Tide (35 page)

Sarah and Elodie follow me upstairs. Quietly, I make my way into Nicholas’s room. His body is shuddering with the intensity of his sobs, his face hidden in a pillow.

“I can’t take this anymore, Sean. Please kill me,” he slurs, without showing his face. I’m horrified. The powerful, arrogant Nicholas is begging like a little boy.
What’s going on?
I look to Sarah, who has her hands clasped over her mouth.

“Nicholas, what’s happening?” I ask.

He cradles his head in his hands and moans softly.

Sarah kneels beside his bed. “There must be a way for us to help you. Please, Nicholas. You must know something.”

He sits up suddenly, still holding his head. “I made my choice! I made my choice!” he yells, as if he’s hallucinating.

“What choice? What choice did you make?” I take him by the shoulders, and he strikes out at random, catching my nose. A warm gush of blood flows over my hands, but I signal Sarah to leave me be. I was already in pretty bad shape after tonight’s attack. One more ache won’t change the score much.

“You’re all dead!” he screams. “And so am I!”

I can see now that he’s delirious with pain. There’s no making sense out of him.

Sarah is distraught. “Nicholas, please.”

“My father is coming!”

“Who is it, Nicholas? Who is your father?” I press him.

“The King of Shadows!” he screams, issuing a heartbreaking wail.

We still, remembering Niall and Winter’s words from only a few hours earlier.
But what can he mean? There was no mention of a son of the King of Shadows?

He looks up for a long instant, his blind eyes open and staring, and then he shudders. Blood is flowing from his nostrils and his mouth, and, horribly, out of his eyes – it’s as if he’s exploding from the inside. In perfect silence, as if drowned in his own blood, he falls against the pillow, unconscious.

“Nicholas! No!” Sarah kneels on the floorboards beside the bed, clinging to him. “Oh my God, he’s dead! Nicholas! No!”

Elodie is shivering so violently that her teeth are chattering. “Nicholas,” she calls despairingly.

My hand is on his neck at once, checking his pulse. “He’s not dead.”

Sarah sobs in relief.

“Help me.”

We prop him up, peeling the drenched sheets from his body, wiping him clean, remaking the bed with fresh linen Sarah’s found in the cupboard.

“What’s happening to him? Sean, please help him,” Sarah begs.

“I don’t know what’s going on. This started during the battle, didn’t it? He was in pain while fighting the Mermen. I thought it was the attack, but maybe it’s something else?”

Sarah is wringing her fingers. “He kept shouting. He kept saying ‘I made my choice,’ as if he was talking to someone.”

“Sean.” There’s an edge to Elodie’s voice that makes me look up at once. “He might not be delirious.”

“What do you mean?”

“He told us the King of Shadows is his father.”

“Clearly he doesn’t know what he’s saying!” protests Sarah, an arm across Nicholas’s chest as if to defend him.

But Elodie is adamant. “This pain he’s suffering. This … burning up in his head. Where else have we seen it, Sean?”

I feel ill. “Members of the Valaya.”

Elodie nods.

“This makes no sense.
You
make no sense!” Sarah yells. “Get out! You always wanted him dead!” she screams at me, her face smeared with blood and tears.

“Sarah,” I begin, but all of a sudden Nicholas’s voice – the one we’re familiar with – interrupts me.

“Why am I alive?”

He has opened his eyes. They’re blacker than night, his face whiter than the sheets Sarah’s arranging around him. He looks like a man who has come back from the dead.

“Nicholas,” whispers Sarah, a hint of fear in her voice.

“The pain is gone. Why did he not kill me?”

“Who? Who are you talking about?”

“My father. The King of Shadows,” he murmurs.

Sarah’s face seems to crumple in despair, and then it turns expressionless, blank. She lifts her arm and stands back.

“Now or never, Nicholas Donal, if that is your name. Who are you?” I force the words out, almost scared to hear the response.

But Nicholas is beaten to the truth by Elodie.

“You
are
the Enemy’s son,” she says, anger seething from her voice.

“Yes.” Nicholas barely has the energy to speak. His battered, bloodied face could have been through the Apocalypse.

My hand is on my
sgian-dubh
at once. “You betrayed us. You just sat there while Niall and Winter told us all about the book they found in the library, and you said nothing! You let the demons come!” I spat.

