Though it was impossible to make out John’s face from such a distance without the help of a magnifying lens, it wasn’t hard to see that the ship on which he was standing was changing course. It had begun to turn, slowly but inexorably, towards the one headed our way.
“What’s he … That is so weird,” Alex said. “There’s no one else in the wheelhouse. There’s no one steering those ships. No one but —”
Alex abruptly lowered the spyglass, staring across the water at the two boats as if he’d just realized something. The realization was evidently not a good one, since the next word out of his mouth was of the four- letter variety.
“Alexander!” Chloe cried, shocked. Her gaze went to Henry. “There are children present.”
Henry hurried to reassure her. “Oh, I’m used to it, miss.”
“That doesn’t make it right,” Chloe said, with a pretty scowl.
Alex was ignoring them both. “That’s why he went out there. There’s no one steering them, and they’re coming in too fast,” he said. He swung an accusing look at me. “Was that what the two of you were whispering about?”
“Yes,” I said. “He’s going to try to stop them.”
Everyone had turned to stare at me, I suppose because I was sitting on top of Alastor’s back, where I’d climbed before any of them, including Kayla, had noticed. I’d felt the horse stiffen with indignation beneath my legs, but I already had a firm grasp of the reins in my left hand and John’s father’s whip coiled in my right, just in case Alastor tried anything foolish. Of course I’d never hit him with the lash (which was too long to be of any use as a riding crop), but I might flick him with the coil if he tried to throw me.
But he must have noticed the whip, because though he tossed his head a few times, he didn’t rear or kick. He merely snorted, as if to express his extreme displeasure with the situation.
From the volunteer work I’d done in animal shelters in my past life — before I’d died the first time — I knew that half the battle when it came to untamed creatures like Alastor (and his master) was psychological. You had to make them think that you weren’t afraid of them, and that you were the boss. You weren’t going to put up with any of their nonsense.
Of course, it was a bit different when you were dealing with a nine-pound feral cat as opposed to a death lord’s three-thousand-pound stallion.
Alex shook his head slowly from side to side. “I don’t know which one of you is crazier,” he said, looking back towards John. “You or him.”
“Yes.” Chloe sounded politely timid. “Shouldn’t you be wearing a helmet or something, Pierce? That horse is awfully big. What if you fall?”
“Under normal circumstances,” I said, “yes, I should be wearing a helmet. But these aren’t normal circumstances, are they? Look, I need all of you to listen to me … ”
My voice trailed off as I realized no one was paying the slightest bit of attention to me. All of them were staring at the water and the spectacle of the enormous ship John was steering … directly into the path of the other.
Alex was right. Even with the fog swirling so densely around the two boats, I could see clearly what John was planning on doing. The gaping hole in my chest where my heart had once been — before John had ripped it out and taken it with him — seemed to widen another inch, allowing more of the suddenly chilly air to come seeping in.
“I don’t understand,” Chloe said. She, too, was nervously watching the drama playing out across the lake. “Why is he steering that boat
Alex lowered the spyglass. “Because he’s going to try to ram it into the one that was supposed to be picking you guys up.” There was grudging admiration in his voice.
It was, I suppose, a bit like watching a professional car race in which one of the drivers had gone completely mad and decided to smash his car into all the others. You didn’t want to watch, but you also couldn’t look away.
The problem was, I was in love with the mad driver, and watching him on this insane suicide mission was destroying me.
“But if he smashes his boat into that other one,” Chloe protested, “he’ll be killed!”
“Maybe not,” Reed said in a hopeful voice. “He could rig the steering wheel and jump off at the last minute. I saw that in a movie once.”
“He’ll get sucked under by the boats’ propellers as they go down,” the old man in the hospital gown disagreed gloomily.
“No, he won’t,” Kayla snapped at him. I saw her glance my way. “He’ll be fine. He’ll be just fine.”
“Right. You don’t know the captain,” Henry said to Alex in an offended tone. He snatched the spyglass away from him. “The Haydens love to smash things up.”
Henry wasn’t exaggerating. John had smashed up nearly every obstacle put in the path of his pursuit of me, including but not limited to shopkeepers, teachers, and even sets of iron cemetery gates. A wooden boat would be nothing to him.
“Seems like a waste to me,” Hospital Gown said, his tone now disapproving. “Two perfectly good boats —”
“He doesn’t have any choice,” I said hotly. “He’s doing this to save the docks.”
I’d navigated Alastor until he’d moved his heavy bulk into the middle of the pier, surprised at how willingly he obeyed my commands, seeing as how all I wore on my feet were ladylike slippers, so when I dug my heels into his sides he could hardly have felt it. It wasn’t particularly comfortable, riding bare-legged in a dress, but like Kayla, I could adapt, too, in an emergency.
“So maybe,” I went on, when Hospital Gown and everyone else around him had looked up at me in surprise, “you could do him the courtesy of not letting his efforts go to waste. We need to start evacuating this dock, so if you all will follow me to the castle, where you’ll be safe —”
Kayla wasn’t the only one to echo, “Evacuate?” but she was the person standing closest to me, so she was the only one to whom I responded softly, so the others couldn’t hear.
“We need to get back to the castle,” I said. “John says it’s the only place we’ll be safe.”
Kayla blinked her exotically made-up eyes. “Safe from what?”
“Those invisible forces of evil I mentioned earlier —”
I didn’t mention that I’d been John’s primary concern, or that he hadn’t said anything about Chloe or Reed or the others. But how could I take Alex and Kayla and leave the rest of them all standing there? Who was to say the Furies wouldn’t come after them?
Before Kayla could say anything, Hospital Gown burst out with, “Evacuate? We’ve been waiting here for hours; we’re at the front of the line, and now you’re telling us we’ve got to move some place else?”
All around him, old people lifted their voices to unite with Hospital Gown’s in a chorus of protests. “He’s right!” and “We’re not going anywhere!” and “We want to speak to someone in charge!”
You try to do one nice thing for people, and look what it gets you.
“
I’d have been better off staring them down in cold silence, but to do that I’d have to have been more sure of what I was doing. And I hadn’t the slightest idea of that.
Still, I plunged on, hoping, like a substitute teacher on the first day of school, that the volume of my voice would hide my anxiety and make up for my lack of experience.
“All I want to do is make sure none of you gets hurt,” I yelled. “So get in line behind me and we’ll all —”
It was too late. Alastor’s ears pricked forward and he snorted. Then Hope let out a squawk of alarm and suddenly took off from between Alastor’s ears, as if frightened by something.
As I looked around to see what had startled her, a bolt of lightning split the air, thrusting the entire cavern into stark white daylight, instead of the perpetual pinkish dawn it seemed nearly always to be in.
Chloe wasn’t the only one who screamed. I’m pretty sure Kayla and Alex — as well as Hospital Gown and most of his friends — did, too. I know my ears were ringing afterwards … possibly from a scream of my own.
