Blackfin Sky (21 page)

He flashed his brilliant white smile at her and twined his sooty fingers through hers. ‘Promise. Now let’s get you home, the sun will be up in … well, still another six hours or so. But still, it’s late.’

They walked back through the woods much more slowly than they’d entered, fatigue and the inevitable adrenaline-crash making them sluggish. They didn’t talk, but kept watching out for any sign of Jared or the old woman. Finally they reached the gap in the fence and crawled through, following their own footsteps through the grass, back down the hill and along Provencher Street until they came to Sky’s house. It was all in darkness, and Sky looked wearily at the trellis she would need to climb back up to her bedroom.

‘Need a boost?’ Sean whispered, his hands already hovering at her waist. Sky turned in his hold.

‘You could have been really badly hurt because of me,’ she said finally, eyes fixed at chin-level.

He leaned in so she had no choice but to look at him. ‘Hey, this wasn’t your fault. And if we hadn’t been there, Jared could’ve died tonight. Besides, I’m fine. Or at least I will be once I’ve washed off this smoke-stink.’ Sean sniffed himself and grimaced.

‘Sean … I didn’t tell you how I knew Jared needed my help.’

He looked at her warily. ‘You didn’t.’

‘I went back again, and I think I took Jared with me somehow.’

‘Back?’

‘To the circus. To the past. I met this guy called Severin. He was the ringmaster in the circus that was here, I think. He’s … he’s like me. He can do what I do, and he was telling me how it works, but then when we were talking, Jared disappeared, and I heard him shouting for me like he was far away. Do you think maybe I did something that left him like that, unconscious with his van burning around him?’

Sean’s hands moved from where he’d been stroking his thumbs along her jaw and cupped her face while he kissed her, just once. ‘You’d never hurt anyone, Sky – intentionally or otherwise. I know we don’t
know
what’s happening to you, but it does seem like something that only affects you
.
I can’t see how you could have done anything to leave Jared in trouble like that. But it is something I’d like to ask the guy about.’ He kissed her again, a quick brush of lips. ‘Sorry, I know I must taste like bonfire. Now let’s get you up onto that balcony before your dad catches us and crushes me like an insect.’

It was much harder climbing up onto her balcony than usual, and whether it was her fatigue or her reluctance to leave Sean, she couldn’t tell. In any case, she stood watching his figure disappear into the night for a long moment before she went inside.

Her hand was already reaching for the doorknob when she saw the note taped to the glass door panel in front of her. Even in the grey light of the moon, the large print was easy to read.

I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE, PATHFINDER. STAY AWAY FROM HIM OR YOU WILL REGRET IT.

17

You will regret it? What does that even
mean?

Sky rolled over, yanking the covers with her before flinging them away. It was a cold night, but so much tossing and turning had left her sweaty and uncomfortable.

Who could possibly know about me being a Pathfinder?
She’d never used that word herself, except to Severin, and she couldn’t see how he could have zipped forward sixteen years and left a note on her window. And even if that were possible, what would he stand to gain from it?

Her thoughts turned again to Jared, but then she realised that Jared had already disappeared from the circus by the time Severin explained that they were Pathfinders.

That worried her, too.

Did I do that, somehow? Take Jared with me to the past? Trap him there while his body baked inside his van?

But she hadn’t
tried
to take him with her to the circus. She wasn’t even sure how
she
had travelled back. Did that mean Jared was a Pathfinder too?

‘
I need your help.’

She heard him again – Jared, calling for her, a note of fear and pain in his voice which set her heart thudding against her ribs. Sky stuffed her head under the pillow but didn’t dare make a sound, not even into the muffling fibre of the mattress. The Blood House heard everything, and one couldn’t always tell which sounds it would let carry to wake sleeping parents down the hall.

‘
Skylar.
’

A sound like a growl escaped her, but she clamped her teeth shut on it.

‘
For God’s sake, I’m outside! Can you come to the window?’

Sky held her breath, not moving a muscle. Had his voice actually been outside, or was she now imagining things as well? It hadn’t sounded like it had been outside, and if it had been, her parents would have heard it too.

‘You’re not imagining things. Open the bloody window and you’ll see.’

Slowly, like her mind and body had become disconnected by the sheer absurdity of what was now happening, she slid out of bed, grabbed her robe and opened the curtains. For a moment, she couldn’t see anything through the condensation covering the glass. Then there he was.

Sky saw the outline of a man standing on the balcony just beyond the doors and stepped back with a gasp.

Just like I saw that night outside the kitchen window, the first time I travelled back…

He leaned closer, his silvery eyes lost in shadow. Then he stuck out his tongue.

‘It’ll stick to the window,’ Sky whispered, giggling as he moved to stand straight and discovered that that was exactly what had happened. It came unstuck with a sticky sound, and Jared winced.

Sky turned the key in the lock carefully, easing the doors open so no sound would betray her to her parents sleeping down the hall. Rather than letting Jared move past her into the room, she stepped outside, her toes curling at how cold the night had become.

‘What are you doing here? And were you talking to me just now? I’m amazed my parents didn’t hear you.’

