“I’ll tell you all once we’re back at the—Watch out!” Winter yells suddenly, pointing over our shoulders. Before I have time to turn around, a long, slippery tentacle lands with a thump between me and Elodie, missing us by a few inches. Niall is clutching an angry red mark on the side of his face, where the flailing tentacle swept him.
“It’s not dead!” screams Elodie.
“No. But this time it’s on land,” I reply. My sgian-dubh is in my hand in a second, and I start tracing the runes with all the fury I felt when I thought Elodie had drowned.
The Surari launches its tentacles towards us – once, twice, and again. Elodie, Niall and Winter duck and avoid it the first time, and the second – but the third time it takes a grip of Niall’s arm and throws him down on the sand. It’s beginning to drag him towards the water, and I see Niall opening his mouth and trying to sing but no noise is coming out, he has given all there was to give saving Elodie. He’s spent. Fear is painted all over his face as the demon tightens its grip, enveloping Niall’s arms, his chest. Flynns can’t die in water, but having their ribs crushed will kill them.
At last, my runes start working. Every trace in the air makes a cut in the creature’s skin, black demon blood spurting from the wounds. The wind is roaring in my ears, and I see red. I can’t stop cutting and stabbing and slicing the air, and with it, the demon – until its tentacles stop flailing at last and it lies still, with Niall still wrapped in its loosened grip.
A pause, a heartbeat, while everyone makes sure they’re still alive.
“That was close,” croaks Niall in the silence that follows, freeing himself from the dead weight of the tentacle and throwing it heavily on the wet sand. His face is scratched and bloodied where the tentacle hit him and where he’d been dragged across the beach. He’s sitting with his head in his hands, and I can see he’s shaking. “Now can we get out of here?” he asks.
“We better drag the demon into the sea first,” I point out as soon as I can catch my breath. “We don’t want any hill walkers spotting a prehistoric jellyfish on the beach.”
“It would boost tourism. Like the Loch Ness Monster,” says Winter with her Scottish lilt – and surprisingly, unexpectedly, we laugh.
35
Winter
The day we met,
The day our lives
Changed forever
And time did pass, but we’re still there
“Sean, you’re bleeding! An attack, and I haven’t dreamt of it! Again!” Sarah clasped a hand over her mouth.
“I’m fine. It wasn’t the demon who did this, it was Niall’s singing.” Sean had an arm around Niall’s waist as he was so weak he could barely walk.
“Jesus, Niall. Come here.” Mike took Niall’s arm, and Niall leaned heavily on him. “Come and sit down.”
“Niall,” Sarah began, but she froze as she saw Winter emerge from behind Elodie. “And who are you?”
“I’m Winter Shaw.”
“Winter? Mrs Shaw’s daughter? It can’t be! You should be … you should be – fifty years old, at least!”
“I’m fifty-three, yes.”
“You—oh, never mind! What happened?”
“Sean and I were on the beach,” Elodie began, and she blushed, remembering the kiss. “A demon came out of the water. It was one of those jellyfish things. It pulled me in and dragged me down.” She shivered at the memory. “I’m not a good swimmer at all. I would have died, but Niall sang the demon out of the water, and it was Winter who brought me onto the rocks.”
“The seal,” said Sean, looking at Winter with awe. “It was you!”
Winter smiled. Her hair was shimmering silver and mother-of-pearl against the stained-glass window. “Yes. Seal is my usual shape, this is just for special occasions!” She laughed, gesturing to her human body. “My father was a spirit of the water, which is why I grow old so slowly, Sarah.”
“Mr Shaw was a spirit of the water?” asked Sarah, incredulous. She’d seen pictures of him, a short, bearded man in a tweed cap, always with a shotgun strapped across his chest. He’d been the Midnight estate gamekeeper for forty years.
“No,” laughed Winter. “Hugh Shaw wasn’t my father. My father was my mother’s lover. He left his human shape forever just after I was born and went back to the sea. Hugh, my stepfather, came after. He knew all