The Dark Matters Quartet

by Claire Robyns

  Lily bolted wide awake, instantly alert. On the opposite bunk, Greyston lifted his eyes to her. He’d left only a single light on, swathing the cramped cabin in a pale glow that cast shadows over his handsome features. Her mind immediately veered to her husband, too rugged to ever be considered handsome, a dark angel carved in stone with a heart every bit as cold and hard. A feeling of loss rose like a lump in her throat. She swallowed, shuttering her thoughts and all emotion before that loss seeped into her bones and stuck.

  She turned an accusatory look on Greyston. “You let me fall asleep.”

  He shrugged. “Nothing short of a train wreck could have stirred you.”

  The frosted edges of her mood melted as she stared into his brown eyes. The shadows sunk into his face weren’t only from the dim lighting. “You haven’t slept a wink, have you?”

  A grin tucked up one half of his mouth. “Someone had to keep vigil.”

  “What is the time?” She glanced out the window, relieved to find it was still pitch dark. “And where is Ana?”

  “Ana is keeping Neco company in my cabin,” he said, pulling a fob watch out from inside his coat. After a quick look, he added, “Nearly five o’clock.”

  Which meant they had another couple of hours on the train. She bent forward, planting her elbows on her knees so she could rest her forehead in her palms while she searched the demon glass. She hoped nothing had changed while she slept, that the demons had made camp to rest their horses.

  A moment later, she knew everything had changed. Instead of being swept into a tunnel, the grainy canvas split into three distinct whorls, forcing her to make a choice. What now? Her defences broke and her heart called out. Kelan, where are you? Don’t you know I need you?

  But Kelan wasn’t here. He couldn’t possibly know how much she needed him right now. Her gaze swept left to right, then she stiffened her spine and stepped into the middle tunnel.

  When she brought her head up again a short while later, Greyston took one look at her face and shot to his feet. “What is it?”

  “They’ve split up.” She waved him back into his seat, assuring him she felt fine. She did. She’d only been in for a couple of seconds.

  “Usually there’s only one path for me to follow,” she explained. “Now there’s three. The middle one took me to one of the male demons. He’s out of the mountains, riding hard.”

  Greyston frowned. “And the others?”

  She took a deep breath. “I’m going back in to look.”

  “Dammit, Lily.” He leaned over, placing a hand on her arm. “You’re already spending too much time in that bloody demon glass and now you want to do it in triplicate?”

  “As soon as I realised what the three tunnels meant, Greyston, I pulled out. I know my limits, but I have to see where Agares is.”

  “I’m counting to ten,” he said. “If you’re not out—”

  “Twenty,” she countered, and dived straight in before he could finish that useless threat. What did he think he could do? Barricade her from herself?

  All three demons were setting a punishing pace, their horses pulling at the bit. She had no way of knowing whether they were headed in different directions or simply spaced out, but what else could the split in her demon glass mean?

  She continued checking with nothing to report on until the sky brightened slightly with the approaching dawn.

  “Agares has stopped at a trading post,” she informed Greyston.

  “What town?”

  “How should I know?” she snapped, her nerves frizzled from the multiple tracking. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head, nibbling at her bottom lip. “But they’ve definitely split up. Agares is changing horses while the other two are still riding.”

  “Come on.” Greyston stood and offered her his arm. “Let’s go.”

  She scowled at him. “Where?”

  “We’re going to take a slow stroll up and down the passage,” he told her firmly, grabbing her by the hand and tugging her to her feet. “Then we’re going to the dining car for a cup of warm tea and you…” He placed both hands on her shoulders and titled his head to look her in the eye. “You’re going to skip the next couple of half-hourly peeks.”

  She arched a brow, curiosity getting the better of her. “Or else?”

  He flashed a wink at her. “I’ll conk you over the head and knock you unconscious.”

  “You never would,” she snorted.

  “Do you want to put that to the test?”

  “No, but only because you’re right,” she sighed. “What does it even matter what they’re up to when there’s nothing, absolutely nothing we can do about it for the moment?”

