Kyle’s chair backed up almost to the building front, and he was sitting in shadow. As if, say, he didn’t want anyone approaching to be able to spot him in time to veer off without being seen. He had a pot full of tea in front of him, and a plateful of scones. Didn’t he know it made him look like a tourist?
Dev could tell there was no point trying to avoid a meeting. And anyway, he wasn’t a bloody coward. He strolled up to Kyle’s table as casually as he could manage, his gut only a little bit uncomfortable, and that was all down to eating too much for breakfast, wasn’t it? “All right?”
“I thought you might come here.” Kyle gave a tense little half shrug. He looked good, his hair a bit wild and his shirt a deep blue that brought out his eyes. It was weird, seeing him at a touristy café like this. The place didn’t seem good enough for him. And it was way too tame. “I bought you scones.”
Dev was pretty sure he could hear I’m sorry under there somewhere, which made him feel even more of a bastard. He pulled out a chair and sat down, swallowing his nerves. “Mate, I’m not a stray cat. You don’t have to keep feeding me. And those are shite, anyhow. Least, that’s what the waitress reckons.” He looked around, but couldn’t see Ceri either inside or out of the café.
“Your friend,” Kyle said. It wasn’t really a question. “You came here to see her? I’m not sure she’s in this morning. I’ve only seen an older waitress.”
“Huh.” Maybe Monday was her regular day off? Dev had never got around to asking. He pulled out his phone to check for messages, and winced at the cracked screen. That’d happened sometime after the third tooth mug full of vodka, and around the time he’d read on the internet about how narcolepsy caused social isolation, stress, and depression. Oh, and that Kyle had just been stating facts when he’d said how much it affected his life.
There was no message from Ceri. Shit. Why the hell hadn’t he made sure he got her number too?
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Kyle said, putting a scone on his plate and slicing it open. “You shouldn’t worry about her.”
Dev hadn’t realised he’d been that obvious. “Nah, course not. Just, you know. Last night. Um.” He fell silent, because no way could he say it wasn’t only Ceri he was worried about.
“I . . . said some things, last night,” Kyle said awkwardly, concentrating on spreading butter on his scone like he was doing open heart surgery or something. “They were unjustified. It was . . . well. The anger I felt wasn’t all to do with you. Since I got diagnosed I’ve had to listen to a great deal of advice on how I’d be so much better off if I only tried a bit harder. But I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”
Christ. Dev was just the latest in a long list of arseholes who thought they knew better than the bloke with the actual illness, then. He was lucky Kyle was even bothering with him anymore, let alone buying him scones. Dev felt even worse when he realised how tired Kyle looked. Like he hadn’t slept much last night either. Which he probably hadn’t—that had been another thing on the NHS website. How shitty must it be, falling asleep uncontrollably in the daytime, while being unable to sleep properly at night?
“’S all right. You weren’t the only one. I was a dick. Guess I should try thinking before I speak next time, yeah? Sorry.” Embarrassed, Dev took a scone to show he meant it. There was a spare plate, so Kyle hadn’t been lying about hoping to see him here. Dev halved the scone and bunged on a generous helping of strawberry jam. Clotted cream didn’t seem like the best idea this morning. When he looked up, he saw Kyle nudging a cup of tea his way.
Dev had to smile. “You realise this is, like, the most English apology in the entire history of the world?” He bit into the scone, which was all right, actually. Ceri had lied. Unless they were only shite when she made them.
“I live to be a cultural stereotype. Have you got plans for today?”
“What, you wanna show me your collection of Union Jack teapots? Nah. Not really. Thought I might wander over and have a look at that Round Hole and the castle everyone raves about.” It was the first thing that popped into his head. “You, uh, wanna show me around?”
Kyle hesitated.
“Or we could do something else,” Dev said quickly, then realised it might not be the planned destination Kyle had a problem with. “Or, you know, not.”
“No—I mean, that would be . . . I’d like to.” Kyle picked up his teacup, then put it down again. “I’m not sure how much use I’ll be as a guide. You’d want a real local for that.”
“I dunno. You seemed to know your stuff about old Mother Ivey. Can you tell me about the sea serpents?”
“You mean the Black Knight’s pets?”
Dev nodded, pleased. “There you go. I knew you’d know all about it. You’ll do. Course, it might be a bit of a risk, mind. Based on past experience, one of us is probably gonna end up getting the hump and shoving the other one down the hole.”
Kyle’s lips twitched in that way Dev was coming to recognise as controlled amusement. “Well, the sea serpents have been down there for quite a while. They’re probably getting rather hungry by now.”
