Dark Light

by Nicola Fulford

  Chapter 11

  “Amber.”

  It was well into the night when Amber woke up thinking she’d heard someone calling her name. The night was cold and windy, with icy branches blowing into the windows. Amber opened her eyes and looked around in the semi-darkness. Matt was gone. The room was empty.

  Normally, she would have rolled over and gone back to sleep, deciding it must have been the wind she had heard. But not tonight. Whether because she was getting so used to the supernatural that she was developing a sixth sense for it, or simply because she was becoming paranoid, Amber was almost certain that there was something else out there. Something dangerous.

  She pulled the covers off her and was met by a wave of ice-cold air. Stopping for a moment to curse inwardly the British weather, Amber crept stealthily across the room to the door, and then stood very still.

  It was silent, eerily so. The only noise she could hear was her own breathing. She wondered where Matt had gotten too, and it was that thought that made her hand tighten on the doorknob and gave her the strength to step out towards the unknown.

  Matthew Pryer was in love. He had tried to tell himself he was wrong, that it wasn’t possible, but he had been lying to himself. And now the girl he loved, was in love with someone else.

  Matt wasn’t sure what had made him fall for this girl; whether it was the way her copper hair fell perfectly down her back, or how her dark eyes lit up when she remembered something funny, or how she had never run when she found out what he really was.

  It was this girl that he had spent all of his day with, planning ways to save the boy she loved. The boy Matt couldn’t help but hate.

  And now he’d gone and promised that he would risk his life trying to save this boy, because she had asked him to, and Matt would do anything to make this girl happy.

  He had left her a few hours ago. It had hurt to do it, but she would be safe now Lyana had given her the charmed necklace, and if she wanted her friend-or boyfriend, as she had corrected Matt earlier-to be saved, then he would have to leave her, for now at least.

  So, when she was fast asleep, Matt had left Amber’s house to return to the sorceress’, Lyana’s.

  “You took your time,” she said when he knocked on the door.

  “She was upset, she really loves this Will guy.”

  “You are incredibly transparent,” said Lyana while she opened the closet-like door that led to the staircase to the attic.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Matt asked.

  “Seriously?” Lyana’s silky black hair whipped around as she turned halfway up the staircase to look at Matt, who arranged his features into an expression of mild interest. “Fine, pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.” Lyana turned her back to Matt and continued to walk up towards the attic.

  “See the thing is Lyana, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Matt said this just as Lyana reached the top step and walked through the door, which she had opened magically a few moments earlier. She turned to look at him as he followed her into the attic-room that was the hiding place for all of her magical implements and spell books. Matt went straight over to an old armchair and sat down. Lyana sat opposite him.

  “Ok, this whole ignorance is bliss thing was cute at first, but now it’s just annoying me, so you can stop your little act and just come clean,” she said.

  “About what?” Matt put on a bewildered smile that would have pleased a professional actor.

  “Enough of the games Matt. Either tell me, or I’ll slip a truth potion into your next batch of blueberry muffins.”

  “Fine,” he sighed. “I love her.”

  “Mm-hmm,” Lyana said, satisfied. “I just have one question.”

  “Shoot,” he said.

  “When were you planning on telling me?”

  “Ly, I only just realized myself,” said Matt.

  “Ouch, sorry thought you’d have cottoned on a bit sooner than that. Guess that’s what you get when you give people like yourself credit.”

  “People like myself?” he asked.

  “Yeah, you know-the newbies,” said Lyana.

  “Newbies? Yeah, sorry I know it must be so hard to hang around those of us who weren’t around at the turn of the century.”

  “How dare you,” she said. “It was the century before that.” Lyana laughed her girlish laugh, and Matt realized he felt better now that he had someone to talk to about Amber.

  “So Ly, you’ve been in love before, how did you get over it when it went wrong?”

  “Love sucks,” Lyana said, “No matter what you do, someone always gets hurt. At least if you put yourself out there, you know you did everything you could to stop that person being you.”

  “That was deep Ly,” said Matt.

  “Of course it was deep, it was me-ah!” Lyana screamed, one long piercing, bloodcurdling scream that filled the room and seemed to suck all the air out of it. She fell to her knees on the ground, clutching her hands to her head. She was still screaming.

