The gigantic, black brick building sits on a hill, towering over us like a fortress in the heavens. The driveway I paid no attention to on the journey up is stone cobbles, uneven and hard beneath the thin soles of my ballet flats I changed into on the plane, reminding me of Italy, somewhere that, in this moment, feels so very far away.
We stand at the mouth of a bridge, wide enough for two double decker buses to cross over it at the same time, with heavystone walls lining either side of it to stop you plunging into the water below. A moat surrounds the house, and I can tell as I glance at it, even in the dark, there is a thick carpet of algae blooming across its deadly still surface.
There are spires and turrets on all sides of the building, masses of them reaching up towards the dark sky, disappearing into the clouds, light glowing from various windows and arches.
A cupola sits in the very centre of it all, the domed roof made up of colourful stained glass. A weathervane mounted on its top, a sharp looking spindle piercing the clouds.
“What do you think, Little Lamb?” Billy asks, his voice a quiet rasp, his bloodied fingers a vice.
It doesn’t take much for him to draw my attention, my gaze finding his as I shuffle my feet and turn to look up at him. He reaches out towards me, his blue eyes holding me captive as his fingers comb through my long, dark hair, and he tucks it behind my ear. His thumb on my cheekbone, he smooths it beneath my eye, the tip catching my lashes as he does.
“I’m going to make you happy now, Nellie,” he tells me softly when I don’t answer, his usual cocky smirk smoothing into something else, something seemingly more sincere. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you at my side wearing a smile.”
Pretty words.
Pretty hopes.
Pretty lies.
But my heart still hammers harder, my blood still pounds in my ears like a tidal wave crashing through me, and I fall into it once more. The fantasy that is a big house, money, safety, love. All of these things I’ve been deprived of for all of my life, apart from that one year I had with Billy. I had safety then.Love.But other than that, I’ve been at the grabby hands of unmerciful men, thrown into children’s home after children’shome, running away from Social Services more times than I can count since I was big enough to walk.
It never did me any favours though.
Running.
I always ended up somewhere worse,withsomeone worse.
“Penelope?” Billy’s voice is like a cold echo drumming through my bones, dragging me back to the present. “You okay, Little Lamb?” he asks, pinching my chin, angling my head back so I can see only him.
He blocks out everything of the world around us; I hardly even feel the light misting of rain as I focus on his springy coils of dark hair. The perfect thickness of his brows, the brightness of his blue eyes, the slight part of his lips. Absently, I nod, my throat jumping with my swallow.
“Don’t lie to me,” he breathes, dipping his head down, our foreheads kissing just before he tilts his face, angling his mouth to slant over mine, taking my lips with his own. “I know you, Nellie.”
You think so?
My head cants of its own accord, my eyelids fluttering before I glance up through my lashes. I look at him and feel love. It’s not rational, it’s not logical, it’s barely even sane, but I feel it so thoroughly it could kill me as sure as a blade.
“I love you, Billy,” I whisper. “I am frightened, but not for the reasons you think.”
It’s a truth, bare and raw, but I have spent my life afraid of one thing or another. Being brought here, to this place, with this man, it is what I want, even though I don’t understand, quite yet, what it means.
“I will always protect you,” Billy speaks lowly, pressing his words to my lips. “I love you more than any soul has ever loved another.” His hands cup my head, cradling my skull, as he draws slightly back, peering down at me intently.
Don’t you know that this is the exact thing I’m so afraid of?
“You are mine, my Pair, we are Two,” he breathes, relief flooding out with every hushed word. “I have been waiting twelve long years for you, Nellie, and tonight, the last night of The Obsidian’s calendar year, I end it with you, you end it with me. Tonight,” he pauses, really looking at me now.
I am enraptured, hanging onto his every word like he is the very god I have always believed him to be.
“We are born anew.”
Silently, Billy takes my hand once more, leading me over the cobbled bridge, under a huge archway, a spiked gate pulled up to allow entrance, and then we’re out in a courtyard. He pauses to let me look my fill, hundreds of windows surround us, lots of them lit, lots of them not. Before he tugs me gently towards a huge old looking door, black handles and hinges on the dark wood, the iron fittings rattling when he tugs it open.
“This leads to our quarters.”
Billy holds open the door. Flicking a switch on the wall and illuminating the dark space as we enter, the door closing hard behind us, a latch going into place with a clatter.
“Come.”
