by Sue Tingey
I hoped that was the case, because otherwise we were likely to have a whole load of Sicarii descending on us anytime soon.
Jinx began to mutter and moan again. He was still asleep, but he was getting really agitated, and this time my touch was doing nothing to placate him. He started to shake – and then he went rigid and his eyes snapped open – blank eyes, but not for long. They lit up with an inner glow, not his familiar golden glow within the green but the dark, scarlet shimmer of someone else controlling him.
His lips curled into a nasty sneer. ‘So, what are you going to do now?’ he said. His lips were moving, the vocal cords and mouth were his, but the voice wasn’t.
I stared into Persephone’s eyes and forced a bitchy smile onto my lips. ‘I’m here – you’re not.’
The smile faltered, ever so slightly. ‘He will kill you. I will make him choke the life out of you.’
‘Really?’ I said, getting to my feet. ‘You tried that once before, but as you can see, I’m still here. Oh, and you’re not.’
She glared up at me through his eyes. ‘He’s going to kill you,’ she repeated.
‘No, he isn’t,’ I said, praying to whatever gods might be listening that I was right. ‘If anyone kills me, it will be you. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. So if I die’ – I gave a nonchalant shrug – ‘it won’t be his fault, and he’ll know it in his heart.’
His lips curled into a sneer. ‘I knew you would be weak.’
‘I pretty much guessed you’d be a bitch.’
‘Why he should care so much for …?’ She obviously realised she’d been about to say it out loud and his lips closed into a thin line. Jinx got to his feet and glowered at me. ‘He’s going to bring you to me, and when he does I’m going to make him take you apart, bit by bit. I’ll make his hands do the work, and all the time he will know exactly what he’s doing and he won’t be able to stop himself. Let’s see if your final words to him will be those of forgiveness.’
Bitch. ‘You know what?’
Jinx frowned at me.
‘You’re as boring as you are unpleasant.’ My inner daemon gave a little wriggle, like she was shaping up for a fight, and I hoped that meant she was about to give me a hand. I forced my lips into a feline smile and held my hand out to my Deathbringer. ‘Jinx – tell her to go. You really don’t want her in your head right now.’
His green and golden eyes flamed, as did the ring on my outstretched hand; although I didn’t have time to give that much thought as he strode towards me. She was still inside him. She raised his hand and it drew back in a fist, and I forced myself not to flinch away.
‘Jinx,’ I whispered, raising my other hand as if welcoming him into my arms, really hoping he would still be able to hear me. ‘Jinx—’ And my outstretched hands began to glow with a soft light, bathing the whole of my body in it.
Jinx stopped dead, his eyes growing wide, no doubt mirroring Persephone’s surprise. ‘Anything you can do …’ I said, and the light spread across to Jinx and enveloped him in its radiance.
He snarled and fell to one knee, and when he looked up, she was gone.
‘Lucky I have you,’ he said. ‘You’re a lucky lady.’
I took him by both hands and pulled him to his feet. ‘I am your lucky lady,’ I told him and he stepped into my arms and I hugged him to me.
*
He fell asleep with his head on my shoulder again. I pulled his coat up to cover us and pondered on our dilemma. Jamie had told me that as the Guardian, he policed the interactions between the Under-and Overlands, and that he had been led to me that first time by all the daemonic activity that had suddenly sprung up around me. If this was the case, why weren’t he and his Guardian mates crawling all over this place? Between Persephone and me, we must have caused enough activity for someone to notice.
And Kayla was very conspicuous by her absence. She had told me she could find me anywhere; that she’d always be drawn to me – and yet here we were, and she wasn’t. She might already be dead, but if she could be trapped by the Blue Fire, she could also be encased in one of Amaliel’s phials – and if that happened, I didn’t know if I could get her out again.
