TEN

The sun glinted off Jo’s bright blonde hair as she sped across the lawn, and Allie hesitated for only a moment before speeding after her. As her feet carried her swiftly across the grass, she felt a rush of exhilaration so powerful that she laughed out loud when she caught up with Jo a few seconds later.

‘Hurry up!’ she shouted as she passed her.

Once they were in the forest, though, the blue sky disappeared, and with it the light. In the shadows, they slowed to a walk and some of Allie’s courage left her.

‘It’s always so dark in here,’ she said.

Jo didn’t seem concerned. ‘Forests are like that. You city girls just don’t understand the countryside. There’s only one thing to do in spooky forests.’ She gave Allie a light, joking shove. ‘Run.’

Jo ran ahead down the path with Allie right behind her. The ferns lining the path brushed softly against their ankles. Their laughter echoed hollowly off the trees. But Allie was still jumpy. The sounds of the forest – wind blowing through the trees, a bird call, a twig snapping underfoot – all made her nerves twitch.

Now that she thought about it, this didn’t seem like a great idea.

‘Maybe we should go back,’ she said after a while. ‘We could just play a game or … something. See what everybody else is doing.’

Jo didn’t look back at her when she replied reassuringly. ‘We’re almost there.’

So, why am I so worried?

A few minutes later, though, Jo turned to smile at her. ‘See? We’re here already.’

The church wall was just ahead, and in the churchyard – fewer trees and more light. As soon as she walked into that glow Allie felt better, but Jo was already at the door, putting both hands inside the iron ring to lift the latch, and then shoving against it with her shoulder. It gave with a groan and they were inside. In the chapel the fading sunlight was fractured by yellow and red stained glass windows into shards of coloured light, and despite the natural chill from the stone floor and walls, the room seemed warm.

Standing just inside the door, Allie couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

‘Holy crap,’ she whispered.

Jo watched her with a knowing look. ‘Good, no?’

Allie tiptoed to the middle of the room and slowly turned in a circle. The walls were covered in paintings. Some were words – most of them obviously poems – others were images. The paint was faded to rusty red, ivory yellow and greying black, but it was clear, and it was easy to imagine how bright it must once have been.

‘This one freaks me out.’ Jo walked over to the back of the chapel, where a painting of simple figures showed a devil with a pitchfork prodding naked suffering souls into a variety of horrible fates with the help of gleeful troglodyte-like demons.

Allie wrinkled her nose. ‘Eeeuw.’

‘Exactly. This is nicer.’ Jo pointed at a nearby painting of a gnarled yew tree rich with fruit and birds. The roots twisted into the words ‘Tree of Life’.

All around the painted images were words in ancient languages. Allie studied the Cyrillic letters of one.

‘Do you understand any of it?’ she asked Jo.

‘A little. Some is Greek.’ Jo gestured at a rood screen, then turned to a wall beside it. ‘And that’s some form of Gaelic. Most of it’s Latin though.’

On the wall above the door a phrase was painted in elegant red letters. The colour was bright enough that Allie wondered if it had been restored. She stepped back to see it clearly.

‘Exitus acta probat?’ She sounded the words out and then looked at Jo quizzically. ‘Do you know what that means?’

‘The result validates the deed,’ Jo replied without hesitating.

Allie looked back at the words.

‘What’s that about?’ she mused. ‘It seems kind of strange as a “Hey, welcome to church!” quote.’

‘Buggered if I know.’ Jo was spinning down the aisle in a dizzying dance.

Allie watched her for a moment with a puzzled frown then turned her attention to an elaborate painting of a dragon, whose tail twirled down nearly to the floor as a dove flew just out of reach of its claws.

‘This is incredible,’ she breathed.

‘And now that you’ve seen it, can we go?’ Carter leaned against the door frame – his arms crossed loosely, his eyes watchful.

Allie jumped.

‘Carter! Jesus. You scared me.’

But she felt unexpectedly relieved to see him. Jo was weirding her out, and now they could walk back together. Safety in numbers.

Still, she didn’t want him to know that.

‘You shouldn’t sneak up on people,’ she said tartly.

His eyes were cool. ‘I didn’t sneak. I walked. Isn’t that how you got here?’ When he turned to Jo his voice warmed. ‘How’s it going, Jo?’

She was at the opposite end of the chapel, pretending to study a painting.

