‘You need to get to the hospital. Let me take you.’
She steps back, her motion unsteady. ‘It’s over. I’m not strong enough to fight her.’
I let out my breath. ‘Youarestrong! You are the strongest person I’ve ever met. Why won’t you fight back?’
‘She’s a goddess, Michael. I can’t—’
‘Yes, you can.’
‘Fine then. I want it, OK? I want to be special too.’ Her lip trembles.
‘You’ll die, Meg, and I don’t want to lose you, becauseyoualready are special. You already make a difference. You changed me. You made me believe in myself and opened my eyes to what was happening. You already have that power. You’re fucking amazing, Meg. How can you make me believe in myself, but not see yourself?’
A little colour returns to her cheeks. ‘Yeah?’
‘Yes, you dick. I love you.’
She laughs and, oh, I’ve missed it. I laugh too.
‘I’m scared,’ she says.
‘I know, but do you want to be you?’
A nod. ‘But how do I be me after seeing so much?’
A crow caws from the lamppost and an idea drops in my head. ‘You tell the story.’
Meg looks up. ‘What?’
‘You become a file báis. With me. We could…we can tell the stories together. And not just stories of war and death, the stories of the people of this place. Like my aunt, my granda. All the silenced voices, like the mothers who had to leave their babies in graveyards. All of them. The Morrigan want the past to be remembered, but it has to be through the people who lived here, all of them, we need to tell their stories. Think of what you could do.’
Meg’s eyes brighten, there’s a tiny smile and I see her. My confident, curious friend. ‘But will they…?’
‘Ask them.’
She closes her eyes and a whisper of wings fills the night as two crows land on her shoulders. The world falls still. Meg’s skin begins to glow and when her eyes open they are black.
Fear licks at me as the Morrigan speaks through her. ‘You have much to learn about what we are, file báis. Death and war are woven into the world. We are in all stories as sure as every person has a shadow. The filí báis keep the fire burning in us all. Will you do your duty?’
‘With pride.’
She raises her chin. ‘Then you and your friend will work together.’
The light fades from Meg’s skin and the birds fly off, their black forms disappearing into the night.
‘Meg?’
She smiles weakly. ‘That was fucking cool.’
‘Are they still with you?’
‘They’re gone.’ She wipes away a tear. ‘You saved me, Michael.’
Being careful of her hand, I wrap her in a hug for a full twenty seconds.
‘Thank you,’ she whispers in my ear.
‘Thankyou.’ I step back. ‘We need to get you to the hospital and I need to see my dad.’ I let a silence settle between us. Every part of me aches but there’s a release too, a lightening. Hope. ‘I can’t believe we did it.’