Jinx moaned softly in his sleep and snuggled closer. He rested his left hand on my right shoulder and I kissed the top of his head and pulled the coat a bit snugger – and in doing so, I noticed the ring on my finger, gleaming in the light from the fire. There was no gold and red flame in its centre like I’d seen before, and surely if it was likely to catch the light in such a way, it would be now, as we lay bathed in flickering firelight. It was strange.
I studied it for a little longer, then I wondered what the time was. It felt like it must be two or three in the morning, so we had three or four hours before it got light … we should really get on the move again before then, but I had no idea where we should go.
We couldn’t go to our friends for help, as they’d no doubt be surrounded by Guardians, and our forty-eight hours’ grace had definitely run out. We couldn’t go back to the Underlands – mainly because I didn’t know how to get there on my own. No one had ever thought to tell me how it worked, and I wasn’t sure Jinx would remember. I wasn’t even sure he knew who and what he was; he certainly hadn’t recognised his own name. And added to all that was the knowledge he could turn on me at any moment. It was such a bloody mess.
Jinx let out another low moan and began to twitch against me. I stroked his hair and murmured softly to him, ‘Hush now. Everything’s all right.’
It didn’t have the desired effect and I knew this probably meant Persephone was having another go at him.
He sat up with a jerk, his breathing harsh and rapid, as if he’d woken from a bad dream, and sat there panting and staring into space while I stroked his arm, hoping it was having a calming effect.
Then he looked down at me and said, ‘Kayla says to tell you hello—’ and slumped back onto the hay, pressing his fists into his screwed-up eyes.
Fifteen
It was as if every time Persephone entered his head, a little bit more of him was chipped away. For a short time, I’d thought my Jinx had almost come back to me; sadly, judging by the way he was acting since he’d woken, he’d gone again.
She was clearly making him suffer: he shuddered periodically, and kept pressing his hands to his temples. I tried talking to him, but couldn’t get a word from him. If she was doing it to confuse and disorientate him, she was succeeding very nicely.
Why she would do this when her objective was for me to give myself up to her to save Kayla, I had no idea – perhaps it was to punish me?
It was no good; I had little choice now. I would have to find Jamie and try to convince him that Jinx was no risk to the Overlands while he was in our hands. Of course, if he had a nightmare and tried to strangle me again, that would put paid to that argument – and if Jamie or the Guardians didn’t kill him, Shenanigans or Pyrites would.
Part of me wanted to go and find Amaliel and Persephone – the nasty, vengeful part. I wanted to see both of them dragged down to Hell, or wherever the place might be that truly evil people were carted off to. Nothing would have pleased me more than to see the pair of them surrounded by those chattering, slithering dark nasties and being carried off into the nightmarish place where they lived.
But first I badly wanted to kick her shapely derrière.
‘Come on,’ I said, and took Jinx by the arm and pulled him to his feet.
‘Dark,’ he said, hugging himself.
‘Didn’t we agree it was better to travel when it’s dark?’
He didn’t reply, but squeezed his eyes shut and winced.
‘Is she still hurting you?’
He gave the tiniest of nods.
‘Will it be better when it gets light?’
‘Not so easy for her,’ he whispered.
He looked so miserable, and I wished with all my heart that there was something I could do to help him, but any powers I had were for helping the dead … or were they?
I’d freed both Kayla and Jinx from the Blue Fire; maybe I could free him from her control. I felt like I was clutching at straws; surely if I could, I’d have broken her hold over him when I’d released him that first time?
‘Well, it’s worth a try.’ I stood up straight, closed my eyes and concentrated, but my inner daemon remained silent. I focused on Jinx, and imagined surrounding him in golden light. Nothing. I stretched out my hands towards him, praying for a little inspiration.
Still nothing.
It was no good. It had been worth a pop, but now we needed to get moving. But I had no idea where we should go – and did it really matter if we waited until it got light? Then again, maybe once she had connected to him, she could get clues from inside his head, find where we were hiding out?
That spurred me on. ‘Come on. If she finds us here, we’re done for.’