‘We’re fine here, thanks Carter. You can tell Gabe I don’t need his help.’ Her voice was steady but she didn’t meet his eyes and her jaw had a stubborn set.

He gestured placatingly. ‘Hey, I’m not Gabe’s minion. It’s just about to get dark out there and I thought I might offer you ladies an escort. Why? Is Gabe looking for you?’

Jo gave him a withering look. ‘Give it up, Carter. I know he sent you. He always sends somebody to follow me around.’

‘Honestly, Jo, Gabe doesn’t know I’m here,’ he said. ‘Have you two had a fight or something?’

Carter’s face was so earnest that Allie was inclined to believe him, but Jo moved to the altar, as far away from him as possible.

‘Something,’ she said coolly.

Pretending she was studying the wall paintings, Allie made her way over to Carter who still stood by the door.

Staring intently at a delicate painting of a white rose she whispered, ‘How did you find us?’

Just as quietly he replied, ‘I followed you.’

Their eyes met and then they glanced away. Allie’s skin tingled.

‘What’s up?’ His lips barely moved when he spoke but his head inclined towards Jo.

‘I don’t know,’ she replied. ‘It’s like she’s not … her.’

‘Whisper whisper whisper!’ Jo’s angry voice cut through their conversation, and they turned to see her standing at the altar, palms flat on the pulpit, glaring at them. ‘Why don’t you two just shag and get it over with?’

Allie stared at Jo with her mouth open. She felt like she’d been punched.

What the hell is wrong with her?

But she tried to keep the wounded tone out of her voice. ‘Hey, that is so not cool, Jo. Look, it really is getting dark and I’d like to get back. Come with me?’

She held out her hand. Jo studied her for a moment, and then walked across the nave to her.

‘Fine. Whatever. Let’s go.’ Her tone was reasonable and as she took Allie’s hand she gave it a squeeze, but Allie had the uneasy sense that something still wasn’t quite right. When they got outside the light was fading, and the woods looked darker and more ominous than before.

Jo balanced on her toes on the front step.

‘Hey Allie, remember what I said about the only way to go through the scary woods?’

Allie gave her a puzzled look. ‘What? Run?’

At that, Jo took off down the path at surprising speed as Carter and Allie stood in front of the church staring after her.

‘What the hell?’ Carter looked up at the sky like he hoped it held some sort of answer.

‘I have no idea what is going on,’ Allie said. ‘I think she fought with Gabe and now she’s just, like, lost it. Big time.’

‘Oh great,’ he sighed. ‘I thought she was done with this stuff.’

Allie shot him a puzzled look. ‘What? She’s done this before?’

‘She used to do her crazy act whenever anything went wrong, but she hasn’t done it in a while.’ He seemed exasperated. ‘Now I’ve got to go and make sure she gets back to the school or Gabe’ll kill me – will you be OK? I’ll come back for you if you want.’

‘You don’t have to come back,’ she said. ‘I can keep up with you.’

They took off through the gate and at first she matched him step-for-step. But as they ran through the first stretch of darkened woods something occurred to her.

‘We left the door open,’ she said, slowing to a jog.

‘What? At the church?’ Carter stopped running. At first he looked doubtful but then he slapped himself on the forehead. ‘Damn. You’re right. I should go back and close it.’

But he didn’t move. He looked ahead towards the school then back at the church as if he couldn’t decide what to do.

Seeing his indecision, Allie knew what she had to do.

‘I’ll go back,’ she said. ‘I’ll close it up. You go and catch up with Jo.’

‘Are you sure?’ he asked doubtfully. ‘It’s getting dark and it’s nearly curfew.’

But Jo was not being rational and she was out there in the dark on her own. And while Allie wasn’t thrilled about being in the woods by herself, she knew it was the right thing. But she had a feeling he wasn’t going to let her, so she knew she’d have to convince him.

‘We’ll get in trouble if it’s left open,’ she pointed out. ‘And I really don’t think it would be great for Jo to be quizzed by Zelazny right now. Besides, what if a fox gets in and eats Jesus?’

He burst out laughing and for a second all the stress left his face.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘But I’ll double back for you as soon as she’s inside.’

‘Don’t worry about me – I’m not afraid of the dark,’ she lied. ‘It’s all good.’

‘Thanks, Sheridan.’ She could hear the relief in his voice. As he took off for the school, his final words floating back on the breeze. ‘I’ll come back.’

‘Don’t!’ she shouted after him. He gave no indication that he’d heard.

