I returned to where I’d left my bath robe, and, hoisting myself out of the water, I wrapped it around me. Then I padded over to him. He had already unzipped his coat. I took it from him and hung it around the back of his chair. He removed his sweater, along with the many other layers we had packed on him. Finally he was wearing just his pants and a T-shirt. He lifted off the latter before unbuttoning the waist of his pants. He managed to ease them off the top half of his legs without much difficulty before I took the liberty of doing the rest of the work for him. I removed his shoes and rolled off his socks, then freed his legs from the pants.
I placed his clothes on a nearby bench before returning to him. He was now wearing just his boxers. I helped him out of his chair and lowered him to the edge of the pool. I slid his legs into the water before discarding my robe and dipping back in myself. I didn’t miss the way his eyes briefly roamed my submerged body, before they returned to my face. He still had a reluctant expression, but it was playful reluctant, rather than truly reluctant.
Gripping the side of the pool with one hand, I reached out my other to hold his right forearm. I tugged on him gently until he slipped into the water next to me. He shot downward instantly, of course, being unable to move his legs. I swiftly wrapped an arm around his waist and held him against me. I guided him to grip the pool’s edge. Now he could float, his legs swayed by the water jets.
It thrilled me to see a genuine smile on his face.
“Happy you came in now?” I asked.
He nodded.
I was tempted to do some water tricks for him, but I was sure that there would be cameras in here somewhere. It was better not to risk it. I backed away and splashed around in the water, swimming up and down nearby. I watched as he sank into relaxation.
“Hey,” I said, returning to his side. “Let me take you for a swim.”
Taking one of his arms, I turned my back on him and dropped it around my shoulders.
“You can manage?” he asked dubiously.
“Of course,” I said.
He placed the other arm around me and once I felt that he was holding on securely, I kicked against the side of the pool and launched toward the center. It was always a bit awkward swimming with somebody on your back but I could hardly feel his weight anyway. I swam up and down the length of the pool a few times, letting him enjoy the feeling of movement. Then I moved to the shallow end of the pool, which sloped upward gently until the water level was low enough that one could sit down, half submerged in water. I guided him to sit next to me and took a look at his face. He was eyeing the edges of the pool. Using his hands, he moved away from me and gripped hold of the side, placing himself against the jets again. Then his eyes met mine, and he smiled a little. “Come here, Grace. I want to try something.”
“What?” I asked.
“Just come.”
I moved up to him and found him doing the same to me as I’d just done to him—taking my arms and planting them around his neck. Then, still clinging to the sides, he began moving slowly along the pool’s borders.
He smirked. “Not as interesting as your ride, I’m afraid.”
“I’m enjoying myself,” I assured him. “Just let me know if I’m strangling you.”
“Will do,” he muttered.
He made his way around the pool until we arrived back in the shallow end. Here, I slid off him and sat next to him. That had hardly been strenuous, he would have barely felt my weight, but he looked worryingly out of breath.
“You okay?” I asked.
He nodded, an expression of triumph spreading across his face. “Now I can say that I’ve carried you.”
I chuckled, even as my cheeks flushed a little. “Thank you.”
We sat there in the warm water a bit longer while he caught his breath, and then I suggested that we head back to our room to shower and change, rather than use the changing rooms here. I helped him out of the pool and into his wheelchair before dabbing him down with a towel and wrapping a robe around him. I wrapped myself in my own robe, collected our clothes, and returned us to our room.
Once I’d helped him wash off the chlorine in the shower, I wrapped him up again in towels before pushing him back into the bedroom. He said that he could manage the rest himself—getting dressed and drying his hair—and simply asked me to lay out some clothes for him. Once I’d done that, I returned to the bathroom and took a shower myself and washed my hair before changing into a pair of silky pajamas, courtesy of the hotel.
When I reemerged in the bedroom, I found Josh already in bed. He was wrapped up in blankets, sound asleep.
I padded over to him and gazed down at his face. But for the slight frown that marred his forehead, he looked peaceful. Serene. Content, even. The swim must’ve worn him out.
I was about to return to my side of the room and climb into my bed, when I found myself leaning down closer to him, until my lips grazed his forehead in a gentle kiss.
“Good night, Josh,” I whispered.
Grace
I woke up with a start the next morning. Somebody was tugging at my blankets, and then hands were grasping my shoulders. The curtains had been drawn open, sun streaming into the room, blinding me. As my vision focused, I found myself staring up at Shayla.
“Rise and shine, sweetheart,” she said. “You slept in late. I want to leave in half an hour.”
Groaning, I slowly sat up in bed and glanced toward Josh’s bed. He was sitting upright, already dressed. Through the window behind him was a bright, cheerful morning. Blue skies, not a cloud in sight. My kind of weather.
Since I’d already cleaned myself last night, I didn’t bother getting in the shower. I just went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, do my hair and get dressed. I felt nervous as I thought about the day ahead. A visit to the area where the IBSI’s base was located. I had no idea what we might find, but hopefully we would not be detected by anyone.
Shayla ordered up some breakfast. She and I stuck with cereal and fruit, while Josh would only drink a milkshake.
