“We have to! There was a … tiger thing in your garden! Whatever it was! And it’s still out there!”
“It was a burglar, Bryony,” I repeat, hoping that she will eventually believe me. Thank goodness she was unconscious until we were finished with the bloody things.
Bryony sighs in frustration and studies my face. “What’s going on here?” She looks at all of us, one by one. “Why do you carry a knife, Harry? Isn’t it illegal to carry knives? And what did this …‘burglar’ use to hurt you like that?” She points at my chest. “Because those look like claw marks to me. And why on earth is everybody calling you Sean?” Her voice is rising with the beginnings of hysteria.
“Bryony, please.” Sarah is in no mood to explain.
“No! Sarah, I know what I saw!”
“But you didn’t see anything, did you? You were out of it.” I dismiss her.
“Look at the bruising on my head! I want an explanation!”
“You can have no explanation!” My tone silences everyone, leaving no room for discussion. This is not the time to be delicate. “Do you want Sarah’s life to be in even more danger?”
Bryony shakes her head feebly, confusion on her pale face.
“Sean.” Sarah puts a protective hand on Bryony’s arm.
“Do you want Sarah to get killed, like Shadow?” My voice is steely.
Bryony shakes her head again, a frightened look in her eyes. She’s afraid. Afraid of me.
“Then don’t speak about this to anyone. Do you hear me?”
Bryony nods.
“Do you hear me?”
“Yes!”
“This,” I point to her bloodied lip, “happened when you fell while taking pictures. OK?”
“OK.” She looks to Sarah, and their eyes meet for a moment.
“Please trust me,” Sarah whispers.
“I trust you.”
I know what she’s thinking: I trust you, but not him.
“Good. I’m taking you home,” I say, softer this time.
Bryony stands, so keen to leave that she doesn’t even mind that I’ll be the one taking her. But she still has a question. “Who are you? Who is Sean?”
I haven’t the strength to lie. “I am Sean. My name is Sean Hannay. Sarah will explain later.” Sarah nods wearily. “But not tonight. Let’s go.”
On my return I find Sarah, Elodie and Nicholas back in the garden, well away from the area of the attack, gathered around a little body wrapped in a blanket. Elodie is standing guard, her lips blue already, in case of another ambush.
“I wanted to wait for you. To bury her,” says Sarah in a broken voice, without looking up.
And here we are, under a moon that’s as beautiful as it’s merciless, putting little Shadow to rest at the foot of the thyme bush where Sarah found her mother’s diary.
“If only I’d dreamt of this,” Sarah whispers. “If only I’d known, I could have prevented it.”
Yes, why did she not dream of this? Is she not dreaming anymore?
“Just be thankful it’s a cat, and not one of us,” Elodie says sharply – cruelly, even. Not like her.
It feels unreal. Only a few weeks ago Sarah and I were here in each other’s arms, the night she’d unearthed Anne’s diary. It seems a lifetime ago. It was another full moon, and we were so close, the two of us in a dangerous, chaotic world. But tonight, under this moon, it’s another man that Sarah turns to. When the last fistful of earth falls on the grave, it’s Nicholas’s arms that comfort her.
Still, at least she waited for me to come back before burying Shadow, and as we walk back into the house, I catch of glimpse of her looking at me in a way that warms my heart for a second. It’s as if she’s making sure I’m still there.
I’m here, Sarah, I tell her in my heart.
19
The Boy Who Disappeared
Wherever she goes
She’ll find shadows and withered flowers
Nicholas was stroking Sarah’s hair slowly, rhythmically. She was soft and weak in his arms, the way he liked it – more proof that picking her friends off one by one, like petals off a flower, was the sensible thing to do.
Sure, it hadn’t worked out the way it was supposed to. It was Bryony who should have been lying dead that night, her throat slit open and every bone in her body smashed.
Nicholas wouldn’t forget that night for a long time. Nothing had turned out quite as he’d anticipated. It would have been so easy for Sean to wait just a split second before intervening – more than enough time for the Surari to finish Nicholas off.