Tide (32 page)

“It’s at least fifty times bigger than my cottage!” laughed Winter.

“But a lot smaller than the sea,” said Niall.

“True,” Winter replied softly. “When I was little Mairead and I used to roam around this place for days on end,” she continued as they walked. “Playing hide and seek here was just brilliant, we wouldn’t find each other for hours!” Winter laughed her lyrical laugh. “Come. I want to show you something.”

She took his hand, entwining her fingers with his – Niall felt something warm stirring in his chest, and held onto her. She led him down the corridor to a wooden door, and pushed it open.

“The library,” said Niall.

“How did you guess?” she laughed, gesturing at the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves full of leather-bound volumes of all shapes and sizes.

“I’m very observant!” He winked.

Niall scoured the shelves. “I’ve never seen such a collection before. Botany, astronomy. Oh.”

“What do you see?”

Niall laughed. “A modern book.
Yoga Workouts
. Do you think Morag Midnight did yoga?” He grinned, holding up a pink-and-yellow-covered book with a woman sitting in the lotus position.

Winter laughed too. “Maybe Hamish.” Her eyes danced. “What is it doing here?”

“It probably belonged to Sarah’s mum.” Niall fingered the soft covers, walking slowly from shelf to shelf. “Some of these are five hundred years old,” he said in awe.

“Look,” said Winter, pointing to a thick black volume. “
The History of the Midnight Family
by Lord Gregor Midnight. One for Sarah.”

“Ideal bedtime reading,” smirked Niall. “Oh,” he said, crossing his arms and looking up.

“What’s the matter?”

“That book up there, see?” Winter raised her chin, flicking her hair away from her neck. A gust of her seawater scent wafted towards Niall’s face and he breathed her in deeply, glancing at her white throat as she looked up. “
Between Two Worlds
,” he said, trying to regain composure. “I want to have a look at that.”

Winter looked around. “There should be a ladder somewhere, or at least there used to be.”

“There!” Spying the wooden ladder, Niall positioned it and started to climb, stretching himself until his fingers brushed the book he wanted.

He wiped the dust off the cover with his sleeve and opened the first page. An intricate label had been glued on it.
Midnight
, it said in Gothic fonts. He climbed down and handed the book to Winter. She traced the deeply engraved letters on the cover with a finger.

“Come,” said Niall, and took her hand. He led her to the sofa by the window. “Ouch! The Midnights’ idea of comfort was quite … different,” he complained as he sat on the rigid leather surface, hitting the backrest.

“I’ll tell you a secret,” whispered Winter as she sat beside him. “When my mum was housekeeper here they had no hot water. At all. Ever. They all took cold showers and baths. They bathed the babies in water from the stove, but as soon as they were toddlers, cold baths for them too! It wouldn’t bother us, of course, but if you’re not of the sea like us …”

Niall whistled. “Tough people.”

“Mmmm. You can say that again. So.
Between Two Worlds
,” said Winter, resting the book on her lap. She shuffled a bit until her leg was touching Niall’s.

She couldn’t be any closer if she sat on my lap,
thought Niall, a bit panicky. But Winter seemed not to notice his embarrassment.

Get a grip, man
, Niall scolded himself.

He leafed through the pages. “This is about demons.” He paled. “Do you know anything about demons and the Secret history?”

“Not much. I saw a few demons, and Stewart told me things once in a while, but I’m mostly ignorant. I never hung out with Secret people, apart from Mairead and Stewart. And when I went away, I was mainly among seals, really.”

“Were you not lonely?”

“Well, there were a few friends, a few boyfriends,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Of course.” Niall scowled.

“Why ‘of course’?” asked Winter.

“Because you’re beautiful,” he said simply.
You really are beautiful
, he thought, taking in her silver hair, her strong, warm body in a slightly faded blue cotton dress with little white flowers – her pink cheeks and shiny eyes, a face that spoke of easy joy and laughter, unlike Sarah’s and Elodie’s.

“Well, thank you,” she said, and gave him a little peck on the cheek.

