‘What is it?’ he asked.
She lifted the torch up a little and it picked out the grinning face of the golden idol. It sat upright in the corner, as if it had been carefully placed there, surveying the whole undercroft. Staring at them.
‘And what the fuck is that?’ Nick exclaimed.
She didn’t know the answer to that. She couldn’t seem to find words.
‘Alex? What happened?’ Nick asked, trying desperately to gentle his own voice and barely managing it.
Alex opened her mouth to answer but she was suddenly exhausted, her head pounding with a headache. All that she had in her had gone into freeing Sally from whatever that thing was. And she wouldn’t have managed without Theo.
He’d come to help her, to save Sally. She had called him when she called the wild wood and now…now he was gone again.The pang of loss shot through her again, that emptiness. He was gone. And so was Sally.
And how did she begin to explain any of that? Especially to Nick.
I exorcised your wife. She’s gone forever. You’ll never see her again. She went with my brother, the man who stole her from you in life as well…
No. No, she couldn’t say that.
‘She saved Mummy,’ Maeve piped up, unexpectedly, her voice still racked with sobs. ‘The bad man had Mummy and Alex saved her and set her free. Alex and the man made of the light from the forest. And they saved me. From the dark man.’ She sobbed again, rubbing her hands furiously on her clothes in desperation. ‘Daddy, there’s icky stuff all over me. I can’t get it off.’
CHAPTER 39
ALEX
The first thing was to scrub Maeve’s hands and arms clean, and then bundle her up in the car with Patricia, Nick holding her close until the very last minute, almost bent double, half in the car, promising over and over that he’d come down to the village and see her as soon as he could.
Alex stood by awkwardly, trying to keep from breaking down into a sobbing mess herself. She wanted to. She wasn’t sure how she was holding anything together.
She had seen Theo. Without him, she might not even be standing here. He had saved her, Maeve and Sally. She wouldn’t have had the strength without him.
And then what would have happened?
She remembered that place, the creeping darkness sucking at her soul. She remembered her dad…
‘Run, Alex! You have to run! NOW!’
How did she remember that now? And why did the darkness that had reared up around her in the undercroft still feel like it was pressing in on the back of her mind?
‘Alex?’ Nick called her back to the here and now with a start. His voice sounded as shaky as she felt. ‘Maeve would like to talk to you.’
Alex leaned into the car only to be engulfed in a huge hug. ‘Thank you,’ the little girl said into her shoulder, her voice muffled but unmistakable. ‘And you have to be careful now. He’s angry. He saw you, and he remembers you. He wants you.’
‘Who?’ She couldn’t mean Nick. He just looked terrified.
‘The dark man. Here—’ Maeve pulled back and then scrabbled around in the pocket on the seat in front of her, before pulling out a plait made of dried grass and withered daisies. Another one. How many did the child have? She knotted it around Alex’s wrist before Alex could stop her. ‘The other one is gone with the man from the forest, but this will protect you. I promise. Like you promised my mummy you’d protect me and Daddy. I’ll look after you too, Alex.’
‘Thank you, sweetheart,’ Alex replied. ‘And…maybe stay with your gran now until we know it’s safe here, okay? No more adventures until you’re bigger.’
Maeve grinned at her. ‘And when I’m bigger, I’m going to hunt down ghosts like you. And help them. Like you helped Mummy.’
Patricia couldn’t wait to get into the car and drive away. Alex didn’t blame her.
She and Nick watched them go until they vanished beyond the gates. He had his arms wrapped around his chest, like he was still hugging his daughter. Alex fiddled with the new grass bracelet and wished she had the child’s powers of belief. Especially self-belief.
Dark clouds were gathering over the valley beyond the trees, that kind of roiling darkness that presaged a storm.
Nick drew in a shuddering breath before turning to her.