  In the dining car, Lily lingered over a cup of chamomile tea while Greyston chugged down an entire pot of coffee, all presided over by a bleary-eyed waiter who’d clearly been jerked out of a deep nap by the bell, which they’d had to ring twice.

  “I almost feel sorry for the poor man,” Lily whispered.

  “If you want to feel sorry for anyone…” Greyston thumped his chest. “The night staff get to sleep the day away.”

  Lily rolled her eyes at his theatrics, but she also worried about him. Although their focus had rapidly shifted, she was sure Georgina played as big a role as the demons in keeping Greyston from sleep. She opened her mouth to say something, but what was there to say?

  Instead, she took another sip of tea and said, “I suppose there’s no reason for us to be in such a hurry. You should get some rest at Harchings House. The night train will still get us back to Scotland before Kelan.”

  Greyston cocked his head, his roguish grin a little washed-out, but there. “I should feed you tea more often.”

  Lily returned a warm smile, content she’d made the right decision. Which turned out to be possibly the worst decision of her life. Greyston, of course, had no intention of sleeping. Once they’d coaxed the Harchings’ butler into allowing them access to the Aether Signaller and sent a succinct message to Kelan via Hampstead Heath, Greyston immediately set about enquiring after Devon’s whereabouts. On learning the Duke was currently in Surrey with his Duchess, Greyston marched straight out the door.

  Lily flew after him. “Where are you going?”

  “I’ll be back in time for the evening train,” he called out over his shoulder.

  Lily planted her fists on her hips, a scowl furrowing her brow and developing into a screeching headache. Not that she should have been surprised. Greyston had always been more interested in chasing after his personal demons rather than real ones. She didn’t even know whom he was going after, Devon or Georgina. She did know that, either way, this day would end in tragedy.

  Having reached the end of the cobbled path, Greyston unclipped the latch of the wrought-iron gate.

  If she didn’t act now, he’d be walking down the street.

  “Greyston!” she screamed, sounding like a complete and utter hoyden. “Don’t you dare take another step. Or I swear… I swear…”

  Her cheeks heated with shame as a lone man strolling on the far side of the street stopped and blatantly stared.

  Thankfully, her irredeemable behaviour brought Greyston striding back.

  “What the devil are you doing?” he hissed as he drew near.

  “What the devil are you doing?” Lily lowered her voice. “Three demons are on the loose and all you can think about is hunting down Georgina?”

  She clenched her fists tighter, lest she boxed his ears.

  His eyes darkened on her. “We’ve already had this discussion and agreed, Lily. What does it matter if I’m sleeping or riding down to Surrey? I promised I’ll be back in time and I will.”

  What does it matter…? “I agreed to dally in London so that you could sleep.”

  “I can sleep as well on the train tonight as in a strange bed.”

  Lily considered laying down some laws. That usually seemed to work for most men. But not on them. And this was Greyston. It would never work. Neither had sympathetic murmuring
s, skirting the issue or their current demon crisis.

  The only thing she hadn’t yet tried was absolute honestly.

  “Georgina hurt you,” she said softly. “She used you, betrayed you, and she hurt you. I know how that feels, Greyston.”

  Lily will never mother any child of mine.

  Tears struck beneath her eyelids. “Please, trust me, I know exactly how you feel.”

  “I’ll kill him.” Greyston’s jaw flinched. “What has that McAllister bastard done to you now?”

  Nothing. The word choked in Lily’s throat, refusing to be uttered. She was such a hopeless fool. Kelan had never promised to love her, but he’d made her feel loved anyway. She’d been so busy making excuses for him, she’d never even considered that keeping her happy in his bed was simply Kelan’s way of keeping her compliant. Perhaps she hadn’t been outright betrayed, but what if she had been used as well as hurt?

  Lily bit her lip and blinked the tears away. “It’s not important.”

  “It damned well is.”

  “No, it isn’t,” she said firmly. “You’re exhausted, Greyston. You’re not thinking straight. Let’s just concentrate on these demons, at least until Kelan returns, and then if you still want to strangle Georgina, you have my blessing.”

