When she spoke herself, it came out more emotional than expected. ‘How should I release them?’ she asked Kerra and held out the jar.
‘Stop blocking them out, then smash it … and will it.’
‘That will work?’
‘Yes.’
Still raining, the patters pounded heavier and louder. Energy surged through Juliet. She dropped her mental shield completely, and for a second she allowed the suffering of all the spirits to consume her, running through the jar and up her arms and into her heart. Their faces and personalities and lives dashed across her mind in snippets. The pain too much, she closed her eyes, brought the ornament up high, then shrieked as she propelled it down and let go.
With a smash, shards flew, some pelting her legs. She opened her eyes and half expected to see the room crowded with spirits, but instead she saw glowing particles flittering in every direction. Kerra’s expression was as still as before. She began coming apart, starting with her aura and then breaking into ghostly chunks that floated outward before splitting smaller again and again and again. Her particles mixed with the other spirits’ and eventually all of them sank into the furniture, the air, the walls, the ceiling, and into Nick and Juliet.
Juliet knew Nick hadn’t witnessed any of it but she hoped he felt something, because as sad as it was, there was also serenity to it. Towards the end she heard jingling and a chorus of sighs and thank yous. Then, clearer than the other sounds, came Kerra’s voice … ‘Make him happy, won’t you?’
As the last glimmer dissolved, the rain stopped above.
There was a calmness, then Juliet found herself sobbing. She didn’t know what state Nick was in and couldn’t bear to find out. She cried like she’d never cried before, feeling exhausted for the first time in months. More emotionally than physically. After a short while she felt Nick at her side, putting an arm around her back. She curled towards him and hid her face. The second time I’ve gotten upset in front of him today, she thought bitterly, remembering how angry she’d been with herself earlier.
After becoming emotional over her gran’s cancer, she’d scolded herself with, Why did I tell him all that? He doesn’t need to know my flaws. And here she was, showing her weakness again. Is it weakness? Or am I developing empathy? Having her ability had forced her to see things and feel things she never thought she would have to. Yes, she’d gone to Tamara to block out the spirits, but the ones she had already seen had opened up new emotions for her.
Remaining in Nick’s arms, she fought to compose herself. Having empathy was good, she decided, as she realised being able to sense the suffering of all those spirits had given her the strength to release them. Sometimes, though, there was a fine line between showing empathy and allowing yourself to be taken advantage of. She didn’t want to give anyone that power over her, only to be told she was unimportant and discover she’d been used. Austin revealing that truth to her face had let her mostly cut him out, but it would be a while before she trusted anyone with her heart again.
No longer crying, she stepped away and rubbed her clothes straight. She saw Nick’s face, which was red and a little puffy. When she looked to her side, Tamara stumbled out of a room looking haggard, and James walked out tall and invigorated. It was just the thing to lighten the mood. Juliet surprised herself with a gentle laugh. ‘You know how this looks?’ she said to the witch and the half-elf.
Tamara pulled an exasperated face. ‘Oh, I see. Yes, James certainly knows how to wear me out … though his methods are not half as exciting as you would expect.’ The orange-haired witch tilted her head to give James a wink. If he could have turned green, it looked like he would have. Tamara slapped his arm playfully in apparent exhaustion. Then she turned serious. ‘Is it done?’ she asked Juliet.
‘Yes.’
The witch’s eyes moved down to the shards on the wooden floor. ‘We heard you scream, and there was a smash …’
Juliet explained about the spirits in the jar. By the end of the explanation, anger had crept into the witch’s face. ‘That man’s a true monster.’
After a silence, which seemed to agree with the witch, Nick spoke. ‘James, I can’t stand here talking while Kerra’s body is there on the floor … Will you …?’ His sentence trailed off as if he couldn’t find the wording.
‘I’ll move her.’ James stepped forward until he reached the corpse. He bent down and scooped up the body. Compared to his size, it looked small and doll-like. Juliet cringed.
When James walked over to the chest, Juliet said, ‘You can’t put her body back in there, where Austin kept her. It seems … wrong.’ She looked to Nick for his opinion.
