Eloise cocked her head to one side and said, “It sounds like …”
“Wings,” said Will. Not a heartbeat, but the beat of a wing, and guessing now that the dark shape was a bird, he was able to judge how close it was as it swooped in, aiming directly for Eloise’s head.
Dark against darkness, hurtling, and silent now as even the wings stopped. Will lunged forward, moving fast. Eloise let out a confused cry, but it was already done. Will snatched the bird out of the air as it neared the end of its dive. He felt it break in his hand with the impact. He looked at it, there in his fist like a broken umbrella.
“A crow?” Eloise sounded astonished more than afraid.
Will nodded, but before he could speak, he heard the same beating sound. He dropped the dead bird and looked around, trying to see where the other one was. It came swooping down from behind them.
“Run,” he said to Eloise. She hesitated and he pushed behind her and grabbed the bird out of the air. But the sound of beating wings didn’t stop. Eloise let out a cry and when he turned she’d been scratched on the head and was hitting another crow away, the bird flying back beyond arm’s reach before mounting another ferocious attack.
Will lashed out, knocking the crow into the trees at the side of the drive. And yet still he could hear more wingbeats in the air above them, and increasingly, the cawing of twenty, fifty, maybe even a hundred crows. They were ignoring him and it was clear that Eloise alone was their target.
He looked at her. The attack had left a small scratch at the top of her forehead, a bright patch of blood shining glossily in the midst of her pale skin. He felt the emptiness surge up inside him, the need to take in what that blood offered him.
But a shape swooped down from the dizzying carousel of shadows that was above and all around them. He hit out at the bird, its lifeless and broken body immediately falling to the ground a few paces away from them. And swiftly he removed his coat and threw it over Eloise’s head, as much to conceal the blood from his view as to protect her.
“Keep that over your head and follow me.” He took her hand and led her forward quickly, fighting off the crows which attacked relentlessly now, some swooping low, but staying just out of reach, others diving straight for her. They remained blind to Will, even as he knocked them out of the air.
Eloise let out another scream and he stopped and saw that he’d missed one. It stabbed at her head through his coat, its beak hammering at her skull, determined. He knocked it away, but even as he did, three more swept in, grappling at her coat, pecking furiously.
He stopped trying to lead her forward and concentrated on defending her, knocking the birds out of the air, grabbing them when he could. But there were too many, and those he didn’t kill swept in again relentlessly. He couldn’t protect all directions at once, fearing even he would be overwhelmed.
Finally he realised there was only one option, to get Eloise inside. He started to pull her forward again, knocking the crows away when he could, reacting to her cries when they got through and clawed and pecked at her through the thick overcoat.
Then they reached the point where the woodland stopped and the drive curved round across the open parkland to the school, and as suddenly as the attack had started, so it stopped. One last crow, bigger than all the others, swept across the air in front of them, then arced up into the night sky and away.
Will and Eloise came to a halt. He could still hear the wingbeats high above, though the cawing had stopped now. And gradually the sound of the birds grew more and more distant. Eloise pulled his coat free and handed it back.
The coat had apparently saved her from any further injury, though she frowned as she rubbed her head. The wound on her forehead had also stopped bleeding in the cold air, but the blood still made Will almost lightheaded with longing.
She realised immediately what was troubling him and said, “Sorry.” She stepped back and took a tissue from her pocket and held it over the wound.
“It’s not your fault, but you’re right, it’s better that you cover it.”
He put his coat back on.
Eloise looked around. “What, I mean, what was that all about?”
Will looked back at the drive, littered with the bodies of birds, and said, “Let’s get inside first – it serves no purpose to discuss it out here.”
They walked swiftly along the remainder of the drive, easily visible now against the frosty parkland, though no lights were showing from the school. For the most part they were silent, but just once Eloise said, “At this time of night, and they were only attacking me,” and then she became quiet again.
She showed him to a side door and Will worked open the lock. Once inside, she said, “We can go to my room – lucky that I’m in on my own this term.”
“Can we be overheard there?”
She shook her head. “It’s nicely tucked round a corner on its own. But we’ll have to be quiet getting there.”
