by Tanya Milne
I adjusted the tiller and steered the dinghy towards the boathouse. If I could hide the boat, then I could try and get to Orpheus’s house, search for them. As I came closer to the shore, I made out the familiar shape of the boathouse and the glass that reflected back onto the water. I slowed the boat, but nothing would hide the roar from the engine that echoed along the shore. I tried to create mist, but I couldn’t muster the energy to produce an ounce of steam. If someone looked now, they would see me.
As we neared the shore I cut the engine and steered the boat under the timber pylons of the jetty. As I tied my boat up, I heard footsteps running down the stairs.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
I tried to conjure up some heat – some fire – in my hands, but they remained cold. I jumped from the boat and hid behind a pylon. My legs shook and I slid down onto the ground, cursing myself for being so utterly wilful and stupid.
‘Eva, is that you?’ came a voice that used to bring me joy, but now made fresh anger surge through my body.
I stayed still. Ezra was the last person I wanted to see.
In seconds he was in front of me, crouching down, his gaze taking me in.
‘Eva, what’s wrong?’
I started to laugh then, and it was tinged with madness.
‘Are you sick?’ he said, leaning in and touching my forehead.
I slapped his hand away. ‘Don’t touch me.’
Ezra sat back, his red-rimmed eyes wide. ‘What my dad did, it was inexcusable.’
‘What your dad did? What about you, you son of a bitch?’
‘Eva? What’s…going on with you?’
‘Your dad takes my family away, and then you, you break my heart…again – and you apologise for your father.’
Ezra rubbed his bloodshot eyes. His voice broke when he spoke. ‘I’m so sorry, Eva – for everything.’
‘You know what, it doesn’t matter anymore. The only thing that matters is getting my family away from here. So, tell me, where are they?’
‘Come on, we need to get you inside. It’s not safe here. The coastguard are having a break, but they’ll be back on the waters soon.’
I began to shiver, but I met Ezra’s gaze when I spoke. ‘Don’t you remember?
We are not together anymore. So you don’t get to tell me what to do – not now, not ever!’
Ezra sat back as though I’d shoved him, his gaze flitting all over me as though he was looking for someone.
‘I love you, Eva. That will never change.’
My heart burned, and I spat out my words. ‘Just not enough to be with me when I needed you the most.’
He gasped and I turned from him.
‘Where are my family?’ I said, wiping the sweat that dripped down my face.
‘You’re sick. Please, I beg you, let me get you inside.’
I tried to stand, but my legs gave way. Ezra stepped forward and held me upright.
I pushed him away and started to sway towards the water, but he scooped me up into his arms.
‘Christ, Eva. You’re burning up.’
I tried to talk back, to stand on my own two feet, but the world around me was fading in and out.
Then I heard it, the motor of another boat.
Ezra swore and ran, two steps at a time, up the stairs and into the boathouse, where he placed me on the bed. As he returned to lock the door, he cursed loudly.
‘Where is she?’ asked Jet, striding into the room. His piping-hot gaze found me, and he said, ‘Christ, Eva!’ He came to me and placed his hand on my forehead.
‘What are you doing here?’ said Ezra, who stood next to the bed, glaring at Jet.
‘Doing what you clearly couldn’t do – looking after Eva.’
‘Get your hands off her,’ said Ezra, nudging Jet so that he lost his balance.
Quick as a flash, Jet was back on his feet and in front of Ezra, whom he shoved hard. They were of a similar height and build, but Jet had been living outside and he appeared bigger and stronger.
‘Stop it!’ I managed to get out before the world around me flashed white.
Both of them turned towards me, the looks on their faces identical.
‘What’s happened to you?’ asked Ezra.
I remembered the night before when the dead creatures had thrown themselves on me, their poison piercing my skin.
‘The dark forces attacked her last night, after she left you,’ said Jet.
Ezra looked as if the weight of the world had fallen onto his shoulders.
‘Where are my parents, Ezra?’ I whispered.