  Greyston’s eyes hardened, but at least he came inside with her, even if he went directly to the library and poured himself a healthy measure of whiskey.

  When Lily looked in on him an hour later, he was fast asleep, his head tipped back over the top of the armchair and the empty glass cradled loosely in one hand. Any sense of relief evaded her. Unintentional though it might have been, she’d put out one fire by fuelling another. Greyston had no tolerance for any McAllister, Kelan first and foremost, and she’d just made the situation a hundred times worse.

  None of that, however, could compare to the remorse and despair that engulfed Lily in the early hours of the following morning. As planned, they’d caught the evening train. The Northern Line ran a dual schedule and less than half an hour into their journey, her demon glass revealed Agares boarding the 19:30 departing from Edinburgh.

  “Agares is on her way to London,” Lily groaned. “We’ll pass each other in the night. I feel as if…” She gave Greyston a look of despair. “I feel as if we’re playing musical chairs with these demons and we’ll never catch up.”

  “What of the other two?” Greyston asked.

  “Both still riding separate paths, one through barren countryside, the other staying close to a narrow river.”

  “Please tell me you don’t intend to jump trains again in Edinburgh and chase Agares back to London,” Greyston muttered.

  Lily shook her head. “I have no intention of confronting Agares. We go to Cragloden and wait for Kelan.”

  It was the river demon, a few hours later, that led Lily into that dark, torturous scene…

  The demon was a tall, lanky figure that sat his horse like a gifted rider. Did they ride in hell—or whatever name they gave to the dimension they called home? Lily floated along the river’s edge with him, her mind wandering from the mundane routine of the three demons she’d been tracking for two nights and a day. Perhaps their master plan was to bore her to death!

  A sour twinge plucked at her stomach, her first warning to wrap this up. But just then the dirt track veered away from the river and plunged through the midst of a small village built upon its banks.

  The moon was absent in a dark sky and Lily had to strain her eyes to determine that the lumpy shadows on each side of the road were actually closely packed cottages. A sudden flare of orange lit the night like a freak, horizontal flash of lightning, illuminating neglected baskets of dried stalks hung beneath a window ledge.

  Heat coiled low in her stomach with a feverish bubbling that would soon spit up along her veins. She had to pull out, before the dry heaving started and— Her eyes froze wide as a thatched roof sparked, and then fizzled into a spectacular blaze. Another flash. Another cottage. Heart racing, her eyes flew to the horse-backed demon. He trotted slowly between the row of cottages, casually flinging a fire bolt here, a fire bolt there, as unfazed as his horse appeared to be at the smoking inferno trailing their wake.

  A scream tore up her throat, but she never heard it leave her mouth because at that exact moment, a hundred screams pierced the night. Doors flung open. Children fell out of smoking doors, or were thrown by their parents. Babies wailed.

  The lining of Lily’s stomach turned to rot. It could have been the demon poison. It could have been her soul dying. She ripped her gaze from the horror, searching for a distinguishing feature that could identify the town. But it was too dark, too smoky, too much…

  ELEVEN

  Greyston’s fingers worked deftly, threading the thick rope through holes he’d pierced along the edges of the spare sail. Once he was done, he pulled on the two ends of the rope, causing the canvas to gather and ruche into a large, unwieldy sack. He dragged the giant water pouch across the pump room and plumped it out over the docking platform, using the loose ends of the rope to secure it to the hinged hydraulic arms that were used to lower the platform from the bottom of the ship’s hull.

  “Greyston!” Lily called down the hatch opening. “They’re back.”

  “Have Neco bring the wagon around to the stern,” he called out, giving the makeshift contraption he’d erected an evil look.

  He was in desperate need of Ferdie’s skills, but he’d left the ship’s engineer on Es Vedra along with the rest of his crew. The reason why led to thoughts of Georgina and fury knotted his chest. He let it be. He’d put her aside for the moment, but he intended to hold onto every drop of fury, leaving no space for any of the feelings of betrayal or hurt Lily mistakenly assumed he felt.

