The voice that speaks does not belong to any of us. We all swivel to look at the doorframe. Standing in it, with his hand raised as if to knock, is the Stranger. He is wearing tiny black sunglasses and is peering at us over the top of them.
“How did you get inside the house?” I exclaim in distaste.
He smiles and shrugs. “There is no magic older than I am.”
I look to my aunts, expecting them to be appalled or confused, but they look relieved to see him. I can’t understand why. He’s always a bystander. Other than passing along my grandfather’s mission, and occasionally leading me to magical bookshops, he has done nothing to help us against the Sirens. Nothing that I can see at least.
“Marley,” the Stranger speaks directly to my cousin, something I can tell he finds unnerving. “What did
you see?”
Marley looks around at all of us, and I can tell that he’s weighing up whether or not to continue his pretence. He settles on the truth.
“I saw it by the loch. It looked just like Grandpa. Not pale or shimmery like a ghost, it looked like him. Real. In the flesh.”
“When was this?” Leanna asks, frowning.
“I didn’t see it, but Marley was really spooked,” I pipe up, cutting Leanna off and steering the conversation away from us being by the loch without their knowledge.
“I don’t know what it could’ve been,” Marley says, almost apologetically. He is afraid to look the Stranger in the eye.
“It’s all right,” the Stranger says quietly. “I believe you.”
The words are like an enchantment over Marley. He is invigorated, in such a way that I feel guilty for doubting him.
“But it can’t be him,” Marley says, more to himself than to us. “It looks just—”
“It can’t be him,” the Stranger concurs, speaking softly. “I’m sorry. I know how that hurts. But nothing, no spell, can bring humans back from the dead.”
I glance across at him, puzzled. “Humans?”
“Come on,” Aunt Leanna says chipperly. “Show us where you saw it.”
*
The five of us walk in the chilled air, with Marley leading the way. I look behind me, sullen at seeing the Stranger and Opal walking side by side, with their arms linked and heads close together. Whispering.
“You have to share your aunt.”
Aunt Leanna says it to me, kindly and under
her breath.
“Just don’t see why they’re so friendly,” I mutter, lashing out at a twig with a kick.
“You and your aunt are so similar,” Leanna says. “When you decide to be pleasant, when you let the guard down, everyone within ten miles wants to be your closest friend.”
I stop in my tracks and stare at her. “I’m not
like that.”
“Oh, yes, you are. Or could be.” Leanna wraps an arm around me. “What’s going on with you, chicken?”
“Other than the Sirens announcing a war on witches? Nothing.”
“It’s not a child’s job to save the world, Rams.”
“Well, then tell me what you’re all planning.”
Marley reaches his old spot by the water’s edge of the loch and points ahead. “It was over there.”
There is of course, as we expected, nothing there now. No one scolds him, but I can feel his palpable disappointment. Opal detaches from the Stranger and moves towards the cloudy, dark loch. I watch in fascination as she kneels to touch it, the way I instinctively do when I’m around a large body of water. I suddenly wonder if Blue, or the Ceasg, will rise up from the depths. I exchange a glance with Marley, and he is clearly thinking the same thing.
However, it is neither a dragon nor a savage mermaid which rises from the bottom of the large lake.
Chapter SIXTEEN
Ripples
Opal’s touch causes a large, weblike ripple in the water. It spreads to the middle of the loch and a soft light begins to ascend from beneath. I brace myself, grabbing a rock. I’m ready to hurl it if necessary. Everyone moves a little closer to Opal, and we all seem to be holding our breath.
Except the Stranger, who does not seem to breathe at all.
The creature that appears on the loch looks as if it’s made of water, until it quickly transforms with the speed of someone changing the channel on a television. Suddenly it looks like Opal. The change makes everyone except Opal and the Stranger gasp. I throw the stone in my hand, without even thinking. My aim is pretty horrible. The rock sinks down into the loch, a good ten feet from the creature. It watches me, as Opal, then vanishes beneath the surface once more.
“That thing is beyond scary,” I say.
“You don’t have to throw stones at things that scare you,” Opal says over her shoulder.