The school was quite dark, but it said something for how well Eloise knew the place that she walked ahead of him with as much confidence as if every light was on. When they reached her room, she shut the door behind them, drew the curtains, placed a scarf over the bedside lamp and turned it on. She searched in a cupboard for something, then said, “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Will got the scent of blood as she walked out, almost as if the blood sought him out, calling like a siren to tempt him where he knew he could not go. He heard her walking along the corridor, could hear and sense beyond her the quiet, sleeping breaths of other healthy children.
Will tried to put it out of his mind by concentrating on the room in front of him. He stood exactly where she’d left him, letting his eyes slowly adapt to the dull light from the lamp, and took in the posters, one of a bare-chested young man with dark hair, another of a group of young men in dark clothes with make-up on their faces, another for a German production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
There was a bed, a chair, a desk, various personal items, shelves full of books. He wanted to move across the room, to look at the books and see what she’d been reading, but he felt he didn’t have permission somehow. This space was so intimate that, as well as he knew Eloise now, as deep as the bond was between them, it felt intrusive for him to be here.
He heard her return and when she came into the room, a strong smell of antiseptic masked the blood and she wore a plaster across the wound.
“It wasn’t as bad as it looked – just a scratch really.” She smiled as she closed the door again and said, “Come and make yourself comfortable.”
Will stepped forward, forgetting to glance at the books as he pulled the chair from the desk and sat down. His eyes drifted from the bed in front of him and back up to the posters.
“Don’t look at my posters – just too embarrassing.”
Eloise pulled off her boots and sat cross-legged on the bed. She’d sat like this on the daybed in his chambers, which at least brought a touch of familiarity. His sitting here was no more a breach of intimacy than it had been for her to see where he lived.
“Are the people in those posters renowned in some way?”
She pointed behind her without looking, “He’s an actor. They’re a band – I used to think the one on the right was quite cute.”
“But you don’t any more?”
“No, because I have another cute boy now, just as unattainable as the ones in the posters.” She laughed and he laughed a little too. “Actually, I only put them back up this term because the other girls would have been suspicious otherwise.”
Will nodded, relaxing now as he said, “I like it in here; it has your scent, your presence. I feel peaceful in here.”
Eloise smiled, but her mind was already elsewhere. “What happened out there?”
“Wyndham. It can only be. Otherwise what are we to believe, that it was some freakish natural occurrence? Wyndham brought it about, I’m sure of it, and in some way he must have discerned that you are important to my destiny, that it’s easier to attack you, a normal, living girl, than it is to tackle me.”
“Then he’s a fool.” Will looked confused and Eloise said, “If he’s coming after me, he should have made his first attack during the day, when you’re not around to protect me. Now I’ll be on my guard whatever happens.”
“It’s a worthwhile point, but given the wound on your head, I don’t think we should underestimate him. And I’m sure you didn’t fail to notice that Chris was never away from us in the time between our confrontation and depositing us at the school gates.”
Eloise thought back over the evening and said, “I hadn’t thought about it, but you’re right. Which means Chris …”
“No, it tells us nothing about Chris. It tells us only that Wyndham has some other source for our movements. And bear in mind, this is a man who summoned the ghost of my own brother to destroy me – his magical powers are probably such that he needn’t rely on human assistance alone. So it seems we have to be more vigilant still.” He looked at the clock next to her bed and said, “I should let you sleep. We can talk about Wyndham tomorrow night.”
“OK. Oh, no, not tomorrow night, concert rehearsal.” She pointed at an instrument case in the corner. “I play the violin – badly.”
He stood and said, “The next night then, but be careful in the mean time.” Eloise nodded and he reached out and brushed her cheek. She raised her own hand before he could take his away and pressed his fingers for a moment longer against the warmth of her face. Will smiled as she finally released him and he said, “Not quite as unattainable.”
He left her and headed quickly out of the school, which was now in complete darkness. But he’d only walked a few paces when a crack of light appeared in one of the bedrooms high above. Will stopped and for a second the curtain was pulled back and a face appeared, looking out at the night before retreating again. And as much as Will had been intent on leaving, he remained now, staring up at the window. His interest was piqued because it was very late, and because the face which had briefly appeared was that of Marcus Jenkins.