Dark Light

by Nicola Fulford

  Chapter 10

  Amber was happier than she had been for a long time, which was strange because her life couldn’t have been more complicated. It was still the holidays, which meant that she got to spend a lot of the day with Will, to whom she was growing closer and closer every day. Matt was usually within a close proximity, though he always remained unseen. Amber had asked him hundreds of times to come into the house and meet Will, but he persisted that it would keep her safer if as few people as possible knew about him being there.

  Will was round at Amber’s house almost every day. They would go to the café down the road or watch one of the many films Amber had collected over the years.

  “What do you want for Christmas?” asked Will one snowy Tuesday lunchtime. Tuesdays were meant to be a day for going down to the café, but Amber refused to walk down the street in the knee-deep snow just to buy a drink and a sandwich, so instead they were staying inside with a hot mug of tea.

  “Well, my mum hasn’t got much money left after the big house move so-“

  “I meant from me silly,” Will said.

  “Oh,” Amber stopped short. “You don’t have to get me anything.”

  “You’re right, I don’t have to. But I want to.”

  Amber started laughing.

  “What?” asked Will.

  “I’m sorry,” she choked out. “That line was just a bit cheesier than I expected it to be.”

  “I might not get you anything after all,” he said.

  “I’m sorry,” Amber said again. She reached up and kissed him lightly.

  “Apology accepted.” Will bent down and kissed her again, and then again.

  It was easy being around Will. He could be funny or serious, and he never said a bad word about anyone, accept for Darren who he still hated after the incident at the dance.

  He stood helping Amber make sandwiches in the cramped, blue-cabinet kitchen. It was already a cold winter, but Amber noticed the icy bite most in the little room, which lacked any form of heating. Even then, she thought the house seemed colder that usual.

  “So you never told me what you wanted for Christmas,” Will said.

  “I told you, I don’t want anything.”

  “If you don’t tell me I’ll just end up buy something you don’t want.”

  “I don’t want you to get me anything, because then I wouldn’t know what to get for you,” Amber said.

  “I don’t want anything from you.”

  Amber rolled her eyes.

  “It’s true,” Will said. “I don’t need anything but you being there.”

  He bent down slowly and kissed her again. Amber closed her eyes and leant into him.

  “Now will you tell me what you want?” Will murmured.

  “This. I just want this,” she replied simply.

  They stood there in the kitchen for a long time, with Amber cradled in Will’s strong arms. Eventually though, she began to shiver with the cold and Will insisted that they went into the living room and put a rug over her.

  “So what film do you want to watch?” he asked once he was satisfied that Amber had warmed up to a healthy core temperature.

  “I don’t really care, any one,” she replied.

  Will crossed over to the other side of the room to the shelf that held Amber’s vast movie collection.

  It all happened very fast then.

  Amber’s ears burst as a deafening, screeching scream rang through the house. Whether because of the instant rush of adrenaline that rushed through her, or through sheer instinct itself, Amber found herself standing next to the shabby old sofa, the rug discarded on the floor at her feet. She quickly registered Will, whose reactions must have been slower than her own, just beginning to turn away from looking at the shelf, his blonde hair ruffled at the speed he was moving. At that same moment, Amber registered that Will was not the only person in the room with her.

  Crouching sinisterly in the corner of the room, barely hidden by the open door, was a beautiful, terrifying figure. It was a figure Amber recognized, though she was not sure where from. She was female, with long, flame red hair blowing around her head as though caught up in a strong wind. She looked only a couple of years older than Amber, if that, though her face was as pale as though it had been void of life for many more years. Behind her, protruding from her back like great sculptures, were two magnificent, bright black-if there could be such a colour-wings. They were the sort of wings Amber imagined belonging to an angel, only the black of death instead of the white of life.

  The demon girl turned her head to look at Amber, who was instantly taken in by a pair of wide, black eyes, like those of a crow, or a snake, squaring up its opponent before making the deadly attack. Amber tried to make herself look big and threatening, like you were meant to in a bear attack, but the expression on the demon girl’s face said it all. She was here for Amber, and she was not going to let Amber escape alive.

