“You’ve been in here too long. I’ll tow you in.” Rose pulls me back to the shore, rhythmically and slowly, by my hair.

By my hair!

“I don’t think that’s the right technique.”

“Stop complaining. I’ve always wanted to do this . . . to rescue someone.”

I smile and water goes in my mouth but I spit it out. I’m numb but I can feel Rose’s body with my shoulder. A small patch of warmth.

“You can stand now.”

“No, take me all the way in.”

She yanks on my hair, towing me a bit farther and then splashes a few drops of water onto my face. “I think that’s far enough.”

I find my footing in the mud and stand up. The water is below my waist.

Rose stands too. Her dress clings transparently to her curves and I have to look away.

She giggles. “Are you blushing, Nathan?”

I walk out of the water and let her guess.

I drop down on the grass on my stomach, but I’m shivering.

“You need to get dry. Can I use your T-shirt?” But she is already using it to brush the water off my back.

I wait for the comments about my scars, but she doesn’t say anything. The sun is strong still, but inside I’m bitterly cold. I shiver and can’t stop.

Rose lies with me to warm me. It’s strange, being so close to someone else. I’m sure Rose would slit my throat if Mercury told her to but Rose hasn’t been told to do that. She has been told to look after me. I roll away from her and dress.

Rose has some bread and cheese in her bag and we eat it together.

I thank her for rescuing me even though I didn’t need rescuing.

She giggles. “I only did it to make Gabriel jealous.”

“Of me?” I didn’t think Gabriel was interested in Rose.

“No.” She giggles and shakes her head.

I’ve no idea what she’s scheming.

“He would love the chance to rescue you. To show you how much . . . you know . . .” Rose giggles again. “To show you how much he loves you.”

“What?”

“He’s in love with you. Totally in love with you.”

Rose is just winding me up. “He’s my friend.”

“Totally. Desperately. Madly. And, alas, it seems, hopelessly too.”

“He’s my friend.”

“Oh, he wants to be so much more than your friend, Nathan.”

I shake my head. Gabriel is Gabriel. He likes being with me for sure. I like being with him. We climb and swim and talk. That’s what friends do, I thought.

He gave me a present a few days earlier. A knife. I take it out and look at it. It’s beautiful. A black, leather-bound handle and black plaited-leather sheath. The blade is shaped like a bowie knife. He seemed nervous about giving it to me. I could tell he really wanted me to like it. I do.

“Love is strange,” Rose says. She takes the knife and looks at it. “Gabriel would die to show you how much he loves you.”

Rose looks at her reflection in the blade.

“And who would you die for, Rose?”

“I’ve not met that person yet.” She gives me the knife back. “Have you?”

I think about it but don’t reply.

She says, “You’re like your father.”

“You’ve met Marcus?”

“Once. Ten years ago, when I was twelve. You look like him. Exactly. You sound like him. Even your silences are like his.”

“You remember that from when you were twelve?”

“He was memorable . . . and I’m not your average thick Shite.”

“No, you’re certainly not, Rose. Did you go to see Marcus or did he come to see Mercury?”

“He came to Mercury. He asked her for a favor. She refused, of course.”

“Because Marcus had killed Mercy?”

Silence. She’s letting me work it out.

“What was the favor, Rose?”

She giggles. “Maybe I’ll tell you . . . maybe not.”

She lies on her side to look at me.

“I love teasing you, Nathan. You get so wound up so quickly. It’s fun to watch.”

“Was Marcus like that? Quick to get angry?”

“I didn’t see him for more than a few minutes. He seemed quite calm to me. Mercury was rather more full of fury at the time.”

“And the favor was?”

“Can’t I drag it out a bit more . . . make you wait a little longer?”

“I’m sure you can.”

She giggles again. “The favor he asked of Mercury was that she should bring up his son. You. She refused. She doesn’t like little boys much.”

“Except in stew.”

Rose giggles again.

Mercury had said my father cares only for himself. She lies about everything. But Marcus must know that too, so . . .

“Why did he ask Mercury for her help?”

“I think she considers she made the wrong decision now. She would like to have a hold over Marcus. But at the time she was too angry about Mercy.”

“But why did he ask her?”

“He thought Mercury should help. You are related, after all.”

“Mercury is my relative?”

“Her twin sister, Mercy, was the mother of Saba.”

What?

“Marcus killed his own grandmother?”

“Not that unusual. But not something that Mercury is ever going to forgive. She loved Mercy. There can be no getting over that. Mercury might not die for the person she loved but she’ll kill for her. It makes me laugh. Black Witches are always killing their relatives, wives, lovers. Shites should just leave them to it and there’d soon be no Blacks left.”

I look up to the sky again. No eagle. Mercury is my great-great aunt . . . And my father has been watching me, watching out for me all my life.

I go back to the cottage and wait on the grass for Gabriel.

I’m excited about my father, pleased—elated even.

I want to tell Gabriel. But late afternoon turns into evening and then night. I forget my joy and think about Hunters. Geneva is crawling with them and Gabriel is too casual. He could easily make a mistake or be betrayed by the person he is supposed to be meeting or by one of the Half Bloods he keeps warning me about.

It’s nearly midday the following day when Gabriel appears on the cottage roof. He doesn’t smile; he looks like he hasn’t slept.

I tell him he looks terrible.

Now he smiles. “So do you.”

I leap up on to the roof and sit by him.

He says, “There’s a perfect English word for how I feel.” He flops back. “Knackered.”

“You didn’t try bumping into more Hunters?”

“No, but it got complicated. We had to make a detour . . . a serious detour. I wanted to spend the night with Pilot—she lives farther out of Geneva—but she took one look at the girl who was with me and said no. The girl’s a White Witch, as pure as they come, says she’s fleeing from the Council. But I don’t know what to believe. The girl was freaking out as well, which didn’t help. Basically it was a mess.”

“So where is the girl now?”

“In the apartment. Though I wasn’t sure about taking her there. I don’t trust her at all.” Gabriel shakes his head. “She won’t talk to me, says she will only speak to Mercury and, as you know, I can’t help her until she tells me more. She won’t. I won’t. We went round in circles for a long time. Physically and verbally.”

“It all sounds rather convenient that someone is fleeing from the Council and needs Mercury’s help when they are searching for me. Do you think she’s been sent by the Council or the Hunters?”

“I don’t know. I can’t work her out. She’s exhausted me. I need to forget her for a while and relax. I have some news from Pilot for Mercury. Then we can go for a swim.”

We wait for Mercury on the roof. I tell him what Rose told me about Marcus killing Mercy and then I tell him about the eagle. And that is when Mercury appears. She must have been listening to everything.

Mercury wants to know more about the eagle. Like me, I think she wonders if it’s Marcus.

I don’t answer but instead ask her, “Do you think Marcus watches me?”

I expect her to laugh. I feel ridiculous as soon as I say it.

She says, “He cares only for himself, Nathan. If he watches you it is for his own ends.”