Tide - By Daniela Sacerdoti Page 0,80

Sean briefly, but his face became deadly serious and a silence fell over the room.

Suddenly, Elodie gasped.

“You OK?” asked Sean.

“Yes, yes. It was just a shadow.”

Sarah noticed that Sean’s eyes rested on Elodie for a long time after that, but the French girl didn’t offer any further explanation. Sean brought his hands to his temples, massaging them. “I need to think this through.”

“When’s the first ferry?” asked Mike hopefully.

“To go where? They’d just follow us,” Sarah replied. “At least here we’re on familiar territory.”

Sarah was interrupted by Elodie in a voice so frail yet firm that they all turned to her with concern. “No more running away,” she whispered.

Sean nodded his agreement. “Elodie’s right,” he said.

“I think we need a drink,” Mike concluded after a short pause.

The whole house instantly came alive with lights and footsteps and conversations as Mike and Niall took Elodie downstairs to steady their nerves. Sarah and Sean stayed behind.

“I don’t want to be alone,” Sarah whispered.

“Go to Nicholas then,” replied Sean immediately, his voice harsh.

Sarah wasn’t expecting that. It was as if she’d just been punched in the stomach, the air knocked out of her. Sean had turned away from her.

“OK. I will. Yes.” She walked towards the door, reeling from Sean’s response.

At the doorway, he took her arm and turned her until he was looking straight into her eyes. “Nicholas is your boyfriend, after all.”

“Yes.”

“Because if he weren’t, I’d ask you to stay here with me.”

Sarah froze.

Too much.

Too much, too confusing. Too complicated.

The dreams coming back, the choices she was faced with. The danger. The one choice she didn’t know how to make.

“You can’t ask me to choose now, Sean. Can you not see?” she whispered, her mind somewhere between being angry and imploring him for a reprieve.

“If not now, when, Sarah? It’s not likely to get better, is it?” He took her by the shoulders firmly. “Do you love Nicholas?”

There was nothing she could do but to tell Sean the truth for once – to reveal herself, and reveal her heart.

“I don’t know what love is,” she said, with a clear, steady gaze.

Sean’s eyes were solemn, unsmiling, when he replied. “Yes you do. And when you decide to admit it, I’ll be there.”

It’s a promise, Sarah.

39

Be Ready

Rules of the heart

Before rules of the mind

Be ready then to face

The time to fall

Nicholas had been in his room, standing in front of the open window. All he could see was darkness, except for the intermittent lighthouse beam shining from beyond the hill. His whole body was alert, and a film of sweat coated his forehead. His nails sank into the palms of his hands.

Earlier that evening he had lifted the fog that had enveloped Sarah and the other Dreamers for weeks. Now he would wait for her to dream and for her to tell the others what she had seen, what she’d been finally allowed to discover. Nicholas knew what would happen next and he had stood there waiting for them to come and challenge him. Or hunt him down, probably. He was ready to defend himself.

To be human is to be afraid. Tonight, I’m wholly human.

Any time now.

When Nicholas felt Sarah’s dream starting, he had forced his mind into hers. He made himself witness it, and he couldn’t believe what he saw. He was still shattered by what had happened.

In Sarah’s dream, he had seen himself trying to stop the Mermen, trying to protect Elodie, Mike, Niall. Even Sean. Sarah had read his heart before he could read it properly himself. In her dream, for the first time in a long time, his mind and his heart had acted in harmony.

The cold air crept over his moist skin, making him shiver. He couldn’t bring himself to move. For some time his gaze remained fixed on the black sea, as waves of shock at his own behaviour swept over him.

I have chosen. Or destiny has chosen for me.

Suddenly there were noises and lights going on in the house, shining out into the garden, and people coming and going outside his door. They must know by now.

Nicholas closed the window and let himself fall backwards onto his bed, his eyes staring up towards the ceiling. He didn’t have long to wait. The brain fury hit him almost immediately – his father’s wrath was merciless. Right at that moment he heard rapid tapping at the glass. Turning as best he could within the pain, he caught a glimpse of sharp beaks and beady black eyes, and then