BLOOD IN THE WATER
Apressure to my back sends shock waves through my ribs as someone grips my hoody and wrenches me away from the water. I hit the stone path, hard. I smell … home. My eyes flare open.
“D-Dad?”
It’s really him, arms fast around me, cheeks flushed from legging it down the bank.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, shaken.
“You really think I’d let you fight this alone?” He lets me go and sits back on his knees. “What are you doing trying to throw yourself in the river?”
Arms hook under my armpits and pull. Sam’s got me, Mitch and Leonie too. They drag me away from the water until I’m panting against the stone slope that leads down to the lower bank.
“It’s the only way to drown them.” I hate how wrung out and beaten I sound, choking on my words as I sob with selfish relief. Beyond the faces of my friends and family and Tempest’s dome of light, the wraiths still churn like incensed clouds.
“You’re a bastard, Charlie Frith.” Sam’s crying. I lean my forehead into his collarbone. He draws me up and I wrap my arms around him. “You’re so stubborn and so daft and such a fucking bastard.”
“We’re all making it through this.” Mitch says it like a promise. I want to believe him.
Dad’s clutching a phone – Mum’s. There’s a map up on the screen with a marker on this spot. He and Mum have a tracking app for each other, that’s why he wanted me to take his phone. Dad doesn’t need to understand any of this to care. No matter what, he’s shown up for me. Sniffing, I blink back tears, so grateful that he’s here in the end.
“Mum and the girls?” I ask.
Dad swaps the phone for his obsidian mirror, looping the cord around his wrist to keep it secure. “Far out of the city and safe. Neelam too, Heather’s with them.” Looking into the mirror he curses and ducks his head, glancing above him as if the wraiths he sees can swoop down and tear into us. “You didn’t stop that Meryem woman, then?”
I shake my head, trembling. It ends at the river. That’s what Viola said, so if she wasn’t telling me a secret way to stop the wraiths, then … is this just another one of her tricks?
“We’ll try something else,” says Leonie.
Tempest shakes his head. “There is nothing— Wait.”
There’s a quiet filled with lapping water and the tinny music from the restaurant.
“Have you used it?” Sam asks suddenly, sliding off me.
What’s he on about?
“Never,” says Tempest. “But I know it.”
Sam breathes out slowly. “Risks?” There’s a pause. They stare at each other. Sam swears and rubs at his eyes. “We can’t.”
Are they talking through the mirror bond between them, thoughts no one else can hear? Like, full on telepathy?
“It buys us time,” says Tempest.
“He could die.”
“Die?” Dad barks. “Then find another way.”
Tempest looks up at the wraiths still churning beyond the limits of his torch. “If he goes in the river, he’ll definitely die, but we could contain the wraiths within him.”
“Y’what?” asks Mitch.
Moving my legs carefully, I sit up a little. “How? I can’t mirror with all of them; can I?” I don’t want to be mirrored to a wraith, or thirty, but I’ll do whatever I have to.
“Not mirroring, that will only make the wraiths stronger,” says Sam. “But we use the third seal instead.”
The first seal won’t do anything useful. The second will give the wraiths too much freedom and make them even more powerful. But the third binds two souls into one body and the strongest takes control. It won’t be a partnership of equals, that’s for sure, more like I’m the prison cell and they’re the prisoners.
“Can you make it work?” I ask Tempest.
He pauses, then nods. “With Sam’s help, yes, but, Charlie, you need to understand, nobody is supposed to hold so many souls within themselves. You probably won’t die, but … the strongest souls will win out. They could take you over completely.”
Fuck.
“But they won’t be able to hurt anyone?”
“They might try, but within a body we can restrain them … you.”
“Charli—” Dad starts. I cut him off with a shake of my head.
Viola said she didn’t know how it would happen, only that I’m the heart or crossroads or something like that.
“We can strengthen you,” says Leonie. “I know a theorem—”
“You can’t,” I snap. “You work any more magic and you’ll die.”
Sam looks like, even though this was his idea, it’s all gone too far. Face puffed with anguish, he fights tears. I want more time with him, I realize. I’m selfish, I want the rest of our lives to make a mess of things. I want to meet the person he’s going to become in twenty years.
The truth is, I can’t save him, just as he can’t protect me. Shit happens, life throws impossible things at us. We’re gonna bruise and hurt and somehow find the courage to keep going. Sam never needed my protection, only my support.
He presses his forehead to mine. Our breath steams in the cold air. He knows this is my choice, and he lets me make it.
Dad’s eyes are bloodshot. “I didn’t come here to watch you die, lad.”
“Then I’ll just have to survive, eh.” I slap him on the shoulder and muster a grin. They help me stand. “We’d best get on with it or someone in that fancy restaurant is going to start getting suspicious.”
“We can work the strengthening charm, give him the best chance.” Sam’s voice is raw, hopeful.
His eyes don’t leave mine as Tempest possesses him. They whisper something, the magic on their tongue scenting the air around us like seawater, as they mark a charm on my forehead. Blood thrums, my heart quickens, adrenaline sings.
Suddenly, my focus is sharp and my mind is clear. I still ache all over, but it’s not overwhelming any more and I can … can I see in the dark now?
“Bloody hell, that’s some strengthening theorem.”
Tempest and Sam don’t smile. “It might not be enough. The wraiths might take over your mind and body. You get that, right?”
I nod. This way is a kind of death, just less watery. I’ve got to be mentally stronger than thirty odd wraiths. Not likely, but at least I can fight, try to win out over all of them.
I’ll take those odds.
“And there’s no going back,” they warn. “Once sealed it’s for life—”
“Do it,” I say. No hesitation. We don’t have time to doubt. The longer we stall, the more terrifying the whole idea is.
Mitch hugs me close and wishes me luck. Leonie kisses my cheek. Tempest steps out of Sam’s body and gives me a solemn nod. I want to ask them to say goodbye to Ollie, Villiers, Broomwood and Reid for me, but that’s like admitting I’m not strong enough, so I don’t say anything.
Dad looks scared. I hug him, not caring that I’m crushing him or if he’s crushing me. He doesn’t say anything; I don’t reckon he can, but I know. I know.
I wait for Sam to say something but he doesn’t. He just tilts his head, teeth against his lip, a hiccup in his throat. Fuck, he’s handsome.
“I love you,” I say simply, because what else is there?
He darts forward and the seal of his lips is salvation. I kiss him back, stroking his jawline, greedy and desperate, wishing I could stay in this moment forever.
No one can do this but me.
I don’t know if I’ll survive, or if I’ll be myself at the end of it, but I’m going to damn well try.
Everyone sticks close together, taking Tempest’s light with them, until I’m right on its border. The breeze changes as the green glow recedes. My fear creeps in, fresh panic, cold on my skin. I swallow it down. Yeah, I’m scared, that doesn’t make me weak.
I never have been, I realize. Most people never go through even half of what me and Sam have faced. I’ve always been enough, just as I am. But whatever happens now, I’m about to change forever.
Your transformation is all but inevitable if we are to scourge York of this darkness.
As the first wraith ghosts through my chest, I wonder if this was always part of Viola’s plan. Am I somehow just playing into her hands?
It’s too late to back out now.