‘Kerra’s moved on,’ he said practically, regret in his tone. ‘That body isn’t her.’
It’s his choice. Juliet nodded, then James lowered the body into the trunk and closed the lid. Afterwards, he returned to the group and sat down on one of the sofas.
Nick asked him, ‘What are we going to do now? About Austin? Shouldn’t we be looking for him?’ He sounded somewhat grim.
‘I imagine he’ll be returning to the person he works for now, or maybe heading back to his true home. We know of this place, so he’d have nowhere else to go.’
‘Okay,’ said Nick, ‘but we don’t know where either of those places are.’
‘No, we don’t,’ James agreed.
Juliet contemplated what had just happened. I should have asked Kerra if she knew where Austin had gone, but then, she probably would have started talking gibberish about windows and doors and so on. ‘I would try summoning Samantha,’ she said, ‘if it was okay with Nicolas, but she told me not to do it again.’ And I’m not sure I have the emotional stamina …
‘No. If she told you not to, then we’ll have to find another way.’ Nick offered a weary smile in acknowledgement of her attempt to help.
‘I have a suggestion.’ James raised his voice in Nick’s direction. ‘You should use your ability, Oracle.’
Juliet watched Nick’s reaction. He shifted a bit awkwardly, probably uncomfortable being referred to as Oracle. After a while, he said, ‘I’ll try.’
Juliet reached out to him. ‘You did it before, remember? When you saw your brothers go with us to Grendel Manor.’
His stance relaxed a little. ‘That was different, because it was through my eyes. I don’t see many visions that aren’t from my perspective.’ He was going down a negative road, but then he shook his head energetically, as if rattling out excuses. ‘Okay. I’ll do it. James said that with training I could see things on the other side of the world if I wanted to … I’m sure I can handle this.’
Within a short period they were all sitting down, quiet to allow Nick concentration. He shut his eyes. Watching him, Juliet compared his ability to hers, wondering how it would feel to spiritually travel to another location. Does he feel like he’s really there? Or is he aware the whole time? Can he make choices inside the visions? Or is he only the watcher? It was rare for her to dwell on such things; she realised her mind was flagging from the energy it took to release all those spirits. So I can mentally tire, at least …
She was snapped out of her thoughts when Nick’s eyes flew open. He got up without a word and paced over to a table, picking up a little book that was on top of it. Frantically, he looked on and under and around the table. ‘He took Tom’s key to my house when he escaped,’ he said fast, sliding the little book he’d picked up into his jacket pocket. ‘In the vision I just had, I saw him let himself into my house. That’s where he’s gone. Maybe it’s his last-ditch effort and he thinks he can wait there for my return, then kill me.’
‘Okay.’ James stood up, clearly about to say more, but Nick went on.
‘We have to go now. Tom might be at home. He’s been staying at his boyfriend’s house, but he might have come back while I’ve been out.’ He spoke quickly in panic. ‘I’ll call him. I won’t tell him anything, just call him, see where he is.’ His mobile was out and to his ear before anyone could object. He walked
back and forth before huffing and hanging up. ‘He’s not answering.’
‘Let’s move, then,’ said James. ‘Tamara, take Juliet with you back to yours, and both of you wait for our return. Nicolas, I assume you drove here? You’ll have to drive us both to yours.’
Juliet almost spoke up, thinking she could help them somehow, or should help them. But Tamara, who was sitting next to her, put a hand on her knee. ‘I’m weak from healing James,’ said the witch. ‘I need you to watch me while I drive home.’
‘Okay,’ Juliet reluctantly agreed. Out of her mouth came, ‘What are we going to do about Kerra’s body?’ It seemed everyone else had forgotten its importance. ‘And what about this lodge?’
It was James who answered. ‘While Tamara was healing me, I made some calls. When we all spoke at Tamara’s house, Nicolas stressed how much he wanted Kerra’s body to be found and for her family to have some closure. While speaking with my kind, I came up with a solution I believe will work. There’s not time to explain it all now, but others like me are on their way here and they will clean up the lodge and then take Kerra’s body somewhere secure for now.’ He turned to Nick. ‘Don’t worry. Kerra’s body will be found, and the police will be able to close the case.’
