Shadow Phantoms - H.P. Mallory Page 0,17

to say.”

She lifted her head and smiled at me. “You did everything right, mum,” she said between the tears. “For Emma and for me.”

“I did what I thought was right.”

“Will you tell me the rest of the story?” she asked.

I took a deep breath, but nodded. It was time she understood everything. “The night Jolie disappeared,” I started. “I was out in the woods beside Kinloch. I was training and I heard them.”

“Dad and Aunt Jolie?”

“Dad and… someone else.”

“... What were they talking about?”

“Nothing at first. I just heard…” Jolie screaming, I thought. “I heard Jolie. She made a... a noise like she was surprised, then she got quiet. Sinjin said something about someone breaking their word and…” I took a deep breath. “I saw them. But it wasn’t Jolie standing with Sinjin. Jolie wasn’t… there anymore.”

“Who was there?”

“I don’t know,” I said as I shook my head, the memories returning with such force, it felt like it had all happened only yesterday. “Sinjin had his back to me and this... this robed creature stood in front of him, in front of a... vortex... thing.”

“A portal?”

“Maybe.”

“What happened then?”

“The creature laughed.”

“What kind of creature was it?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. It was dark at the time and difficult to make out features. Whatever it was, it was much smaller than your dad and I just remember it was wearing a robe. It said, ‘Pleasure doing business with you’ to Sinjin. And then… it just vanished.”

Rowan got this look on her face. Cold, haunted, utterly still.

“What did you do?”

“I had to see what had happened, where the creature had gone… where Jolie had gone. I just was so… confused. ” I took a breath. “So I ran up to Sinjin. And I demanded to know what had happened but… he couldn’t answer. He looked as shocked as I was.”

Don’t think about him, don’t think about him, don’t think about him.

His image sprang to mind regardless. Dark hair, glacier eyes. Cool, calm, collected. Handsome. So incredibly handsome.

I mouthed, “stop it” behind my hands. Saying it out loud helped, sometimes.

“What happened then?” Rowan asked.

“When I looked over the edge of the cliff, there was nothing. No sign of Jolie and no sign of the creature.”

“And the portal thingy?”

“Gone,” I answered with a shrug. “I figured the creature must have whisked her away into the portal with him.”

“Then Aunt Jolie isn’t dead?” Rowan asked.

I sighed. I’d asked myself this question so many times. “I don’t know. I imagine she is.”

“What did dad do? What did he say?”

“He couldn’t say anything because it was obvious what had happened. He’d traded Jolie’s life for yours when the Fir Darrig had taken you when you were a baby. It just took the creature ten years to return and finish the trade.”

“Then was the creature that took aunt Jolie the Fir Darrig?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe.”

“Is that what Dad told you?”

“He didn’t tell me anything because as soon as I put the pieces together, I just… left. I had to get away from him. I had to be alone so I could think, so I could understand what had just happened.”

“I understand,” Rowan said as she nodded and dropped her head a little bit.

“Sinjin came after me, of course. And he said it was all an accident, that it wasn’t what I thought it was, but I just…”

Tears started bleeding from my eyes. I couldn’t stop them. I swiped at them angrily, hoping to catch them before Rowan could see them, but it didn’t work. She reached across the table to hold my hand.

“What did dad mean?”

I shrugged. “Sinjin said the trade had been you for someone of your bloodline. He said he’d offered himself, and that the Fir Darrig had accepted and yet…”

Breathe.

“You didn’t believe him?”

“No!” I said, a little too harshly. “I didn’t and I still don’t believe him. I just think he couldn’t face me and tell me the truth—that he’d traded Jolie for you.”

“Then what happened?”

“I couldn’t look at him after that,” I said as I dried my tears on the arm of my sweatshirt. “I couldn’t be with him, I couldn’t touch him, I... I couldn’t allow him to stay in your life, or in Emma’s life. Or in mine.”

Rowan squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry, Mum.”

We were quiet for a minute.

Rowan made a thoughtful noise, low in her throat.

“I always wondered if Emma’s dad and my dad got along like our moms did.” She shrugged, but there was something heavy in her gaze