Then we gathered in the center of the room. Shayla placed a hand on my shoulder as well as Josh’s. A moment later, the hotel had disappeared, and we were hurtling through air at the speed of light. Traveling by the witch’s magic really was not the best thing to do right after breakfast. I was glad that I hadn’t eaten too much.
It took a few moments to orient myself as my feet hit solid ground. As I gazed around, we were standing on the sidewalk, along a long, wide road lined with graceful oak trees. On the opposite sidewalk was a high, spiked fence that stretched the entire length of the road. Beyond it was some kind of grand estate consisting of dated stone buildings. They’d been renovated recently, by the looks of it, with tinted glass windows.
It looked like it might have once been an old, prestigious university, maybe even a monastery. There was one large structure toward the center of the compound shaped like a cathedral, and other, smaller rows of pointed buildings clustered around it.
“So this is it?” I whispered. I was so used to the usual oblong, brownish, custom-made buildings that the hunters usually set up at their bases. This came as a bit of a surprise.
Shayla nodded, her focus on Josh. She gripped the handles of his wheelchair and began pushing it forward. “Any of this at all familiar to you?” she asked.
“Not yet…”
“Okay,” she said. “I’m going to make us invisible and we’re going to cross to the other side to get a closer look.” Shayla and Josh disappeared from my sight as the witch performed the spell. I kept my grip on the wheelchair so that I wouldn’t lose them. We reached the other side and peered through the fence.
When Josh still didn’t say anything, we continued walking along the road until the fence gave way to a towering gate. There were two small buildings on either side—more modern than the ones located in the main compound—and I could make out security guards through the windows.
We ought not get too much closer, or we might trigger alarms.
>
We kept moving along the road. When we finally reached the end of it, we took a right turn, following the compound fence round the corner at a ninety-degree angle. We emerged on a smaller road this time and continued circling the compound while our eyes remained fixed on the gaps in the fence’s bars. Since we moved slowly, it took us about two hours to circle the compound—it consisted of not only buildings but also fields and training grounds. When we arrived back where we’d started, Josh still hadn’t said a word, and I was already writing off the idea that he was from London after all. Heck, maybe even the idea of him being a hunter was all a stupid speculation, too.
But as we walked the final stretch of road, past a vast parking lot, finally Josh spoke. “Clyderly,” he murmured.
Shayla and I stopped walking abruptly.
“What?” we both demanded at once.
“Clyderly. That’s what it says on that van.” I looked toward a large cluster of black vans in the parking lot. They had “IBSI” painted on their sides in bold white letters, and beneath, in smaller type, were printed the names of various locations. “Leicester”, “Southport”, “Oxford”… “Clyderly.”
Clyderly.
My nose wrinkled. Where was Clyderly?
“I’ve been there before,” Josh said, his tone intensifying. “Clyderly. It rings such a bell. It’s in… Scotland, isn’t it?”
Shayla let out a breath before quickly moving us to the other side. She took us behind a tree before making us all visible again, so that we could both take in Josh’s expression. It was that of deep thought and wonder.
“Yes,” Shayla breathed. “Clyderly is the location of one of the IBSI’s bases in Scotland.”
“I’ve been there before.” He squinted, his whole face contorted as though it took everything he had to recall the memory. “It’s… it’s in the Scottish Highlands. A base. Lots of buildings. Brown buildings with lots of glass.”
Shayla’s gaze shot to mine. “We must leave for Clyderly. Immediately.”
Grace
Although we had paid for another night in our London hotel, Shayla managed to convince them to give us a partial refund. We hurried back to our rooms, where I packed up all of our stuff again, and then we left the hotel like normal people—through the main exit, before heading down to the small lane that we’d first arrived at near the hotel. It was here that Shayla vanished us.
When we landed this time, my teeth chattered. A harsh wind howled around us, penetrating through my clothes. My feet felt like ice cubes. I feared for Josh. I reached instinctively for him and readjusted his scarf, wrapping it more tightly around him, as well as making sure that his hat covered his ears. We were standing in the middle of a snowdrift, rolling hills and mountains surrounding us for as far as I could see. Behind us was a road, whose tarmac I could barely make out beneath the snow. It wound down the mountain we were standing on toward what appeared to be a small, quaint village, about half a mile away.
“Aha,” Shayla said. “Let me take us closer.”
She brought us closer to the village, which was filled with mostly cottages. The largest building was a castle, bordering a mini-town square with frozen fountains.
“This is the nearest settlement to Clyderly that I’m aware of,” Shayla said, striding forward toward the old castle. “And this”—she pointed to the castle—“was once a hotel.”
“Once a hotel?” I asked.
“Mm-hm. Just as this was once a pretty little tourist resort.”
When I gazed more closely at the buildings surrounding the square, all of them appeared to be deserted. Dilapidated, in fact—windows smashed in, doors broken open.
“What is this place?” I whispered.
“Ogres have traveled through these parts,” Shayla said darkly. “The inhabitants upped and left, a long time ago now.”
My stomach tensed. “Why do we need to stay here at all, then? Can’t we just go to Clyderly and then be done with it? We could find some proper hotel somewhere else that’s safe, if we really have to stay another night in this country.”