  “Lyana!” Matt jumped off the seat to kneel next to her. “Lyana, what is it?”

  She just shook her head, tears falling off her long, black eyelashes.

  “Lyana, you have to tell me! If you tell me I might be able to help,” Matt tried to calm the wailing girl as she rocked back and forth on the ground, hands covering ears, and screaming the whole time.

  “Lyana, what is it?” Matt held her by her shoulders to stop her rocking. Her long-fingered hands were clenched tightly into her hair, and her face was hidden in her knees. She had stopped screaming, but now Lyana was sobbing, short dry sobs, as though there was not enough air in her lungs to shriek out again.

  “Lyana, please,” Matt’s voice broke as he tried to help the tortured girl.

  “The Voice!” she wailed. “It’s in my head! It’s going for Amber!”

  That was when Matthew’s world froze.

  Amber had stepped from her bedroom to the hall, she knew she had. So where was the hallway? Why, instead of yellow wallpaper and wooden banisters, was there just a blank whiteness before her?

  Maybe I’m still asleep and this is just a dream, she thought. But no, she realized, because you never think about dreaming when you’re actually in a dream.

  So where was she? The more time she spent here, the more time Amber felt like she’d been here before, but that was impossible; she would certainly remember a place like this, had she been to it.

  Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something. She spun around; terrified at what could be sharing this place she was in with her. There was nothing there but white-a blank canvas. Amber sighed to herself, deciding it was probably just a lock of hair that had caught the light in a strange way.

  Amber took a few steps forward warily; she knew this would be just the sort of trap The Voice would use, and she did not want to be in an unknown dimension with this creature she both feared and detested.

  There it was again-the thing in the corner of her eye. She spun lightening-fast to catch the culprit, but there was nothing and no one to catch. Amber shook herself mentally, told herself it was her hair again, and also made a note that she would get a haircut if she ever got out of here.

  She took another step forwards.

  “Amber,” a voice whispered. The same voice that had called her here in the first place.

  “Who’s there?” she called, spinning round continuously, unable to shake the thought that someone was standing, right behind her, just out of sight.

  “Amber,” the voice called again. It was louder, closer.

  “Who’s there?” Amber called once more, stronger than the first time.

  “You know me Amber,” the voice laughed is it spoke. “Over here,” it whispered. “Here,” from the other direction. “Over here.” The words were spoken from behind Amber, and when she spun this time she did not encounter only blankness.

  For just a split second, Amber saw a dark, towering
figure, like that of a man. But Amber knew this was no man. Then it vanished

  “Amber,” the bodiless voice called again.

  She turned around, and this time the figure was closer, perhaps a few meters away, and Amber could see it in more detail. He-it was a he-was tall and muscular, wearing a black cloak that seemed to be made of the very particles of air around him. His face looked like a human’s would be after being caught in a house fire: red, blistering, disfigured. Amber noticed he creature had curly blonde hair, just like Will’s; it made her feel nauseated.

  Then the figure was gone.

  She looked from side to side, chest heaving, for where it would reappear. Again, she saw nothing.

  “Over here,” the voice echoed around the empty space.

  Amber turned towards the sound-

  “No, here.”

  She span again, and nothing.

  “Behind you.”

  Amber froze as the cool breath of the creature fell against the back of her neck. She turned, slowly this time for she was fearful of what she would encounter. She was very conscious of her heart pumping hard and heavy in her chest, each beat like that of a death drum sounding in her ear.

  And there it was, the thing she dreaded most. Matt had been right-the girl who had taken Will had not been The Voice; this thing that stood mere inches from Amber, this was The Voice.

  He stood there for an immeasurable length of time, sizing her up, head tilting slowly from side to side, black, pit-like eyes locking in on Amber’s own dark obsidian.

  His eyes were that of a predator, and strangely Amber found herself thinking of an old adventure movie she’d watched a while ago. The two main characters came up against a bear, and they escaped by making themselves look big and threatening. Amber drew herself up and tried to look threatening, instead of just threatened.

  The creature laughed, a harsh, hollow laugh that filled the expanse of blank space.

  And then he crouched, a crouch like that of a lion seeking its prey, and Amber knew there was nowhere to run, that it was all about to end. She closed her eyes and thought of Will.

