Slime green malice emanated from the man; her colours were dark purple, with a hint of green. It made me feel sick to look at them. I looked at my grubby shorts instead.
‘You’re joking, right?’
‘Wrong. I’m leaving her here. You can either stay with her or come with me. Your choice.’
‘Bloody hel , Phil, I can’t just dump her!’
He pul ed over into a space towards the rear of the car park, checking his mirrors nervously. ‘Why not? I can’t operate with her around. Some do-gooder wil find her. She’l be their problem, Jo, not ours. She’s just Franny’s mistake. She should’ve got rid of her.
She’s nothing to do with you—with us.’ He leant over and kissed her, his colours a horrid yel ow which signal ed a big fat lie.
The woman bit her lip. ‘Al right, al right, give me a moment. God, I need a drink. Won’t we be traced?’
He shrugged. ‘Car plates are false. If we don’t get out, we won’t be caught on camera. No one in England knows her. Parents died in Dublin—unless they think to check abroad, she’s nobody. Who’s gonna recognize her after al this time? She’s not even got the accent.’
‘So we leave her and someone else looks after her. She doesn’t get hurt.’ Auntie was trying to persuade herself she was doing the right thing.
‘But she wil if I have to come back for her. She’s bad for us—ruining what we’ve got.’
Summoning up the courage, the woman nodded.
‘Let’s do it.’
‘We just need a chance to get clear.’ The man turned round and grabbed the front of my T-shirt.
‘Listen, freak, you be quiet, no fuss, or we’l come back and get you. Understand?’
I nodded. I was so scared I thought I might wet myself. His lights were pulsing a violent red like just before he hit me.
He reached over and opened the door. ‘Now get out and sit over there. Don’t cause trouble.’
I unclicked my belt, used to looking after myself.
‘Are you sure about this, Phil?’ the woman whined.
He didn’t answer, just pul ed the door closed. The next thing I heard was the car accelerating away.
I sat down and counted daisies.
When I opened my eyes this time, I wasn’t in a car park, but sitting in the circle of Zed arms, warm, cared for.
‘You saw that?’ I whispered, not daring to look at him.
‘Yeah. Thank God they dumped you before he kil ed you.’ Zed rubbed his chin lightly over the crown of my head, the hair catching in his stubble.
‘I stil don’t know who I am. I don’t think they ever said a name.’
Auntie Jo, Phil, and the freak—that’s what we’d been when I was six. If my mother and father—
Franny and Ian—had given me a name, I’d forgotten it. My parents had been savants; they’d kil ed each other because they hadn’t control ed their gifts, leaving me with a junkie as my guardian. I felt so angry with them for that betrayal.
‘A truth-tel er don’t go down too wel in the house of a dealer.’ Zed circled my wrists with his fingers, brushing my palms to gentle out my clenched fists.
‘I’ve seen scum like that before working for Trace and Victor. You were lucky to get out.’
As a child, I’d not understood the transaction in the passageway, but I did now. ‘I spoiled things for Phil big time—that man was his best customer. I did that more than once.’
‘And he hurt you more than once.’
I cringed, hating having so much ugly stuff exposed like this before the Benedicts. ‘I think so.’
Zed’s anger was crimson, not directed at me, but out at the one who had dared hurt me. ‘I’d like to get him, make him feel what he did to you.’
‘He was an evil man, using my aunt. She was mostly OK—but couldn’t be bothered with me. I don’t suppose they’re stil together.’
‘They’re probably both dead. Drugs and dealing don’t make for long happy lives,’ said Uriel matter-of-factly.
I sagged back against Zed, exhausted and raw. I needed time to put what I’d seen in place, adjust my memories. We weren’t talking about it, but I had to come to terms with what my mum’s obsession about going to her soulfinder had done to us al . It crept like an ugly stain seeping across what I thought I had with Zed. I felt dirtied by it—threatened.
‘You’ve seen enough,’ said Zed. ‘We don’t expect you to remember everything right away.’
‘But we’ve found the foundation,’ said Uriel. ‘We can build on that.’
Looking round at the others in the room, I could tel they weren’t expecting any answers today. Victor and Trace were the most impatient for information but trying to hide it.
‘You need a break. Take the girl snowboarding, Zed,’ said Trace. ‘We’l make sure you’re safe.’
I pushed away the grim memories with an effort.
‘By break, do you mean I should break a leg, because that’s what’s going to happen if I try to board.’
Trace laughed, the serious cop-face relaxing into a fond smile as he regarded his kid brother. ‘No, Sky, I don’t. He’l take good care of you.’
It was a relief to get o
utside. The memories were
hanging over my head like a poisonous cloud but the pristine white slopes blew them away—for the moment. Everything sparkled. If I concentrated, I could count every pine needle, every cone, every snowflake, my perception was so clear. The mountains didn’t daunt me today but exhilarated.
I’d borrowed a snowsuit from Karla, which made me look like a dumpling, but Zed seemed to think it was cute.
‘Nursery slopes?’ I asked, my breath puffing like a dragon.
‘No, too many people.’ Shading his eyes, he studied the mountain, giving me the chance to appreciate how long and dangerous he looked in his close-fitting navy ski suit, a shark on the slopes. He flashed a grin when he caught me admiring him and waggled his eyebrows teasingly. ‘Like what you see?’
I elbowed him. ‘Shut up! You real y need to work on that humility thing.’
He laughed. ‘I wil —if you’l promise to teach me.’
‘I think you’re a lost cause.’
That provided him with even more amusement.
When he’d final y stopped laughing, he hugged me to his side. ‘So, Sky, are you ready? Because we’re going up. There’s a peaceful place. I was going to take you there that day we got shot at in the woods, but I think it’s even better in winter. We’l catch the lift up and walk down to it.’
The top of the mountain was much quieter than at the weekend. José wasn’t manning his stal so I couldn’t stop for a doughnut and a chat as I usual y did. Zed led me away from the busy runs and into the woods.
‘Is this a good idea? You know what happened last time we went into the forest.’
Arm looped over my shoulders, he rubbed my upper arm in reassurance. ‘Dad and Mom are holding a barrier around the place. Trace, Vick, and Wil are on lookout. We should be fine.’
‘A mind barrier?’
‘Yeah, it sends people away, makes them think they left the headlights on or got to meet someone in town. Which reminds me: how did you get through ours last night?’
I shrugged. ‘I felt it, but I was too desperate to care.’
‘You shouldn’t have been able to do that. It was why Trace and Vick were so suspicious of you just turning up out of the blue.’
‘Maybe this barrier isn’t as strong as you’d like to think.’
‘Maybe you’re stronger than we realize. We’l have to find out.’
‘Not just now, please.’ I didn’t want anything more to do with savants—their powers were too freaky.
‘No, not now. This is playtime.’
We broke out into the open and the ground dropped away in an awesome sweep, smoothly curved like a J. The peaks across the val ey towered on the horizon like an audience of giants come to watch the show.
‘Wow.’
‘Great, isn’t it? Not many people come here because it heads nowhere, but I like it. You can do some extreme boarding here without pesky skiers like my brother getting in the road.’