“There will be one door that his Hunters use; that’s the only door that will be safe. If you use a different door or break in through a window, you’d be caught by the spell.”
The warm breeze kisses my cheek. I guess that Rose will be able to work this out.
“I’ve also heard Kieran telling Niall and Connor about other spells Hunters use. The entrance door, the one the Hunters use, will have a password spell. You say the password before you cross the threshold and the trespass spell is lifted for a short period of time. There may be different words to go in and out. I’m not really sure . . .”
The breeze has gone cold. Rose doesn’t know about these spells. Perhaps they will realize . . .
The breeze gets stronger and colder.
I stand as Mercury appears. She doesn’t look happy. The wind picks up more so that I’m pushed backward up the slope of the roof.
Annalise is on her knees, her hair blowing wildly.
“Annalise. What a charming child you are.” Mercury’s voice is cold. “Come, let us get better acquainted.”
Mercury stands on the grass near the roof and holds her hand out to Annalise. Annalise looks back at me and I try to move to her but the wind holds me back. Annalise rises and takes hold of Mercury’s fingers. But just as she steps off the roof another gust blows Annalise sideways. Her fingertips reach out but Annalise is not touching Mercury as the wind blows her on to the grass. And the wind is holding me back, holding me still, though I fight against it and I try to reach for Annalise, but it’s too late.
I can’t hear what Mercury says because I’m shouting and the wind is blasting in my ears. Annalise is lying on the ground; only her chest is moving, heaving, and her mouth is open and gasping for breath.
Mercury stands over Annalise, watching her. And I’m shouting and shouting.
And Annalise’s chest is not heaving now. She is completely still. Her eyes are open and I’m screaming at Mercury.
Mercury slides her hand down Annalise’s face, closing her eyes.
Annalise’s body is pale on the dark ground.
The wind is relentless, pummeling me as I scream curses at Mercury.
Mercury’s voice is part of the wind in my face. “You must warn Rose and Gabriel about the password spell. There is still time to help them.”
“What about Annalise?” I shout, pointing at her body.
“She’s asleep. Not dead. Return safely and I’ll wake her.”
She’s not dead. She’s not dead. Gabriel said it was a deathlike sleep.
“If she dies, Mercury . . .”
“Enough of this. Go.”
The Fairborn
Mercury has been as businesslike as ever. She has drawn a map to show me how to find Clay’s house. I’ve heard all the plans, so I know that the house is an hour’s walk from the apartment. I run it in just over twenty minutes. Assuming Rose and Gabriel didn’t dawdle, they’re over an hour ahead of me but they should still be watching the house, waiting for it to go quiet.
I have to concentrate on them, because if I don’t, all I see is Annalise’s body lying on the grass. She looked dead; her chest was still, her eyes were open.
I’m nearly there. I’ve got to concentrate.
The house is in a quiet suburb on a back road with large houses sitting in their own spacious gardens. Behind is a wooded hillside. I scout out the roads round the house and through the woods at the back.
There’s someone at the edge of the woods. His back is to me. He’s watching the house.
And all the training I did with Celia comes back to me. It’s easy, second nature, the way reading is to Gabriel. I tread slow and quiet, taking my knife in my hand. The figure begins to turn as I take my final step and grab his body, the blade at his throat. Poetry in motion.
Gabriel’s body is stiff against mine. I keep the knife pressed against his skin.
“Not good enough,” I hiss in his ear.
“Nathan? What are you doing here?”
“Where’s Rose?”
“Watching the front. What’s going on?”
“Mercury sent me. I need to tell Rose something about the spells on the house. Something useful that Annalise told me.”
He doesn’t reply, so I release him and push him away from me.
“What did she say?”
I tell him and he nods. “Let’s tell Rose then.”
We work our way around to the front of the house. It’s still early, before midnight. Rose is in the garden of a house across the road. She doesn’t giggle as I explain the situation, but she doesn’t want to give up either. She thinks she can work it. All the Hunters enter and leave through the front door. She’ll shadow the next Hunter to arrive and listen for the password.
Now I’m at the back of the house again, leaning against a tree on the edge of the woods. There’s no fence, but there is a lawn that stops just before the trees.
Rose and Gabriel are round the front.
The house is divided into two apartments: the upper one on the first and second floors is occupied by several Hunters; the lower one by Clay. From what I can make out, Clay has an office and a bedroom at the back. I can see several Hunters moving around in their apartment; if they are going in and out they’re not using the back door or the windows for that matter.
The weather is warm but overcast, and a fine drizzle has started to fall.
I asked Rose what to do if something goes wrong.
She smiled. “Escape if you can. Run. If you can’t run, kill as many as you can. They killed your ancestors and they will do everything to kill you, Nathan. Kill them all.” She kissed my cheek and said sweetly, “When you’ve killed them all, then you won’t need to run any more.”
I don’t want to kill anyone. If it came down to kill or be killed, I’d fight for sure but I’d try not to kill. But then again if it was Clay or Kieran . . .
What was I thinking about?
Rose appears beside me. She has come through the garden using her mist, her Gift. She evaporates like mist and so does my memory of her. Even as you watch her, you forget about her. It’s strange . . . confusing. But if she touches you, skin on skin, the confusion goes, and while she’s touching you she’s visible. It’s hard to work with her because of the mist, and you can’t keep hold of her hand all the time. Gabriel says that the best way to work with her is not to watch her at all but to know what she will do and look away while she clothes herself in her mist so that your thoughts remain clear.
Rose asks, “How many Hunters are in there?”
“Four upstairs.” And none of them have Kieran’s bulk. “I think Clay’s in his office.”
“I’ll wait here until he goes to bed, then I’ll go round the front and in. I listened in and heard the password. ‘Red rain.’”
Nice!
“By the way, I think there’s a cellar,” I tell her. “There’s a grate in the ground to the left of the house. A light came on earlier. I think Clay was down there.”
“A good place to keep weapons.”
“Maybe. If I was Clay . . .” What would I do? “I’d keep the Fairborn near me. But he has guns to store for his troops, I guess; guns, bullets, whatever. So maybe . . .”
“Anything else?”
“If I’m at the back, how will I know that you are out of there?”
“Don’t wait here. When I go in, you go round the front and wait with your boyfriend.”
“Do you know how irritating you are, Rose?”
She giggles softly.
I nudge her and nod to the house. The light in the office has gone out. A few seconds later the light from the cellar comes on.
“Is he putting his weapons away for the night?” Rose wonders.