  Her head shouted instructions to call for help, to plead, to run, but they got lost somewhere in the connection between brain and limbs. Amber prayed that Matt was on his way, that he would come and save if not herself, then at least Will, who she doubted would be allowed to live after witnessing what was about to be done.

  And still those black eyes bore into Amber’s. She felt like they being was looking right down into her soul, and that scared her more than anything that had happened yet. Those eyes were not like Amber’s; though dark, her eyes were a charming obsidian, like a sparkling gemstone, full of life. The demon girl’s eyes reminded Amber of a star that had just flickered out of existence.

  Then the demon girl smiled, her blood red lips spreading into a horrific snarl. Her body tensed, ready to pounce, and Amber’s entire being called out for Matt. But he was not there, and he would not be able to save her.

  As she watched the hunter propel herself towards her like a lioness to its prey, Amber was once again caught in those round, black eyes, unable to move. When the demon girl was less than a foot from her, Amber was strangely reminded of the snake off Jungle Book, who always hypnotized its prey to feel calm before killing it. Amber felt calm now. Perhaps that was why she reacted too slowly to stop him.

  Will had had plenty of time to catch up, and for adrenaline to start coursing its way around his veins. He had watched as Amber had noticed the terrifying figure, as she had taken in her appearance, and had been drawn in to those eyes. He had watched as Amber stood motionless, not even trying to escape or cry out. And he had felt anger towards this girl with the fiery hair, who had come to take Amber from him. He couldn’t let her.

  Amber watched helpless as Will sprang from the other side of the room, towards the demon girl who was now inches from reaching her. He flew through the air like a well-trained acrobat, and collided with the girl moments before she would have gotten to Amber.

  There was a brilliant white flash and when Amber opened her eyes, she realized the demon girl was gone. And so was Will.

  In the second it took for Amber to register this, Matt had arrived in the room looking worried and tense.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  Amber collapsed in a heap on the ground and started weeping violently. Matt ran over and wrapped her up in his arms, which shook with the force of her sobs.

  “There was a girl,” she said between gasps. “But she wasn’t really a girl. And then she was heading for me, but then she was gone and so was….and so was…” she resolved into sobs again.

  “Amber, I’m so sorry,” Matt said. “It’s all my fault, I let her get past me. She must have put up some sort of defense because I couldn’t reach you, even though I knew you were in trouble.”

  “It should-have been-me!” Amber wailed. She hated crying; it made her feel weak and helpless. But Will was gone, she hadn’t stopped him, and if now wasn’t a time to feel helpless she didn’t know what was.

  “What do you mean it should have been you?”

  “She wanted me! The girl wanted me, an
d she took Will instead!” Amber screamed, clutching her hands to her head in anguish.

  “Amber breath. Who is Will?”

  “He’s Will. He was my best friend and then my boyfriend and now he’s gone!” Amber rocked back and forth and started murmuring to herself, “He’s gone. She took him. He’s gone.”

  “Amber, please.” Matt looked like he was in intense pain having to watch Amber suffer like this. “We’ll get him back. I promise, we’ll get him back.”

  “How?” Amber looked up at Matt from where she sat curled up. In that moment she felt like the world was no entirely over.

  Matt took a deep breath.

  “After I told you what I was, I knew it wouldn’t be long until The Voice came for you. I had to do something but I didn’t know what would protect you against something like him. Then I heard about this girl called Lyana. I was told she deals with magic.”

  “She’s a witch?” Amber asked, wiping her eyes with a tissue Matt had handed to her. She didn’t like the sound of this; witches were mean old women with long warty noses who cackled; the thought of meeting one terrified her almost as much as the thought of meeting The Voice. But she would do it if it got Will back.

  “She doesn’t like the term witch. She calls herself a sorceress.”

  “A sorceress? Do you realise how many horror movies you just put into my head?” asked Amber hysterically.

  “She’s not like that. She wants to help people, that’s how I got her to help us.”

  “What do you mean?” Amber asked. Matt was trying to pull her up, but she was making it difficult for him. She didn’t want to leave her spot on the floor unless it was to go and save Will.

  “Your locket and your ring. I asked her to imbibe them with a spell that would stop The Voice from tracing you.”

  “She can’t be a very good witch then.”

  “She is, it’s just The Voice is stronger,” Matt succeeded this time in getting Amber to her feet. “Now will you please come with me to see her. We won’t be able to save your friend without Lyana’s help.”

