But she hadn’t always. He knew that instinctively. She’d been engaged to Simon Poullain, clearly had adored him. She still wore his necklace around her neck and in the photos he had seen of them together…no, there was no doubt in his mind.
It was something more than his death. Grief alone didn’t explain it. She had run away from the relationship even if it had taken her this long to admit that. She had run away from settling down with Simon and sought out a new life on her own terms. And then she had run away from that when she lost him.
She was the puzzle he longed to unravel. To understand. Even if it took forever to do that. If only he could keep up with her.
The thought shocked him, stopped him in his tracks.
Before he had a chance to examine the feelings any further, the door opened again and Ari waved him inside.
Jason paced back and forth in the living room. He still didn’t look happy, but at least there didn’t seem to be an imminent risk of assault.
‘Jason,’ Ari said, her tone all warning.
He stopped, glared at Rafael. ‘I’m sorry.’ He spat out the words and Rafael realised that that was all he was likely to get from either of the Walkers for the time being.
‘Jason,’ she said again, more gently.
Rafael fought to hold back a smile, which really wouldn’t help right now. The teacher in her was coming out.
‘I said I’m sorry. What else do you want?’
‘Apology accepted,’ Rafael said before the situation could get any more awkward.
‘We need to talk about the cave,’ Ari cut in before he could say anything else. ‘We need to go back there. Gather evidence.’
‘Where’s the mask?’ Jason asked. ‘If it’s so dangerous, if it has the effect on the two of you that you say it does…’
‘Locked away, safe. I can show you if you want.’
‘Now.’
‘Of course.’
‘Jason, it’s there, I put it there,’ Ari said. ‘And it’s safe, I promise.’
She had trusted him with that, Rafael thought. That was something, wasn’t it? It had to be.
Jason, however, was unconvinced. ‘I still want to see it.’
She clenched her teeth and made eye contact with Rafael. She clearly didn’t want her brother near the mask and if the effect it had on him was anything to go by, he knew why.
‘We need to explain, Ari,’ Rafael said cautiously. She wouldn’t want to. ‘Everything.’
She shook her head, but Jason was not going to back down. Not without an explanation, so slowly, reluctantly, Rafael started to explain. Everything. From the fall of Ys, to the deaths, to the curse on his own family. He told Jason the version of the tale he knew, how Ankou and Dahut were lovers forced apart by death, how Ankou blessed her to be desired and gave her the mask as a protection, how she used it to kill the unworthy and how his ancestor the Mac’htiern freed Cap Sizun from her tyranny, destroying Ys.
And he told him about the curse, how all the men of his line were doomed to be taken by the water: and how it might be broken by protecting the last remnants of Ys. He didn’t mention his son and, to his relief, neither did Ari.
Jason, who had sunk into one of the armchairs at some point in the saga, leaned forward and all traces of agitation had gone. ‘That’s…quite a story.’
‘It’s true, Jason,’ Ari assured him. ‘The cave confirms it. Fabien and Tristan found it in 1943. They died to keep it secret. And I think Simon did as well, or at least he was on the right track. He found the mask. He hid it. And it killed him.’
‘This ghost you saw…Ankou…are you sure, Ari?’ When she nodded solemnly, he closed his eyes. ‘Did you ask him?’
Rafael wasn’t sure what she was meant to have asked him, but she gave her brother a look of such pain that he didn’t want to ask.
‘I think Dahut murdered him. That’s what Ankou is, isn’t it? The unquiet dead, the first drowning, murder or suicide of a season. I think she’s hunting all of us, to stop Rafael breaking the curse. I think she killed Thierry too. I think she tried to get Nico when—’
‘Where is Nico?’ Rafael asked.