  Matthew Pryer was running faster than he had ever run before. Lyana had once told him he was like a cheetah on steroids, and he knew he was going at least double any speed he’d gone before.

  He just hoped that it would be enough.

  The attack on Lyana had stopped as quickly as it had started. She had been screaming, pulling at her long black hair, crying out to Matt-at one point she had asked him to kill her, just to make the pain go away. And then she was still. As soon as he had made sure she was alright, Matt had left. He felt ashamed of himself for leaving Lyana alone in such a state, after what was clearly a traumatic experience for her, but his whole being had felt like it was being pulled towards Amber the moment she had told him she was in trouble.

  “Go,” Lyana had choked out the moment she could speak. She had been busy fiddling with some sort of crystal and a map, trying to track down Amber, Matt presumed.

  So Matt had run out the door, and hadn’t stopped running since. His muscles were aching, and it felt as though fifty-ton weights were attached to his feet, the amount of effort he had to use to lift them. But he made it to Amber’s street, and then to her front door, to the foot of her staircase. He pushed himself up the stairs, zooming with the force of a tornado, up to the top, to where Amber was.

  Amber opened her eyes. The blow she had been waiting for had not come. The creature was nowhere to be seen. But another person had joined her in the white expanse.

  Will.

  He looked pale and drained, and that was after just one day of captivity. His blonde hair looked deadened on his head, and his leaf green eyes had lost their sparkle.

  But he was alive!

  Amber had spent the whole day plotting with Lyana and Matt, trying to figure out how they could save him, and all that time she had been trying to stifle the thoughts that said there was nothing there to save.

  But here he stood, in front of her eyes, a sight Amber thought she might never see again.

  And all she could do was stare. Will watched her watching him, and smiled.

  That was all it took to break silence.

  Amber half-laughed, half-sobbed and ran over to him. They kissed again and again, and then Will just held her in his arms.

  “How do I know you’re real?” Amber asked.

  “I could say the same to you,” he replied.

  “No but seriously,” Amber took a step back, “How do I know you aren’t just another trick that Voice thing is playing on me?”

  Will sighed and smiled his usual, warm friendly smile.

  “You are Amber Chloe Wells, from Polegate, Luton. You are fifteen years old and love jam sandwiches. You get annoyed when people say things to deliberately hurt someone, and when people tell needless lies. Your favorite feature is your auburn hair because it looks bronze in the sun, and your least favorite feature are your black eyes because you think they’re so dark that they look shallow or scary, although I think they’re beautiful as they remind me of a starry night sky.”

  “Ok, you are Will,” Amber said. “And seen as you’re here,” Amber inhaled a deep breath and then said without pausing, “Why the hell did you jump in front of that demon thing? I opened my eyes and saw you sailing towards me, and then there was a bright flash and then you were gone! And it was all my fault because she was after me! Do you know how I felt?”

  Will tried to answer but Amber held up a hand to silence him.

  “Don’t reply, it’s meant to be a rhetorical question,” she said, then continued shouting. “I cried my eyes out because of you! Why couldn’t you have just stood there like a normal person and let her take me and kept yourself safe? Because you’re an idiot that’s why! From now on you are forbidden from saving me if it in any was endangers your life or the life of someone else’s-understand?” Amber glared at Will, who looked slightly lost and bewildered.

  “I couldn’t let her take you,” he said. “I stood up and there she was, flying towards you, and all I could think was no. And it seemed like there was nothing I could do, and then I realised there was, and I did it. I’m sorry that you were upset, I truly am, but at the end of the day I’d much rather it was me in here than you…because I love you Amber Wells,” Will finished his speech slowly, and looked at Amber, who stared back. Will had never told her he loved her, though Amber had cried out how she felt about him after he was taken by the demon girl.

  “I love you too,” she said. “Nothing will ever change that.”

  “Do you mean that?” Will asked.

  “I do.”

  Amber reached up and kissed him again, and though she was trapped with what seemed like no hope of escape, though she knew she should feel like her world was ending right now, she felt it was only just beginning.

  Matt shouted out in frustration. He could sense Amber; he knew he should be standing right in front of him. But she isn’t here, he thought angrily. He was so close to her now, and yet it was like there was some sort of barrier between them, separating them.

  Amber, he called out mentally, Amber Wells. It’s Matt, where are you? I know you’re here, talk to me Amber.