  “He was more than my friend Matt,” Amber said thickly.

  “Fine, she’ll help us save you boyfriend,” said Matt, and Amber noticed a strange look in his eyes that she didn’t recognise. “I’ll go and call a taxi, and then we’ll go straight there ok?”

  Amber nodded slowly.

  “You don’t need to worry, I’m not going to let anything get to you.”

  Where have I heard that before, Amber thought.

  It couldn’t have been more than five minutes after Matt called the taxi company that a shiny black car showed up outside the door, and Amber was being helped into a seat by a very cautious Matt. She hated that he was treating her like a three-year-old. She knew what had happened and, though she didn’t want to, she accepted that Will was gone. The only thing she could do now was try to get him back.

  Amber’s mum had been out of the house all day doing the grocery run, which to her usually included quite a few clothes shops too. Amber was incredibly grateful that her mother had been gone while the girl had appeared, as she knew she couldn’t bare it if she lost her as well.

  Within moments the car was speeding through the heart of York, past the theatre and the station, then down some tiny alleyways until it the surroundings became darker and more run-down looking.

  The brakes squealed as the car came to a sudden halt at the entrance to a dark alleyway, with high fences running along the length of the street they were parked on. They must have travelled to the other side of town in under ten minutes-Amber would never get used to the speed of that taxi service. Matt got out of the car and walked around to Amber’s side to open the door for her. He then began walking on ahead of her into the alley, but turned around when he noticed she hadn’t moved.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Don’t be scared, she’s a nice person. You’ll like her. We shouldn’t keep her waiting, though.” Matt walked back to Amber and took her hand. “Trust me,” he said.

  Amber sighed and pushed all her fears to the back of her mind, stepping forward away from the light and into the darkness.

  At times Matt’s powers were an annoyance to Amber. This was not one of those times. Using his incredible eyesight he picked out the door to Lyana’s place through the darkness and knocked twice before entering.

  The house was the complete opposite of what Amber had been imagining. In her head she’d seen dungeon-like rooms with bloodstained walls and candles for light. Instead she stood in an open hallway full of light from a glass ceiling above her head, the floor was a light wood and the walls were painted with complementing tones of white and yellow. A bunch of tiny pink flowers sat in a glass vase on an oak side table. Amber thought she recognised them but she couldn’t put a name to them.

  “Matthew,” A tall girl with dark hair appeared from around the corner and hugged Matt as a greeting. “I see you finally made it.”

  “Hi Lyana,” Matt smiled.

  The girl called Lyana was the absolute opposite of the person Amber had been picturing in her head. Stunningly beautiful, with her long, smooth black ringlets and cherry red lips that contrasted perfectly with her creamy skin, she returned Matthew’s smile, revealing a row of dazzlingly white, straight teeth.

  Amber coughed loudly, irritated by the lack of notice she was being given. Lyana spun around with the grace of a figure skater to look at her.

  “You must be Amber,” her voice had a musical quality to it. “I’m Lyana, Matthew might have told you about me.”

  “Yeah,” Amber said, feigning niceness to this girl she so irrationally disliked. “He did. Hi.”

  “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Thank you,” Amber replied. “You have a beautiful home. What are these flowers here? I feel like I should recognise them.”

  “Oh, they’re daisies,” Lyana smiled again.

  Amber looked again at the pink flowers. “I didn’t realise you could get them in pink.”

  “You can’t,” she said mysteriously.

  “Wait, so you?”

  “It’s my favourite colour,” she smiled.

  Matt looked at Amber to make sure she was okay with this new level of magic. She felt fine; she had gotten used to impossible things over the past few months, and Will’s abduction was stopping her from being able to really take anything in.

  “Why don’t you come through to the kitchen, I’ve just taken a batch of muffins out of the oven.”

  “Great,” Matt started towards the kitchen ahead of Lyana, “I’m starving.”

  “He’s always so hungry,” Lyana sighed, showing Amber the way through to the kitchen.

  The kitchen was even brighter than the hall, with a sunny yellow paint covering the walls and the handles of the cream cabinets. The smell of delicious food saturated every particle of air, making Amber’s mouth water. Matt was already sitting in a fluffy pink armchair and eating a large blueberry muffin. Amber thought he looked rather out of place, munching away on blueberries whilst surrounded by so many pink, cuddly objects.

