to take me here

  “Sarah,” Sean murmured, gazing into Sarah’s face as if he’d seen the very first dawn on Earth. She was beside him at once and they held each other, rejoicing in each other, not quite believing they were both alive.

  The King of Shadows was burning, burning, still and rigid, his limbs twisted and tight as he leaked Blackwater into the soil. He was silent through it all.

  Neither of them asked themselves what was going to happen next – if the sky would fall, if the Shadow World would collapse on itself as its King died. They were alive, they were together; they wanted this instant to last an eternity.

  “How are you alive?” Sarah asked. “I saw you on the ground, dead. You were bleeding.”

  “I . . . I don’t know, but I am. And I should ask you the same question! How are you here?” His heart raced. His fingers traced her skin, refusing to believe she was so close. “Elodie. Was it her . . . she poisoned you!” Sean said in her ear, not wanting to release her from his embrace.

  “She had to! The King of Shadows took my body. I was him, Sean! The power . . . it was incredible. And terrible at the same time. I was lost, I was dead. Nicholas and Elodie thought it was the only way to kill him . . . to kill me when he was inside me. He had begun to transform my body . . . into something stronger. But he wasn’t quite done. That’s why Elodie kissed me.”

  “Elodie knew about Nicholas’ plan?”

  Sarah nodded. “She knew everything. And then the King of Shadows took over, he was about to kill Elodie . . . but Lucrezia Vendramin made me remember. She told me who I was.”

  Sean took Sarah by her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Lucrezia?”

  “She spoke to me. Twice. I don’t know how, but it was her. The first time the King of Shadows was too strong, I couldn’t resist . . . but the second time I held on to myself. Lucrezia’s words saved me. And Elodie too, in a way. She poisoned me to the extent that I was knocked out, but she didn’t kill me.”

  “Thank God. Thank God,” Sean whispered and held her tighter. Then he released her again and looked deeply into her eyes. Her lips weren’t black any more, but they were still dark; the poison still swam through her blood.

  “What about the others? Elodie? Niall? Alvise and Mi—”

  Her words were obliterated by a low, roaring sound coming from the sky. They looked up, expecting to see more Surari, or the King of Shadows resurrecting for a second time, but it was a plane. A plane flying in the ancient sky of the Shadow World.

  Sean and Sarah watched in astonishment as shapes and shadows began to appear around them, flickering and dissolving and then reappearing – pavements, and cars and houses.

  “It’s beginning,” Nicholas said. He had been standing still and silent throughout his father’s agony and Sean’s and Sarah’s embrace.

  “What’s beginning?” Sarah whispered, looking from left and right. The ground she was standing on was shifting between grass and a wooden floor. Beside her, the shadow of a table. A few yards away, a lamp post and a shop window materialised . . .

  “Do you not remember, Sarah?” Nicholas answered. “My father told me when he was inside your body that the King of Shadows exists to keep the worlds apart. Niall and Winter’s discovery in your grandmother’s library was true. Since the splitting of the worlds, any King of Shadows is bound to the Shadow World, keeping all in it at bay. Since he was a chimera, he was used to changing shapes, but the only way to truly exit the Shadow World was if he could take on a powerful human’s body. That’s why he needed you. The only way he could get out was by inhabiting your body, the most powerful Dreamer’s body. He wanted to take over the world, both worlds. But without a King of Shadows bound to the shadows, the worlds will fuse. And it’s happening now.”

>   Silhouettes of men, women and children were appearing all around them, and they were looking up, falling on the ground, raising their arms over their heads in alarm.

  “What are they doing?” Sarah asked.

  “I think they can see the worlds melding together. They can see . . . things. Surari.”

  “How do we stop this, Nicholas? How?” Sean shouted, and then clutched his side, the effort making him double over in pain. Sarah shivered. In the human world, were they seeing trees sprout from the streets, and streams flow out of doors and windows? What creatures were seeping through already? How many people were losing their lives as the Surari materialised?

  “There is a way to stop it,” Sarah said, her eyes never leaving Nicholas’ face.

  Sean’s eyes darted between Sarah and Nicholas. “How? How, Sarah? Nicholas? How do you stop this?”

