Out of dreams comes
A new life
A week later
Sarah walked in first, a wet smudge of black on her cheek.
“Got it?” Niall asked. He was perched on an armrest beside Winter, who was curled up against soft silk cushions.
“Oh, yeah. When we left, it was very dead, I can assure you,” Sarah said, raising her blackened hands.
“Could not have been more dead.”
Sean stepped into the room, Alvise by his side. A small, triumphant smile danced on Sean’s lips. Elodie smiled back. That was Sean, the way he used to be, reckless, mischievous, loving the hunt, a Gamekeeper through and through.
Elodie was sitting on an ottoman, her long blonde hair on her shoulders, and her eyes, though shadowed with blue, were back to their natural chocolate hue.
“Thank you,” Alvise said to Sean and Sarah, freeing himself from the quiver and resting his bow on one of the sofas. “For agreeing to help us before going home.” Conte Vendramin had asked them to help destroy the Surari that had seeped through to Venice during the rift between worlds. They had gone hunting every night for a week with Alvise, while Micol and Niall tackled the water Surari in the Grand Canal.
“Any time. But this was the last one for a while now. We need to get home,” said Sarah, and her eyes met Sean’s. He held her gaze, unspoken words passing between them.
“Yes, we need to get home,” Sean echoed, and Sarah’s heart skipped a beat. Would they go home together? Live together? They’d been back from the Shadow World for a week now, and they had slept in separate rooms. That was what they’d been offered, and neither of them had complained or asked to change. Not that there had been much sleep anyway, with the intense hunting they’d done. Sarah had focused on the hunt, frightened of the moment they’d have to decide what to do next. Would he tell her what she feared the most, that they were going to part ways, that he would go back to New Zealand, or to Japan to look for Mary Ann, or to France with Elodie? Would he tell her that after the culling of the heirs, it was her duty to breed powerful children with another Secret heir?
“I can’t wait to be home,” said Niall. Since he’d been reunited with Winter, Niall had had a constant smile on his face. He and Micol had seen to a particularly vicious kind of demon-eel, five of them let loose in the city’s canals. But whatever else had seeped through was for the Vendramin to take care of: Niall and Winter had plane tickets to Dublin booked for that night.
“Wow, Sarah, you look shattered. You need a holiday,” Niall said mischievously.
“Niall!” Winter scolded him gently. “Don’t listen to him, Sarah. You look amazing,” she said. Sarah’s cheeks had filled out again and her hair was lustrous and shiny once more, the effects of the Shadow World washing away with every day spent back on the human side.
“Are you going back to Edinburgh, then?” Elodie asked Sean. Sarah looked at him, holding her breath as she waited for his reply.
“Yes. If Sarah puts me up for a bit.” He grinned, but there was a hint of vulnerability in his eyes. Sarah studied his face for a moment, trying to read his intentions. He was going back with her, but it didn’t mean that they would be anything more than friends, or comrades in the hunting. She sighed inwardly. The night they’d spent together at Nicholas’ castle kept playing in her mind; unbearably sweet memories teased her and confused her.
“Please come with us. At least until you decide what to do,” Sean said to Elodie.
Elodie seemed pretty much back to her old self, but both Sarah and Sean were worried. Once back in the human world her eyes had regained their old brown tones and lost the otherworldly obsidian of Nicholas’ eyes. She’d been given a clean bill of health by the Vendramin physician – no trace of the Azasti was left – and apart from being very tired and a little pensive, she’d been all right. The night before, Sarah had woken up thinking she’d heard Elodie scream in her sleep, but as she lay awake in the darkness, she didn’t hear anything again. She decided she’d dreamt it.
“Thank you, Sarah. But I must go to the mountains and look for Aiko Ayanami. Something tells me she’s still alive. And after that . . . well, I think I’ll go back to Annecy. Start again. The Brun Family is not finished yet.”
“No. The Secret Families are not finished,” Alvise intervened. “We need a new Sabha. We need to find out who survived and get organised again.”
“But with Nicholas in the Shadow World, the Surari won’t come through any more, will they?” said Micol, looking for reassurance. “I mean, if we get rid of the ones who are here already . . .”
Elodie looked down. “I’m not sure it’s entirely up to Nicholas. I think the separation between the worlds is not watertight and never will be. There’ll still be gaps. Things will go back to the way they were before, I think, with Surari drifting in every once in a while, to be dealt with by whoever is left of the Secret Families and the Gatekeepers.”
Sarah thought of home, of Aunt Juliet and Bryony. She thought of the Midnight mansion in Edinburgh, and her garden, of her cello in its purple case, waiting to be played again.
Sean slipped his hand in hers. “Fancy a walk?”
“Sure,” she said, and suddenly, irrationally, she felt cold with apprehension. What was he going to say? That he had no powers, and therefore they could never be together? Would he raise the same wall between them, still unmovable, unreachable? Sarah’s stomach knotted up and her mouth went dry all of a sudden.
“Sure. I’ll just have a quick shower. Down in twenty minutes,” she said and went to step out of the room. Suddenly, she felt the impulse to turn back for a moment. She wasn’t sure why. She gazed at Elodie. Her hand was resting on her belly, and there was a look in her eyes that made Sarah’s heart flutter. Elodie felt her watching, and their eyes met. She didn’t move her hand away from her belly, but she didn’t look down.
Sean was already gone, Niall and Winter were absorbed in each other, Micol was shuffling songs on her iPod. Nobody noticed, but in those few seconds, in that look, Elodie spoke to Sarah.
No, the Brun Family wasn’t finished.