“Poor you,” said Billi. “And so you didn’t realise Erin had taken rubbings of the tablet? That the ritual of the Vessel of the Anunnaki was in her scrap book?”
“She’d put it away after her father’s death and had all but forgotten about it. It was you that brought it back into her memory. But some subconscious part of her knew it was dangerous.”
So she slipped it into my saddlebag.
That meant Erin was still fighting. That meant Billi still had an ally in this battle. She just needed to get Erin to join in. Anytime right now would be good. She needed Reggie to lose control.
Good thing she was an eighteen-year-old girl. Antagonising people older than herself was her superpower. “And now you want to move your withered, crooked soul into Ivan? I can imagine it’s a dream come true. To live as a prince.”
“I watched him at the party and realised my best chance had arrived. So I took control of Erin, while she was sleeping, and went and visited your boyfriend nice and early, along with a few of my friends.”
“Those asakku demons. That’s the only way you could have beaten Ivan. You’re luckier than you know. Now where is he?”
“You’ll find out soon enough, Billi,” said Reggie with more than a little glee. “He’s a stubborn fellow but I think with you present I might well persuade him to obey me. That or watch you suffer in ways yet unimaginable, and imaginative.”
“You really are playing all the clichés out of the Bond villain handbook, aren’t you? Did you twirl your moustache, back in the day? You sound like a moustache-twirler. Not particularly scary and all together second-rate.” Billi laughed. “Lawrence was right about you. He said you were a failure from the beginning. That you were a lost cause from the start with no idea of the powers you were dealing with. Not his finest student. Not by a long shot.”
“That is a lie! I was his best! I achieved things no-one else in the order could even imagine! I reached out to the Anunnaki! I and I alone! Who amongst them could summon the asakku? Tell me that?”
“Oh. Them. If that’s the best you could manage I’m not surprised the Ouroboros Society kicked you out. Seriously. I’ve had more trouble at a children’s tea party.”
She could almost hear him grinding his teeth. Now for the coup de grace.
“Face it, Reggie. You’re nothing without Erin and soon you’ll be nothing at all. She’s fought against you when she was little and day-by-day she’s grown stronger. She draws on something you could never have, nor understand. She is beloved, Reginald. You even remember what that means?”
“Love? You dabble in the oldest cliché there is.”
“The heart tells no lies. Erin knows she’s going to win. Your time is coming to an end.” Billi pulled the ties against the cracked corner of the scraper, jerking it back and forth to force even a small tear through the plastic. “You can’t beat Erin. Not with all her friends behind her, not with all those people who love her. You want her to feel weak because you’re scared of her. And that’s the truth. Erin will beat you.”
Reginald screamed as the car swerved wildly. It rocked as it jumped over a verge and Billi was slammed against the boot lid, dropping the scraper.
“Billi! Help me!” screamed Erin.
She was trying to take back control!
“The brakes! Hit the brakes!” Billi yelled as the car swerved again and she slid face first against the back wall.
But the swerves were getting more violent and the car tilted sideways so the car was balanced on its two left wheels. Billi gasped as she rolled against the side. It was tilting higher and higher…
Erin screamed as the car rolled over. Billi curled up into a ball as it rolled down a slope, being jolted out of her skin as it slammed side over side over and over again, faster and faster as the slope became steeper and the weight of the car added to its momentum. Billi covered her head with her arms, trying to brace but being thrown about like a rag doll in a tumble-drier. The tyres ruptured and the axles groaned and snapped. The car spun around as it slammed into something hard and immobile, a tree judging by the sound of branches snapping. It landed on its roof and continued sliding, upside-down. Billi jammed her hands against the bottom, now top, of the boot as it bumped and slid over uneven earth.
Erin screamed once more.
The car dropped.
It fell for a second then slammed down hard. Sparks burst in her eyes as Billi whacked her head against the inside of the boot lid.
But it wasn’t over. The car began to bob, and tilt.
Water seeped in, first a thin stream through the buckled cracks in the lid, then faster as it found more openings as it sank deeper. The tail-lights flickered, then went out. Billi snatched one last, big gasp as water flooded the boot.
CHAPTER 23
She couldn’t see. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe.
The water was shockingly cold and the car settled upside-down with a bump. It creaked as it rocked back and forth, balanced on its crumpled roof.
Heart racing, breath running out and hands still bound, Billi had to move fast, and not panic. She struggled against the ties before forcing herself, and not easily, to accept she couldn’t break them. She needed to concentrate on one thing at a time. And just hold on. Her head pounded under the pressure of the rapidly diminishing air. She couldn’t help but let a few bubbles slip through. Then she locked down her lips.
The car had been badly smashed. The boot lid was buckled. She could just make out a faint midnight glow, moonlight through the water upon a silt bottom sown with long, gently waving kelp.
Kelp? The sting upon her eyes made something click. This was sea water. They were
