Ezra cleared his throat. ‘Violet was arrested last night.’
I knew that Violet had been arrested, but my broken heart cracked open further as I pictured my dear old neighbour being manhandled by the police and imagined what she would be facing right this very minute.
‘It’s all my fault,’ I said, the tears I’d hidden behind my anger returning to drown me. ‘If I hadn’t gone to her place, she would be safe.’
‘And you would be in jail,’ said Ezra. ‘You can’t think like that – none of this is your fault.’
Jet started the engine, drowning out Ezra’s voice, but even so, I heard Ezra shout that he loved me. Jet throttled the engine faster and covered the boat in mist. All the way across the waters, Ezra’s words tugged at me, but the invisible wire between us snapped as Jet and I slipped into the rougher waters inside our cove. By the time we reached the beach, I was losing consciousness.
‘Hang on, Eva. We’re nearly home,’ said Jet.
Home? Where is my home now?
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words would form.
‘I’ll take care of you, I promise. But please, hold on and fight.’
Jet’s arms were wrapped around me again. Boy stood beside me, whimpering. I gazed up at the half-moon that sat lazily in the hazy sky. In two weeks there would be a new moon; the sky would be black. That’s when Orpheus would try and murder my family. Would Violet hang with them?
And then I was slipping away, to the other land where the dark creatures waited for me to die – so that I would become their Fire Queen.
Chapter Nine
Sometimes the darkness held me down, and at other times I would venture upwards, towards the light. But then the searing pain would arrive, forcing me to retreat again. Nothing and no one could reach me down there.
But the fire was licking my skin, scorching me. I screamed and opened my eyes. Jet was beside me on the mattress inside his tent, applying some sort of compress to my arms.
‘What’s happening?’ I yelled.
Jet stopped what he was doing and took my hand. ‘You’re sick – from the cuts. But your body is fighting the infection.’
I tossed and turned, tears streaming down my face as I tried to hold back my scream.
‘What’s that?’ I asked, gazing at what appeared to be bark that covered my body.
‘It’s the bark from the tea tree – it has healing properties, and so does the lotion on your skin.’
‘What kind of lotion?’ I bellowed as I sat up and threw the bark onto the ground.
My skin was red raw, and the wounds underneath were puckered and infected.
‘Try and stay calm,’ said Jet in his matter-of-fact voice. I took a closer look. His face was composed, but small beads of sweat filled his forehead. ‘It’s working.’
I rubbed at my wounds, causing them to break open. Blood and puss smeared my hands and pain seared through me.
‘Drink this,’ said Jet, passing me a cup.
I knocked it from his hand, spraying brown liquid all over the bed. ‘Are you trying to kill me?’
Jet pulled his eyebrows together and kept his voice calm. ‘I’m trying to help you, Eva. You need to trust me.’
‘How can I TRUST someone who’s doing this to me?’ I screamed in a voice I barely recognised.
Jet swallowed, but refilled the cup with more of what appeared to be a potion and passed it to me. ‘Please – you need to trust me.’ Inside me raged a battle between the person I’d always been and the person the dark forces were turning me into. Jet tried again. ‘I would never hurt you. Please, you need to drink this.’
Something in Jet’s voice made me take a proper look at him. There were dark rings hugging his eyes, he needed a shave and he was wearing the same clothes from the night he’d found me at Ezra’s, but they were dishevelled. My ugly anger subsided, and I returned to being myself.
‘How long have I been like this?’ I asked, taking the drink from Jet.
‘Five days,’ he said. ‘Please, drink it.’
What!
‘My family…Violet,’ I cried out.
‘They’re safe at the moment, but you’re not. Please, Eva, drink this. I’ll wake you every hour to drink more. It’s the only way.’
‘What is it?’
‘It’s an ancient potion to heal dark wounds. My parents taught me how to make it.’
‘Does it work?’
Jet let out a long breath. ‘Truthfully, I’ve never used it before, but it’s all we’ve got. The herbs in the lotion are starting to work on your skin. But we need to break your fever.’ I glanced down at my body. I was dressed in my underwear and my raw red skin was covered in sweat.
‘What did they do to me?’ I said before raising the drink to my mouth and swallowing what tasted like dirt and berries.
‘They tried to kill you,’ said Jet.
‘Trying…’ I said, heat returning with such a force that I lay down, tossing and turning as burning pain consumed me.
Jet placed a cold compress on my forehead and started talking softly. But I could no longer hear his words. The darkness had returned. It took my hand and hauled me down to where I became nothing once again.
Time lost all meaning. There was only searing heat or the world of nothing. And Jet. Every hour he roused me from the darkness and made me drink the foul-tasting potion. He would talk to me, his voice soft and comforting, his eyes as red as my skin. Over and over he commanded me to fight.
And so I did. The poison had seeped through my veins far and wide, but the compresses on my skin and the potion that I drank waged a battle that I could only witness. One morning, before sunrise, while the sea raged below in our cove, the battle within me reached a point of no return. Death waited
