by Ruby Brown
In a whirl of pain, screams and desperation, the three of them managed to get back up to where Mal’s mum was sleeping. As Rose blocked up the door, Mal and Dallas didn’t have much choice but to quickly disentangle her from the tubes that held her captive and hope that she would be able to survive the trip back to Tenebar. In a garble of barely understandable speech, Mal began to explain what Claire’s plan had been to get her dad out, but just as they were preparing for the climb down, they noticed a syndicate of Aril starting to swarm up the side of the building. Mal’s heart turned to stone and plunged to her stomach as Dallas slammed the window shut and backed away. This was their worst nightmare.
“Come here!” Rose called, and without question Dallas and Mal came to stand next to her. Mal had her arms looped underneath her mother’s own, supporting her head while Dallas gripped her knees. Mal couldn’t stop her eyes from drifting towards the rise and fall of Abigail’s chest, checking again and again that it was still there. Rose took a deep breath, and the next second they were all encased in a shell of flames. Rose had used her magic to create a dome above them as a form of protection. It hovered high enough above the floor that it didn’t burn, but black scorch marks followed them everywhere they went.
“This isn’t safe!” Dallas shouted. “You’re going to run out of...”
“I’m fine,” Rose said with determination, although she was shaking and had to fight to keep her breathing steady. Mal could see that the bar on her Spatium was glowing neon orange, which was a bad sign.
“Let’s just get out quickly,” she said grimly, tightening her grip on Abigail’s arms. Rose nodded, and thinned the flames in front of her face so that she could see. Dallas still looked worried, but his eyes flashed suddenly and Mal knew that he had resigned himself.
When Rose opened the door, Mal couldn’t imagine what the servants gathered outside were thinking. They exploded outside in a blaze of light and heat, and Mal could hear screams as the flames seared their first victims. But however hot it was standing outside the cave of fire, it was nothing compared to standing inside it. Mal and Dallas were already sweating, their slippery hands struggling to find purchase on the body suspended in between them. They had to watch every movement they made just in case they accidentally brushed up against the flames on either side of them. It was also incredibly claustrophobic, and Mal was having trouble breathing. Blindly, they followed Rose, who was the only one who could see out of the dome, and headed for the front entrance as quickly as they could. They could hear screeching from every direction, the results of people trying to break through the shield. Rose and Mal were painfully aware that there was another bonfire currently spreading out from the library. All they could do was rely on a dwindling supply of hope.
As soon as they reached the door, Rose dropped the inferno and flung it open. As she did so, Dallas pulled Abigail from Mal’s grasp and flung her over his shoulder. The three of them sprinted from the exit, their feet pounding on the cobbled pathways that wound their way through the picturesque town. They launched themselves down the alleyway they had emerged from a lifetime ago, and charged through the eerie darkness of the tunnel snaking it way underneath the city. When they finally broke out into the teeming nightlife of the city, they ducked around a corner and crouched in the shadows behind a building, hoping they would be safe from the glaring artificial lights.
Dallas gently lowered Abigail onto the dirt floor, and the rest of them collapsed next to her. Mal immediately crawled towards her mum and took her hand, feeling the weak pulse beat underneath her fingertips as she leaned back against a building and stared at the sky. She felt like she had been run over by a steamroller. She was being weighed down by so many thoughts and questions that she couldn’t stand even if she’d tried.
Rose was crouched in a corner, hunched over as she threw up into the grass. Dallas was next to her, looking distinctly paler than usual as he rubbed her back gently. When Rose was finished, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve and stood up. Her skin was a pale green colour, clammy and covered in sweat. Her eyes were so wide they looked like the moon shining above them, but she refused to make direct eye contact with anyone. Blood trickled from the crescent marks her nails had made as she dug them into her palms.
Looking at her, Dallas knew he probably shouldn’t ask. But he couldn’t resist. The absence of Thomas and Trixie haunted him, leaving gaps in the night where they should be. A part of him still hoped that they were okay, that they had taken a different route or something. Before common sense caught up with him, he blurted out “where are the kids?” The tightening of Rose’s shoulders as he face crumpled like a piece of paper between someone’s hands gave him all the information he needed. The knowledge crushed him with its weight and he felt his bones starting to splinter apart. “Rose...I’m so sorry,” was all he could say as his head began to spin.
To his horror, Rose started crying again, painfully heartbreaking sobs that only expressed a minute fraction of the pain ripping her insides to pieces. Sour bile burned her throat as she covered her mouth with one hand to try and stop the sobs that threatened to shatter her body like it was made of glass. A part of her was furious with herself for letting Mal and Dallas see her in such a state, but she could barely hear it over the memories, the images that flashed behind her eyelids every time she blinked. Thomas’ laughter morphed into screams, Trixie’s glittering smile became the expression on her face as she died, and of course there was always the question that had possessed her ever since her parents died: why wasn’t I good enough?