Nick appeared momentarily shocked out of his impatient state. ‘Thank you,’ he said, sounding sincere. Soon he tensed up again. ‘We need to hurry though, please.’
Juliet got into Tamara’s Beetle with her, and watched Nick and James run off towards the bridge. Feeling mentally drained, she was unsure how much help she’d be to the witch when it came to driving. Together, though, they made their way to Willow. Juliet worried for Nick’s safety the whole time.
As Tamara parked outside her cottage, Juliet remembered the sad serenity of all those spirits moving on. So far, her ability had brought a lot of grief her way. It had also saved lives. But even so, those experiences hadn’t made her deeply realise the fact that she was so aware of now …
I can do a lot of good with my power.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
GONE. NICK STRUGGLED not to speed. His arms shook, his legs shook, and his hands were sweating, making driving a hazard. He’d tried to call Tom again while running to the car, but had no luck.
He couldn’t let Austin hurt anyone else.
‘Nicolas,’ James said in a hard voice, ‘calm your driving, or you’ll draw attention to us.’
Better than finding my brother dead at home, he almost snapped. But it was true: If he were pulled over by the police and it got back to Detective Inspector Talwar, the detective would jump on the suspicion of Nick’s behaviour.
‘I’m calm,’ he muttered, and pushed himself back in the seat. He forced down his tight shoulders, but still drove as fast as he sensibly could.
Gone.
Something made little sense to him. ‘Why are you letting me come with you?’ he asked. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be protecting me? Not taking me into danger?’
‘I can’t protect you if I don’t know where you are.’ James’s voice was deep and sulky. ‘Your vision might have been wrong, and you don’t know when what you saw took place. At Tamara’s house, you told us Austin had broken into your home before; maybe you saw that in your vision.’
I hadn’t considered that.
James continued. ‘If I had left you behind, Austin might have returned to find you.’
‘What about Tamara and Juliet, then?’ His already-fast pulse quickened. ‘Are they safe?’ Driving and talking was normally no problem for Nick, but at this point in time his focus felt like it was split a thousand ways.
Plainly unaffected, James said, ‘They’re on their way to Tamara’s now. I doubt Austin knows where that is. Anyway, Tamara knows her responsibilities and she would defend Juliet. You’re the one who needs keeping alive.’
That riled Nick. ‘My life is not any more important than Juliet’s,’ he said, then realised how specific he’d been. ‘Or more important than anyone’s.’
‘It is to my kind.’
‘I don’t care about your kind.’ The words jumped out fast … and got no response.
Having crossed Nova River, he drove almost parallel with Lynn River, heading to the south of Amiton. He hoped his mobile would ring and then he could pull over and speak to Tom and find out if he was safe, but that didn’t happen.
He heard Austin’s voice … Now I’ll have to kill you both. Austin’s burst of a laugh assaulted his mind. ‘James,’ he said harshly, ‘when Austin came into the lodge and we were hiding, why didn’t you jump out on him sooner?’
James sighed very, very slowly. ‘I wanted to see how you and Juliet handled the situation. I know you’ve had it rough so far, but you’ve both managed to survive everything. If I’m going to be watching over you, then it’s useful for me to know how resourceful you are.’
A laugh pushed itself out of Nick’s mouth, and it sickened him to notice how much like the necromancer’s burst it was. You become what you hate; he’d heard that somewhere before, and actually, throughout life, he had noticed that sometimes he mimicked the behaviours of people he disliked—if he dwelt on them too much. ‘Had a rough time?’ he threw back at James. ‘My girlfriend’s dead.’ Gone, really gone this time. ‘Do you have no empathy?’
James laughed suddenly.
‘What?’ asked Nick.
‘Nothing. It’s just funny you should say that.’ He breathed out in amusement, then his deep voice became a monotonous misery again. ‘No, Nicolas … I have very little empathy.’
‘Well, that’s a shame, because it could have come in handy back at the lodge. Did you not notice Austin’s little vulnerable moment? You could have taken advantage of that and told him you’d try to protect him from the person he works for … then he might have let you question him. Instead, I got ninja-kicked.’ He felt the hot pain across his stomach.