  Whatever answer he received had been distorted like static on a television screen. He could only sense that the general feeling of the thought had been panic and desperation, but in some ways that was good; they were strong emotions, which meant it would make it easier for Matt to use them to get to Amber. To save her-he had to save her.

  He caught another panicked thought.

  Amber’s moment of happiness had ended.

  She had been standing, wrapped in Will’s arms, content, then she heard someone calling from behind her, quietly at first, but then louder, more urgently.

  She had stepped away from Will, just for a moment, to look around; she had thought it was The Voice returning to taunt her further. But there had been nothing there but he empty whiteness.

  “Did
you hear voices a second ago?” she had asked.

  When she didn’t hear a reply she had turned around to see what Will was doing, and had found he was-gone.

  She span around in circles, trying to find him, hoping maybe she’d missed him, that he was standing just behind her.

  “Will,” she cried. “Will!”

  No response.

  Amber felt as though her world was ending-she had lost him once, she couldn’t lose him again. It wasn’t fair.

  She ran one way and another, hoping…hoping for something.

  But it was no good. She was alone again.

  The she heard the whispering again.

  It would have-should have-scared her, hearing this bodiless voice calling to her, but some part of her brain told her she didn’t have to be afraid. She listened hard, and somehow managed to decipher part of what was being said through the haze of blank noise. Matt, where…I know…talk…Amber, was all she could make out, but she guessed that Matt was here to save her. But she didn’t care, because he couldn’t save Will.

  “Will,” she whispered to herself.

  “Amber.”

  Amber’s heart skipped a beat. Not because Will had been returned to her, or because Matt had come to her rescue. Her heart had faltered because of the low, rasping voice that had wrapped itself around her name.

  She was not alone any more, though now she wished she were.

  Matt had been pacing back and forth in the hall for the past minute. He was actually surprised he hadn’t woken Amber’s mother up with all his shouting and cursing-he supposed Lyana must have thought to put a sleep easy spell on her. But now he froze.

  Before he had sensed that there was someone with Amber, but that presence seemed to have changed somehow, and now he could sense waves of terror coming from her, so strong that it was actually painful for Matt.

  Alright, he thought to himself. Think Matt, we presume that it is The Voice that is with Amber now because of the strength of the barricade against us For some reason he was thinking to himself in plural. We know that Amber is terrified, which means that I should be able to get to her, but it seems like The Voice has stopped me from reaching her that way either. There must be some way of helping her…

  And then suddenly, there he was, at Amber’s side-standing opposite the entity that he assumed was what they had been calling The Voice.

  Matt didn’t scare easy, but this creature was unlike any he had ever seen. With its hollow eyes and pale, chalky complexion, he seemed to come from the very air around him. The creature turned to face him.

  “Hello Matthew.”

  “You know my name,” Matt said, standing protectively in front of Amber, who looked about ready to pass out.

  “I think it’s only fair, seen as I created you,” the creature hissed.

  “If we’re talking about fairness, then how about you tell me your name?” Matt asked boldly, keeping his stance by Amber.

  “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” the creature rasped.

  “Yeah well,” said Matt. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you, but you don’t look much like a rose.”

  “Tut, tut now Matt, don’t be rude. If a fight is what you want, then a fight you shall get.”

  Matt doubled up on his defensive stance and glared defiantly at the man-like demon, but that was about all he could do; he had expended all his energy trying to reach Amber, and now there was none left to fight for her. They were both going to die.

  All this time Amber had stayed silent. She had barely taken in what was being said; she thought her brain was so overloaded already that she would collapse if she took in anything else. But now she was stretched to breaking point. Will was gone, Matt was about to die for her, and then she would die also. A single, hot tear ran down her cheek and fell to the ground.

  The next moment, the whiteness around her dissolved into a blinding bright light, like the one after the demon girl had stolen Will. Then, next thing she knew, Matt was grabbing hold of her hand as the world span around them. She just caught sight of the creature’s black eyes, full of fury, before the whole world faded away, and she found herself being catapulted towards the hard ground of her hallway. She slammed down, face first, with a heavy thud, and heard the adjoining thud that meant Matt had landed beside her.

  “Are you alright?” he asked, his voice muffled by the carpet.

