Auchinmurn Isle
Present Day
The two figures that had burst into the cottage dropped their torches at the sight of Em and the crofter wrestling on the ground.
‘Don’t just stand there!’ The crofter’s guttural accent had changed, grown more refined. Em detected a gentle French accent. ‘Get her off me and secure her quickly!’
One of the figures grabbed Em and pulled her to her feet. Gasping, Em looked into a pair of cold green eyes.
Dressed in black with a stocking cap pulled low on his forehead, Tanan looked like a Ninja warrior. Em recalled with a shudder how he had chased her and Matt through the caves on Era Mina in the summer. She couldn’t even bring herself to look at Mara, who had once pretended to be their friend.
Surely the presence of such a powerful Guardian and two strong Animare would have triggered the Abbey’s defences? It must at the very least have made an impression on Renard’s imagination. It must have.
The crofter was pulling off his cap. The straggly wig came next, followed by the bushy eyebrows, and the capped teeth.
Em knew at once who she was looking at.
A wave of terror washed over her, making her hands clammy and her chest tight. A dull, dizzying pain throbbed behind her eyes. Her grandmother Henrietta de Court was such a strong Guardian that her powers battered viciously at Em’s mind. The firewall Renard kept around his own Guardian powers had never caused Em any pain. Henrietta de Court clearly didn’t bother with such particulars.
In the shock of Em’s realization, Tanan quickly and efficiently bound her hands again. Em screamed inside her head and out.
Zach! ‘Help! Mum!’
Before she could scream again, Tanan morphed into a demon right before her eyes. He rose up on thick haunches, every tendon and muscle on his body visible beneath a layer of reptilian scales, and gripped Em with long sharp claws, his hairless head twitching, his tongue flicking. He had become the demon who had trapped her and Matt in the caves.
It was her own fear that had conjured Tanan as the demon again, Em knew. But it was still terrifying.
Get a grip, she admonished herself.
The demon flared its nostrils and then, in a flash, was human again. Tanan again. Em closed her mouth without another word.
‘That’s better,’ Tanan said. ‘Much easier for all concerned if you cooperate.’
Em stomped down hard on his foot, then bucked upwards, her head smacking into Tanan’s chin. She enjoyed his yell of pain.
‘Stupid girl!’
Cursing, Tanan tossed her on to the bed. Em swallowed back her tears. She would not let this man-demon see her cry.
Henrietta de Court loomed above Em now, studying her. Em could smell pipe smoke and a strange metallic odour.
‘Why are you doing this?’ Em whispered.
‘Because you and your brother are an important part of a plan. A plan that will finally and forever allow us Guardians to control you Animare. No longer will we remain in service to your ridiculous aesthetic whims. It is time for you to serve us. Those Animare who help us achieve our new order will be rewarded handsomely and given positions of great importance.’ Her grandmother smiled coldly at Tanan and Mara.
Em wriggled, fighting hard against her bindings. ‘We’ll do nothing to help you or your plan! Get away from me!’ she yelled, pushing back against the wall so the sharp edges of the stones jabbed into her back.
Henrietta flicked a beringed hand. ‘Gloves, Tanan. We can’t have her animating with her nails on that wall.’
Tanan rolled gloves on to Em’s bound hands. Em exhaled slowly, calming herself. Doing her best to keep her fears at bay, to keep Henrietta out of her head.
Zach! Please, please wake up.
Silence.
Stay calm, she thought. Focus.
If help wasn’t coming, she would have to help herself.