“Dad, we are in danger,” I breathed. “We can’t stay here.”

“What are you talking about, Kiera?” he frowned.

“Someone has set a trap for us,” I said, reaching for the latch.

“A trap, for me?” he frowned again, but this time I was sure I could see the faintest traces of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“No,” I said, sensing that something was suddenly very wrong here. “A trap has been set for me.”

“Very good,” he said, suddenly pulling me close. He snaked his arms around me, but it wasn’t like the hold of a father – more like that of a lover. He ran one hand through my hair, and the other down my spine letting it come to rest in the small of my back.

“What are you doing?” I squirmed against him, feeling scared and uncomfortable. “Let go of me.”

“But I’m your father,” he whispered, his lips curling upwards, making his face look suddenly unkind. “I’m your daddy.”

His hand, which was still in the small of my back, slowly slid further down and I felt his fingers brush over my buttocks.

“Get off me!” I screeched, pushing him away with the palms of my hands. “What are you doing?”

With his arm wrapped so tight around me I was beginning to find it difficult to breathe, my father looked into my eyes. Their almost perfect blue began to fade and take on a new colour. A brighter colour. Yellow. His eyes almost seem to spin in their sockets and sink further back into his face. Again I tried to pull away, but he held onto me. Just like his eye sockets had begun to form to dark hollows in his face, his cheeks began to sink inwards too. At first I thought that somehow, he was being eaten up by the cancer again. That the two worlds were overlapping. Then, as he pulled me closer, so the tips of our noses were almost touching, his face began to ripple – twist out of shape, until it looked like someone I recognised.

“Jack Seth!” I gasped, feeling repulsed by his touch.

He gave me a knowing smile, his lips rolling back to reveal his black rotting gums and broken teeth. His face looked more emaciated than I had remembered it to be. His thin, wispy hair stuck out from the sides of his head and from behind his ears. Just as his face had changed, so had his body. It stretched against me, and again I tried to pull away from him. His bony arms were locked around me like a vice. I looked up into his face as he towered over me. I no longer felt scared, just angry and confused.

“Why? I asked him.

Before he had the chance to answer, I heard the front door swing open behind me, a flurry of snow sweeping in and making me shiver in Seth’s arms.

I glanced back to see that hooded figure standing in the open doorway again. It was difficult to see if it were male or female. With face hidden and body concealed beneath long, grey robes, there was nothing for me to see.

Glancing back at Seth, I stared into his eyes. I tried not to, but it was hard to resist. His eyes spun around and around like two Catherine wheels in their sunken sockets.

“What do you want with me?” I breathed, no longer revolted by his touch.

“I want you to choose,” he smiled.

I felt a sudden pain in the back of my head and everything went black.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Potter

I didn’t know if Murphy had made the right decision in heading for the Fountain of Souls and the Dead Waters that Sam had spoken of.

Murphy was a law unto himself on most occasions. I knew there had been little point in trying to get him to change his mind. Time was precious now if I were to stop Kiera walking into the trap I believed had been set for her. Maybe I was being paranoid? Perhaps she would just take a peek at her father had head back to the cottage again? I doubted that. The picture of Kiera and her father suggested something different – that something was very wrong.

With the wind pulling my hair from my brow and my wings flapping like two giant sheets that had been hung out to dry, I soared through the air and towards Kiera’s father’s house. I prayed that I wasn’t too late. How much precious time I had wasted going back to help my friends, I didn’t know, but what else could I have done? It was a choice that I had to make. I just hoped that it hadn’t been the wrong one. All I wanted was to get Kiera back. I didn’t want to waste any more time in finding her. I needed to tell her what I really felt. I would tell her everything, and why I had kept secrets from her. It hadn’t been because I’d wanted to cheat or deceive her somehow – it had been because I loved her – wanted to protect her. If she listened and believed everything I had to say, I wanted to ask her something. I wanted to know if and when we pushed the world back to how it had been before, if she would spend the rest of her life with me? There was no one I wanted more than Kiera. I had known that for some time – probably since our first kiss in the gatehouse back at Hallowed Manor. Even though I’d been wearing that stupid fucking disguise – another one of Murphy’s great ideas – that kiss had been very real to me. It had felt like no other kiss I had known.