  “Yes thanks,” Amber said. She was so relieved to be alive that she wanted to jump up in the air, but her grief for Will kept her down on the ground, lying on the carpet.

  It was, however, Amber who was first to get to her feet, which was odd because Matt was always quicker than her because of his swift reflexes and fast movements. But now as Amber stood over him, Matt continued to lie unmoving on the floor.

  “Okay Matt, you can get up now,” Amber said. “We should probably go and check on Lyana, or at least catch her up on the news. Oh, you didn’t know did you? I saw Will, he’s still alive! So I think we should definitely go to Lyana, I mean The Voice took the Will away, but if we escaped that place, maybe there’s a way to get him out?” She finished and looked down at Matt, who still hadn’t moved. “Come on lazy bones, up you get.”

  She nudged him with her foot, but he didn’t move. It was when she bent down to offer him a hand that Amber noticed Matt was barely breathing, and that he was extremely pale.

  “Matt?” she said. “Matt, talk to me.”

  He didn’t reply.

  “Matt you need to wake up,” she repeated, shaking him slightly this time.

  Still, he lay still.

  Amber didn’t know much about mythical creatures, but from all the medical dramas she’d watched over the years, she thought Matt might be going into a coma, if it was possible for a Daemon to loose consciousness like that.

  Luckily, Lyana had given Amber her phone number, so that if she ever needed to reach her she could. She ran to the bedside table and picked up her mobile.

  Lyana Boleyn had been sitting at the table in her large, darkened attic-room for what seemed like hours. Matthew had left to save Amber, and she hadn’t heard from either of them since. She had been trying to track them down, but wasn’t having any luck; for some reason she didn’t seem to be able to trace Matt, and didn’t dare try to trace Amber incase The Voice noticed what she was doing and launched another one of his physic attacks-that would no be good.

  And so Lyana had been forced to wait. In almost three hundred years, she had not learnt how to be patient; it just wasn’t a skill she had. And being forced to be patient wasn’t helping her to obtain that skill.

  She had been sitting with the phone in her hand, her thumb on the answer button, just waiting for a call. When it finally did ring, it took a split second for her to get the phone to her ear and start talking.

  “Hello?” she said.

  “Lyana?” Amber’s voice came through the microphone. “Lyana, it’s me, Amber. I’m fine, we’re both out but Matt…”

  “What is it?” Lyana asked.

  “I don’t really know. One minute we were standing in this weird place with The Voice-I think he must have taken up to another dimension! But we were there, and then the next second everything was spinning and then we were back home, but Matt hasn’t moved since and he’s really pale and he’s barely breathing and I can’t loose him, not as well as Will. Oh, and I saw Will, he was-“

  “Wait,” Lyana cut her off. “What do you mean you saw Will?”

  “He was there, in the place The Voice took me to! And then he disappeared just as Matt showed up.”

  “Did Matt look ill when he got to you?” asked Lyana.

  “I don’t know, I didn’t see. Lyana, is it possible that he could go into a coma?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, he still hasn’t moved, and it’s like he’s in a really deep sleep that I can’t get him to wake up from. Is it possible for someone like him to black out?”

  “I don�
��t know,” said Lyana. “I’ve never heard of anything like it. Do you think you could get him to my house? I would come to you but I need all the stuff in the attic.”

  “I don’t know Lyana, how am I meant to get there?”

  “I’ll send a taxi,” she said.

  “But how will I get him into the taxi. I don’t even know where you live. Is it even safe to leave the house with The Voice out there?” Amber bombarded Lyana with questions.

  “Okay Amber,” she said. “Breathe. If I concentrate I should be able to put a feather-light charm on him so you can lift him easily and get him to the taxi. I live on Horseman Avenue; you’ll recognize the house once you get there. I really don’t think you will be in danger if you leave the house because I don’t think The Voice will have enough strength left to do anything tonight, and I wouldn’t say that unless I was one hundred percent sure. So I’m going to go and call you a taxi, and you can get Matthew to the front door, is that alright with you?”

  “Yes,” Amber replied. “Thank you.”

  “It’s alright, I’ll see you in half an hour.”

  “Bye,” said Amber.

  Lyana snapped the phone shut and sighed a deep sigh of relief. Matt was alive, for now at least, and Amber was fit and healthy. Something about their conversation nagged on Lyana’s mind, but she was too happy to bother pinpointing it. She supposed she would figure it out later.