“Shit, I’d better watch out, then.” Dev grinned at Kyle’s raised eyebrow. “What? Younger and tastier, ain’t I?” Uh-oh. He hadn’t meant it to come out sounding like a come-on. All that stuff last night, that’d made him think Kyle fancied him . . . Well, it all seemed a lot more like wishful thinking in the cold light of day. Had he gone too far?
From the way Kyle was avoiding his gaze, yeah, he probably had. Dev took a slurp of tea and bunged the cup down in the saucer harder than he meant to. “You ready?” he asked. The sooner they got out of the suddenly awkward atmosphere, the better.
Kyle blinked. “Yes.” He stood up. “I’ll go and pay.”
Dev, who’d half got up, sat back down while Kyle strode into the café to settle up. Good job one of them still had a working brain. He had another gulp of tea while he waited, then stood up when he saw Kyle step back outside again.
“You, uh, know the way?” he asked, as they left the café tables behind them.
Kyle nodded towards a brown tourist information sign pointing the way to Round Hole and Caerdu Castle, with what Dev assumed were the same words in Cornish underneath. There were even little diagrams in case neither of those languages did anything for you: a line drawing of a crumbly turret and—imaginatively—a plain white circle.
“Oh. Right.” Dev felt like an idiot for not having noticed it.
“I’m not sure it’s actually possible to get lost around here,” Kyle said, blinking hard as if his vision was blurry and he needed to clear it.
“You all right, mate?” Dev asked.
“Fine. So what do you know about the castle?”
Right. Dev could take a hint. “Uh, black knights, sea serpents . . . That’s pretty much it. Oh, wait—something about giants?”
“The Black Knight was a giant. Possibly. Which would make sense, practically speaking, as you’d need a fair amount of strength to handle sea serpents. Legend has it that he kept them under the castle, and their struggles to get free tunnelled out the caves beneath.”
“Aw, now you got me feeling sorry for the poor little sea monsters. Are there really caves there?”
Kyle nodded. “That’s where the Round Hole comes from—it’s really just a cave that’s had its roof fall in.”
Dev frowned. “That happen a lot? Like, it’s not gonna happen when we’re up top there, is it? Hey, can you visit the caves? That’d be well cool.”
“Make your mind up. Are you scared of the roof falling in, or not?” Kyle sounded amused.
“Nah, I’m good. I just don’t like the thought of the ground dropping away underneath me, that’s all.”
“Most people would be more worried about being buried alive.”
“Yeah? Nah, way I see it, if ten tons of rock falls on your head, you’re gone before you even know what’s happened. If it goes when you’re on top, though . . .” He shuddered. “Like them scenes in action movies where the heroes are running away from earthquakes, or they’re on a roof and the building’s collapsing. Give me nightmares, those do.”
“Were you scarred for life by having Alice in Wonderland read to you as a child?”
Dev gave him a blank look.
“She falls down a rabbit hole?”
“Oh. Mate, you have seriously the wrong idea about how middle class my childhood was.”
“Ah. Sorry.”
“Nah, it’s okay.” Except it wasn’t, not really. Dev eyed Kyle as he strode along beside him. He didn’t get it. How could a bloke, who’d clearly grown up assuming having your mum and dad read you classic bedtime stories was just what happened to everyone, cut his family out of his life when he got older?
They’d passed the edge of town now and were as far as Dev had been on the cliff path before. Ahead of them, the view had opened up, all craggy cliffs and sea, and over them, a wide, blue sky with a few wispy clouds being blown by the strong sea wind. Gulls circled, and now he thought of them, Dev realised he could hear their screams—when had that become just part of the background noise?
Kyle had turned his face into the wind, which whipped his hair back and tugged at his clothes as he squinted far out to sea.
“You like it here, don’t you?” Dev said without really knowing where it came from.
He thought Kyle’s step faltered, but the impression was gone before he could decide if it was real or not. “I suppose I do,” Kyle said, his tone uncertain as if he hadn’t really thought of it before. “What makes you say that, though?”
And there was the sixty-four-million-dollar question, though what sixty-four million dollars had to do with anything, Dev had no clue. No way was he going to say Kyle just looked right, somehow, like he fit in with the landscape. “Dunno, really . . . Just, you’ve read up on the place, even bits you haven’t been to. I dunno. You seem to find it interesting.”
It sounded pretty thin to Dev, but Kyle was nodding. “What do you think of Porthkennack?” he asked.
“You’re gonna laugh.”
“I hope not,” Kyle said drily.
“Uh, shit. No.” Dev coughed. Yeah, giving the bloke two cataplexy attacks in about as many days probably wasn’t the best idea. “It’s just . . . It’s like it’s not real, you know? I mean, the real world’s back home in London, with work and mates and stuff. I can’t even imagine actually living here. Growing up here.” And fuck knew he’d tried. “It’s like nothing that happens here could possibly affect the real world.” Even as he said it, Dev knew it was bollocks. Wishful thinking, at best.
