“You have your voice. You have your life. But you will never be believed,” Opal goes on. She sounds and looks so mournful. A tear slips free, and I watch it drop. “You will give orders, no one will heed them. You will ask for help, no one will believe you need it. Your power, the gift you misused, it’s gone.”
Portia’s face breaks into an expression of understanding, and then horror dawns. She looks frantically from Opal to me and then to my grandmother.
“Come here, old woman,” she barks.
Gran shakes her head. “No.”
The Siren’s frenzied attention moves across every human in the room who, until now, would’ve fallen under her spell. They all stand firm, unmoved by her commands. She screams orders at them until her voice cracks, but to no avail.
“Freddy,” she finally gasps. “My son, my boy. I love you. You know that, don’t you? This was all for you!”
Freddy wipes a tear of his own away. “I didn’t believe that before, let alone now.”
I can see the exact moment in which Portia realises that all her power is gone. She lets out a gasp and then a silent sob, her forehead falling to the ground. I look to Opal, expecting to see relief or triumph. No.
My aunt’s jaw is shaking as she tries to withhold a sob. Portia’s hands grab wretchedly at her, and she allows it, desperately scanning the Siren’s face for signs of remorse.
“Don’t do this to me,” Portia says, her words broken apart. “Please, Opal. Don’t, anything but this. Kill me! Kill me instead!”
Opal looks up to the ceiling and I can see her
face is wet with tears. “I forgive you, Sha. Okay? I
release you.”
Portia is sobbing quietly, Opal’s words making her physically recoil. I watch Aunt Leanna put an arm around both Freddy and Marley, slowly starting to lead them away. Freddy watches until he can no longer see Portia. Mum stands guard, her stance prepared for trouble. Gran moves to me, and she is hugging me, trying to extract me from the tree.
“No,” I object, clinging on. “No, Gran.”
I am not leaving Alona here by herself. If she’s still in there somewhere, I don’t want her to be trapped in this dark, underground kingdom alone.
“Remember the lake in the winter?” Portia breathes, her gaze distant.
Opal smiles sadly. Then, “Yes.”
It is another secret between them.
“I wish we were there now,” Portia finally utters, before closing her eyes and withdrawing completely.
Opal stands slowly and moves to me. She physically bundles me up so that I’m standing, and she helps me walk, leading me out of the hall. Mum ushers the Ripple out as well, keeping a watchful eye over it as it moves away from Portia and the tree.
“Alona,” I cry, looking back at the silent oak. “It’s Alona, I can’t leave her.”
The adults aren’t listening to me now, though. They lead me out of the deep, hidden world and up the winding, narrow stairs to the outside. I can hear Portia crying, her sobs fading the higher we go. Aunt Opal
is trembling.
“What will happen to her?” I ask, as we near the top, and the Siren’s sounds are almost inaudible.
“I don’t know,” Opal says. “But at some point, you have to stop listening to the wicked and just leave them to their own misery.”
We crawl out of a small entrance carved into the rock. Gran complains the entire time, making me smile. Mum is gently inspecting the Ripple and Aunt Leanna is gripping both Freddy and Marley in a hug. I relish the cold Scottish wind against my cheeks as I stagger onto the great Arthur’s Seat and look out at
the city.
Aunt Opal stretches her neck, and we all hear it click.
“Oof,” she mutters, wincing. She meets my eye.
“Not bad for a dead girl though.”
I burst into tears. She’s holding me within seconds, and I can tell she is still so emotional too. I cling to her, unable to process the fact that she is real.
“I saw it happen,” I finally say. “How—”
“Let’s all get somewhere warm and dry before we unpack everything,” Gran says firmly.
“It’s turned midnight,” Marley says softly. “It’s Christmas Day.”
We all huddle together, beside the door to a hidden fortress and beneath the gaze of a great, blue dragon, and it’s definitely already the hardest, weirdest, best Christmas I have ever had.
Chapter Twenty-FOUR
Lunch
We go back to my old house, in Stockbridge.
Mum makes up the spare room for Freddy and Marley, before physically forcing me into my own bed and making me go to sleep. She hugs me for two whole minutes before I drift off, and neither of us say a word. She promises that Dad is in London and totally fine, and that Blue is in the Forth, having fun and chasing the Kelpies.