  “These are great Lyana,” he said through a mouthful of blueberries. “Even better than the last lot.”

  “Glad you like them,” Lyana carried the plate of muffins over to him so he could grab another one.

  “Amber, try one of these, they’re amazing,” Matt said, holding out the plate.

  “I’m not hungry,” she murmured.

  “But you haven’t eaten since breakfast,” he insisted.

  “I said I’m not hungry.”

  “If you don’t like muffins I can make you something else,” Lyana offered.

  “I’m fine,” Amber said a little more sharply than intended.

  “A drink maybe?” Lyana asked.

  “No thanks.” Amber didn’t feel right, sitting here in this bright open space, while Will was God knows where.

  “Lyana, can I have a word?” Matt asked.

  They left the room f
or five minutes and when they came back, Lyana’s beautiful face was strained into a sombre expression. She walked over to Amber and gave her a hug. Amber felt quite awkward standing in an stranger’s kitchen while that same stranger was hugging her like they’d been friends for years.

  “I’m so sorry about your friend,” Lyana said.

  “Oh, yeah…well I was hoping you could help me to help him.”

  “I will. I know what it’s like to lose someone you loved,” said Lyana bleakly.

  During this conversation, Matt had been standing in the doorway, shifting his weight from one foot to the other while he watched the girls handle their problems in their own girly ways.

  “So, what’s going to happen here?” he asked. “If Will’s still alive then I doubt he’s got much time left.”

  Amber took in a deep breath. She had already known this of course, but it made it somehow worse to hear it from someone else’s mouth.

  “Matt,” Lyana gave him a dirty look for his lack of tact.

  “Sorry,” he said, then crossed the room and put his arm around Amber’s shoulders.

  “I’ll try to help you,” said Lyana.

  “Trying is something,” Matt said. “Who knows how many creatures like that thing that took Will are out there.”

  “You don’t think that thing at my house was The Voice?” asked Amber.

  “I think if it was The Voice, you wouldn’t have lived to tell me what happened.”

  An awkward silence settled in between the three of them.

  “How much do you know about The Voice?” Amber asked Lyana.

  “I know a little,” she replied. “Enough to be able to throw him off your scent for a while, but I’m not powerful enough to hold him off for good, and that would be if I even had the spells for it.”

  “You actually cast spells,” Amber was taken aback enough to lose her train of thought, “I thought that was just myth.”

  “Of course I have spells. Do you want to see the book?”

  Her face lit up with excitement that would have been echoed in Amber’s own expression, had her best friend not just been captured by an omnipotent monster.

  Lyana led Amber upstairs and around to a closet door, with Matt following closely on their tail. The door opened to reveal another staircase, the top of which was barely visible through the lack of light. Lyana gestured for Amber to go in front of her up the stairs. Amber was a little uncertain of having her back to a witch; she still wasn’t sure how she felt towards her, but Amber knew that if Matt trusted her, then she could too.

  She stumbled up the dark stairway blindly, the banister her only guide in the darkness, and almost fell through an old oak door at the top. The room she found herself in looked entirely out of place with Lyana’s contemporary style. The floor and walls were panelled with the same dark wood the door had been made out of, with shelves full of jars and odd instruments protruding at regular intervals. There were only two windows at opposite ends of the room from each other; both of them were made with blood red stained glass, causing the sunlight to take on a ruby colour as it filtered through to the floor. In the centre of the room stood a podium, highlighted by a pillar of light that originated from an old chandelier, the candles on which lit as Amber looked at them. On the podium, there lay a book that looked like it belonged in a museum or buried with some ancient king. Its pages were crumpled and torn, with stains splattered across the deep emerald cover.

  “What do you think?” Lyana suddenly appeared behind Amber. She wasn’t sure what to say; the room surrounding her looked like a scene from a Halloween movie or a Shakespearian play. It just didn’t belong in this clean, modern house. Lyana laughed, “I guess it’s a lot to take in.”

  “Yeah,” Amber agreed.