As soon as he was out of sight, her bravery abandoned her. I could just leave it open, she thought looking down the path. Maybe nobody would know it was us.

Then she thought about how awful it would be if anything happened to that amazing chapel – what if it rained all night and the Tree of Life was ruined and it was all her fault.

She turned around and headed back through the gloaming to the church.

The pool of golden light that had illuminated the churchyard earlier was gone now, and as Allie walked through the gate, the chapel door loomed open like a leering maw.

Taking a deep breath, she hurried to the door and pushed her weight against it. It didn’t move at all until she realised it was held open by a black metal hook that fixed it in place. Even after she’d freed it, though, the door was incredibly heavy. She gave it a good shove and it was closing with a reluctant creak when, just for a split second, she saw something move between the shadows inside.

Allie froze, staring into the darkness. Then, as the door continued to swing shut, she sprang into action, grabbing it and digging in her heels to try and hold it open. But the old door had a mind of its own now and nothing she did would stop it. It shut with a resounding clang that seemed to echo through the trees.

Allie’s heart pounded and she stared at the closed door.

Bloody hell, what was that?

A sudden flutter of wings above her head made her jump, but it was only birds flying up into the darkening sky from a nearby tree.

With her hand on the heavy iron ring that served as a door handle, Allie considered her options. Someone was definitely inside – she’d seen them.

Unless it was a trick of the dark.

I should go. Get back to the school, she thought. I’m just spooked.

Then she imagined what Carter would have done if he were here. He would have opened that door without hesitating and demanded to know who was in there.

‘But he’s a psycho,’ she muttered unconvincingly. It didn’t really matter, of course. She already knew what she was going to do.

She turned the ring.

Yanking the door open with effort, she leaned inside without actually stepping through the door.

‘Hello?’ she called. The room was so dark now that she could barely make out the drawings on the wall. ‘Is anybody there?’

The only sound she heard was her own voice echoing back at her. But the silence that followed had a weight to it, as silences always do in ancient buildings, and she felt goose-bumps rise on her shoulders. She was just about to step inside when she heard quick footsteps cross the churchyard behind her.

Spinning around, Allie crouched down as if to avoid a blow … there was nobody there.

There was no sound but the wind blowing in the trees.

Squinting, she peered into the thicket around the church. Every sound made her jump.

You know what? Fuck this.

Using all her strength, she shoved the door to. As the latch was still clanging shut she ran to the churchyard gate, slamming it behind her with a careless bang. Looking neither right nor left she ran down the path, speeding up as her muscles loosened until she was hurtling through the forest. But as she sped around a curve in the dark, she skidded on a stone and went sprawling, hitting the ground with such force that the breath was knocked out of her and she gasped for air, clutching her sides.

As her breathing steadied, she picked gravel out of a scrape on the palm of her hand while building up the courage to look at her knee. Blood oozed from a shallow wound and ran down her leg. She hoped it looked worse than it was.

Air hissing through her teeth, she pulled herself to her feet and experimented to see if her leg could hold her weight. It hurt, but it worked, and she limped down the path, cursing under her breath.

The path seemed endless, now. After what felt like hours, she stopped to rest her leg. It hadn’t taken nearly this long to get to the chapel, had it? Had she taken a wrong turn?

A rustling noise in the trees stopped her fretful thoughts. She held her breath and listened.

‘Carter?’ she asked, tentatively.

After a second, she heard it again, but now it seemed to be on the other side of the path. Allie spun around to face it, squinting as she tried to see through the trees.

‘Hello?’ Her voice shook slightly; she tried to steady it. ‘Who’s there?’

Silence.

‘If this is some sort of a joke, it’s not funny,’ she shouted into the dark.

After a moment, she hurried down the path, limping as quickly as she could.

… twenty-five steps, twenty-six, twenty-seven …

The sharp crack of a breaking twig behind her made her jump. She froze in her tracks. That rustling sound again. But closer. Much closer.

Now, ignoring the pain, she ran down the path, jumping over roots, feeling rocks skitter under her feet but keeping her balance. Her fists pumped the air beside her.

After a minute she turned to look over her shoulder – the path was empty. But when she turned back to the front, someone was standing right in front of her.

She screamed and skidded but Sylvain’s hands caught her and pulled her close.

‘Hey … hey!’ He looked at her with concern. ‘Are you OK? You’re bleeding. What happened?’

