She smiled crookedly and adjusted the collar of the dark shirt poking out from underneath his jumper. ‘I’ll try to put Henry off the scent, but you know what he’s like. I’m afraid that sooner or later they’ll want to talk to you. And to her.’ She lowered her voice, and I took a step away from them. Not just to give them some privacy, but so I could pretend I didn’t know they were talking about me. I didn’t want to think about what happened next.
‘I know. I’m ready for whatever’s coming.’ Cliff hesitated, then he hugged her again. His voice was mostly lost in her thick hair, and the rest was plucked apart by the gust of winter wind between us, so that it reached me only in fragments. ‘Thank you. And… forgive me.’
‘There’s nothing to forgive,’ she replied just as quietly, before she pulled away. ‘But you know he won’t see it like that.’
He nodded slowly. ‘Like I said: I’m ready.’
We watched Norah until she had vanished into the densely woven network of passageways. For a few minutes more we lingered there, standing close yet in our own separate worlds, then Cliff took my hand. ‘Milk and honey?’
I smiled and squeezed his fingers. ‘Sounds good.’
* * *
I sat down on the sofa while Cliff heated up the milk. When he brought it in I was just finishing a brief conversation with Zoe. I accepted one of the two porcelain mugs gratefully, drawing up my feet so he could sit next to me.
‘Zoe’s feeling better,’ I told him after the first sip. ‘She’s staying at her parents’ place for another week. At least Ashton won’t be able to take his temper out on her when he finds out what we’ve done.’ I hesitated, setting the drink down on the table.
‘You want to tell her the truth,’ he said, before I could go on. He didn’t sound troubled or surprised, more like he’d seen it coming.
‘I don’t think I have a choice. Zoe needs to know why she has to stay away from Ashton. Even if you can’t leave your bodies anymore, he could still try to drain her energy. Or he could use her to get revenge on me in some other way. I have to protect her.’
He stirred his milk pensively with the silver spoon. ‘Do you think she’ll believe you?’
‘She believes inastrology,’ I replied, giving him a look. ‘If I can believe it, she definitely can.’
Cliff smiled and put his mug down, too. ‘All right, then go for it.’
I sat up straighter, astonished. I’d been expecting a lot more resistance. We’d struck a fatal blow to the League, but even so, I assumed the Starlings would be none too pleased about me spilling their secrets. ‘You don’t mind?’
‘It doesn’t matter anymore who knows what. I mean, we probably shouldn’t go to the newspapers with it, but—’ He broke off when he saw my face change, twisting with pain the way it always did when I thought of Davie.
‘I’m sorry.’ He stroked my hand, which was clenched rigidly around my knee. ‘He could still recover. Anything’s possible.’
I noticed the deliberate subjunctive. He knew as well as I did that he could make no promises. My only hope was that Davie would be as tenacious now as when he was chasing down a story.
I forced myself to smile. ‘I know. And when he does, I’ll ask him to be discreet. Davie’s pretty good with secrets, as long as he’s in on them.’
‘All right, let’s do that. I don’t want you lying to your friends for my sake.’ He grinned half-heartedly. ‘Plus you’re still pretty crap at it. You’re not going to fool anybody even if you try.’
‘Hey,’ I began, mock-outraged, then broke off instantly when the doorbell rang.
I hadn’t realised it was possible to ring a doorbell angrily– until now. Whoever it was, they were holding down the button while hammering against the wood with their other hand. Cliff and I exchanged a look. I swallowed; he ran a hand through his hair.Whoever it was?Bullshit. We both knew exactly who it was.
‘Maybe you shouldn’t answer,’ I whispered. ‘Wait until he’s calmed down.’
Cliff shook his head and stood up. ‘You don’t know Ashton.’ He stopped just before he reached the door and turned to me. ‘Look, stay back, all right? And… I’m sorry.’
Confused, I opened my mouth, but he was already turning away again and reaching for the handle. It happened so quickly that I didn’t catch on. I sat immobilised on the sofa, watching as Ashton pushed Cliff back into the flat and followed him inside. As the door was still falling shut, he swung. There was an unpleasantly dull crunch as his fist hit Cliff’s nose. Cliff grunted, and I pressed both hands to my mouth to suppress my scream. Still, Ashton’s voice rose above everything else.
‘After. Everything. I’ve. Done. For. You?’ Each word was asnarl, the sentence punctuated by blows. Two more to the face– one in the eye, another just below the cheekbone. Cliff’s head snapped to the side, then Ashton’s fist struck him in the ribs and stomach. Cliff sagged a little, but he didn’t fight back. No raised hands, no attempts to get away. He staggered against the wall, letting Ashton pin him there, his forearm across Cliff’s throat. ‘Was it worth it?’ he spat into his face. ‘Was her shitty life worth betraying all of us?’
‘Ash—’ Cliff broke off when a fist slammed into the wall beside his head. One of the frames wobbled threateningly–like my knees, when I finally managed to stand up.
‘Let him go!’
Ashton shot me a glare over his shoulder. His usually light eyes were incredibly dark, as if the pupils had blown out and begun to leak. Hatred had contorted his angelic features into an expression that looked more like a devil’s. ‘I’ll get to you later, Moth,’ he snapped, before turning his attention back to Cliff.
Cliff put a hand on the forearm crushing his larynx. ‘She had nothing to do with this.’