  Amber was having a really bad day. First, her boyfriend had been kidnapped by some scary demon girl, then she had spent the rest of her day sitting in a stranger’s house, and then when she went home, she had been tricked into entering some other dimension, where her nerves had been stretched to the max firstly, as Will had been literally torn away from her just after telling her he loved her, and then thinking she was going to die, which is never a good thing. And now she was hauling the unconscious body down a flight of stairs whilst trying to avoid banging into the walls or making any form of noise that would wake her mother. Either Lyana’s ‘feather-light charm’ hadn’t worked, or she hadn’t gotten round to it yet, because Matt was definitely as heavy as ever.

  It took a lot of will power not to just let him slide down the last few steps, but Amber made it to the front door with Matt just about in one piece. She had thought she would get to rest then, but it was literally the moment that Amber leant her arm on the wall that the taxi pulled up outside, and she was moving again.

  Amber wasn’t quite sure what the taxi driver would make of her, hauling an unconscious boy down the path towards the car. But the driver didn’t say a word as she lifted Matt into the seat and buckled his seatbelt-this of course was for show; if the car crashed, Matt would do more damage to whatever he banged into than it would do to him.

  Amber hadn’t even had time to think of Will properly, she had been so busy concentrating on sorting out Matt, who was looking paler still and who’s chest was barely rising with his breathing. Then, as the taxi drove away, Amber found herself with a good twenty minutes of free time, during which she could think of Will all she liked.

  Thinking about him made her sad, but it was a good sad, because every tear she shed reminded Amber that there was still hope, and that all was not lost. The fact that The Voice had kept Will alive for the whole day was comforting as it was, and knowing that she had seen him today, and that he had seen her, was all it took to keep her fighting to save him.

  When the taxi reached Horseman Avenue, Amber had to give directions on how to reach Lyana’s house. She felt safer now than when they had set out; going a whole journey, exposed to whatever creature might be out there and experiencing nothing was comforting. It made her feel normal.

  She got out of the taxi and paid the driver, who grunted thanks. Amber then returned to Matt, who was still in the back of the cab, his head lolling to one side. Seeing him like this, it was hard for Amber to remember that he was supposed to be the powerful one in their friendship.

  Lyana ran out of the flaking front door to help Amber carry him. Now Lyana put the feather-light charm on Matt, which decreased their workload significantly, though they still had to pretend to be carrying a fairly heavy load for the benefit of the driver. As soon as they shut the front door of Lyana’s light-filled house however, they dropped the pretence and Amber allowed Lyana to float the lifeless Matt up the stairs to her attic-room. Amber never ceased to be amazed by all the wonderful things in this new world she was entering. She figured watching a one hundred and forty pound teenage boy floating up a staircase on a list of top ten things to see in your life was probably about equal with meeting Bugs Bunny at your local supermarket.

  “It looks like exhaustion,” Lyana said as they neared the top of the stairs.

  “I didn’t know people like him could get exhausted,” said Amber.

  “It’s not like when a human gets exhausted and they can just sleep it off. If a Daemon gets exhaustion it’s because they’re so low on power that their whole system shuts down. It’s like when a computer goes into sleep mode. Matt’s body has completely shut down, and we’re going to have to wake it up. Okay,” she said, dropping Matt down on one of the larger chairs in her attic. It was the chair that Matt had said was his favourite just a few hours ago. Amber felt terrible; first Will had sacrificed himself for her, and now it looked like Matt might die too. If Amber had any tears left to cry, she would be sobbing now.

  “What can I do to help?” she asked.

  “Well,” Lyana said. “I guess you could read out what I need to do from the book.”

  “What book?” asked Amber.

  A thick green volume flew off the shelf by the window and came sailing towards Amber, who caught it one-handed.

  “Page?”

  Lyana waved her hand and the book fell open on a page with old-fashioned writing and an illustration of what looked like a man, contorted in pain.

  “Lyana,” Amber said. “What exactly are you planning on doing to him?”

  “Well, I’m hoping, save him,” she said simply.

  “But, this looks like it’s going to hurt.”

  “Yeah, well the world isn’t all sunshine and daisies, and if he’s going to survive, it’s going to hurt.”

