The Lord and the Banshee (Read by Candlelight #13) - Gillian St. Kevern Page 0,47

draw energy from the future-deceased, and that is what allowed us to see her.”

“I do not like the way you say future deceased.” Pip’s voice wobbled. His hand felt limp in Thomas’s. “There must be something we can do, surely…”

“There is—and I have done it.” Thomas let go of Pip’s hands, reaching beneath his shirt. He pulled out the leather pouch. “You remember the gift Julian received from the—in Paris.” He licked lips that were suddenly dry.

Pip’s expression was dazed. He shook his head. “I do not follow, I—“ He stiffened, looking at the pouch. “The heart?”

Cross nodded slowly, not taking his eyes off Pip. “I very much suspect that it is all that is keeping me alive. The night the banshee made her last appearance at Connaught, I had another attack, much more serious than those previous.” He breathed in deeply. “Mereweather said that he could not make out how I was still alive. I suspect that I am not—alive, that is. That the last attack was fatal and that if I had not had the heart in my possession, I would be no more.”

Pip’s shoulders slumped, his head bowed. His fingers tightened on Thomas’s hand. “Thomas. To think we could have lost you… I—“ He raised his face, tears welling in his eyes. “The thought—I did not think much scared me, but I am chilled to the bone. Thomas, to think of anything happening to you!”

He should have spoken weeks previously. Cross drew Pip closer. “I would never chose to leave you alone. You know that, don’t you?”

Pip’s throat tightened as he nodded. He laid his head against Cross’s chest, wrapping his arms around him. “I do not doubt you for a second.”

Despite the dread in his chest, Cross felt a momentary warmth. At least he had not forfeited Pip’s good opinion. He returned Pip’s embrace, marvelling as he always did at the sheer joy of having him in his arms.

But the joy that swelled in his chest had a bitter edge. “Do you remember what you said that night in Paris? That you were afraid. The gifts of the fair folk were not without cost. You thought the heart likely to confer immortality—but at a price.”

He felt the tension steal over Pip’s body as he went rigid within his arms. Pip raised his head slowly, sitting up. “Thomas—are you in danger?”

“I do not know.” Cross released Pip, running a hand throw his hair. “I do not altogether know what is going on. I hear whispers—voices that are not there. I see movement out of the corner of my eye, faces in the water. Those I could dismiss. But to look in the mirror, and see another man’s eyes staring back at you—“ He shuddered. Why that instant alone should have such a powerful effect on him, he did not know. “I do not know what is real and what is a figment of my imagination.”

“If it is a figment, it is not merely of your imagination.” Pip placed a hand on his back. “I put the ghostly experiences I noticed down to the influence of Una Malone and Connaught Castle, but I heard whispers on the boat, and continued to see shadows where there should not be shadows, even here at the Albion. Julian has noticed it too.”

Cross drew a shaky breath. He was relieved that he was not alone in his experience, but he did not like that his family shared the figments. “What did Julian tell you he’d noticed?”

Pip frowned at the far wall. “Said that he smelled spices, and at one point asked if there were many oak trees in Liverpool. We cut our walk short because he said he felt as though someone was watching him. Naturally, I told him that he need not be so conceited, but I also had the odd sensation that we were not entirely alone.”

“And Dr Harris?”

Pip pursed his lips. “Do you know, it’s a strange thing, but Dr Harris asked if we had any acquaintances in Liverpool. It seemed that he’d noticed something too. I asked him about it, but he couldn’t say what gave him the impression that there was someone else with us, but it was there.”

Cross pushed aside the roiling notion in his stomach. If he was to protect his family from this fae-influence, than he could not give in to fear. “When did you first notice these goings-on?”

“It’s hard to say.” Now they were discussing the supernatural, Pip was on much more solid