‘They’re being held in a cell under the town hall,’ he said.
‘Are they…okay?’ I rasped. ‘Can we go there now?’
‘Enough is enough, Eva,’ said Jet, scooping me up in his arms and starting to walk towards the door. I struggled against him, but it was futile.
‘Tell me,’ I growled.
Jet stood still and turned towards Ezra.
Ezra said, ‘They’re being…questioned, but they’re okay. Their trial will be held in two weeks, on the night of the darkest moon when Dad thinks their powers will be at their weakest.’
I pictured my family as Orpheus declared the verdict that would take their lives.
‘And then Orpheus will hang them,’ I said.
Ezra’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I want to help get them out.’
‘We may hold you to that,’ said Jet, on the move again.
We had made it to the stairs when Ezra was back in our faces. ‘Eva can stay here. I’ll look after her.’
‘I think you’ve done enough,’ said Jet, who pushed past him and continued down the stairs.
‘She’s sick – how will you take care of her?’
‘Unlike you, moron, I know how to take care of her.’
‘Well, why did she leave you tonight to come and see me?’
Jet’s body stiffened against mine.
‘I didn’t want to see you,’ I whispered as the world around me flashed in and out of view. ‘I came back to help my family.’
Ezra winced as though my words had stung him.
Jet placed me gently in the bow of the boat, then wrapped me in a blanket before tying our boats together. Ezra watched on, his face flashing with emotions.
‘We have no chance of getting them out before the trial,’ said Ezra. ‘Dad’s security is too tight. The best chance we have is on the night of their trial, while they’re being moved.’
‘We’ll come back then to get them out,’ said Jet.
‘Meet me here after sunset on the night of their trial, in two weeks’ time. I’ll find out everything I can and have a plan.’
‘Keep my parents safe,’ I said, my voice unsteady.
‘I will…do whatever I can,’ said Ezra. ‘Please, Jet, take good care of her. Make her well.’
Jet grunted and climbed back into the boat. He was about to start the engine when I heard the unmistakable sound of Pearl’s meow.
‘Pearl!’ I said, sitting up as she sidled over to the side of the boat. ‘Why is she here?’
‘I found her in your house this morning. I went to check on your and Violet’s houses and found her tucked up on the end of your bed. I brought her here to keep an eye on her.’
I picked up my cat and held her close. ‘Why were you checking on Violet’s house?’
Ezra cleared his throat. ‘Violet was arrested last night.’
I knew that Violet had been arrested, but my broken heart cracked open further as I pictured my dear old neighbour being manhandled by the police and imagined what she would be facing right this very minute.
‘It’s all my fault,’ I said, the tears I’d hidden behind my anger returning to drown me. ‘If I hadn’t gone to her place, she would be safe.’
‘And you would be in jail,’ said Ezra. ‘You can’t think like that – none of this is your fault.’
Jet started the engine, drowning out Ezra’s voice, but even so, I heard Ezra shout that he loved me. Jet thr
ottled the engine faster and covered the boat in mist. All the way across the waters, Ezra’s words tugged at me, but the invisible wire between us snapped as Jet and I slipped into the rougher waters inside our cove. By the time we reached the beach, I was losing consciousness.
‘Hang on, Eva. We’re nearly home,’ said Jet.
Home? Where is my home now?
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words would form.
‘I’ll take care of you, I promise. But please, hold on and fight.’
Jet’s arms were wrapped around me again. Boy stood beside me, whimpering. I gazed up at the half-moon that sat lazily in the hazy sky. In two weeks there would be a new moon; the sky would be black. That’s when Orpheus would try and murder my family. Would Violet hang with them?
And then I was slipping away, to the other land where the dark creatures waited for me to die – so that I would become their Fire Queen.
Chapter Nine
Sometimes the darkness held me down, and at other times I would venture upwards, towards the light. But then the searing pain would arrive, forcing me to retreat again. Nothing and no one could reach me down there.
But the fire was licking my skin, scorching me. I screamed and opened my eyes. Jet was beside me on the mattress inside his tent, applying some sort of compress to my arms.