Jared was poking tentatively at his frost-burned tongue with one finger, but he still managed to sigh. He shifted his weight and then shuddered like it had caused him pain. ‘My leg got cut up getting out of my van. Do you think you could take a look at it? All my first aid stuff … well, it just went up in smoke. And I can’t go to a hospital.’

Sky hesitated, but only for a moment. Now that her eyes had adjusted to the moonlight, she could see a dark stain spreading outward on the lower leg of his jeans. It could only be blood, and it looked like there was a lot of it.

‘Come inside, but be quiet,’ she whispered, turning to find that the french windows had closed noiselessly behind her. The Blood House was not too sure about Jared, then.

Sky turned the handle and pushed against it – not roughly, as it was as likely to fly open and crash against the wall as not – but with enough determination that it had no choice but to swing inward and allow them both inside. She ushered Jared into her small bathroom and closed the door. After the grey light outside, the electric bulb overhead left them both squinting.

Jared leaned back against the sink and bent to try to pull the blood-soaked denim up his leg.

‘Damn skinny jeans.’ He stood up again, defeated. ‘I’ll have to take them off.’

Sky turned from where she had been rummaging in the cabinet for first aid supplies and almost dropped everything as she caught him undoing the zipper on his jeans. Jared pulled the denim past his knees with a grimace, exposing a nasty gash across his right shin. ‘I didn’t even feel it at the time,’ he muttered, touching the raw skin around it gingerly. ‘Hurts like hell now, though.’

Sky knelt in front of him to inspect the dark specks she could see in the wound. ‘Looks like you’ve got soot in it. I’ll have to clean it properly before I bandage it.’

Jared stayed still while Sky worked, only flinching slightly as she cleaned the cut with antiseptic spray. She reached up for the gauze she’d given Jared to hold and he handed it over.

‘Thank you for doing this, Sky.’

She looked up from her position on the bathroom tiles in front of him, studiously avoiding looking at anything between his bandaged shin and his face.

‘Are you going to tell me what the hell that voice trick was you did just now? And where you disappeared to when we went back to the circus?’

Jared sighed. ‘I didn’t actually
go
anywhere. That’s kind of the problem.’

Sky finished tying the ends of the bandage around his leg while she waited for him to continue.

‘I didn’t actually travel back with you, Sky – I was just a passenger, seeing it through your eyes. That’s what I do – I get into people’s heads. Because you went back, my … my mind, or whatever you call it, went back with you.’

Was that why Madame Curio didn’t seem to see him? And what she meant by there being a ‘worm’ in my head?

Jared nodded as though she had spoken aloud. ‘Yes, exactly. You could see my astral form, but nobody else could. When the fire started back here, where my body was still stuck in my van, I got catapulted back into it. But the smoke was choking me up pretty badly and I must have passed out before I could get out of there. I’m just glad you heard me call for help, coz I was too out of it by that point to try to get into the mind of anyone else. It takes a lot of effort, and doesn’t always work.’

Again Sky busied herself with putting away her medical supplies and avoided looking at him.

‘Aren’t you going to say anything?’

She closed the lid on the first-aid kit before finally turning her face up to him. ‘I’m just trying to work out whether you’re somehow playing an elaborate prank on me, or if I’m going nuts.’

‘You don’t believe me?’

She sighed. ‘Look, I want to, but what you’re saying just isn’t possible. I’ve grown up in Blackfin, and weird things happen here all the time. We have a haunted weathervane, for goodness’ sake. But everyone knows that if you look closely enough, you’ll come up with a reasonable explanation. Maybe the school’s situated in a spot which is prone to little whirlwinds, and that makes it spin like crazy sometimes. Or maybe someone’s rigged a turning mechanism onto the roof. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. It’s one weird thing that just
is
because it’s in Blackfin. And people accept it, go ‘huh’ and move on. But you – you’re claiming to have some magical power that lets you inside people’s heads…’

‘It’s not magical. It’s just something I can do that other people can’t, like some people have an instinct for languages or can read maps or feel when it’s about to rain. I get inside people’s heads. How else do you think I could call out to you from the balcony just now without your parents hearing me? And how do you explain what
you
can do?’

‘I—’

The door handle turned, silencing them both instantly.

‘
Coco
, what are you…’

Jared hastily pulled his jeans up as Gui’s face appeared in the doorway, one eyebrow scrunched up where he had obviously been sleeping on it. It only added to his bewildered expression. That quickly changed though, as his features morphed into a mask of anger. It was almost a contradiction to his low, even tone.

‘Jared, what are you doing in my house?’

Jared looked up from fastening the button at the waistband of his jeans. ‘I know this looks bad, but it’s not what you think…’

‘Skylar, get up off the floor.’

Sky stood, realising exactly what it
had
looked like. She felt the blood rush to her face. ‘Dad! I was just taking a look at his—’

Gui scrunched his eyes shut. ‘Hush, Skylar. Jared, get out. And be quiet – I don’t want my wife to hear you.’ Sky noticed how his fists were clenched at his sides as Jared squeezed past him through the bathroom doorway, then slipped out through the open french doors. ‘And you – go to bed. We will speak of this in the morning.’

‘But, Dad…’