  “Let me show you,” she grabbed her hand, and Amber saw Matt tensing for her reaction as she spun her around the room. “This is where I make potions,” Lyana waved her hand and a sheet flew up in the air, revealing a large cauldron. “And this is where I keep the ingredients,” she took Amber over to a shelf packed with jars containing various plants and creatures. “And this,” Lyana pulled her into the centre of the room to stand beside the lectern. “This is the book containing every spell I know.”

  Amber stared at the worn out book again, realising the power that was held within it’s battered pages.

  “Any questions?” Lyana asked.

  “No wands?” said Amber.

  Lyana laughed, “Wands are just a toy to keep kids entertained, no who would have thought anyone would take them seriously.”

  Amber almost laughed too. Matt seemed to relax at her non-panicky, if depressed, line of thought, and came to join them at the edge of the light pillar.

  “So, there’s something in that book that might help us?” Amber asked.

  “This book has been passed down through generations of my family. If this Voice is as old as you think he is, we have to hope that someone has run into him before.”

  “And if they haven’t?”

  Lyana paused for an almost unnoticeable moment of hesitation, “Then I’ll try to come up with something.”

  Amber couldn’t understand why Lyana was so willing to help, especially when helping them could easily get her killed. She didn’t see any reason for her to risk so much for people who, according to Matt, she had only known for a few weeks.

  “Can I have your ring for a moment please?” Lyana asked abruptly.

  Amber looked at Matt, who nodded reassuringly. She reluctantly handed over the twisted gold ring; it was the first time it had left Amber’s finger since Matt had given it to her, and Amber experienced an unpleasant sensation that made her feel naked as it left her hand. Lyana muttered some words in a strange tonggue whilst waving her hand over the ring in complicated motions, and Amber watched in amazement as a golden glow emanated from the tips of her fingers and spread like a stream around the ring in her palm. When she was done she tipped the ring back into Amber’s open hand, and she noticed how it sparkled even brighter than when it had been new.

  “What did you do?” she asked.

  “The cloaking charm I put on it needed renewing,” Lyana said simply, like what she had just done was no more extraordinary than washing dishes or laying a table.

  “Thank you,” Matt said sincerely. Amber could tell he trusted Lyana completely, and wondered how she had earned that trust. “Is there anything I can do to help while I’m here?”

  “Actually yes, there is. I’m running low on Kongamato teeth and you know what it’s like for me at the market. It’s just not safe any more.”

  “You want me to pick some up?” Matt offered.

  “If you could.”

  “Sure, I’ll go now. Is it okay if Amber stays here? It’s a lot safer than her house at the moment.”

  “Yeah, no problem,” she smiled warmly.

  Matt took Amber to one side quickly. “I’m going to go and pick up this potion ingredient for Lyana, and then I’ll be straight back,” he promised.

  “But she said it wasn’t safe,” Amber protested.

  “She meant for her, the magical world still has a very chauvinistic view towards women. I’ll be perfectly safe, don’t worry.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes. Now promise me you won’t do anything stupid,” Matt said.

  “I promise,” Amber sighed and he was gone, leaving a slight breeze behind him. She perched on an old stool and watched as Lyana busied herself with the spell book.

  “So, you don’t need to use a wand then?” Amber asked to fill the silence.

  “No. It’s like, you know the way you give a baby a rattle? Well, a wand is kind of like a rattle for children of magic.”

  “So you were born like this?” asked Amber.

  “Yes, I was born with my powers,” Lyana said.

  “So where are your parents?”

  “They died.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry,” said Amber.

>   “No, it’s fine,” Lyana smiled. “They’ve been gone a long time, I’m used to it.”

  “When did they die?”

  “My dad died when I was fifteen. He was human.”

  “Oh, so your mum was-“

  “A sorceress, yes,” Lyana said. “I never knew her, she left when I was three. She might still be out there, but I’ve never tried looking for her.”

  “Why not?” asked Amber.

  “I figured, if she wanted to talk to me, she would have gotten in touch years ago. Or she would never have left.”

  “But, if you never knew your mother, how did you learn all this magic?” Amber asked.

  “I found this book under the bed in my dad’s room one day. I read from it, as a joke, you know-nearly ended up setting the house on fire. When I confronted my father, he told me about what my mother had been. I found that, after a few failed attempts, I was able to do some of the spells in the book. The rest came with time.”

