his head against her breasts, and he shuddered in her embrace.
Grady, too, stopped screaming. The only sound in the room was the boy’s sobbing breaths, and the buzzing from the mirror.
Darina kissed the top of the boy’s head, and laid her cheek on his pale scalp. Her eyes found Marielle staring at her, and Marielle could see that Darina was both smiling and crying.
‘He remembers,’ said Darina. ‘He’s back now. He’s mine again. My Brightwell. But you shouldn’t have lied. You shouldn’t have told us lies.’
The boy stepped away from her. He wiped his eyes, and walked to the mirror. He stood before the face of wasps, and he spoke to it in a language that Marielle did not recognize, and it spoke back to him. He stayed that way until the buzzing stopped, and one by one the wasps began to fall to the floor where they crawled sluggishly for a time before dying, leaving only the boy staring at his own reflection.
Grady Vetters had curled in upon himself. He was weeping and shaking, and Marielle knew that something had snapped inside him. When she called his name he did not look at her, and his eyes were those of a stranger.
‘He has so many forms,’ said Darina to Marielle, ‘so many names.’ She was pointing to the mirror. ‘He Who Waits Behind The Glass, The Upside-Down Man, The God of Wasps . . .’
The boy found a sheet of paper in his bag. On one side was a drawing of a truck, but the other side was blank. He began to write on it with a crayon. When he was done, he handed the sheet of paper to Darina, and she read what was written there before folding the page and placing it in her pocket. She then spoke one word:
‘Parker.’
The boy advanced on Marielle, and the sense of an old mind trapped in a younger body was stronger than ever. His lamprey mouth opened, and a pale tongue flicked at his lips. Darina laid a hand upon his shoulder, and he stopped, his face inches from Marielle’s.
‘No,’ she said.
The boy looked up at her questioningly. He tried to say something, but the words just came out as a pair of harsh croaks, like the cawings of a young crow.
‘We promised,’ said Darina. ‘I promised.’
The boy stepped away from her. He went to the table and began packing his tools in his child’s bag. It was time to leave.
Darina stood over Marielle.
‘You lied to me,’ she said. ‘You should have told me about the detective. I could declare our bargain void, and kill you for it.’
Marielle waited. Nothing she could say would make any difference now.
‘But perhaps because of your lie something special has been restored to us. Do you know what your detective once did?’
‘No.’
‘He killed the being that you see here.’ She pointed at the boy. ‘He stilled his great spirit for a time.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Marielle.
‘No, but Parker will when we confront him. I promised that I would let you and your brother live, and I’ll keep my word. We always keep our word.’
The boy went searching in his bag again, and came out with his metal case of syringes. He filled one from a small glass bottle of clear liquid that Marielle had not seen before.
‘No more, please,’ said Marielle.
‘This is different,’ said Darina. ‘But don’t worry: it won’t hurt.’
Marielle watched as the boy injected Grady for the last time. Her brother did not react to the needle, or to the boy’s presence. His gaze was directed inward, but within seconds his eyes had closed, and his chin fell upon his chest. The boy refilled the syringe from the glass bottle. When he was done, the vessel was empty. He dropped it in his bag, and approached Marielle.
‘It’s Actrapid,’ said Darina. ‘Injectable insulin.’
Marielle made her move. Her knees were still drawn up to her chest, her feet flat on the couch. She launched herself at Darina, but the woman was too fast, and Marielle caught her only a glancing blow before she landed hard on the floor, and then the boy was on top of her, the needle was biting, and the world was filling with shadows.
‘You’ll sleep,’ she heard Darina say. ‘You’ll sleep for a very long time.’
The massive dose flooded Marielle’s system, and her mind began to descend into coma.
39
Eldritch woke in a hospital bed and thought, I have dreamed this dream before: a bed; a small, clean room; the pinging