“No. I saved you,” he whispers, barely audible. “And my father will kill me because of that. I thought he would have done so already, but I’m still alive,” he whispers, as if the fact surprises him.

“Why did you do it?” Elodie’s voice is as cold as the snow outside.

“Because I made a choice. You helped me make it, Elodie. I won’t help my father kill anymore.”

I fight the impulse to bury my
sgian-dubh
straight into his heart. This liar killed Mike as surely as if he’d shot him in the head.

“I know what you’re thinking, Sean. But I’m the only chance you have.”

I laugh. “How selfless you are. You want to be kept alive for our good! You pathetic bastard.” But I know he’s telling the truth. I know he’s not imploring us to keep him alive. He’s imploring us to keep
ourselves
alive.

Elodie’s eyes are fixed on Nicholas’s. “You saved me. Twice. It was your father, wasn’t it, who ordered the ravens on me?”

“Yes.”

“But you stopped them.”

“Yes.”

My anger is all-consuming, I’m sure I could burst into flames at any minute. “Your father started all this. Your father killed them all. Harry, Mike, all the Secret heirs around the world.”

“I want to stop him. I’m going to take you to him. The gate the book described is in an ancient forest, hundreds of miles from here. We need to head east.”

Elodie and I look at each other. I’m chilled at the cold fury in her eyes.

“How do we know you’re not lying? That you can be trusted? That you won’t turn on us? What is your word to us after all this?” I ask bitterly.

“Do you have a choice, Sean? You want this destruction to end, don’t you?”

“Shut up. Now.”

Elodie and I turn at Sarah’s biting words. We’ve been so absorbed in what was happening that we’ve forgotten all about her. She’s been standing there, at a distance from us. Her eyes are shining bright green, sharp as two blades, cutting whoever looks into them, and I see that her hands are raised, ready to hit.

“You lied to me all this time.”

“I’m sorry, Sarah,” Nicholas begins. His face crumples.

“You lied to me, you pretended you loved me! Why did you not just kill me straight away? Why did you not kill us all! Did you want to play with us a little bit longer?” she hisses through gritted teeth.

“You were never supposed to die, Sarah. You were chosen as my bride.”

An icy shudder runs down my spine and I hear myself unleash a deep growl.
Over my dead body!

Then Sarah strides over to the bed. “As your
what
? Are you insane? The bride of the … Prince of Shadows, or whoever you are? What is this, some crazy fairy tale?”

Nicholas is gripped by a coughing fit so hard he might choke. And it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if he did. There’s a bluish tinge to his cheeks, and his breathing is fast and shallow.

“Stay awake, Nicholas. Don’t you close your eyes!” Sarah’s tone is deadly. Nicholas shivers. He’s losing consciousness again.

“Look at me!” Sarah shouts, and then she pounces on him, her hands in front of her. Elodie and I grab her at once, holding her back. In the scuffle Elodie cries out in pain.

“You can’t kill him, Sarah. As much as you want to – and believe me, so do I – we need him alive!” We’re holding Sarah from behind, trying to avoid her deadly eyes.

“His father killed my parents! And Harry! He’s killing us all!”

“We need him to take us to the Enemy. Think, Sarah,
think
! Don’t let your rage win, Sarah. Think of what’s best. Don’t let your rage win.” I repeat, like a mantra. Eventually Sarah’s body softens in our grip.

Elodie unwraps her arms from round her waist, letting me hold her alone.

“You’re not a man. And you’re not a demon. You’re a monster,” Sarah whispers. Nicholas has his eyes closed, too weak to reply, too weak to move. “You can let me go, Sean. I won’t touch him,” she adds, composed.

I free Sarah from my hold, and Elodie takes her other arm, keeping her face turned away from Sarah’s. “Come on. Come with me.”

Sarah allows Elodie to lead her away, but at the threshold she turns around. “Why me, Nicholas? Why?” Her voice is laden with fury, and hurt.

“My father chose you among the heirs. You are the most powerful Dreamer of your generation. And your blood is still strong.”

“Still” strong? What does that mean?

Nicholas looks like a wax mannequin, white but for the blood that stains his face, still, nearly lifeless. I wish I could strangle him with my own hands.

“Get up and get dressed,” I say instead. “We’re leaving this place, and soon.”

