your ass back inside. We need to go.” Mike took a step towards the bridge.
“You’re not going anywhere,” the captain answered in a low voice, his face full of despair for his lost men. But there was something else there: fury. He pointed a shaking finger, first at Mike and then at Niall. “It was you who called that thing. With that weird song. I know it. I feel it in my bones.”
“Captain Young,” Niall began. His voice trailed away. The man was right. It had been them who had called the Makara to the cargo ship, in a way. But Niall couldn’t explain that had it not been for people like them, the sea would be full of Makara – and other things – and there would be no ships sailing safely across any of the world’s oceans.
“My men are all dead. Or as good as,” he added, gesturing at the injured crewman. “You shouldn’t be alive,” he said calmly, and without warning picked up his gun and pointed it straight at Niall’s chest. Without hesitation, Mike lunged forward, grappling for the firearm.
It was all so quick, as the sound of shots filled the air. There was blood on the deck and on Niall’s hands as he crouched beside the captain, who lay with his eyes closed.
“Captain Young! No! Mike, what did you do!”
“What do you think I did? Look, it’s just a graze.” Mike pulled back the Captain’s jacket to reveal a small wound.
“He’s unconscious!”
“He knocked himself out. He’ll be fine. Now, let’s get these men downstairs. Shit, how do you steer a big-ass cargo ship?” Mike ran his hands through his cropped hair.
“I’ve steered motorboats before, but nothing as big as this. I can try.”
“Take us ashore. Before another of those big-ass squids comes calling.”
Listen
How can we speak
How can we listen
If there is no time and place
For us?
Sean and Elodie ran all the way to Sarah’s house. They were covered in soil and still reeling from the terrible encounter. Sean kept taking deep breaths, relishing the feeling of air entering his lungs. He opened the wrought-iron gate with his sgian-dubh, and they stepped inside. No locks could keep Sean out. He had ways to get wherever he wanted, leaving no trace of himself.
Sarah’s bare oak trees whispered a swaying welcome.
“Come inside,” whispered Sean to Elodie. “I can’t have you out here on your own.”
“Defenceless?” Elodie finished for him, grinning.
Sean brushed a smudge of soil off her cheek. “Hardly!” he said, smirking at the thought of how black her lips had been, how painful the Surari’s agony had looked as it died slowly. “But I still don’t want you to be alone.”
Elodie nodded and followed Sean onto the gravelly path and up the stone steps. Shadow was sitting in front of the door, a still and silent sentry – it was as if she’d known someone was coming. Sean admired the way Shadow came up to him, circling him with her tail tapping the ground, as if she had to defend Sarah – she was infinitely loyal. Shame she wasn’t able to tell friends and enemies apart.
She looked up at Sean with sheer hatred, refusing to let him by. Sean did what he had so often done before, quickly touching her between her eyes so fast that she couldn’t run away – she was asleep on the stone steps at once. One of the skills he had learnt in Japan, sending any creature to sleep with one touch. Like invisibility, like his runes, one that seemed to come easily to him, almost as natural as breathing.
Sean and Elodie made their way past Shadow’s still form and into the house. With a brief nod Sean went up the stairs, leaving Elodie standing sentinel against the front door in the darkness, silent and alert.
Sean stood in the doorway of Sarah’s room, and for a moment the desire to see her was so strong he had to stop himself from barging in, picking her up and holding her in his arms as he used to do. He made himself stop and draw a breath before opening the door slowly.
Sarah was in a deep sleep. The air was full of her perfume – something between peaches and a darker note, richer. Sarah’s own scent, the unique chemistry of her skin and her breath. Sean knew that scent from the many times she’d been close to him, from the many times he’d been in her room. He breathed it in – it was