  Although he’d already fired up the boiler in preparation for setting sail, Greyston crossed to the operational crank and spun the handle, manually lowering the platform. He wanted to ensure the rope and canvas didn’t get tangled in the hydraulics. The morning sunlight flooded inside the wide square now punched out from the ship’s aluminium floor as the platform gently touched the ground beneath the stern.

  Dropping on his backside, his legs dangling over the edge of the gap, he watched Neco lead a horse-drawn cart loaded with wooden vats that looked as if they might have been pilfered from a brewer’s yard. Greyston chuckled, and didn’t ask.

  Ana rode on the cart with the vats, her skirts soaked all the way up to her waist. A fact Lily noticed with a tiny frown as she came running around the side of the ship, but didn’t comment on.

  Her gaze swept over the cart and up to him. “Do you think this is enough?”

  “More than we can carry. The Red Hawk was built for speed, Lily. She’s not a cargo carrier.” He looked at Neco as his man drew the cart to a halt alongside the platform. “Neco, how much extra weight can we take on board?”

  Neco took some seconds to process, then shook his head. “Ferdie never shared the design with me. I cannot compute.”

  “Guess.”

  Neco have him a blank look.

  “Never mind, we’ll just have to err on the side of caution,” Greyston said. “Load her up.”

  Ana jumped down from the cart to help. She and Neco easily hauled one vat between them at a time, tipping the sea water into the canvas pouch.

  “We should head for Cragloden,” Ana said as she worked, “and enlist help from Kelan’s army.”

  “No,” Lily and Greyston said in unison, although Greyston was sure his reasons differed somewhat from hers.

  For some unearthly reason, he’d assumed everything was fine between Lily and Kelan, that they’d reached a fairly happy compromise as a couple, as man and wife. He should have known better. Whatever Kelan had done to make Lily so miserable, it was probably even worse than Greyston imagined. So, no, he was in no mood to deal with McAllisters today and Cragloden was full of them.

  “Ana is correct,” Neco said. “The probability of success is much higher if we enlist the help
of men such as Archibald and Liam.”

  “Success in banishing the demon,” Lily said sharply, “but not in the number of lives we’ll fail to save if we waste half the day. The demon has already razed three villages to the ground and…and…” She made a noise, shrugged, and threw her hands up as if that’s all she’d meant to say.

  Greyston knew otherwise. Her throat had clogged with the horrific scenes she’d witnessed as they’d tracked the demon during the wee hours of the morning. Thanks to the detailed maps included in Ana’s last upgrade, they’d been able to plot village names until they could identify the main road and direction the demon travelled. Now they had a destination, the next village on his route was East Cauldren, and Lily had borne witness too many times to the carnage they could expect to find if the demon got there before they got him.

  “We’re not wasting half the day,” Greyston gently reminded her.

  Her face was pale, too pale, her eyes ringed in dark circles. If he could take this burden from her, he would. He’d trade his ability to rewind time with her demon glass in a thrice.

  Greyston shoved a hand through his hair, turning his attention back to the task on hand, to what he could control. East Cauldren was twenty miles east as the crow flies. They’d be in the air no more than five or so minutes before they intersected the demon’s path. It was therefore crucial to have everything prepared before he set sail.

  “That’s enough,” he said when the canvas pouch looked dangerously close to bursting its seams. He ordered everyone inside, Lily to the Pilot Cabin, Neco to secure the hull door and then to bring Ana down to the pump room.

  While he waited, Greyston tried the manual crank to raise the platform. The extra weight of the water strained his muscles. Heaving and panting, he eventually gave up and resorted to the hydraulic arms.

  When Neco and Ana joined him, he walked them through the steps. Ana would communicate with the Pilot Cabin via the speaking horn. At his command, Neco would lower the platform a little. The rest was up to Greyston.

  The plan was simple, safe, and Greyston would be damned surprised if it actually worked. When it came to demons, nothing was simple and nothing was safe. He gave a dry laugh as he made his way to the Pilot Cabin.