“Charley, breathe. Let’s walk before you can run, aye?” I chuckled as Dalziel began ushering the boy through to the garden.
There followed some heated debate about the possibility of moving the carriage. Baxter insisted on poking about inside, returning with a grim expression.
“You really want to live in that?” she asked me, her tone not so much dubious as appalled.
I grinned at her obvious discomfort. “Eh, it’ll be fine after a good tidy-up and some fixtures and fittings. Don’t fret, lass, I’ve lived in worse.” I hadn’t, apart from a very brief period in my distant past, but I’d sleep on an inflatable mattress and cook on a camping stove if needed. A roof over my head was all that mattered while I coaxed my numerous plants to acclimatise to their new surroundings.
Baxter was still frowning. “Are you going to be all right living in something made of so much metal?” she whispered to me, her words heavy with meaning.
I felt my eyes widen at her question. “I’m a really good witch, Baxter. I assure you I’ve worked out all the possible protections I require.” I hoped my tone, while polite, told her firmly to drop the subject. She took the hint and walked over to join Stephen.
Now his moment in the spotlight had arrived, I could tell that Charley was nervous. I pulled Isher to one side. “If you can do all this without breaking a sweat, why is the boy even here?”
Isher’s gaze was fond as he watched Luc whispering to Charley; a pep talk, I presumed. “Because he needs to learn. His mother is, or was, of royal blood. As her son, he’s volatile and potentially dangerous unless he knows what he’s capable of.”
I considered that. “Fair. If he truly doesn’t know, it could be disastrous.” I eyed Edwin rounding everyone up to keep out of Charley’s way. There was no way of knowing how long the ice would last if he was attempting this solo, so we needed to movequickly as soon as it was down. Ahh, that was nice, Pavel was speaking to James. The pair of them would be best out of it. I didn’t really doubt the vampires, but one false move and anyone not capable of superhuman speed could be crushed. “So, Malin. Still no word of her whereabouts? She’s not back through the Glimmer?”
Isher gave me a look that said he found my question intrusive, which I suppose it was. “Nothing yet,” he confirmed. “But presumably she doesn’t know anyone is searching for her. Excuse me, Trace, I need to supervise.”
Charley’s clear tenor wobbled as he reminded everyone to keep back while he worked. He flashed us a grin, all teeth and nerves. “I usually have to get really fucking angry to make ice, so I’m imagining Stanno just before Sorley got to rearrange his mind.” There was a titter from everyone who knew the story behind that. “’Cept I kind oflikethat idea, so I keep forgetting to be cross.” More chuckles. He rolled his shoulders and screwed up his eyes. “Right, c’mon, dickhead, concentrate. Ooh, I know! I’ll think about homophobes and terfs and racists and…yeah…” I saw his blue eyes begin to glow with unearthly fire. “…Tories. That’ll do it.”
As we watched, the grass began to sparkle with frost. It thickened, then thickened some more. Isher said something under his breath but I was too far away to catch it. Baxter was… Oh bless her, she was clutching Edwin’s hand. I examined the sudden small stab of envy I felt until I reminded myself she was straight and he was gay.
The green began to disappear under a cloak of white, spreading out from where Charley stood, his arms taut with concentration. The earth beneath us crackled as the cold spread, faster now and in all directions. Another word from Isher and Charley shot him a small grin; his shoulders relaxed and he inhaled deeply. Then…
Whoooffft.Charley spun around, arms outstretched and we were all instantly fighting to keep our balance on thick ice.
There was absolute silence for a count of three, four, five. Then Edwin said briskly, “Well come on then if you’re possessed of supernatural strength. We’ve a railway carriage to move.” He nodded at Charley who looked a bit dazed. “Fucking awesome, sonny. Keep it crispy while we work, please?”
“Yeah, sure.” He in turn advised Isher to join the two shadows and me in one corner, then tucked himself into the protection of the new archway, muttering furiously to himself as his eyes darted continually over the spectacular skating rink he’d conjured up. Edwin, Dalziel, Baxter, Hector, Stephen and Luc slipped and slid across the surface, until Isher, doubled up laughing, waved his hands and all six found traction and started running.
“Spikes on their shoes?” I asked him as he joined me and the shadows in the corner.
“Yep. Should’ve thought of that first to be honest, but it was too funny watching them with all the grace of newborn fawns.”
Pavel’s smile was a yard wide. He waved a mobile phone at us. “Quality entertainment can be so hard to find these days. I will of course check with my master that he is willing to let me share it, but I have no doubt he will find it amusing too.” His eyes twinkled, then he heaved a sigh. “Even vampires can get hurt. I do hope they will take care.” He held the phone up once more and pressed .
I was grateful this was being recorded, because it didn’t seem physically possible. I was sure my memory would glitch at some point in the future, convincing me I’d dreamt it all, but, slowly but surely, the railway carriage slid sideways off its reinforced base, then creaked and groaned its way across the frozen expanse.
“What are all the pink lights?” James said suddenly.
What!?
“What pink lights?” Pavel replied with a bemused frown.
Isher’s face was a mask of studied bafflement as he turned to James. “You are probably overtired and imagining things,” he said airily. “As Pavel said, ‘what pink lights?’. Look, it turns out that vampiresarecapable of working harmoniously. Tch, the stories about them are obviously just fables.” As he spoke, one end of the carriage lurched forward and there was a sharp curse from behind it. In the safety of the archway, I noticed Charley flinch, then I turned my attention back to James. What business did he have seeing stuff that others didn’t? More to the point,howhad he seen it?
15
JAMES
Isher was lying to me.Or rather, not lying exactly, but near enough. I’d heard old wives’ tales about the Fae being incapable of lying but still managing to convince you black was white. Which was frustrating as fuck, especially when you considered that until meeting Edwin, I’d lived on my wits for years and could spot someone bending the truth at fifty paces. Hell, half the time I was the perpetrator of the falsehood. The question was,whywas he being so evasive? It was also hard to focus on what he said because he was so beautiful to look at. My gaze kept slipping sideways, away from his pale purple eyes and the sharp points of his ears that showed as he moved his head, peeking through his waterfall of hair. I only wished I had a quarter of his confidence about how I looked.
Trace was also remarkably quiet on the subject of the lights. He’d stiffened when I asked the question, but had smoothed his features into a telltale blankness that told me he also knew something. He was a witch, which meant he had to know a ton more about magic than I did, but his deliberate non-reaction stood out like a lighthouse in a stormy sea.
I huffed silently to myself. People often underestimated me because I couldn’t hear well. They forgot that I made sure myother senses were finely honed as a counterbalance, and what I didn’t hear, I damn near always saw or felt. Plus, and this was the most important, Ihadseen lights. I’d said they were pink because to be honest I’d never seen a colour quite like that, and pink was the nearest I got to describing it. The lights had flickered across the lawn — ice sheet, whatever — in a pattern that looked random, but also reminded me a bit of a plasma ball.
I knew vampires had perfect eyesight. I got the feeling that all supernaturals enjoyed enhanced senses, so it stood to reason that the vamps would also have witnessed the light display, even preoccupied as they were with heaving a massive hulk of wood and steel across the lawn. So why had nobody else remarked on them?
