Blackfin Sky (20 page)

‘You’re good at reading people, though, aren’t you? That’s just you, not a trait of … our kind?’

‘Perhaps.’ Severin smiled through a cloud of smoke. ‘I knew as soon as I saw you spill out from under the stands that you were new to pathfinding.’ He tilted his head to one side, curious. ‘How did you die?’

Sky’s heart beat an erratic rhythm. ‘What do you mean?’

‘A Pathfinder’s gift is only triggered when one version of himself – or
herself –
is about to die. For me, I had been beaten to a bloody mess and switched, quite by mistake, with a version of myself who had never picked that
bibitte
’s pocket. Unfortunate for him, as he took my place just as the killing blow landed.’ His fingers twitched. ‘I spent a week in that other Severin’s life before I realised it was not my own. When I was finally pulled back to my own life, I found myself tethered to the man who had killed that other version of me…’

Severin’s quick fingers lit another black cheroot before he continued. ‘The decision which led me to pick that man’s pocket was the one which made me a true Pathfinder. That decision, and the item I’d been set on stealing, anchor me to my own life so that I can never get lost. Without an anchor, I would be cast adrift. It’s just unfortunate my anchor resides in that murderous bastard’s pocket.’ He took a long draw on his cheroot, and Sky gagged as he released it into the small space inside the caravan. But now that Severin had explained what she had been seeing before she faded, it made a weird sort of sense.
Like a chessboard
– just as he’d said.

‘How can you know so little about your gift,
chère
? Did your parents never teach you?’

Sky could only shake her head for the moment. ‘I don’t think they know what I can do.’

Severin laughed. ‘That’s not possible. It’s always passed down the bloodline.’

Maybe Mum or Dad can do what I do,
Sky thought. She dismissed the idea almost immediately. If they could, it should have occurred to them that that’s where she had disappeared to when she died. And if it hadn’t at the time, surely it would have when she showed up again three months later. There was no way they would have left her thinking she was going crazy if they could explain what was really going on.

They wouldn’t. No way.

‘Are there many of us, then? These … Pathfinders?’

‘Very few, I’m afraid. We tend to attract attention, being as we’re not quite
of this world.
People stare, not knowing why they stare, but knowing that they covet. You follow?’ Sky nodded again, more slowly this time. ‘Many will destroy what they covet if they cannot have it.’

Sky stared at the man who had started talking in riddles around his cheroot.

‘
Sky
!’

She turned to peer through the grimy window of the caravan at the sound of Jared’s voice, but there was no sign of him.

‘Aside from my parents, who were both gifted, you are the first I have met.’ Severin’s smile was strange, like he couldn’t actually believe he was talking to someone who was like himself.

An uneasy feeling had taken hold of Sky, more than just the general unfamiliarity of sitting in a tiny, smoke-filled circus caravan, sixteen years in the past, with a man who could travel between realities.

‘
Help me, Sky
!’

There was no mistaking it this time. Jared’s frightened voice was as clear as if he had yelled right in her ear, and it set Sky’s heart racing – though she could still see no sign of him.
I need to get out of here.

The pounding in her chest intensified as Sky felt that lightheadedness take hold. The air seemed to charge around her, to snap with the promise of lightning.

‘You’re leaving so soon,
chère
? Do come back again, won’t you?’

His voice grew distant, but his eyes and his smile were still clear as day until the moment Sky was thrust into a strange place, alone and in darkness.

16

‘Jared?’

Sky whispered his name, feeling cold grass beneath her feet. Jared didn’t answer. Her eyes adjusted to the crisp moonlight after a few seconds, and she saw that she was standing next to the wooden siding of the Vega house.

Oh crap.

A glance upward told her that it was late, as none of the windows showed any light. Not even Sean’s window on the ground floor, which she would have to sneak past to leave the property.

But Sky knew she couldn’t just go home. The panic in Jared’s voice had been very real, even if Sky had no idea how he had followed her into the past, or where he had disappeared to in the circus thoroughfare. When he’d called her name, he’d made Sky believe he needed her, and he needed her
now.

That meant she had only one choice: she would have to go back into the woods to find him, assuming he was somewhere near his van. If he wasn’t … well, Sky hadn’t a clue where to look.

But her bare toes were already going numb from standing on the cold grass, not to mention the gooseflesh covering the rest of her. It would take her at least half an hour and some fairly impressive sneaking to go home, grab some clothes and shoes, then run all the way to the entrance to the woods.

Too long.

Sky had another option. She didn’t feel good about it, but it was looking like the only choice if she didn’t want to lose time or toes getting to Jared.

Sky ducked low as she crept past Sean’s bedroom window, then around to the other side of the house where the old shed stood with its door shut, but – as Sky knew from experience – not locked. Wary of the creaking hinges, she inched the door open just enough that she could grab Officer Vega’s raggedy gardening boots, and slip back out again.

Sky shivered as a breeze wrapped its icy fingers around her. There was no convenient jacket in the shed, and she couldn’t afford the delay to go home for her red coat. She would just have to run.

So she came to be sprinting in too-big steel-toed boots and her flimsy pyjamas, the moon a silvery spotlight marking her journey past the Swiveller household, along Provencher Street and to the iron gate at the entrance to the woods.