Niall swallowed.

“So yes. Anyway. This book …” He continued skimming through it, his eyes scanning the words. Suddenly he froze.

Winter looked at him curiously. “What’s wrong?”

“This mentions the Time of Demons,” he breathed. “The gate between the worlds.” He started to read more frantically. “Have you heard about the Shadow World, or the Underworld?”

“The
underworld
, as in under ground?”

“Not exactly, no. According to this, the Shadow World is …a
different dimension
. A different universe.” He stopped briefly then began to read aloud. “
The demons that seep into our world cross over to our own dimension.
Apparently, it’s not easy for them to do so.
Only the strongest survive the passage.”

“But why do they do that?”

“The earth belonged to them, thousands of years ago. That was the Time of Demons. We humans were the endangered species, if you like.”

Winter smiled. “
You
, humans. I’m half Elemental.”

“So you are,” replied Niall, resting a hand briefly on her arm. Though it only lasted a moment, he loved touching her, feeling her warm skin. And he loved her smell – the sea was his favourite scent in the world.

Niall steadied himself and continued reading. “
Then the ancestors of the Secret Families, the Secret children, appeared. They claimed the planet and banished the demons to the Shadow World. But the Secret Families knew that they had to keep guard, and that the demons would try and overcome them again.”
He paused. “That’s happening now.”

“Who is the King of Shadows?” asked Winter suddenly. She’d skimmed over his shoulder while he spoke, and now pointed to a passage farther down the page.

Niall frowned, his eyes following her finger. A sudden chill swept over him, despite the proximity of Winter’s warm body. “
The King of Shadows, the King of the Underworld. He has many names,”
he read. “
The most powerful demon of all. The one who rules the Shadow World.”

Winter continued,
“The King of Shadows is a Surari, but unlike any other
.
Legend has it that he is a spirit who rules over a world of spirits. He is bound to the Shadow World but his will and power reaches into our own. It is rumoured that a gate to the Shadow World exists and can be entered through an ancient location, though no one has yet succeeded in finding it.”

Winter trailed off. For a moment they sat in silence. Then Niall shook his head, gathering his thoughts and taking it all in. “We have to tell the others.” He took a shaky breath.

Winter got up and stood very, very close to him.

Niall blushed. She just came up to his shoulder, and Niall wasn’t a tall man. Only then did he seem to notice how small she was.

“We need to—”

But he didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence, because suddenly Winter was kissing him, and everything else, for a moment, didn’t matter.

We worship the moon and our herds

Our home is the plains

Our roof is the sky

We rise, we are

The Secret children

With pots boiling on the stove, and a lovely smell coming from the oven, it was like any other kitchen at Christmas. And Sarah was hoping to keep it that way, at least for one day. She was arranging a centrepiece made of red candles and holly as Niall and Winter barged in. The moment she saw their faces, she knew something had happened. The Christmas decoration seemed so absurd all of a sudden, like a little raft in a stormy sea, a desperate attempt to hold on to some normality.

“Hey, man. Are you OK?” called Mike, noticing how pale Niall was.

“Not really,” said Niall, and lifted the book for everyone to see.

“
Between Two Worlds
,” read Sean, taking the leather-bound volume from him. “What’s this?”

“We found it in the library,” Winter intervened.

“Look here,” said Niall, opening to the page he and Winter had read.

Sean and Sarah crowded around him.

Niall read the relevant parts aloud, and the kitchen fell silent.

“The King of Shadows. That is what you said during the scrying spell, remember, Sarah?
The King of Shadows is coming
,” said Sean.

Sarah’s face was white. She nodded. “The Enemy is the King of Shadows.”

“There’s more,” said Niall. “Listen.
It is rumoured that a gate to the Shadow World exists and can be entered, though no one has yet succeeded in finding it.
A gate. A gate to the Shadow World.”

“So we know who he is, and where he is! What’s stopping us?” Mike exclaimed.

“We need to go and find him. It’s as simple as that,” stated Sean, lost in thought.

Sarah was silent.