Sarah is standing at the bottom of the stairs, her hands over her face. It’s so surreal to see the lovely, pristine stone floors strewn with ash and debris, and where the great hall used to be – the room that Sarah always modestly called the living room – is a blackened, gaping hole.

“Sarah.”

“I just can’t believe it, Sean. I can’t believe it.”

“I know. I know.”

“I thought you were just jealous of him.”

I nodded. “I was. But there was something else as well. I often thought he could be corrupt, I wondered whether he was collaborating with the Sabha. That maybe he was a member of a Valaya himself. I knew there was something about him that didn’t quite add up. But I could never, ever have suspected that.”

“The King of Shadows is his father,” Sarah hisses. “How is this even possible?”

“I have no idea, Sarah.”

She abruptly turns on her heels. “I need to get out.”

“I’m coming with you.” I’m expecting her to protest, but she doesn’t. I grab coats for both of us and follow her outside. We stand together in the snow that has covered the grass at the back of the house. The snow is still falling. Sarah is looking towards the beach and the water, a million dancing snowflakes falling silently on the sand and the sea. Dawn is seeping through the clouds, turning the sky a light purple.

“I’ve been close to him all this time, Sean. I never suspected …”

“It’s not your fault. He deceived you.”

“I feel sick.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. Oh.” She takes a few steps, and starts retching. She falls to her knees, her black hair even blacker against the snow.

I brush her hair away from her face, holding it clear until she’s finished. She’s very pale, and a film of cold sweat covers her forehead.

“I left him,” she tells me quietly.

“What?”

“It was after you said we could never be together. Because of all that genetic crap.”

“That wasn’t crap. That’s the way things are,” I whisper. My heart is in pieces.

“Great. Just great. First I fall for you …”

I hold my breath.
I wasn’t just imagining it, then.
“But I couldn’t have you, and then I found out you betrayed me,” she continued. “Then I end up with Nicholas, and it turns out that he’s a monster. What else now?”

“Did you …”

“What?”

“Did you love Nicholas? Really?”

She frowns and sighs heavily. “I thought I did, but there was always something. I don’t know, something
wrong
. Whenever he was around I felt … I couldn’t think clearly. It was as if he controlled my thoughts.”

“And I wasn’t there to kick his face in.” Anger is making my hands shake.

“I had sent you away.”

That was true. “I should have done something, though.” I raise my head as we speak. I see Niall in the kitchen, looking out of the big glass windows. Winter is standing beside him, her silver hair strewn over his arm, her head resting on his shoulder. For a second, Niall looks like an old man. My heart skips a beat. Now that Mike is gone, nothing will ever be the same.

“Things had changed, though,” Sarah continues. “Since we’d come to Islay he didn’t seem to have the same effect on me, confusing my thoughts, I mean.”

The snow is falling thick and fast around us, resting on Sarah’s face, on her black coat. A sliver of sunlight is shining on the sea. “He was much more worried about things, always seemed to be upset about something. Not as confident as he used to be. Not as arrogant.” She shrugs. “I wonder what brought all this on. This … repenting thing. Deciding to turn against his father to help us. Who knows?” Sarah shivers, wrapping her arms around herself.

“We’d better go. You’re freezing. I’ll make Nicholas coffee – that should wake him up fast. And then I suppose we have to trust him to take us to where his father is. At least we know now what we’re up against.”

I can’t even begin to think about all that now. I’m set to go, and I turn to head for the house, but Sarah puts a hand on my arm, stopping me. “Sean? He said my blood is still strong. What did he mean?”

“Maybe he was talking about your powers. The Blackwater?”

“Yes. That must be it. The most powerful Dreamer, he said. Some good it does me.”

Before I can stop myself, I take her hand in mine. “Why did you leave Nicholas?” I ask, hoping and praying for the answer I want.

“Because I love someone else,” she whispers. Our eyes meet for a second, and what I wouldn’t give to put my lips on hers.

“I thought about the message Harry left in the fairy-tale book.” She interrupts my thoughts.

“Yes?”

“It occurred to me, ‘Morag’ in Gaelic means Sarah. The message is about me, not about my grandmother.
Watch over Sarah, she’s the key
. That’s what it meant,” she whispers, and walks away, letting go of my hand. Our fingers hold on for a second. Her soft scent lingers in the air, and as she goes, I feel like a part of me has just been cut off.