  “Is that why you chose to help people, because all your family is gone?”

  “No,” Lyana said. “That wasn’t the reason.”

  “Then what was?” asked Amber. Lyana had been very open with her answers, until now when she dodged the question persistently, which of course made Amber want to know the answer even more.

  “What got you into helping people?” she asked again.

  Lyana sighed. “I fell in love. And I ended up getting my heart broken.”

  Oh, I’m sorry Lyana, I didn’t-“

  “It’s fine,” she turned her back to Amber and walked over to a shelf full of books. “Besides, it was decades ago,” she said.

  “Decades?” asked Amber. “How old are you?” Her question came out much more bluntly than had been intended. “Sorry, I just meant…well you don’t look like you could be more than twenty years old.”

  “You flatter me, Amber. Didn’t Matthew tell you?” Lyana asked.

  Amber shook her head.

  “Oh, well maybe we should wait until he gets back to answer that question.”

  “Lyana, when were you born?” Amber asked.

  The tall, elegant girl sighed again.

  “I was born on November sixth, seventeen fifty-three.”

  “Seventeen fifty-three? So you’re like-“ Amber did some quick mental maths- “Two-hundred-and-fifty years old?”

  “As a rough ball park, yes,” said Lyana. She smiled, but looked sad at the same time.

  “Wow,” said Amber. “That’s just…wow.”

  “Are you ok? You’re not freaked out?” Lyana asked.

  “I’m freaked out, sure, but I’m getting quite good at dealing with freaky things that would have freaked me before.”

  “Yes, you do seem to be handling things rather well,” Lyana noted.

  “It was hard at first, but I’m handling it now,” said Amber. “I just wish there were more I could do to help.”

  “Like what?” asked Lyana.

  “Well, look at you, you have all these magic powers, and Matt is all super strong and fast and all, and I’m just…human.”

  “Being human’s not a bad thing Amber.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Yes,” said Lyana. “I am right. Maybe some day I’ll show you how it feels to not be quite so human.”

  “How?” asked Amber.

  “I’m a witch, I’m pretty sure I can find a way.”

  “So, can you just invent spells for anything?” Amber asked.

  “It’s complicated,” said Lyana.

  “And that means?”

  “Firstly, it depends on what you want the spell to do. If it’s something simple, like turning tea into coffee or changing the colour of some flowers-” Amber remembered the bunch of pink daisies in the hallway- “then I can usually do it just by picturing in my head what I want to happen. If it’s something complicated, like dealing with a monster with unknown capabilities, then I could use as much guidance as possible-hence the book.”

  “So, do you…have a broomstick?”

  “A broomstick?” Lyana turned around and gave Amber a look that made her feel like a complete idiot. “I like to travel in style…that’s why I tend to go for a carpet instead.”

  “A carpet?”

  “Yeah you know, like a magic carpet,” said Lyana casually, still flicking through the old crispy pages.

  “A magic carpet?” Amber asked incredulously.

  “Absolutely, they’re like the sports car of the whole flying household furniture genre,” Lyana spun around and Amber could see that she was trying not to laugh.

  “You’re not serious, are you?”

  “Not in the slightest,” she burst out in tinkling laughter, like tiny forks on crystal glasses. “Sorceresses don’t fly Amber. If we did, there wouldn’t be a shiny yellow Elise parked in the garage downstairs.

  “Oh,” Amber smiled.

  Lyana went back to flipping through her book but stopped almost immediately, resting her palms on either side of the lectern.

  “I’ve found it,” she muttered, already beginning to read the ancient symbols. “This is bad,” she murmured, “this is very bad. You need to get Matthew, now.”

  “How?” Amber asked, panicked by Lyana’s sudden transition from joking to panic.

  “He told me you can summon him, you just have to think of him and he’ll come.”

  Amber focused on Matt and pictured his face in her head, Matthew, she thought, Matthew get back here now. For a split second, she wasn’t sure if it had worked, but then she felt the gust of air as Matt whooshed past her into the room.

  “What is it?” he asked, immediately picking up on the tense atmosphere around him.