Dallas didn’t know what to do. Anything he could have said in that moment would be painfully insignificant and blown away by the gentle breeze as soon as they left his lips. He was suddenly ridiculously aware of his hands. What was he supposed to be doing with them? You...pat sad people, right? That was all the thought his brain could produce in that moment, so he awkwardly held out one of his hands and placed it on Rose’s shoulder, his fingers tapping a drumbeat on her skin. Instantly, Rose grabbed hold of his sweater and pulled him to her, wrapping her arms around him and almost crushing him in a hug that was so tight it was almost as if she was trying to fuse them together. Dallas rested his chin on her head as she cried, and looked at Mal with wide, terrified eyes. Mal managed a weak smile in his direction and then went back to looking at the moon.
They stayed there for what seemed like hours, until the blood from their wounds dried and covered their numb skin in gory patches. Finally, Rose pulled away from Dallas and wiped away the rest of her tears, smudging her makeup even more. Silently, she pulled out her phone and called up one of her friends from Tenebar. “Hey, can you come pick us up?” she asked in a trembling voice. “Yes, I know it’s late...no, I’m not drunk...oh my god why can’t you ever believe me when I say I’m not drunk...last time I checked you weren’t my mother, so enough with the lecture. Look, I’m texting you the location, so just hurry up okay?” Rose hung up the call, sent the text, and then shoved her phone back into her pocket.
About half an hour later, a sleek black car rolled up and parked next to the pavement. The driver was an Asian girl with messy black hair that had been streaked with lines of vibrant purple. She had about five piercings in each ear, a nose ring and a band in a shape of a snake that looped around her middle finger. Her tattoos timidly peeked their way out from her sleeves and collar, and her chipped dark blue nail polish glinted in the light of the streetlamps as her fingers tapped along to the classical music that was blaring from the speakers. She raised an eyebrow when she caught sight of Abigail, but mercifully didn’t ask any questions. Mal didn’t think any of them had energy left for talking. They climbed in the back seat, awkwardly dragging Abigail after them, and then merged into the traffic rumbling along the main road.
“Can’t you turn the music down, Hex?” Rose asked.
Hex raised an eyebrow. “I had to abandon my precious beauty sleep to come out here at god-awful hours of the night to pick you hobos up, not to mention you want me
to cart an unconscious body halfway across the city. I’m going to play my music as goddamn loud as I want to, and you can deal with it, okay? Okay. Glad we’re all in agreeance.” Then she reached over and increased the volume even more.
“I’m not a hobo,” Rose mumbled.
“Yeah? Well you freaking look like one,” Hex responded.
“You’re one to talk,” Rose said, eyeing the tangled chaos of Hex’s hair. Hex’s pale pink lips curved up into a smile, and she reached into her glove compartment to pull out a chocolate bar. Haphazardly, she threw it into the back seat, apparently not caring whether or not she smacked someone in the face. Within seconds, the food was gone.
Hex parked the car a safe distance from Tenebar, and they walked the rest of the way on foot. Hex danced ahead, looking forward to getting back into the warm confines of her bed, while Rose and Mal carried Abigail and Dallas stayed at the back of the group, keeping an eye out for any signs of trouble. Their nerves were still raw from everything that had happened earlier that night.
“Why did you have to choose her to pick us up?” Mal grumbled. “My head hurts from that stupid music.”
“Mozart is not stupid!” Hex cried indignantly, but she didn’t seem that offended.
“She doesn’t ask questions. She just gets the job done,” Rose responded.
“And that’s why I’m the best!” Hex called back, grinning.
The relief that washed over Mal once they stepped back inside Tenebar was indescribable. If she hadn’t been supporting Abigail, she probably would have just fallen to the floor and refused to get back up ever again. Here, she was safe. This was home. They had made it. Hex immediately went straight to bed, considering her job done, and the others carried Abigail to the hospital wing.
Whatever happened next was a blur of softly whirring machines, odd smelling chemicals and scratchy bandages. All three of them just sat there, limp and empty, staring off into the distance as they were looked after by the medical staff. Mal reckoned she should be more concerned with the wellbeing of her mother, but logic told her that Abigail was safe and she could finally, finally relax. Physically, she was completely spent and she begged her brain to let her sleep, but to no avail. She spent the whole night staring at the ceiling, plagued by a terrible hollowness, as she listened to Rose crying softly into her pillow.
Chapter 38
After a hospital breakfast that tasted vaguely of disinfectant, Mal got up to see how her mum was doing. She had to lean on every object and person she passed for stability. Her legs were still trembling and felt like they might collapse underneath her at any moment. When she reached Abigail’s bedside, she held on tightly to the cold metal frame and looked down. Despite being hooked up to twice as many tubes and machines as before, Abigail definitely didn’t look as pale as she did when Mal found her. But she was still so thin that Mal could almost see the steady thumping of her heart beneath her skin.
“She’ll be alright,” said a dark-skinned nurse in a comforting voice as she sidestepped Mal to adjust one of the tubes. Mal smiled weakly and nodded, grabbing a chair so she could sit by her mum. A part of her was afraid that if she left, Abigail would disappear, like smoke blown away by the wind. She wound her fingers through Abigail’s own and stayed there until Rose and Dallas woke up and came to see her.
“How’s she doing?” Rose asked in a hushed voice.