‘What’s happening?’ I yelled.
Jet stopped what he was doing and took my hand. ‘You’re sick – from the cuts. But your body is fighting the infection.’
I tossed and turned, tears streaming down my face as I tried to hold back my scream.
‘What’s that?’ I asked, gazing at what appeared to be bark that covered my body.
‘It’s the bark from the tea tree – it has healing properties, and so does the lotion on your skin.’
‘What kind of lotion?’ I bellowed as I sat up and threw the bark onto the ground.
My skin was red raw, and the wounds underneath were puckered and infected.
‘Try and stay calm,’ said Jet in his matter-of-fact voice. I took a closer look. His face was composed, but small beads of sweat filled his forehead. ‘It’s working.’
I rubbed at my wounds, causing them to break open. Blood and puss smeared my hands and pain seared through me.
‘Drink this,’ said Jet, passing me a cup.
I knocked it from his hand, spraying brown liquid all over the bed. ‘Are you trying to kill me?’
Jet pulled his eyebrows together and kept his voice calm. ‘I’m trying to help you, Eva. You need to trust me.’
‘How can I TRUST someone who’s doing this to me?’ I screamed in a voice I barely recognised.
Jet swallowed, but refilled the cup with more of what appeared to be a potion and passed it to me. ‘Please – you need to trust me.’ Inside me raged a battle between the person I’d always been and the person the dark forces were turning me into. Jet tried again. ‘I would never hurt you. Please, you need to drink this.’
Something in Jet’s voice made me take a proper look at him. There were dark rings hugging his eyes, he needed a shave and he was wearing the same clothes from the night he’d found me at Ezra’s, but they were dishevelled. My ugly anger subsided, and I returned to being myself.
‘How long have I been like this?’ I asked, taking the drink from Jet.
‘Five days,’ he said. ‘Please, drink it.’
What!
‘My family…Violet,’ I cried out.
‘They’re safe at the moment, but you’re not. Please, Eva, drink this. I’ll wake you every hour to drink more. It’s the only way.’
‘What is it?’
‘It’s an ancient potion to heal dark wounds. My parents taught me how to make it.’
‘Does it work?’
Jet let out a long breath. ‘Truthfully, I’ve never used it before, but it’s all we’ve got. The herbs in the lotion are starting to work on your skin. But we need to break your fever.’ I glanced down at my body. I was dressed in my underwear and my raw red skin was covered in sweat.
‘What did they do to me?’ I said before raising the drink to my mouth and swallowing what tasted like dirt and berries.
‘They tried to kill you,’ said Jet.
‘Trying…’ I said, heat returning with such a force that I lay down, tossing and turning as burning pain consumed me.
Jet placed a cold compress on my forehead and started talking softly. But I could no longer hear his words. The darkness had returned. It took my hand and hauled me down to where I became nothing once again.
Time lost all meaning. There was only searing heat or the world of nothing. And Jet. Every hour he roused me from the darkness and made me drink the foul-tasting potion. He would talk to me, his voice soft and comforting, his eyes as red as my skin. Over and over he commanded me to fight.
And so I did. The poison had seeped through my veins far and wide, but the compresses on my skin and the potion that I drank waged a battle that I could only witness. One morning, before sunrise, while the sea raged below in our cove, the battle within me reached a point of no return. Death waited on one side, life on the other. My body became a single flame. I screamed and thrashed as I waited for the victor to claim me.
Violet’s words came to me. ‘Fight fire with fire!’
I held onto her words and the love of my family and dug deeper than I’d ever thought possible. I matched the fire, flame by flame until I became the fire. And it ravaged me like an inferno. Life as I knew it lost all meaning as the forces of dark and light sought my soul.
At the moment when I thought all hope was lost, I heard Jet scream – ‘FIGHT!’
Using every last bit of strength, I blasted the fire with everything I had, extinguishing the flames to cinder and smoke. Heat bled from my body. I opened my eyes and there, staring down at me, his tears falling, was Jet.