Her words came out in broken phrases as she panted. ‘There was … somebody … the church … in woods.’ Her voice was breathless and frightened.

His hands tightened on her arms. ‘Did someone hurt you?’

Allie shook her head. ‘No … fell. But … could … hear someone … nearby. I think he was watching me. I heard him breathing.’

‘You’re shaking.’ Sylvain pulled her into a hug. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’ With his arm supporting her, she hobbled towards the school.

They both heard the footsteps at the same time.

‘Do you hear that?’ Allie whispered.

Sylvain nodded and looked in the direction of the sound, pushing Allie behind him. She peered over his shoulder as Carter stepped out of the woods. His face darkened when he saw Sylvain.

‘I didn’t know you were here.’ Carter’s voice was cold, and he looked at Allie. ‘What’s wrong? Are you OK?’

Stepping out from behind Sylvain, she nodded, feeling like an idiot. ‘I fell. And I could hear something moving in the woods.’

‘Must have been me. I took a shortcut. Or it could have been Ruth – I sent her back to get you.’ Turning to Sylvain he said, ‘We should get her back. Do you want me to take her?’

Sylvain considered this, then shook his head. ‘No, it’s fine. I’ll take her. You have work to do. Make sure there’s nothing out there.’

Allie could sense Carter’s reluctance, but then Sylvain pulled on her arm and she walked with him.

Her leg hurt much more now and walking was increasingly painful. She said nothing, but when a tear trickled down her cheek Sylvain noticed.

‘Is it your leg?’ he asked, brushing the tear away.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’m being a baby.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said, and without another word he scooped her up off her feet and carried her down the path.

‘You can’t carry me – I’m too heavy,’ she protested.

‘You weigh only as much as a girl,’ he said. ‘Put your arms around my neck.’

She did as he said. Now that she was off her leg the pain had lessened. He’s strong, she thought, noticing that he wasn’t breathing heavily from the exertion. After a second, she rested her head on his shoulder and enjoyed the oddly weightless sensation of being carried for the first time since she was a child.

They had been closer to the building than she knew, so it was only a few minutes before he was climbing the stairs. Someone opened the door for them and she lifted her head to see Zelazny standing in the lighted entry hall.

‘What happened?’ he barked.

‘She fell in the dark,’ Sylvain answered for her.

‘Of course it was dark. It’s after curfew,’ Zelazny said pointedly.

‘She fell before curfew,’ Sylvain said protectively, and Allie tightened her arms on his neck.

‘Take her to the nurse,’ Zelazny said with obvious poor humour. ‘Somebody else fell earlier – she’s in the dining hall with them now. Join the queue.’

As he walked off she could hear him mutter, ‘Ruddy clumsiness if you ask me …’

‘I don’t need a nurse,’ Allie said, but Sylvain ignored her, taking her straight to the dining hall.

The nurse, who wore white scrubs with the Cimmeria logo, was wrapping the sprained wrist of a girl Allie didn’t recognise as Sylvain set Allie down in a chair. (‘Night tennis gone wrong,’ the girl sighed when she left, her arm in a splint.)

Tutting at Allie’s knee, the nurse cleaned the wound with an antiseptic liquid that stung so much Allie tried to get up and leave (Sylvain wouldn’t let her), and then applied an ointment and bandages so gently she barely felt them at all.

Sylvain stood beside her the whole time, one hand resting on her shoulder.

‘Don’t run any marathons in the next few days, love,’ the nurse chirped as Allie and Sylvain walked out the door, ‘and you’ll be right as rain in a few days.’

Allie thought it must be well after curfew by now – the halls were quiet as Sylvain helped her up the stairs to the girls’ dorm.

‘Do you want me to walk you to your door?’ he asked when they reached the top, his sexy smile turning the helpful offer into something slightly more lascivious.

‘I think I can make it from here,’ Allie laughed. ‘But thanks for rescuing me. Again. This is getting to be a thing with us.’

As she turned to go, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back. Before she had time to react he leaned down and kissed her. It was a long, deep kiss. When it ended, Allie stared at him, breathing heavily.

‘You’re welcome,’ he whispered.

Surprised, Allie stepped backward too fast, stumbling over her own feet and colliding with the wall behind her. Colour flooded her cheeks as she righted herself.

‘I … so … thanks … Well, good night.’

She could see Sylvain was trying not to smile as she turned to limp down the hallway.