Kayla had been right. This was the sort of shit I should have told Kiera – not kept it to myself. Just like those letters I had sent to Sophie after she had rejected me, I should have perhaps written down how I felt and given it to Kiera to read, if I hadn’t found the courage to tell her myself. Why hadn’t I done that? Because if I were to be really honest with myself, I was scared that Kiera would have ultimately rejected me just like Sophie had. She wasn’t Sophie, though – she was Kiera Hudson and that made her something very special.

I dropped altitude and swooped through the clouds to get my bearings. I sensed that I wasn’t too far away from Kiera’s father’s house.

Careful to remain hidden, I arched my wings back and slowed. Hovering, I peered through the breaks in the cloud cover. Below was a vast sea of white fields which stretched in all directions as far as the eye could see. It was almost impossible for me to find a landmark to aim for. Then, in the distance I saw something reaching up into the sky. It was a church spire. I raced towards it.

Within a matter of seconds I was above the church and looking down at the desolate graveyard. The world seemed so quiet, like I was the only person living. It was like the snow had smothered any sound, other than the wind which howled all around me. Then, looking to my right, I could see a pinprick of black and it was moving across the fields towards what looked like a barn.

I shot forward through the cloud to get a better look. It was a person, head down, trudging through the snow. With wings poised, I swooped closer, the black speck of colour moving across the snow becoming clearer. I screwed up my eyes against the falling snow, not quite believing what I was seeing. I flew closer still, dropping out of the clouds, praying that my eyes weren’t deceiving me. The solitary figure drew closer as I swooped overhead. I couldn’t see their face, as they walked almost bent over against the driving snow. I didn’t need to see the face to know who it was. It was Kiera. I sighed with relief to know she was still alive.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Potter

Kiera lifted her head and looked at me through the falling snow. It covered her hair and the shoulders of her coat. Not everything was pure white though. I could see a smear of blood about the corner of her mouth. Blood dripped from her fingers and splattered the snow.

“Kiera, are you hurt?” I asked, taking a step towards her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her eyes fixed on mine. Her voice sounded resentful.

I stopped. “I came after you,” I said.

“So you could gloat and make a few more wise-arse comments?” she asked.

“No, I came after you because I was worried about you,” I said, daring to take another step closer.

She looked at me, her hair hanging wet and bedraggled against her pale face. “Well, you’ll be pleased to know you were right,” she said.

“Right?” I asked her. “Right about what?”

“It was a trap,” she said, looking at me, her eyes full of pain and distrust.

I just wanted to go to her and hold her in my arms. I didn’t. “A trap?” I asked her. “Set by who?”

“Jack Seth,” she said back. “It was Seth who sent your letters to Sophie. He also left those pictures for Isidor and me.”

Hearing that it was Jack Seth who had been screwing with us filled me with a burning rage. To know that he had led Isidor to his death and had deceived Kiera made me want to rip his fucking head clean off. “Where is he?” I snapped at her.

“He’s dead,” Kiera whispered. Then, looking down at her hands, which still dripped blood into the snow, she added, “I killed him.”

“Where?” I asked, going towards her.

“At my father’s house,” she said, looking back into my eyes. “My father wasn’t there.

There was only Jack. He boasted of what he had done. I was so angry, Potter. I ripped his throat out.”

“Are you okay?” I asked, finally taking her in my arms and holding her against my chest.

“I guess,” she whispered against me.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, holding her tight in the snow. “I never meant to hurt you, Kiera,” I told her. “I’m sorry I kept secrets from you.”

“It’s over now,” she said, pulling away from me.

“What is?” I asked, trying to take hold of one of her blood-stained hands. She pulled away.

“We’re over,” she said, looking back at me. “I thought I could trust you. But you lied to me, Potter. I’ve been lied to before. I’m not going there again.”

“Let me explain,” I said.

“What’s the point?” she shrugged, looking at me.

“Because I love you, Kiera. I love you more than anyone or anything,” I tried to convince her.

“And what about Sophie?” she asked me, knocking snow from her fringe with the back of her hand.

“Fuck Sophie,” I said back.

“And I guess that’s what you did when you went to find her again,” Kiera said, holding my stare, as if wanting to see my reaction to her accusation.