  “You know Lyana, you’re very different to what you were like when I first met you,” Amber said.

  Lyana took a deep breath.

  “You’re right,” she said, her voice taking back its usual tone of kindness and sincerity. “I’m sorry, it’s my way of dealing with stress. I really don’t mean to take it out on you. I don’t like watching people get hurt you know-especially if I’m the one doing the hurting. But we have to do this, so are you with me?” the girl with the long flowing black hair and big blue eyes finished sombrely.

  “Of course I am. It’s for Matt.”

  Lyana nodded and set to work, searching her many shelves and cupboards for the ingredients Amber read out from the book.

  “The scale of an Amphisbaena, two spikes of a Chupacabra, a feather from the wing of a Pegasus and…” Amber trailed off as she read the last ingredient.

  “Yes?” Lyana asked.

  “And one drop of blood from the charge-that’s me, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well then,” Amber picked up a silver dagger from Lyana’s desk and held it over the tip of her thumb.

  “Woah woah woah,” Lyana said, grabbing the wrist of the hand that was holding the dagger. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m helping Matt,” Amber said simply.

  Lyana sighed.

  “I keep forgetting how new you are to magic,” she said. “You don’t realize what a powerful bond you’re making by giving your blood-“

  “Lyana, I don’t care,” Amber cut in.

  “But-“

  “No. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to lose someone else today.” Amber looked pleadingly at the sorceress. “Please, we don’t have much time.”

  Lyana released Amber’s wrist. Amber pricked her finger lightly with the da
gger and watched a small drop of blood pool on her fingertip.

  “Is that enough?” she asked.

  “It’s fine,” Lyana said. She looked like she was fighting her better judgment by allowing Amber to do this, but Amber carried on over to the cauldron in the corner and allowed that small, live giving drop fall into the bubbling purple liquid. It hissed and turned a pleasant toffee-colour.

  “What next?” she asked.

  “Next, we try to get him to drink it,” Lyana said grimly, and Amber remembered the illustration of the twisted man.

  Lyana spooned a ladle of the potion into a pewter cup, and handed it to Amber. She could feel the heat of the boiling liquid through the sides of the beaker.

  “If I hold his mouth open, do you think you could…” Lyana left the sentence open ended, but Amber understood the meaning. She was to deliver the dose.

  Amber carefully carried the potion over to where Matt sat, paler than ever. Lyana, in the most graceful way possible, opened his mouth wide enough that Amber would be able to pour it in.

  “He needs to drink the whole glass, or it won’t have a good enough effect,” Lyana said.

  Both girls looked at each other for a moment, then Lyana nodded and Amber started pouring the liquid slowly into Matt’s mouth.

  At first there was no reaction, and Amber was beginning to think that Lyana had messed up with the ingredients. But then Matt groaned, a low groan, like that of someone being woken from a deep sleep.

  “Matt?” Amber asked. “Can you hear me?”

  Matt’s eyelids fluttered open. His brilliant blue eyes were hazy and unfocused as he looked in the direction of Amber’s voice.

  “Amber?” he muttered.

  “Yes, I’m here,” she said.

  “Amber, my love…” Matt’s eyes closed again suddenly, his head slumping back on the cushioned back of the chair.

  Amber looked at Lyana for instruction.

  “Keep feeding him the potion,” she said.

  Lyana stood by her side as Amber continued to pour the liquid into Matt’s mouth, drop by drop.

  A few tense minutes later, his eyes opened again and he lifted his head back up. Matt was acting differently this second time he woke up, staring round the attic-room edgily.

  “Matt?” asked Amber again.

  He tilted his head in her direction quickly.

  “Amber,” he said urgently when he saw her, grasping the wrist of the hand holding the almost empty cup of potion. “I have to tell you something.” Matt kept looking from side to side; making sure no one else was there. He didn’t even seem to see Lyana. “It’s about Will, he’s-“

  Matt didn’t get to finish his sentence. His entire body went rigid, his mouth opening in what looked like a silent scream. His back arched on the chair, and his eyes opened in what Amber saw as an expression of absolute pain. He released Amber’s wrist, which she knew was because he was afraid of hurting her while distracted by this clearly unbearable pain.

  And though she had known that this was coming, Amber found she could not bare to watch anyone go through what Matt was going through now. She had to get out.