  “I found him,” Lyana said morosely, “Turns out one of my ancestors did run into this voice, around the twelfth century-“

  “Twelfth century?” Matt echoed dryly, sitting down as the impact of what they were up against hit him. Even though most of Lyana’s words flew straight over Amber’s head, she felt how Matt worried, as though spending so much time together had attuned her to the same wavelength as him.

  “There’s not much here; it looks like someone’s torn out some of the pages…”

  “But you will be able to come up with a solution for this, right?” Matt asked forcefully.

  “I don’t know, it’s not much to go on.”

  “What do you mean not much?” Matt was shouting, and Amber could feel his anger at Lyana’s vagueness pulsing through her, barely controllable.

  “Don’t yell at me like that!” Lyana raised her voice in defence, “I could have turned my back when you came to me asking for help, but I listened to what you had to stay and I did what I could.” Lyana’s beautiful features contorted with rage, and her liquid blue eyes turned to ice.

  “Well, when I came to you I thought you might be able to help me,” Matthew yelled back. Amber felt every word he said as it left his mouth, feeling the anger burning her deep in the pit of her stomach.

  “I have helped you Matthew,” Lyana seethed through her teeth, “and don’t you forget it.” Lyana stepped up to Matthew and wind began howling around the room; the candles in the chandelier went out, plunging the room into darkness

  “Wait,” Amber stepped in between them. Though she was sure Matt could hold his own in a fight against Lyana, she didn’t think it was a good idea to test her theory. “You shouldn’t be fighting each other; you should be fighting that…thing.”

  “You’re right,” said Matt, sighing and going to sit in an armchair in the corner of the room.

  Lyana exhaled noisily, clearly offended by Matthew’s doubt of her power. Amber felt secretly pleased with herself-her, the human with nothing extraordinary about her, acting as peacekeeper between a Daemon and a Sorceress. Maybe being human wasn’t so bad after all.

  Matt threw himself onto an old, patched up armchair and beckoned Amber over beside him.

  “So what now?” he asked.

  Lyana forgave Matthew quickly, and t
hey got into animated discussions about magical things Amber didn’t understand. At first it was interesting to hear about all the creatures and spells Lyana had in mind, but as the hours wore on and the day turned to night, she began to bore of listening to conversations she couldn’t understand. She hadn’t gotten much sleep over the past week for fear of The Voice, or worry of what Matt was up to, and with nothing to keep her awake now, Amber felt her eyelids droop and her head lean to one side as all those sleepless nights caught up on her.

  Next thing she knew, Amber was lying in her own bed in her own room, with the covers wrapped around her, still in her jeans and t-shirt. It took her a moment to take in her surroundings: it was still dark outside, and the moon shone through the open window. Someone coughed quietly, and Amber rolled over to see Matt, smiling at her bewildered expression from the other side of the room.

  “What time is it?” she croaked.

  “Two-thirty,” Matt replied without needing to look at the clock on the desk.

  “Did you carry me home?” Amber asked.

  “I thought you’d prefer it to sleeping at Lyana’s, plus I thought your mother would wonder where you were if she woke up and you were missing.”

  Amber felt sick with herself-how could she have fallen asleep when Will was probably being tortured by The Voice or one of his followers. And she had been lying, warm and cosy in her bed.

  “We have to get back out there,” she said. “Will could be hurt-“

  “You’re not going anywhere until you get some rest.” Matt put a firm hand down on her shoulder and pushed her back down onto the pillows.

  “But-“

  “I’m supposed to be protecting you Amber, what good would I be doing if I let you run off now to fight some creature that even I couldn’t beat?”

  “Will sacrificed himself so that I-“

  “So that you could what?” asked Matt. “Get yourself killed performing some martyrdonic task?”

  “Would you let me finish a sentence?” Amber yelled, then remembered her sleeping mum and continued in violent whispers. “I can’t just let him die Matt, I love him!”

  Matt’s expression froze like a mask.

  “If that’s the way you feel, then I will of course help you. But only if you go back to sleep,” he said stiffly.

  Amber nodded, not because she was tired, or felt resigned, but because of the tone voice Matt had spoken in.

  Somewhere far, far away, at that same moment, a flame-haired, black-eyed girl screamed in agony as she was punished for the mistake she had made.

  At the same time, Will called out one name…