When Kristina comes in the next morning and plonks down the breakfast tray, Merle is a little surprised. Didn't she try and kill her the other day?
Kristina isn't really her usual chatty self. Her dress seems even more wanton than usual, the neckline sliding off her shoulders which are ringed with bruises and bitemarks. The way she looks at Merle, she seems almost proud of the marks Darius has left all over her. Like she's displaying them.
'He wants to see you in his study,' she says sulkily, as Merle starts to eat. 'Next floor up, third door on the left.'
When Darius calls her in, she opens the large polished oak door into a long elegant room with huge floor to ceiling windows. The room should be flooded with light, but – as with everywhere else in the castle – the curtains are drawn and the lamps are lit. At the far end of the room Darius sits at a large desk, looking far more imposing than the impressive decor. Merle feels self-conscious, fiddling with the hem of her T-shirt, as she walks the endless length of the room to stand before him.
He looks at her for a long moment. 'About yesterday afternoon. I apologise. I shouldn't have done that. You're not here to help me keep Kristina in line.'
'Oh. OK.' She feels herself start to redden. She puts her head down, remembering Darius's usual reaction to her blushing.
'Yes,' he says. His voice sounds even. Perhaps he hasn't noticed? 'Really, I think it would be best if we could just pretend that it never happened. How would that be?'
'That would be, uh ... That would be fine,' she stammers, still not really looking at him and feeling like a fool. She takes a deep breath and forces herself to look up. 'I guess then,' she says lightly, 'that you'll just have to hope that you don't have to make good on your final threat.' She thought that comment would seem jokey, like she didn't think anything of the kiss they'd shared. She regrets saying it instantly.
Darius looks at her. 'My final ...? I don't understand. What was my final threat?'
She feels another thrum of blood rushing to her face. She drops his gaze again and looks at the carpet. 'Oh, sorry, nothing.'
'No, Merle. What was my final threat!'
She shifts, takes a deep breath and looks up at him again. Her face is practically glowing. 'You told Kristina that if she misbehaved again you'd, uh, fuck me. In front of her.'
Darius's face breaks into a smile. 'Oh, that. Don't worry. I really don't think that will be necessary. Do you?'
She blinks. 'If you say so. Um, I mean, no.'
Darius says, 'But that's not why I wanted to see you. You've been here for more than half the term I specified. I was wondering if you wanted to go home.'
'Go home?' she says, still concentrating hard on her breathing and finally feeling her face start to cool.
'Yes,' says Darius. 'Just for a visit, you understand. And the terms remain the same, the terms of my, er ...' He scrambles for the word.
'Of your blackmail?' she says.
'If you like.' He smiles, clearly amused. 'OK. The terms of my blackmail remain the same. I have arranged for a car to take you to London to see your parents. You will return here in twenty-four hours.' Darius looks back down at the paperwork on his desk, shooing her away. Clearly he's done.
Merle takes a breath. 'Thank you,' she says softly. He shoos her again. Not looking up.
An hour later, she's walking through the corridors of Cobalt. It feels like a dream. Everything is so cool and bright – sunlight! – and clean. So different to the sumptuously-threatening dark of the castle. There are a few people in the foyer who nod hello to her. No one thinks it's odd that she should be there. Cole's attack on her father has been kept deadly secret. No one knows she's meant to be somewhere else.
She uses her swipe card to take the lift to the secure floor. Out of the doors, she finds herself running. She bursts into her father's room so hard she makes her mother scream out loud and drop the book she's reading.
'Oh, darling,' her mother says, turning around, in tears, then rushing to take Merle in her arms. 'It's OK. No one expected you to stay the whole time. We knew he'd make it impossible for you. It was just a trick, darling. Thank God he stuck to his word and actually let you go.'
'No, Mum ...'
'We've got a squad ready to storm the Black Emerald Castle. They don't know why yet of course, but it's all under control. Now you're back we can take in him tonight. Interrogate him.'
'No. You can't do that. It says in his letter that if we try and take the castle by force he'll destroy the antidote.'
'Oh darling, what choice do we have?'
Merle slows her breathing and looks into her mother's eyes. Appealing for calm. 'No, you don't understand, I'm going back. I haven't given up, Mum. I'm only here because he told me I could come and visit you. I'm going back tomorrow.'
'Oh.' Her mother's face twists.
'I know, Mum. But I'm past halfway already.'
Her mother swallows. When she speaks her voice is taut with emotion. 'Is he – is he treating you well? You look thin. They don't understand food. Is he feeding you?'
'Yes, Mum, it's fine,' she says. 'I have my own room. A very nice room. They bring me good food and magazines and other stuff to read. It's fine. Just a bit boring sometimes. It's like being in a hotel.'
'And he hasn't ...' Merle's mother looks away from her, almost as if she can't bring herself to say the words. 'He hasn't bothered you? He hasn't done anything to disturb you?'
Merle shakes her head, trying not to think about the way she felt when Darius kissed her – that memory suddenly flaring hotly. She bites at her lips and feels those two hot pink spots appear on her cheeks. 'No.'
Her mother pulls her close into an embrace again. 'Oh, darling. I've been sick with worry. I thought we'd never see you alive again.'
Merle nuzzles up close to the smell of her mother and tries to make herself believe that she can stay forever.
Late that evening, Merle watches as her mother falls asleep in her chair. Then she takes her security swipe card from around her neck and goes walking.
She's not sure where she's headed. But when she gets into the lift and sticks her mother's card into the slot a second secure floor appears on the control panel that she's never ever seen before and she knows that has to be the place.
The lift goes down. Down and into the ground. The secret level must be below the basement. When the doors slide open she gets a weird shivery flashback to the castle dungeon, but she steels herself and steps out into the gloom.
Feeling on the walls with flat hands she finds a light switch and flips it. Fluorescent strips flick on, sprinkling the light out to the furthest reaches of the huge room. All the room contains are filing cabinets.
The entire history of Cobalt.
Darius Cole has his own aisle. There's so much information. But she finds a likely looking file about his interrogation – so thick it takes up half a drawer on its own.
In the empty foyer she finds a carrier bag behind the reception desk and slips the file into it. Then, because she doesn't know where else to stash it, she goes out onto the pavement where the blacked-out car Darius provided is still parked and leaves the file with the driver.