Jinx drew himself up straight, took a deep breath and gave another small nod. He tried to hand me his coat. ‘Cold,’ he said.
‘I have a jacket, and besides’ – I gestured to his body – ‘it’s probably best we keep you covered up as much as possible.
He chuckled; it might have been a small one, but that laugh lifted my spirits. ‘You too,’ he said, and the twinkle in his eyes might not have been quite so bright as it used to be, but there was still a twinkle.
When I looked down, my hands were glowing daemon-rose, and when I tried to make myself change back into my human disguise I just couldn’t do it. ‘We’re not going to get far looking like this,’ I told him.
He pulled on the coat and then took my hand. ‘Does it matter?’
‘Jinx, I have to get you home.’
‘You know how?’
‘Do you?’
His smile disappeared. ‘No.’
‘So we keep moving until we think of a plan.’
‘Or she captures us.’
I looked up at him as we walked out into the paddock and started towards the farmyard and the road beyond. ‘It’s not just Persephone and Amaliel we have to worry about.’ I didn’t think there was much point in me keeping this from him. ‘Persephone wants to use you to—’
‘Hurt people – I know this.’
‘Human people.’
‘I will not.’
‘Jinx, you attacked me.’
His shoulders slumped. ‘I thought you were her.’
I lifted his hand to my cheek, then pressed his fingers against my lips. ‘There are some more of our kind, daemonkind, who are here in the Overlands. They also want to find you.’
His expression grew resigned and he started to walk again. ‘They do not want to save me.’ It wasn’t a question.
‘No,’ I agreed.
‘Then lucky I’m with you.’
‘I guess.’
It was no longer raining, and I was hoping that was because Persephone had worn herself out. All this mind-control and calling upon the powers of nature must be exhausting – which set me thinking once again about who she was. Humans couldn’t do this sort of thing, not even high priestesses of Satanic covens. It just wasn’t possible.
‘Jinx, you said Persephone wasn’t of this world – who is she? What is she?’
‘Like us. She conjures Blue Fire,’ he said and we started walking again.
‘Jamie said there have been humans who could do this.’
‘Jamie?’
‘The Guardian.’
Jinx didn’t appear any the wiser. ‘He’s wrong.’ He paused for a moment. ‘Who’s Kayla?’
‘My friend.’
‘Persephone has her.’
‘I can’t understand how. I helped her escape the Blue Fire once before.’
‘Once bound by its magic it’s easier to be captured again. It lingers.’
‘I have to save her.’
‘Then we should find Persephone.’
‘Yeah, right; so she can use you to kill millions.’
‘She wanted death – maybe I should give it to her.’ This time when he smiled it was a full-on Jinx smile. ‘Give her taste of own medicine.’
*
We trudged on until we reached the lane, thankfully no longer under water, and then onto the road. It was still dark, though probably not for much longer; the birds were already beginning to stir in the trees.
I pondered on what Jinx had told me. His idea of attacking her before she had a chance to attack us might have cheered him up, but it scared the proverbial shit out of me.
As we walked, every now and then I gave him a surreptitious glance. He wasn’t wincing and grimacing so often, and he’d lost that vacant look, which had to be good.
An owl hooted in the distance and there was a rustling in the trees ahead. Jinx stopped dead in his tracks. ‘How long until dawn?’
‘Not very, I wouldn’t have thought. The birds are waking—’
Jinx was turning in a circle, his eyes searching the sky. ‘Not only birds,’ he said. ‘We need to find shelter.’
He grabbed hold of my hand and began to run, pulling me along beside him.
‘What’s wrong?’ I panted.
‘Not just birds,’ he repeated.
The foliage on either side of the road began to shiver and shake, and at first I thought maybe Persephone was playing with the elements again. Unfortunately for us, she’d come up with another way to torment us, which could only mean she knew where we were.
