He shook the memory off, knowing they would discuss it further, and carried the tray containing the coffee and mugs out to the terrace and placed it on the table. Chiara and the others they rescued had already finished their breakfast and coffee. It was a cold but sunny morning, and the team were all keen for fresh air. The view across the hills was spectacular, especially with the sea sparkling in the distance. Spring was creeping closer. It was certainly warmer there than it would be in Cornwall; nevertheless, Barak was eager to be home. He needed time to decompress, to breathe again without fear of Black Cronos or Belial. He had no doubt that they would encounter other problems eventually, but for now, he would enjoy the peace.
Lucien, Ash, Estelle, Shadow, and Gabe were on the terrace too, debating their next course of action, especially how best to help the women, and Ozan had arrived to argue his point. He looked like a different man this morning. He stood taller, his expression hopeful, although right now, he was desperate to get Estelle’s approval. It seemed Oz, as he liked to be called, and his companions wanted to help the kidnapped women, to atone for the others’ treatment of them. Estelle was reluctant to let them near the women. Barak understood that. Their priority was to get the girls home. After that, they could go home, too.
“I see your point, Estelle, I really do,” Oz said, leaning forward in his chair, “but we need to help them. We could do nothing at the time, and I hated it.”
“You could have tried.”
“It would have got us killed.”
“Exactly. You favoured your own life over theirs.”
Barak felt sorry for Oz, but equally he saw Estelle’s point.
Oz wasn’t done. “We took them extra food, and we gave them toiletries and medications.”
“You mean to help with the wounds your brothers gave them.”
“Do not call them my brothers. They were not.”
“If I might intervene,” Lucien ventured. “I experienced capture and degradation myself. I also want to help them, and Oz, I see that you want to help too, but it’s not right. You have to walk away from this. We,” he glanced at the others, “will do this. There are enough of us to make sure the girls get home or go wherever they want to.”
Estelle smiled at him. “Thank you, Lucien.”
Shadow reached for the coffee and poured herself a mug. “I agree with Estelle. We will deal with this. If you want to make amends, Oz, help us track down The Brotherhood.”
He nodded, resigned, and accepted a mug of coffee that Barak offered him. “All right. We can do that. We know most of them, between us. Although, if the jewels no longer have power…”
Gabe glanced at Ash and Barak as he said, “We find them anyway, just in case. You know where they have been moved to?”
“Yes, mostly.” A renewed determination settled over Oz as he said, “Yes, I like that idea. We will do that, and then chase up any remaining members of The Brotherhood in Venice.”
Barak asked, “What about the dead Nephilim?”
“They are already in the sea. We carried them far out last night and dumped them. Nibal and the others are cleaning up the villa today. It’s ours now, to do with as we please. Jiri bought it years ago, when he tired of living in Portoferraio.” The capital city of Elba – the city that Barak had seen in the images at Moonfell. “It’s a good place to rebuild.”
Barak mulled over what he’d briefly discussed with the others the previous night. “Oz, it may be that we can put you in touch with someone who can offer you work, if you need it. It’s not always honest,” he said, laughing, “but I think you’ll find it more honest than what you have been doing. We’ll have to discuss it with our contact, but his organisation might want to use your skills.”
Harlan might want to discuss it with Romola, too. They would see how they would fair with The Brotherhood first. See how trustworthy they could be. From his brief interaction with Oz, though, they all felt they could trust them. They had, after all, helped them defeat Belial.
Oz smiled, and it transformed him. “We would appreciate that. We have some money, but we’ll give most of it to the women. Then, yes, we’ll need work. Thank you. We are all curious to see this paranormal world you speak of.”
Ash shook his head, perplexed. “You really haven’t met many other paranormal creatures?”
“Very few. Jiri didn’t want it. It’s been an isolated existence, for the most part.”
As the conversation changed direction to talk of the paranormal and the life they led, Barak realised they had been lucky with their new friends, and he wondered how his brothers were faring in London.
Zee pushed his empty breakfast plate away and reached for his coffee. The noise around the table was loud.
Everyone except JD and Anna was present in JD’s dining room that overlooked the rear terrace and the battered marquee, and a range of conversations were taking place. Harlan, Jackson, and Maggie were debating how old Anna might be, whether the emerald cave would send JD mad eventually, and if he would ever actually leave it to help Jackson at The Retreat. Certainly, he had showed no sign of separating himself from it yet.
After their success at breaking Belial’s control the previous night, they had helped JD put the slightly battered lab to rights before he shooed them out. He was a peculiar little man, no doubt, but Zee felt he owed him a debt that he could never repay. They couldn’t have banished Belial alone. Now, Zee was eager to get home.
He and Eli would leave soon, needing to return to work in White Haven, but it seemed Nahum was staying in London for a while. He sat next to Olivia, and they leaned into each other; it was clear that they had come to some sort of accord. The early beginnings of love, perhaps.
Zee spoke to Eli, keeping his voice low. “Do you think Nahum will ever return to Cornwall? For good, I mean?”
Eli shrugged, smiling as he watched him. “Hard to say. Right now, I think not. Shame, really. I’ll miss him, but change is good.”
“But if the worst happens…” He didn’t need to say what that would be. Eli knew. The death of their daughter was a distinct possibility. Sooner or later, it happened. It always did.
“Then we deal with it, but let’s have a little hope, brother.”
“I have a lot of hope, and so do they. That’s what bothers me.”
“They have Morgana and JD. Having met him, I now think he could do anything. But we have work to do when we get back, and I don’t mean with the witches. The dryads need us. It’s spring soon. Ostara. Nelaira has plans.”
Zee nodded. Their promise of guardianship over Ravens’ Wood was making demands again. They would honour it, of course. They had to. Eli also had his own reasons for helping Nelaira. An obsession that he kept under control, most of the time. More and more lately Zee suspected that Eli slept with other women to assuage his need for Nelaira, and he wasn’t quite sure how that would play out.
“As long, brother, as it doesn’t clash with a certain wedding.” Reuben would be devastated if they weren’t there, and so, in fact, would Zee. He was looking forward to it.
Eli laughed. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t.”
Zee sipped his coffee as Maggie demanded Eli’s attention. It would be almost a week before Niel returned home, and most likely Gabe, Barak, Ash, and Shadow, too. Nahum would return for the wedding. Zee decided to take advantage of the lull, and prepare to move into the apartment above The Wayward Son properly.
It was time to see to his own future, too.
It was a week after the fight on Elba and Jiri’s defeat when Gabe finally walked into the farmhouse in Cornwall.