  “It’s up to me,” Nicholas said. In his voice, there was despair so deep that even Sean’s heart tightened. “I need take my father’s place. It’s up to me to be the King of Shadows now.” Then he gazed at Sarah, his black eyes never leaving hers. He buried his hand into his pocket and took out a white, opaque stone. Something scarlet was whirling inside.

  Suspicion wormed its way into Sean’s mind. He didn’t trust Nicholas; he never would. “What is that?” he said, putting a protective arm around Sarah.

  And then he saw the way Nicholas was gazing into Sarah’s eyes, and his heart began to pound.

  Sarah’s gaze left Nicholas’. It locked onto the stone and could not leave. “The King of Shadows needs a bride,” she whispered.

  “Sarah,” Sean called, but Sarah didn’t reply or look at him.

  She extended her hand and took Nicholas’, and then they rose together. The open chasm lay before them, black smoke rising from it, heat rippling the air like a mirage.

  “No!” Sean cried and leapt towards them, the wound on his side spurting scarlet once more – but Sarah’s eyes sparked green. The Midnight gaze paralysed him, and he fell on his knees, the green blade cutting between his eyes. “Don’t do it, Sarah! No!” he screamed, trying to get up, but Sarah’s gaze kept him pinned to the ground.

  “Sean. Together, Nicholas and I can stop all this. And I can make amends for my family . . . You saw what I was becoming, didn’t you? The way I killed Tancredi. The King of Shadows. Now it’s my chance to make everything all right. I’m sorry . . .”

  “Sarah, please.” Sean was now sobbing without restraint, like an abandoned child. “Don’t go. Don’t go into the shadows. Don’t go.”

  “Listen to me, and remember my words.” Her eyes softened, fingers reaching out for him. “I’ll love you forever.”

  Another burst of the Midnight gaze, and Sean’s muscles gave up. He lay on the ground, his head turned to helplessly watch Sarah and Nicholas walk towards the abyss.

  Sarah gazed into the black ravine. It was so dark, mist and smoke seeping off it like serpents scurrying in for a kill. She could hear Sean screaming, but he was so far away, like another life, like he was calling somebody else. She took a step, holding on to Nicholas’ hand. The blackness was open in front of her. A memory hit her – dancing leaves, a black-eyed boy about to kiss her – the first dream she’d ever had of Nicholas. The sweetness he had evoked in her, and then the revulsion, and finally, acceptance of what she felt was her destiny. All that happened had led her here, to the final sacrifice. She’d be the bride of Shadows – not through Nicholas’ deceit or through his mind-moulding, but by her own choice.

  Sarah caught a glimpse of Nicholas’ face as they stood before the chasm. His eyes were full of despair, and at the same time, determination. There was no way back.

  They stepped forward, clinging to each other’s hands.

  “No! Sarah!” Sean’s screams were further and further away as she left her old life behind.

  Sarah closed her eyes as she took a step forward, and readied herself to fall . . .

  But she didn’t. Something light and fast sent her tumbling backwards, her back hitting the ground painfully. The fall knocked the breath out of her lungs, and the pain in her bones made her see stars. When she recovered herself and managed to sit up, she saw that someone else was standing with Nicholas.

  Someone dark-haired and amber-skinned, an orange light all around her.

  Martyna.

  54

  The Day I Knew

  The day I knew was meant to be

  The day I saw my life-to-be

  But never could I have realised or seen

  What was in store for me

  Elodie thought she would die of pain. She couldn’t possibly go through such agony and survive. It was even worse than when she’d drunk Nicholas’ blood and remembered his agony – then she’d begged to be killed. This time there was no need to beg for it. The brain fury would kill her all by itself.

  At first she could hear Nicholas’ screams, she could feel his hands holding hers, and the blood streaming out of her nose and mouth and ears, but after a while – an eternity – she could hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing but pain. She was pain herself. No consciousness, no memories remained. She wasn’t screaming any more. She wasn’t moving. She lay with her eyes open but blind, burning inside.

  And then it stopped. As suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The blackness began to blur and lighten as shapes and colours came into focus – and noises, a voice, Sean’s voice, calling Sarah’s name.

