I don’t want to kill anyone. If it came down to kill or be killed, I’d fight for sure but I’d try not to kill. But then again if it was Clay or Kieran . . .

What was I thinking about?

Rose appears beside me. She has come through the garden using her mist, her Gift. She evaporates like mist and so does my memory of her. Even as you watch her, you forget about her. It’s strange . . . confusing. But if she touches you, skin on skin, the confusion goes, and while she’s touching you she’s visible. It’s hard to work with her because of the mist, and you can’t keep hold of her hand all the time. Gabriel says that the best way to work with her is not to watch her at all but to know what she will do and look away while she clothes herself in her mist so that your thoughts remain clear.

Rose asks, “How many Hunters are in there?”

“Four upstairs.” And none of them have Kieran’s bulk. “I think Clay’s in his office.”

“I’ll wait here until he goes to bed, then I’ll go round the front and in. I listened in and heard the password. ‘Red rain.’”

Nice!

“By the way, I think there’s a cellar,” I tell her. “There’s a grate in the ground to the left of the house. A light came on earlier. I think Clay was down there.”

“A good place to keep weapons.”

“Maybe. If I was Clay . . .” What would I do? “I’d keep the Fairborn near me. But he has guns to store for his troops, I guess; guns, bullets, whatever. So maybe . . .”

“Anything else?”

“If I’m at the back, how will I know that you are out of there?”

“Don’t wait here. When I go in, you go round the front and wait with your boyfriend.”

“Do you know how irritating you are, Rose?”

She giggles softly.

I nudge her and nod to the house. The light in the office has gone out. A few seconds later the light from the cellar comes on.

“Is he putting his weapons away for the night?” Rose wonders.

And I know the answer. “No. He’s a Hunter. He never sleeps without them.”

“Under his pillow then.”

“I have the feeling he sleeps with his boots on and the Fairborn strapped to his thigh.”

“I like a challenge.”

The cellar light goes off and the bedroom light comes on. A shadow. Two shadows. Clay and his girlfriend move around, come together, kiss, separate, Clay’s shadow goes. The office light comes on again.

“And I thought it was going to get romantic,” Rose says.

I watch the shadow in Clay’s bedroom, the way it moves, and how familiar it seems.

It’s much later when the office light goes off. Clay moves to the bedroom and that light goes out too.

“See you the other side,” Rose says, and she skips lightly up the garden in full view of the house. A mist covers her, and I’m wondering if I saw her at all. I tell myself that she has gone to the front of the house and is slipping in.

I go into the woods to work my way around to the front in a wide circle, cutting between two houses way up the road and heading back to Gabriel. I move slowly. There’s no rush, though really I’ve no idea how long Rose will be. But I want to be sure that I don’t make any stupid mistakes. I get the feeling that the Hunters are relaxed near the house. They’ve switched off or at least lowered their guard a little, never imagining anyone—any witch—would attempt to break in.

Gabriel is in the garden of the house opposite Clay’s. He doesn’t speak but glances at me as I move next to him. He watches the house. I watch behind us.

Nothing happens.

No cars, no Hunters coming or going. It must be two in the morning by now.

Then Gabriel nudges me. I turn to see the front door opening and two Hunters leaving the house. I get that confused feeling, wondering what’s happening, and I can’t work it out, but I tell myself to look away and find I’m looking at Gabriel’s profile and he turns and looks at me, smiles, and then murmurs, “Rose is with them.”

I nod. Rose has done well to get in and out without being spotted. But I can feel my heart thudding now. Does she have the Fairborn?

“Let’s go.”

But before we take a step there’s a shout from the house. From inside. I can’t make out what it’s saying but I think it’s Clay. And then I hear, “Find whoever’s got it—NOW!”

We hunch down low and run fast through the garden to the back of the house, over the fence, and into an alley.

Gabriel runs left to the corner. “This is where I said we’d meet.”

I keep watch to the right while Gabriel looks down the side street.

I hear a soft giggle and turn around.

Rose is leaning against Gabriel. They are both smiling. As excited as kids who’ve stolen sweets from a shop. Rose holds up a long knife. Black handle, black sheath.

“Easy for someone so talented,” Gabriel says to Rose. “But I think Clay has noticed the Fairborn is missing . . .”

“Let’s go,” I say and head back along the alley.

We’re sprinting when a Hunter steps out of the road ahead of us. She seems as surprised as we are. She stops, hesitates, then shouts, “They’re here!”

I’m nearest to her and in that time I’ve closed in on her. She’s taking her gun out of its holster and I’m three strides closer. She’s raising her gun as I launch myself at her, my right arm going for her throat and my left for her gun. I hear a shot and I land on her and we seem to fall in slow motion but my hand is on her throat and she’s looking at me. And she’s so young, not much older than me, and the glints of light in her eyes are twisting frantically and then I hear a crack and it’s the sound of her skull and the glints in her eyes have gone.

I’m sitting astride her.

There’s a metal grille behind her head and there’s blood oozing over it. As I get up I see that her neck is at a strange angle. I want to believe the metal grille killed her, but I had my hand on her neck and her neck is broken and I still can’t believe she’s so young and I killed her. I manage to get up but it’s hard. My side hurts.

Then there’s a shot and another and another. I drop down to a crouch and turn to see Rose lying on her stomach on the ground and Gabriel kneeling by her, his arm stretched out, gun pointed at the body of another Hunter lying on the ground farther back down the alley. Nobody moves.

Rose is very still. As still as the Hunter by me.

Gabriel bends down and takes the Fairborn out of Rose’s hand. He has to unfurl her fingers and he lays her hand back down on the ground and by then I’m next to him. Rose’s head is turned to the side; her eyes have no glints in them and her back is a mass of blood.

Gabriel pulls me away and we’re running round the corner and there’s more shots. There’s another Hunter up ahead and Gabriel is shooting at her and we’re in some gardens and over a fence and then I have to stop.

I’ve killed a woman. I didn’t mean to but her neck is broken and Rose is dead too and I’m shaking. There’s blood all over my hands, the girl’s blood, and I’m rubbing my hands on my shirt but there’s more blood. There’s lots of blood.

Gabriel says, “Oh no, Nathan.”

And I look up at his face and see then that he’s staring at my stomach and he pulls my shirt back and my knees are like jelly.

“Shit, Nathan.”

I look down. My T-shirt has a spreading, dark stain on it. The blood looks black.

“I’m okay.” I’m saying it without thinking anything about it. I don’t feel okay.

“I can heal it,” I say. I get a buzz and straighten up. Take a breath. Calm down. “I’m okay.”

She shot me in my left side, lower ribcage. “I’ll be fine.” My hands are still shaking. For some reason I can’t heal that.

“You sure?” Gabriel sounds so worried.

“Yes. Let’s go.”

And we go and I’m okay for five minutes but then the pain in my ribcage comes back. I’ve healed it and it has come back and the pain is crippling. This isn’t normal. I have to stop again.