It was at this point that Sky began cursing. She kept cursing until the sound of someone laughing behind her made her whirl around.

‘Sean?’

He chewed his lip like that was all that was keeping him from doubling over with it. Then he noticed her shivering and he shrugged off his jacket.

‘I’ve never heard you swear like that before,’ he said, wrapping the duffle coat around her. It was still warm from his skin.

Sean stepped past her to the iron railings she had so recently called several ugly names and worked the metal jack between them.

‘I’m going to overlook that you passed right by my window and didn’t ask me to come with you on whatever crazy mission we’re on this time,’ he paused as he wound the handle on the jack, and the space between the bars increased, ‘and just assume you have no objection to me following you up here to lend a hand.’

Sky leaned over his hunched back and hugged him as tightly as she could. ‘You’re amazing like that.’ Sean grinned at her over his shoulder, his teeth perfectly white in the November moonlight. ‘But we really need to hurry.’ At Sean’s enquiring look, Sky tried to come up with a brief explanation for what they were doing. She failed. ‘I’ll tell you all about it later, but for now we need to run.’

They spotted the first flicker of fire just as they neared the clearing. It hadn’t spread beyond the van, but the ground around it was already charred and barren. Sky and Sean sprinted through the trees towards it.

‘Do you think … Jared’s in there?’

Sky’s breath came hard and fast, her heart thumping in her chest. Sean didn’t answer.

As they neared the burning van, they saw the flames were contained within it, but it wouldn’t be long before the glass windows shattered and the fire would spread.

‘Oh my God, what if he’s still in there?’ Sky asked, eyes fixed on the fire.

Shielding his face with his arm, Sean edged toward the van’s door. He pulled his sleeve down over his hand and tried the handle. It slid open on its tracks, the sudden intake of oxygen rushing the flames out – straight at Sean.

‘Sean!’

But before Sky could move towards him, he’d leapt to the side, the fire spitting futilely out into the night before retreating after the shock of air. Despite the bright dots dancing in front of Sky’s eyes, she spotted something dark inside the van, beyond the doorway where the fire danced like incensed serpents.

Sean saw Jared the same time Sky did, and caught her as she tried to get past him and into the van.

‘Let me,’ he said, and one moment his hands held her by the shoulders, keeping her from lunging through the flaming doorway, the next he was leaping through the doorway himself.

The air rushing with him drew the fire up in an angry wall, and Sky let out a cry. She stepped nearer, the heat almost unbearable. But just as she’d decided to make a leap for it to get to Sean and Jared, a cool hand grabbed her arm.

‘Get back, girl. He may not have meant to start it, but the flames will rise if he panics. That boy’s got his mother’s fire.’ Madame Curio’s bony elbow dug into Sky’s ribs and she stumbled backwards. The old woman brought up the black nozzle of the fire extinguisher and let fly with a gush of white foam. She stood with her legs apart, wielding her weapon like an action hero. ‘I knew this thing would come in handy after last time.’

‘Last time? You mean when the circus burned?’

Madame Curio glanced at Sky, but didn’t answer. After a few more seconds of dousing the fire, the drenched figures of Sean and Jared emerged, Jared plainly still unconscious and draped over Sean in something between a fireman’s lift and a human cape.

The two landed heavily at Sky’s feet, and she knelt between them, half-aware of Madame Curio continuing to tackle the fire behind her. Sean coughed and sputtered, black smears around his nose and lips where he’d breathed in the dirty smoke. His sweater was streaked with soot and charred holes.

Sky used her sleeve to wipe at the dark smears on his face, clenching her jaws to keep from bawling. Sean smiled and caught her hand, even as he continued coughing.

‘I’m fine,’ he said, trying to make his voice sound normal beneath the rasp. ‘Couldn’t wake Jared.’

Sky was shocked at how deathly pale Jared looked in the fire’s dying orange glow. ‘Jared?’ She shook him by the shoulders. ‘JARED!’

With an intake of breath so sharp Sky jumped backwards in fright, Jared opened his eyes wide. Then he, too, started coughing, until he finally hacked up the contents of his stomach.

Sean drew her to him, and Sky relaxed against his chest gratefully for a moment.

‘Where did he go?’

Sky uncurled from the nook she’d burrowed into in Sean’s shoulder and saw that Jared had disappeared, leaving no trace of himself except for the mess in the grass.

‘I—’

‘Madame Curio’s gone, too.’

Sky whirled, almost keeling over as her head swam with the movement. Sean’s arm tightened around her, holding her steady. The van was completely dark, though curls of steam still rose from the metal roof. The fire extinguisher lay abandoned just outside the still-open van door, but its owner – apparently – was nowhere to be seen. ‘Where did she go? And did you hear what she said about Jared having his mother’s fire?’

The heavy weight of Sean buckling in a coughing fit against her brought Sky back to the moment. It didn’t matter where Jared and Madame Curio had disappeared to. ‘We need to get you to a hospital.’

Sean shook his head and regained some control of his breathing. ‘How would we explain all this? The fire’s out now, Jared’s vanished, and all we have left is a burned-out van in the middle of the already-burned-woods. I’ll be fine, I just need to get home.’

Sky studied him for a moment, uncertain. ‘You promise you’re okay?’