  Sarah. Was she dead? Or had she managed to keep an ounce of life in her, as planned – so that the King of Shadows would die and Sarah would survive?

  Elodie squeezed her eyes closed and opened them again. She dragged herself up and immediately she retched, bringing up bile and acid that burnt her throat and her mouth. Sean kept screaming. Where was he? She looked around, but turning her head was so painful she saw black again.

  Eventually she managed. She saw him lying flat on the ground, trembling, still calling for Sarah. His face was turned towards the ravine, his eyes fixed on something . . . Elodie’s heart stopped as she followed Sean’s gaze. Nicholas and Sarah were walking on, hand in hand. Sarah was alive. She had succeeded. But what was she doing? Suddenly, Elodie sensed Nicholas’ thoughts in her mind, and she knew. Sarah was to be the bride of Shadows.

  All of a sudden, Elodie saw an orange light dancing in front of them. Something seemed to take hold of her throat and tighten around it. A black-haired woman, with skin like dark honey and full red lips, materialised in front of them.

  Martyna, she heard Nicholas whisper in her mind. And then she saw him throw something towards her, something small and white that landed on the grass beside her. She wanted to hold it, but her throat became too tight to breathe. Stars danced before her eyes, and then everything went black again.

  Sarah was barely conscious as she saw Nicholas and Martyna hover on the edge of the chasm and then step in, holding hands. They were suspended over nothing for a few seconds, and then they fell, heads thrown upwards and arms distended, jerked apart and then thrown down by a terrible force.

  A stream of blue lightning rose from the chasm – and then a cloud of earth and blue fire and melting soil. A new chimera, somewhere between a bull, a wolf and a bear, its shape changing in front of their eyes, appeared at last – until finally it took shape: Nicholas, bare-chested, black eyes shining like two pools of darkness, stag antlers rising from his head. And the woman beside him, raven’s-wing hair, her eyes as black as Nicholas’, dressed in what looked like a dark mist, a crown of scarlet flowers on her head. And then every noise was silenced, the earth stood still and the lightning ceased. The silhouettes of the people and cars and buildings seeping through from the human world vanished, and peace filled the land at last.

  55

  The Silenced Song

  Some destroy

  And some heal

  Sean and Sarah clung on to each other in silence. Sarah was in a haze. She couldn’t be joyful or happy or even relieved yet. She was in disbelief. The f
eeling of Sean’s skin against hers, his breath, his body, strong and solid, after so much fear, so much pain. Was it real? Was it really happening?

  She folded herself into him. There wasn’t a part of her body that wasn’t hurting; she needed a moment of respite. She needed a moment with nothing in her eyes and ears and soul, nothing that wasn’t Sean. She held him tight and felt the wetness on his cheeks. Her own eyes were dry, but Sean was crying, coming loose and undone with her in his arms. Suddenly he moaned softly. Alarmed, Sarah slipped a hand onto his side and looked at her fingers. They were red with blood.

  “Sean . . .”

  “It looks worse than it is,” he said, but Sarah didn’t believe him. She took off her fleece and made a makeshift bandage, tying it as tight as she could around his waist, and then she helped him up.

  Elodie was standing a few yards from them, looking towards the place where the abyss had been. The earth was closed again now, the three mossy boulders standing immobile as before. The only signs of what had happened were the scorched trees and the freshly turned earth, the grass mangled and muddy. Sarah sustained Sean as they limped towards Elodie. They both wrapped her in their arms and held her tight, and she, listless, dazed with shock, her face bruised and empty, let them.

  “We were one. And now he’s gone,” she whispered, and Sarah didn’t know if she was talking about Nicholas or about her primal, deepest loss, the one that had triggered the change in her, the darkness spreading inside her soul – the loss of her husband, Harry Midnight. “It was Martyna who went with him,” she explained. “She came with us. I thought I’d felt her presence but I wasn’t sure. She was in Nicholas’ castle, trapped there . . . We freed her spirit and she’s gone with him.”

  “You are here with us. You won’t be trapped in darkness with Nicholas,” said Sarah uncertainly. Did she have to comfort Elodie for not having followed Nicholas into the shadows? Was that what Elodie had actually wanted?