Mal stood up and crossed her arms across her stomach. “The nurse told me she’ll be okay. How’re you two holding up?” Dallas managed a small smile and a nod, but Rose looked away. “Aren’t we meant to be giving some kind of speech later?” Mal asked. She remembered hearing someone talking very loudly about some kind of lecture last night.
Rose nodded. “The whole of Tenebar is buzzing. They want answers, and Melissa asked us to explain what happened.”
“Melissa?”
“Cass put her in charge before she left to come find you.”
“Can she be trusted then?”
Rose shrugged. “Let’s hope so.”
A silence fell across the group, each individual lost in their own thoughts of the betrayals and losses they had all experienced that night. Rose was tugging on her locket, winding the chain through her fingers and biting her lower lip. Dallas just stared at the floor as if he could find answers inscribed on the cold tiles. Mal stared at her mum, both pleading for and dreading the day she’d wake up. None of them could face the idea of talking to other people, people who wouldn’t understand, so they stayed hidden in the hospital wing until they were summoned back to the dining hall. Mal felt like there were chains around her ankles as she dragged herself down the stairs. Rose looked terrified, but Dallas just seemed mildly uncomfortable. When they opened the doors and stepped through, the cheery lunchtime discussion screeched to an abrupt halt and all the faces turned to them. There was silence, and then a sudden outbreak of hushed whispers that flittered around the room like butterflies.
Mal avoided looking at anyone as she walked to the front of the room. She could hear the footsteps of Rose and Dallas walking behind her. They were far too loud and mingled with the sound of her frantic heartbeat. She hesitated at the steps leading up to the podium, and stepped aside slightly to let Rose and Dallas through first so she could hide behind them. She did her best to stay behind them when they turned and faced the crowd, Rose with her head held high, Dallas with an expression like thunder and Mal crouched between them like a child. She hated herself for it.
The woman Mal presumed to be Melissa stepped up to the microphone and began to talk. Her voice rang out to a sea of intent faces, every single one of them feasting on her words instead of the food in front of them. They were hungry for something else right now. Mal wasn’t listening to Melissa talking, and she strongly suspected Dallas and Rose weren’t either. She was busy constructing what she was going to say, assembling it word by word like the bricks of a house, but nothing she came up with sounded right. When she imagined herself saying it to the crowd in front of her, it left a bitter taste on her tongue. Far too soon, the applause that signalled the end of Melissa’s speech and the start of Mal’s rang through the chamber and she found the microphone in her hand. Expectant faces shone out from the crowd. She glanced back at her friends, who were completely expressionless, took a deep breath and then started to talk.
She could barely remember anything she said. She was just functioning on autopilot, stumbling over her own words in an attempt to get them out as quickly as possible and stop rubbing salt on the wounds. She heard Rose’s sharp intake of breath when she mentioned Thomas, and silently apologised to her. Dallas remained stoic throughout the whole thing, which was normal, but there was a certain rigidity that hadn’t been there before. It was like for the first time in his life he wasn’t completely comfortable with blending into the background. When Mal eventually lowered the microphone from her trembling lips, her mouth was arid. No one was talking. Dallas came up and placed his hand on her shoulder, his way of telling her she had done a good job. Mal could see several people in the crowd hunched over their tables, crying, but no one was crying harder than Allie. Mal felt her heart clench as she imagined what Allie was going through right now. What must it like to hear your daughter’s death announced like that? Allie looked up, locked eyes with Mal, and then stood. Mal expected her to leave the room so she could grieve in private, but to her surprise she started to stagger towards the stage.
When Allie stood in front of Mal and held her hand out for the microphone, Mal gave it to her without hesitation. She expected Allie just wanted to pay some kind of tribute to the daughter she had lost, which is why it surprised her so much when the first words she spoke were “I’ve been lying to you all.”
More whispers from the crowd. Allie lowered her head and clenched the microphone with both hands. When she looked up again, she seemed to have regained some composure. “There are several important questions here that need to be answered, and I can clarify them for you. But first...” she turned to M
elissa “...I want assurance that, since I spoke out, my punishment will be less severe.”
“No such claim can be made at this point in time,” Melissa said, oddly formal. Her voice was clipped and stern. “Tell us what you know, and then we will decide.”
Allie knew that arguing would only make it worse. She turned back to the crowd. “I’m not Trixie’s real mother. I adopted her years before I came to Tenebar. I remember seeing her in the orphanage, just a toddler back then, arguing with another child about some toy they both wanted. I saw her use her magic to get him away from it so she could have it to herself. That’s when I knew I needed to get her out of there and take her to a safe place.
“As I trained her, it became apparent to me that her powers were unlike anything I’d ever seen. She could warp the shadows in her bedroom to keep her entertained when she was bored, or banish the clouds from the sky when she didn’t want it to rain. The scariest thing was how she could control people’s thoughts and change her appearance.
“I did some research and realised that Trixie was using light and dark magic. I wanted to protect her from Akraansir, so I applied for a job here where she would be protected by the magic of everyone else. I asked her to change her appearance so that Akraansir wouldn’t recognise her, bought her medicine to try and supress the darker side of her abilities and kept her away from weapons.