Callum’s heart skipped a beat. ‘The Shadowing . . .’
‘You have heard the word before?’ Jacob’s expression was surprised.
‘Not till tonight. My gran mentioned it, but she wouldn’t tell me what it meant. She said it was dangerous.’
Jacob nodded. ‘It is. More dangerous than you can possibly imagine. While the Shadowing lasts, the boundaries of your mortal world and the Netherworld are weakened.’
‘The Netherworld – the world of the dead?’ Melissa asked.
‘Some of the dead dwell in the Netherworld,’ Jacob answered. ‘But they are not its only inhabitants. The Netherworld exists alongside the mortal world; its creatures unseen and invisible to mortal eyes. Not just the spirits of the dead, but also beings of magic and evil. Demons. Monsters. When the boundaries between the worlds are weak, the beings of the Netherworld can cross the border between the worlds and enter the realm you know.’
‘And we can touch,’ Melissa said in wonder.
Jacob nodded. ‘The Shadowing is not upon us yet, but it is close, and as I am a boundary-dweller, it is already affecting me – just as it has been affecting you, Callum.’
‘What does it have to do with me?’ said Callum.
‘Your powers have been given to you for a reason,’ replied Jacob. ‘The power to see the dead, to sense evil, to resist magic. You are a warrior, Callum. You and every other chime child. You are the guardians of the boundary. It is your fate to protect this mortal world from the dark forces that threaten it.’
Callum closed his eyes, blotting out Melissa’s amazed expression. A warrior? How could he be a warrior?
‘But you said this happens every century, the Shadowing,’ he said in a low voice. ‘What’s so different about this time?’
‘This time,’ Jacob said, his voice suddenly fierce, ‘there is a conspiracy. A plot between the demon powers of the Netherworld and the evil-doers of this. The Shadowing has not yet begun – the Fetch could not have crossed into the mortal realm without help from this side. And why is it only killing chime children? A Fetch can take any child, any human, and yet this one is picking and choosing its prey. It is no glutton – it is a gourmet. An assassin. I think the chime children are being singled out for destruction.’
‘And they’re being killed just before the Shadowing begins – just when their protection is most needed,’ Melissa said, understanding flooding her eyes.
Callum dropped his hand from Jacob’s palm.
‘And why do you care?’
Jacob shrugged. ‘I have no wish to exist in a world dominated by evil, any more than you do. My existence is lonely enough as it is.’ Jacob’s pale lips formed the faint, sad smile that made him seem more human.
Callum turned to look at the great shadow of Doom lying in the doorway.
‘You said that Doom protects you.’
‘Yes. And could protect you, too, if you would accept my help. Together, perhaps, we can defeat the Fetch that stalks you.’ Jacob glanced at Melissa, who still held her palm stalwartly against Jacob’s hand.
‘I’ll help too,’ she said.
Jacob nodded. ‘Translator.’
Suddenly angry, Callum glared at Jacob and Melissa. They seemed to have formed a united front, ready to decide his destiny for him. Rage swelled up in his chest.
‘Why is this my fight?’ Callum demanded. ‘I didn’t ask for this. I hate these so-called chime child powers, I’ve always hated them. Why should I use them for anything?’
‘Callum!’ Melissa swung around to face him in surprise.
‘I mean it. Why am I responsible? I just want to be normal. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.’
‘But you aren’t normal, Callum,’ retorted Melissa. ‘You’re special. You have a gift -’
Callum snorted. ‘Some gift. The chance to wage a one-man war against the Netherworld. No thanks.’
Melissa put her hands on her hips. ‘You said you wanted to know what was happening and now you do. The Fetch is here to kill the chime children – all of them. That includes you. Isn’t saving yourself a good enough reason?’
At the very moment Melissa spoke the word ‘yourself’, Callum’s fingers went numb.
He shook his hands in panic, but already the burning pins-and-needles sensation was spreading through his fingertips as though he’d shoved them in a patch of nettles. It was the strongest warning of a premonition that he’d ever had, and the most painful. Then another vision hit him like a block of falling masonry.
It was the Fetch. For one second, he saw the demon in its true form, a stick figure with no skin and no shadow. Then the vision flickered and he saw it in its present shape – his own body. Even though he had never seen himself walking, he could tell that in its disguise the Fetch was his identical twin. It strode through the tangled trees of Marlock Wood with its shoulders hunched, as Callum always did when he walked along the old road, avoiding looking up from his feet for fear of seeing the ghosts that haunted the lane.
This is what I look like.
The furtive, youthful figure cast a faint shadow in the bright moonlight, and Callum realised with a sudden jolt that the moonlight he saw in his head, shining down on the figure of the Fetch as it paced through Marlock Wood, was the same moonlight that shone through the roofless ruin of the church. The same moonlight that bathed him now.
Now. It was happening now. The Fetch was on the road through the woods. And it was heading downhill. Not towards the church, not towards Callum, but towards another destination altogether.
It was heading for the row of ruined alms cottages.
In Callum’s mind, he saw the figure stop outside the low brick wall and leap over the wooden gate, just as Callum himself had done so many times that week.
The light was on over the porch. The curtains were open. Gran was inside, waiting for Callum to come home. The Fetch walked up the path to the door of the cottage, wearing Callum’s own embarrassed smile of apology, and with a hand identical to his own, lifted the brass knocker.
Chapter 23
Gran sat wearily in her favourite chair in the nook under the stairs, from which she could see a long way up the road. Cadbury was prowling restlessly, but when she got up to let him out, the cat hissed and backed away from the door. She stood staring up the empty road for a minute before she shut the door again, biting her lip. After a moment, she locked it.
‘Where is he?’ Gran muttered. Cadbury stopped his prowling and sat down on his haunches to look at her. ‘What do I do, Cadbury? It’s not safe for him to be out there alone. But if I go off to try and find him and he comes back . . .’
Gran wrung her hands together in indecision. ‘What do I do?’ she repeated.
Cadbury jumped up to sit on top of the bulky old cassette player. It immediately began to play one of Gran’s favourite big-band tunes.
‘Thanks,’ Gran sighed. ‘I guess you’re right. I’ve small hope of finding him, and no hope of protecting him outside these walls. We’ll just have to wait it out and hope for the best. But he’s so angry. And that’s my fault; my fault for deceiving him. No wonder he was confused and upset.’
She felt old and tired, but she couldn’t sit down again. She’d made herself a cup of tea earlier, but it had gone stone cold and she hadn’t touched it.
‘Come on, Cadbury,’ she said. ‘Let’s switch on every light in the house. Let’s make this place into a beacon.’
She had been in two minds about turning on the lights – she could see the road better with the lights in the sitting room off – but she needed something practical to do. She knew that Callum looked for the light when he made his way back through the wood, and she wanted him to feel welcome.
Walking upstairs, she switched on the overhead lights in both bedrooms, the bedside lamps, and the landing light. With the upstairs windows of the cottage ablaze, Gran came back down and turned on all the other lights.