“But your friend Ceri lives here, and grew up here.” There was that flat tone again.
“Yeah, well, I told you it was stupid. But yeah, I like the place.”
“Wait till it rains for three weeks solid and the wind’s blowing it sideways in off the sea,” Kyle said, but he wasn’t fooling Dev.
“Think you’ll stay? You know, when your lease is up?”
Kyle didn’t answer. He was staring intently ahead, and Dev followed his gaze automatically.
“What are you—” Dev blinked. “Fuck me, is that like a geyser or something?” A waterspout had just spurted out of the ground ahead of them, and then died down again.
“That’s the Round Hole,” Kyle said. Something about his tone made Dev glance at him. He had a smile on his face that looked unconscious, as if he hadn’t yet realised it was there, and he even sounded happy. As if life had gone for a ceasefire on the constant lemon bombardment, and chucked him something he actually wanted for a change.
Dev’s chest tightened, for a moment, and he found he was smiling back. “How’s that work, then?” he asked.
“It’s connected to the cave system. I’d heard this sometimes happens at high tide—the water rushes into the caves, and pressure forces it, well, up the spout.”
“Huh. Cool.” They picked up the pace, Kyle seeming as keen as Dev to get there before the show stopped. Dev couldn’t believe there was no one else around to see it—a whole bloody town full of people on holiday, and they were all either on the beach, or in a café, or traipsing round shops buying tourist tat. It was like it’d been laid on just for him and Kyle.
The Round Hole itself was a lot larger than Dev had expected—at least a hundred feet across, easy. “Fuck me, that’s big,” he said, right as another wave hit just right and spray spurted up from its inland side, the wind carrying it dangerously close to where they were standing. They backed off a bit, laughing. Well, Dev was laughing. Kyle had that weird look on his face Dev was coming to recognise meant he’d be laughing if he dared.
“I can’t believe the path goes right by it.” Dev shook a few drops of seawater off his hand. “There ain’t even a fence or nothing. How many tourists do they lose a year?”
“I’m not sure, but there is a gruesome legend attached to this place. It involves another giant.” Kyle stopped and looked at Dev, as if he thought Dev might not be interested.
Which was just crazy. Course he was interested. “Go on, then.”
“Apparently the giant—or possibly just a giant—fell in love with a beautiful and virtuous maiden, and she told him she’d only be his if he could prove his love by filling up this hole with his blood. Being a giant, he thought he could manage that easily, so he opened up a vein. Unfortunately, it was low tide, so he didn’t realise the hole was connected to the sea and could therefore never be filled, and he bled to death.”
“Nice. That was well virtuous, that was, getting rid of a bloke she didn’t fancy by having him top himself.”
“I think in those days they had a rather blinkered view of virtue.”
Dev grinned. “Yep. No shagging, and you’re golden. Must’ve been bloody awful living back in them days.” He sat down at a safe distance from the hole to wait for another waterspout, his arms resting on his knees.
After a minute, Kyle joined him, although he didn’t so much sit on the grass as sprawl on it, propped up on one elbow. He still looked tired, so Dev wasn’t surprised when after a couple of minutes, he lay down fully.
It was fucking awesome up here, with a waterspout on one side of them and the sea on the other. And yeah, a fit bloke by his side. More than that—a bloke who, well, was interested in stuff that wasn’t just sport on the telly and having a laugh. Who made Dev interested in all that sort of crap. And who just might be interested in Dev too. He’d seen Kyle looking at him again, at odd moments through the morning. Like he was checking him out.
Dev tried not to think about how solid the ground under his bum really was—after all, if the Round Hole was connected to the sea, the chances were they were right on top of the hollow bit here . . . Nope, not gonna think about it.
He gazed over at the headland a bit farther on, where he could see what had to be the ruins of the Black Whoever’s castle. What would it have been like living in that castle back in the day? It must have been even more remote then than it was now. Some bastard had plonked a big, ugly block of a house around a hundred yards from where they were sitting, on the inland side of the Hole and a lot closer to it than Dev would’ve been happy sinking foundations. It looked old, but weirdly modern at the same time.
He turned to ask Kyle about it—and saw he’d fallen asleep.
Dev had to smile. Kyle seemed comfy enough, lying there on the springy grass, so Dev didn’t try to move him or wake him. He did shift around though, making sure he was sitting where his shadow would fall on Kyle’s face. Wouldn’t want him to get sunburned.
Then he took another long, long look at the view.