‘Too late now.’ James shrugged in his periphery.
Nick gave a huff-sigh. ‘You’re very glum, aren’t you? Everything I’ve been through, and I’m more pleasant towards people than you are.’
‘Nicolas …’ The half-elf’s tone became severe. ‘You don’t know me. You don’t know what my life has been like.’
On autopilot, Nick opened his mouth to respond. But he stopped. I suppose I am being a bit small-minded. Here he was, accusing James of having no empathy, when he was the one judging a half-elf on face value. He might have experienced things I can’t even imagine...
It wasn’t long before he turned a corner and ended up on Maw Street. Though it had stopped raining, the day was still a gloomy grey disappointment. Few people were out and about. Cars made their way down the street from time to time, but not too frequently, and Nick just hoped the sycamores in his front garden would hide whatever was about to unfold.
As he pulled into the drive, he scanned for Austin’s rented van and Tom’s green Mini Cooper. Neither was in sight. James hurried out of the car as soon as it was parked, beating Nick to the front door. ‘Open it,’ he commanded, ‘but I’ll go in first.’
James clearly didn’t want to use up energy opening the lock with magic. When Nick opened the door, the half-elf stalked inside and up the quiet, dim hallway. Nick followed, leaving the door ajar in case they needed to escape. He flicked on the hall light.
Although he glanced in rooms on the way, James made it to the kitchen without alerting Nick to any danger. He stopped, straightened up, and turned back with a shrug. His short sword was in hand. It amazed Nick that James could carry the weapon without it being seen. I knew I’d glimpsed a scabbard on his hip earlier. But that was something to marvel over another time.
‘Your house appears empty,’ said James, taking a deep breath.
Nick stole a moment’s relief too and inhaled.
And that’s when Austin lunged out of the snug and stabbed him in the stomach.
‘Unhh,’ he moaned, and dropped. His hands pulled in towards the pain. His head and one shoulder thudded against the laminate
flooring. When he looked up, he saw a small sword swish overhead, missing its target, then a hand gripping Austin by the shirt and hurling him down the hallway.
In panic, he inspected his palms and fingers. No blood. But where’s the pain coming from? He wrenched air into his lungs, winded, and touched at his stomach under his jacket. Below his ribs, it felt bruised, but there was no open wound. Frowning, and foggily aware of Austin and James scuffling in the kitchen, he squeezed the fabric of his coat. Austin’s weapon had struck something in his pocket … My diary … Saved by my stupid Diary of Depression … He wished there was time to laugh over it, but not only was his life at risk, his stomach ached like hell from the two blows it had taken.
Lying down, he peered up the hallway. James jabbed with his short sword, missed, and was shoved by the necromancer. Sounds of banging and crashing rang out. And a definite smash. They’re wrecking my kitchen … Nick saw Austin stumble back, slashing as he did. James dodged and manoeuvred behind him. He put one arm around his throat, and brought up the other with the sword, up, up, up …
Austin whacked one of his forearms against the half-elf’s, and elbowed him with his other arm at the same time. I need to help James … It stung across his abdomen as he pushed himself to a higher position, not yet standing. The inelegance of the fight shocked him. It was nothing like in the films, where it seemed more a dance, but was instead an embarrassing scuffle of shoves and slashes, grunts and grips, holds and headbutts. He was sure he’d seen headbutts exchanged.
As pathetic as the brawl sounded, it was more visceral and gritty than anything in a movie scene. During the clumsy commotion, James had to repeatedly duck his head so as not to bang it on the open doorway leading to the kitchen or on hanging lights or low cupboards.
Nick got up. By then, Austin and James had come to face each other directly, or as directly as they could with their height difference. The half-elf stabbed his short sword in a straight line. Austin stopped it in its track, wedging the blade in the gap between the two blades of his own weapon. Whether on purpose or not, it was impressive. He twisted his wrist, throwing James’s short sword out of his hand and across the room. He smirked at his unarmed foe.
A Body Displaced (Lansin Island 2) Page 31