“Sarah,” Niall said gently. She was standing still, the certain stillness that descended on her sometimes.

“Yes,” she said finally. “Yes. We need to go, but how will we know where to find him? Shouldn’t we think this through?”

“I agree with Sarah,” came Nicholas’s voice from the corner of the room. “We need to think about this, calmly. In the morning. We’ll leave when we know more about what we’re dealing with.” He hadn’t moved, hadn’t spoken as Niall and Winter spoke. They had forgotten all about his presence. But he’d been standing there all along, hands curled into fists to stop them from shaking, trying to quell the fear racing through him.

“Nicholas is right, we can’t leave till we know where we’re going. Might as well enjoy the evening, and all this.” She swept her arm towards the boiling pots and pans, the gently glowing oven roasting the sweet-smelling turkey.

Sarah looked to Sean, her face solemn, pleading.

“Tomorrow,” he said.

Mike put his hands up. “But—”

“Mike,” said Nicholas in a low voice. “We need to figure out what’s happening.”

“I suppose so,” Mike agreed reluctantly.

A look passed between Sarah and Sean, a look laden with meaning.
The storm is coming
, were their unspoken words.

Nicholas stepped out into the frozen afternoon air. He’d muttered something about needing a walk – he often did that, and nobody questioned it. He stood on the watermark, the wind whipping against him. He was shaking badly, anxiety was sweeping through him and devouring his thoughts, leaving a black knot of fear growing in his stomach.

They’ll know soon. They’ll know who I am.

But now, I know who I am. It doesn’t matter. Not to them, anyway.

A strange elation took him, easing his anxiety. He turned back towards the house – he could see the lights of the kitchen, and the silhouettes of Sarah and her friends moving within. One of the windows upstairs was lit too: Elodie’s room. She’d gone back there to lie down for a while.

The waves ebbed and flowed, the water winter-dark, hiding what lay in wait beneath its surface.

The untold stories

And how they end

A vast oak table stood in the middle of an ancient hall, covered in red silk and as many flickering candles as Sarah could find. Seven chairs, seven people and seven sets of secrets and hopes and fears.

On one side, a black-haired man burning with fear, white-as-snow hands clutching the napkin on his lap in terrible anticipation, and beside him a tall, fair woman with bandaged arms and weary eyes.

At the opposite side, a girl with silver hair, placid and beautiful and brimming with kindness, beside a man whose grey eyes always smiled, and a dark-skinned man between them, his desires and hopes well hidden away, buried beneath selflessness and duty, strong and loyal as the roots of a tree.

At either end of the table, the ones with the invisible chain between them – Sarah’s hair flowed down her back in a sweet-scented stream, the scars on Sean’s arms shone white in the light of the candles against his bronzed skin. Unspoken words went back and forth between them, hands that longed to meet and a story interrupted.

And then, in a shower of glass, the Mermen came.

At last
, thought Nicholas, and rose slowly, readying himself to fight. Because he, like Sarah, had finally made his choice.

Teeth and bones and flesh

Fragile like glass

Soft as clay

The million different ways

To break a human body

The windows exploded in a shower of glass, shards falling all around them and darting across the polished floor. A foul, rotting smell filled the air, and through the broken windows the Mermen made their inexorable way inside the Hall, waddling, arms outstretched to grab, teeth bared to bite. There were too many to count, shuffling along the floor under the golden light of the chandelier.

They prepared themselves in a heartbeat. Sarah was poised to leap, her eyes shimmering with the Midnight gaze, hands ready. Sean had his
sgian-dubh
in his hand faster than the eye could see; Mike drew his gun. Niall stepped back slightly, and started humming softly; Elodie’s lips began to take on a deadly shade of blue, quickly turning to black.

Only Winter remained sitting, momentarily frozen, her whole body, every bit of her screaming for the water. Out of the sea she was just like any other human being, no powers, no Gamekeeper’s training – just the instinct to survive and an innate, animal courage. And that’s what kicked in. A split second later she was standing too, ready to fight with all she had.