  “Where’re you going?” Lyana asked when Amber turned her back to the nightmarish scene and headed for the door. It was clear she wanted to leave as much as Amber did, but Lyana had had centuries to gain the strength to stand there and help her friend. Amber couldn’t; she was weak.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t. I just can’t.”

  She opened the heavy oak door and took one look back at Matt, who was pounding on the chair with such force that the stuffing was coming out. She gave on last pleading look at Lyana, who nodded understandingly, and stepped out into the darkened hallway.

  Amber’s heart was thumping, her eyes were stinging with tears, and her head was heavy with all that she had just witnessed.

  Back in that room, her brain had been unable to comprehend anything that was going on, and she had had to rely on reflex and adrenaline to get her through. But now, out in the barely illuminated hall, Amber found she could remember pretty much everything in fairly decent detail.

  First of all, Matt had said something so her about love. She couldn’t quite remember that part, however she figured he had only been half conscious then anyway; he wouldn’t have known what he was talking about.

  Then secondly, and most importantly, he had said something about Will. But he hadn’t finished his sentence. He had started to say something, and then was taken over by the unbearable pain that had forced Amber to leave the wood-panelled room. Matt had made it sound like it was something really urgent too, like it was a matter of life or death.

  Oh god, thought Amber, Will can’t be…

  She refused to even think the word, afraid that even the thought might cause him bad luck.

  Amber sat on the top step of the staircase, her head in her hands and cried. The amount of times she had cried in the past few months amazed her; perhaps this life of danger wasn’t the one best suited to her. But even she knew that these past few months had been the best of her life, no matter what pain had come as the price.

  There was no sound coming from the door behind her. Amber didn’t know if that was because Lyana had sound proofed the door, or because Matt was unconscious again, or because he was in so much pain he wasn’t even able to cry out.

  What seemed like hours later, the door behind Amber opened, and Lyana stood in the doorway smiling.

  “He’s awake,” she said.

  “Properly this time?” asked Amber.

  “Yes. He’ll have to rest for a week or two, but it looks like he’s going to be all right. He wants to see you.”

  Amber jumped up from her seat on the stairs. Now that she knew Matt was going to live, her first priority was to find out what he knew about Will.

  As she walked through into the room that Lyana used for all her magic, Amber realized that there was sun streaming through the ruby-red windows. It must have been about six in the morning, and neither of them had slept all night. But Amber had a sense of purpose, and for now that fuelled her body enough to keep her awake. She also thought Lyana’s coffee would probable taste pretty good. Especially if it came with a fresh load of blueberry muffins.

  “Good morning,” Matt said. He was lying across four large, cushioned chairs, arranged to look somewhat like a bed. He looked pale and exhausted, and had the general look of someone who had been through hell, but he smiled for Amber.

  “How’re you feeling?” she asked.

  “Well,” said Matt. “I’m alive.”

  “Not so good then?”

  “Not really, but hey, I’ll survive.”

  “I think that was the idea,” said Lyana, who stood behind Amber. “I was just thinking of going to make some coffee to wake us all up, what do you think?”

  “Sounds good,” said Amber.

  “Okay. And yes Matt, I will bring up some food,” Lyana smiled her perfect, sparkling smile.

  “Thanks Ly,” he said appreciatively. “For everything.”

  “You are very welcome.”

  Lyana shut the door behind her, leaving Amber alone with Matt in the wooden room. She knelt down beside the improvised bed.

  “I have to ask you something,” she said.

  Matt sat up slightly against the cushions to show he was paying attention.

  “You said something about Will before.” Amber’s heart was pounding again with fear of the answer to what she was about to ask. She told herself she would not care what Matt said to her, so long as Will was alive. “You got…distracted, right before you could finish. What was it you were going to say?”

  “About Will?” Matt’s face was blank, unreadable. “I’m sorry Amber, I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything from leaving this place to go and find you, until waking up back in this room again.”

  “That’s alright,” Amber said.

  “No, it’s not. I can see this is important to you. I should be able
to remember.”

  “Matt, it’s fine. Just try to take it easy. I’m sure it’ll come back to you.”

  Matt leaned back on he cushions again, just as Lyana came through the door with a tray of coffee, muffins, bacon, eggs, and toast. Amber’s stomach growled at the sight of it.