“Don’t worry, Grace,” Shayla said. “I’ll make it safe for us. I’ll cast a protective charm. And I’ll also make it warm. We may not need to stay the night here at all—which would be preferable—but we might as well leave our stuff here, and it might come in handy to have a base nearby… We never know what could happen.”
The wooden door to the old castle had been ripped open, and an icy breeze ran through the dark lobby as we entered. Shayla strode to the empty reception desk and bent down behind it, rummaging and withdrawing a key. Then she vanished us upstairs to what appeared to be the highest floor in the castle, judging from the view outside. She stopped outside Room 109. The lock still worked fine and none of the rooms here appeared to have been broken into—at least, not on this floor.
The door creaked eerily as she pushed it open, and we emerged into what was actually more like an apartment than a hotel room or even a suite. There were two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchenette. I imagined this place would have looked quite regal back in the day. The furniture looked antique and ornamental. Silk carpets swathed the wooden floors. The curtains draping the windows were heavy and thick. The two bedrooms were double, though neither of them had twin beds… I guessed one of us could sleep on the sofa, which looked pretty comfy.
Shayla used her magic to give the place a quick dusting, and she invoked roaring fires in the hearths of the bedrooms and living room. I pushed Josh next to the fire in the living room so that both of us could warm up.
After casting her protective charm, Shayla took my suitcase from me and planted it down in one of the bedrooms, along with her backpack.
“Right,” she said, drawing in a breath. “I suggest we don’t hang around here too long. If both of you are ready, let’s go.”
She vanished Josh and me back into the cold. This time, it truly was to the middle of nowhere. Not a single building was in sight. Not the slightest signs of civilization—not even any roads that I could make out.
I looked to Shayla, clasping my coat closer around me.
“Hm,” she murmured. “Yeah, this isn’t right. It’s been a long time since I last came here. Much longer than London. It might take me a little while to figure this out…”
She made us vanish and then appear again some miles away, still in the middle of nowhere. She continued transporting us in this way, each time assuring us that she felt that we were getting closer. Finally, as night was approaching, I was on the verge of suggesting that we give up for the day and return to warm ourselves in the castle when we spotted it. The glow of buildings in the distance. Brown, oblong buildings with tinted glass. Perched among the lower foothills.
“Yes,” Josh said suddenly. “This is it. This is… Clyderly.”
Shayla moved us closer, right up to the electric fence that lined the sprawling compound. I spotted several hunters roaming around near the buildings, armed with guns and wearing black.
Josh’s eyes bulged so much that I began to worry about him. I placed a hand on his shoulder. “What is it?” I asked. “Are you remembering?”
His lips parted, his breathing starting to come hard and fast. “My God. These buildings. Yes. Yes!” he exclaimed, nodding vigorously.
“Yes, what?” Shayla demanded.
“Take me around this fence,” Josh breathed, his breath forming plumes of mist in the icy air. “I want to see more of this place.”
Shayla made us invisible first, then made all three of us hover in the air—including Josh’s chair.
As we gained a bird’s eye view of the compound, Josh’s breathing only became more erratic, more uneven.
What are you remembering, Josh? I hoped that it was nothing too traumatic, though given the state we’d found him in and everything I knew of the IBSI, I would be naive to expect it would be anything but.
By the time Shayla finished giving us an aerial tour of the base, she drifted us down to the ground, about half a mile aw
ay and on a different mountain peak than where we first arrived—granting us a different angle of the compound from the ground. Here, she removed the invisibility spell.
“What do you remember?” I urged Josh.
He shut his eyes tight and gripped his head in his hands.
I exchanged glances with Shayla. Although curiosity was burning me alive, it was best not to push him. It was best to let him come out with whatever he was thinking naturally. So the witch and I waited patiently, staring at him even as he retreated further into himself.
I tore my eyes away from him for a moment to gaze once again at the compound, but also the rest of our breathtaking surroundings. As I twisted to gaze down at the view beneath us, I spotted something I hadn’t seen from the other side of the base. Sprawled out beneath us on a plateau was a sea of tombstones enclosed by a picket fence. In between was scattered an occasional wind-stripped tree. A graveyard? This seemed an odd place for a graveyard.
I pointed it out to Shayla, whose eyes had remained on Josh the whole time.
“Interesting,” Shayla said. She reached for Josh’s shoulder, grabbing his attention, and pointed down to the graveyard.
Josh’s expression froze the moment he laid eyes on it. His pupils narrowed as he breathed, “Take me down there.”
Shayla immediately acquiesced and gripped his chair’s handles. I held on to her while she vanished us down into the midst of the graves. Surrounded by these countless gray tombs, Josh began to gaze around wildly, and my concern for him intensified as his eyes began to roll. When his breath hitched and his head jerked backward, I knew something was really wrong.
“Uh-oh,” Shayla said, rushing to support his head.
But his eyes were closed now, though his eyeballs still appeared to be rolling in their sockets.
But maybe this wasn’t bad. Maybe this was Josh remembering. Maybe this was memories flooding back to him. Perhaps we just needed to leave him and let nature take its course.
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