Billi shot a look at her dad. Was this to do with the Mirror? His face was stony blank.
‘But it’s a direct attack. The devil would be breaking his covenant.’ Balin stepped into the circle of chairs. ‘The devils are tempters. They can only lead man off the path of righteousness to commit evil. They can’t perform evil directly.’ He gestured to Kay. ‘What the Oracle describes is a violent attack.’
‘A covenant?’ Billi muttered to herself, confused.
Balin heard. She fought the urge to sink into her chair to escape his frown. Maybe she should have paid more attention at Occult Lore.
Balin spoke. ‘Each class of angel, Bilqis, is bound by an immutable law, a covenant.’ He went into lecturing mode, nodding to himself as he recounted the facts. ‘The Watcher must pass over where a sacrifice has been made; the malakhim can only deliver God’s Word. To change even a syllable would lead to their utter destruction. Likewise devils, as powerful as they are, cannot directly cause harm. They will tempt you, persuade you, to kill your brother, but they cannot wield the knife themselves.’
‘It’s not the work of a devil,’ said Kay. ‘We’re dealing with a Watcher.’
‘How d’you know?’ asked Gwaine suspiciously.
‘Because I used the Cursed Mirror.’
Gwaine leapt from his chair and pointed accusingly at Kay, but Billi couldn’t hear what he was saying because everyone was shouting at once. Balin stood in the centre, his mouth agape. Gwaine barged past him and Percy sprang up to protect Kay.
‘SILENCE!’
Arthur’s word froze time. No one moved except to look towards him. He stayed seated, but his eyes meant that each one of them, including Gwaine, returned to their chairs. Balin seemed to wake from a trance and, after straightening his cassock, moved back to his place behind the Templar Master’s chair.
Arthur stood up and walked to Kay. He put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and a pang shot through Billi’s heart to see it.
‘The damage has been done,’ said Arthur, seeming almost resigned to what might lie ahead. ‘Nothing escaped, of that we’re certain. But, still, it’s more than a coincidence that a day after the Mirror’s been used we have a Watcher destroying souls. It seems he’s not strong enough to attack indiscriminately. We suspect it’s only by touch.’
‘Wait a minute – a Watcher?’ Balin interrupted. ‘Then we know who he is, Arthur.’
Of course they did. There was only one Watcher free.
‘The Angel of Death,’ whispered Percival.
‘Oh, this just gets better and better,’ said Gwaine. ‘God’s Killer himself.’
Arthur ignored him and carried on. ‘He’ll be after the Mirror. He’s weak. Most of his powers are still trapped in the Mirror, have been since the time of Solomon.’
‘And where is the Mirror now?’ Gwaine’s voice was scathing.
‘Safe. We’ve reinforced the wards around the reliquary. It’s invisible to supernatural detection.’
‘First you let that fool of a boy tamper with it and now you trust something this important to Elaine? Don’t be stupid, Art.’
‘I do and have. I’m setting up watches, around the clock, on China Wharf Hospital. That girl isn’t dead. We’re to protect her.’
‘And use her as bait, yes?’ said Billi. If Rebecca was still hanging on the Watcher might come back and finish her off – tear her young soul from her. She looked into her dad’s eyes. They were dead of compassion. Utterly ruthless. Was there anyone he wouldn’t sacrifice?
‘Yes. Bait. Berrant has hacked into the hospital files. Each dead child was the eldest sibling. Firstborn.’
‘Christ Almighty,’ muttered Pelleas.
Billi stiffened. She was firstborn. ‘So this sickness…’
She didn’t even dare finish her sentence. So Arthur did.
‘Is the tenth plague.’
11
Billi couldn’t concentrate on anything the next day. She sat there, trying to listen to the lesson. Trying to be part of something normal like everyone else in the room. But she’d been forced into knowing, and being part of, such terrible things that it made the possibility of a normal life – life outside the Order – move further and further away from her.
There’d been so many questions, but Arthur hadn’t had any time to answer them. They were to set up a rotation watch on Rebecca at the hospital, and leave the rest to him. But Billi couldn’t get rid of the suspicion that things were happening behind her back. Arthur was up to something – keeping things from her.
Well, sod him. She didn’t want to know any more anyway. She checked the time. She had three hours until her hospital watch. But before then Billi was going to live her own life.
There weren’t too many familiar faces at the local cafe by the time she got there. A couple she recognized from her year, but fortunately no one from her class. She glanced around the low-lit tables: no Mike.
Billi bought a latte and a blueberry muffin then hid herself in the corner, deep in a dark red armchair facing the door.
She flipped her mobile open and shut nervously. Was this an actual date? She wasn’t sure. It felt like one but Mike had been so casual about it. Funny, she’d spent her entire life surrounded by men, but she’d never had to, or ever wanted to, understand them in that way.
She looked around the cafe. This was home to the popular crowd from school. Pete Olson, the school sports star, all toned pecs and gelled hair, stood with Tracy Hindes by his side. She was giggling like an imbecile and wearing a flimsy red dress that would have given Arthur a cardiac if Billi had worn it.
Billi wondered if this was how girls were meant to behave on dates. Was that what Mike was expecting? She began to feel distinctly uncomfortable. Maybe she shouldn’t have come after all. She grabbed her phone and got up to leave, then saw a girl stumbling out of the toilet door. The girl was wiping her tear-swollen face with a long stream of toilet roll that dragged thick black lines of mascara down her face. Billi’s heart sank as she recognized her.
Oh no.
Jane Mulville stared back, horrified. Then she stormed over.
‘What d’you think you’re looking at?’ Jane snarled. She rubbed her red-rimmed eyes, smearing her mascara further, creating big panda eyes. ‘Think it’s funny, do you, you freak?’
Once Billi would have stood up and just knocked her face in, but she sat there, curiously sorry. Jane was fifteen and pregnant and absolutely everyone knew.
‘Listen, Jane, I’m really sorry, but…’ What could she actually say to make it any better? ‘I’m just sorry.’
God, that was exceedingly lame.
‘I just bet you are,’ Jane spat.
‘Is everything OK?’
It was Mike. She couldn’t leave now.
He shook the worst of the rain from his dark curls.
‘Hi, Billi. Sorry I’m late.’
Mike slung his coat over the sofa opposite her. She had forgotten how good-looking he actually was. The forest of black tattooed vines and spiky thorns crept out from underneath his T-shirt up towards the nape of his neck where his skin was still glistening wet from the rain.
‘That’s OK,’ she mumbled, not knowing what to do with Mike smiling at her and Jane glowering. Maybe now would be a good time for the ground to open up and swallow her.
Mike held out his hand towards Jane. ‘I’m sorry – I didn’t catch your name.’ The smile remained, transfixing Jane. Billi knew how she felt.
‘Jane,’ she whispered.
‘Good to meet you, Jane.’ He nodded towards the door. ‘I think your friend’s waiting.’
Dave Fletcher stood by the door, Jane’s white coat over his arm and an ugly jealous stare directed at Mike.
Realizing she’d been dismissed in favour of Billi, Jane turned to her. ‘Just stay away from me, freak.’ She smiled maliciously at Mike. ‘And you’d better watch out for her dad. Wouldn’t want him slicing up that pretty face of yours.’ Then she stalked off towards Dave and out of the door with an attention-grabbing crash.