‘I’m okay,’ I said, my voice no longer possessed by demons, but finally my own.
Gingerly, I sat up and Jet pulled me into his arms.
‘I thought I’d lost you,’ he said.
For a few moments, I resisted him, but then something shifted inside me and I relaxed against his body, let him hold me. Shortly after, I fell into a deep sleep inside his arms. When I woke, it was quiet and dark inside the tent. I was dressed once again in a tracksuit. I pulled my jumper back and brought my arm close to my face. My sores were still there, but they were no longer infected. Jet’s potions had literally sucked the evil from my body.
I rolled to my other side and there was Jet, his face younger in sleep. He was still wearing the same crumpled clothes, and he looked as tired as I’d ever seen him. Before I could stop myself, before I could think, I placed my hand on one of his cheeks.
He opened his eyes; they were gentle and soft.
‘Hey you,’ he said.
‘Jet, I…’
‘It’s okay, rest now.’
‘No, I need to say something.’
He waited while I tried to find words that expressed how I felt.
‘The thing is…without you, I would be dead now. Saying thank you – those words, they are all I have, but they will never be enough.’
Jet smiled and for a moment, I imagined him as he would have been if his parents hadn’t died, if we didn’t live under a dictatorship.
‘It’s okay, Eva – you’ve done the same for me. It’s only fair I returned the favour.’
My words got stuck in my mouth as tears welled up in my eyes. ‘You saved me. I owe you my life.’
Jet wiped away my tears with his fingers.
‘Well, I could never expect you to owe me your life, but I would like you to promise me something.’
‘Anything…’
Jet propped himself up on his elbow and Pearl, who’d been asleep on the end of the bed, slinked beside him, purring.
‘I have a feeling this won’t be the last we hear from the dark forces – they will keep coming for you, particularly when you’re vulnerable.’
I swallo
wed, the truth of his words making my skin turn cold.
‘And when they come for you, you must promise me that no matter what happens, no matter how bad things get, you will always follow your heart.’
I blinked quickly as the meaning of his words sank in.
Jet’s eyes glimmered in the darkness as he spoke. ‘You and I both know how bad things can get, so this promise, it’s going to be much harder to keep than you think.’
My mind flickered back to the most torturous times of my life. If there was anything I knew, it was the lengths the dark forces would go to turn my heart to darkness.
‘They will make you want to be like them. They will make you thirst to kill. But the thing is, it will still be your choice. The dark forces can never take your choice away.’ Jet took my hand, held it tightly. ‘You have a good heart – a kind and loving heart. And you must remember, in your darkest hour, who you really are, and make choices from your heart. Can you promise me that?’
Inside Jet’s brown eyes was an unspoken question that sat waiting for an answer. His request sounded so simple, and yet I possessed powers of light and darkness. He was asking me to choose the light, every single time. My family, their lives were at stake. I knew I would do whatever it took to save them.
‘I can’t promise you that, Jet. I’m sorry. I would do anything for my family… Anything at all.’ Jet removed his hand and rubbed his eyes while I continued speaking. ‘I know that’s not what you want to hear. And trust me when I say I don’t want to be a dark force, but if it’s the only way I can help my family, I will do it.’
Jet groaned. ‘Don’t you see, nothing good can ever come from the darkness. Please, I am begging you, please choose to follow your heart.’
I took a deep breath and placed my hand on Jet’s heart. ‘You’re the one with the good heart. For you, I will try, but I can’t promise you. I’m sorry.’
Jet removed my hand and lay on his back. ‘They will come for you, again and again, Eva.’
‘I know,’ I said quietly. ‘And that’s why I need you to teach me dark magic, before we go back to rescue my family.’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘We’re going to need every bit of magic – the white and the black – if we’re to have any chance of saving my family…and Violet.’ A sob broke free from my chest. ‘Please, Jet. I’ll be careful how I use these powers, but I need to arm myself in every way possible.’