There was a whooshing sound, and when I looked back over my shoulder, the canopies of the trees behind us exploded up into the sky, turning it black as thousands of creatures erupted outwards into the air and swept towards us in a chattering wave.
The one glance was enough. With my eyes fixed ahead, I clung onto Jinx’s hand for dear life and ran. The road was deserted – it wasn’t much more than a country lane closed in on either side by trees and hedgerow, so we were trapped inside a narrow channel.
The sound of fluttering wings grew louder; they were almost upon us. They’re only bats, I kept telling myself, they can’t possibly hurt us. Then one faster than the others hit me on the shoulder, which made me stumble. They may have been tiny, but even the smallest and lightest of creatures are dangerous when travelling at speed. Then another hit me, and another.
We are so fucked, I thought as several hit me all at once, sending me staggering.
Jinx threw his arm around my shoulders and pushed us to the ground. He lay over me, covering our heads with his coat, but even so, I could feel the creatures dive-bombing us, their delicate bones shattering as they hit our backs until the weight of their dead bodies weighed down upon us. Then a crow let out a raucous cry, and another answered, their strident squawking overriding the bats’ high-pitched squeaking.
‘Stay still,’ he said against my ear as the bombardment changed and heavier bodies started raining down; now I could feel claws digging into my legs and short, sharp nips as beaks pecked at me. Jinx had us cocooned within his coat, but how long would it hold out beneath their relentless onslaught? My ears rang with their cries, and I felt something hot and wet running down my right calf. Jinx crawled on top of me; trying to protect me.
In a moment of clarity amongst the chaos I realised Persephone had found us and was pinning us down until she could get here – we had to do something, but if we tried to stand, we’d be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Then I felt something tapping away against the crown of my head, even through the coat – at first it was like an irritating drumbeat, but within seconds it had become painful as the beak pecked through the leather. Jinx hugged me closer; if I was in pain, I knew he must really be suffering.
All I could hear was the crows; I couldn’t even hear my own breathing. We were beleaguered, with no way of escape. I wriggled my arm from underneath me and searched for Jinx’s free hand. Our fingers touched and I felt him stretch to press his fingertips against mine.
‘I love you,’ I whispered, doubting he could hear, but feeling the need to actually say the words. If Persephone took us, I would never have a
nother chance.
‘And I—’
But he didn’t finish what he was about to say, because there was a roar above us that made the ground shudder, followed by the panicked flapping of wings; the squawking became shrill cawing and then there was silence, apart from the thudding of more bodies falling like huge hailstones.
My heart soared: I’d recognise that roar anywhere.
There was a nudge at my head, someone trying to lift the coat, and the acrid smell of burning reached my nose, then it was overwhelmed by the familiar smell of liquorice as a long, rough tongue swiped the side of my face.
‘Pyrites!’ I cried and struggled to crawl out from beneath the body pressing me into the earth.
Jinx lifted himself up and I heard a muffled, ‘Urgh.’ Pyrites’ tongue had obviously found my Deathbringer too.
‘Stupid sod,’ I heard him say; the first time he’d sounded anything like my old Jinx since I’d found him, and I managed a quick look back at him as I got up onto my knees before Pyrites tried to wash my face off. Jinx’s expression was one of puzzlement and I heard him mutter, ‘Where did that come from?’
We were surrounded by the dead bodies of bats and birds; some of the crows still had wisps of smoke floating up from their burned feathers.
‘Pyrites, can you take us away from here?’
He got down on his stomach and batted his eyelids at me.
‘Come on,’ I said, taking Jinx by the arm and pulling him towards my drakon.
Jinx hung back.
‘What?’
Jinx frowned at me.
‘Don’t you remember Pyrites?’
His forehead creased with concentration. ‘I … I remember …’ His shoulders slumped. ‘It’s gone.’
I laid my palm on his chest. ‘It will come back.’
‘I hope so,’ he said, and he sounded so dejected that it almost broke my heart.
