Faye sat on the bed, fighting the tears that were too insistent to be kept away. What had happened to her? Her whole life felt completely out of control.
How long had Mallory’s clothes been here? And was she here, or was she still in Falias somewhere with Lyr?
Annie thundered back into the bedroom carrying two full black bin bags.
‘I found yer stuff, sweetheart. Bagged up like trash. Fuckin’ mean-spirited bastid. Come on, sweetheart. We’re outta here. Ye dinnae need to be around him one minute longer, aye.’
Faye shook her head, feeling the tears leaking down her cheeks. The knot that was in her chest felt like it would choke her.
‘Annie, I can’t,’ she sobbed, plunging her head into her hands as she cried. ‘I…I…’ but she couldn’t tell Annie that Rav’s child was inside her. She knew that if she did, Annie would storm back into the living room and tell him, and she couldn’t. He couldn’t know.
‘Aw, come on, darlin’. He’s no’ worth one of your tears.’ Annie held her tightly and stroked her hair. ‘Let’s go home, eh?’
Faye nodded, trying to pull herself together. She’d already booked her train ticket to Edinburgh, though she hadn’t told her friend yet. In a couple of days, she’d be back in Abercolme where she’d reopen the shop for a few months. She’d find a way to keep the baby. If she could just go back home, be in her rightful place, then the magic of the Morgans would help her. She knew it in her bones.
Faye followed Annie back out to the living room where Rav was still sitting on the sofa.He hasn’t even moved. Not got up to see me, talk to me. Nothing,she thought, anger replacing her tears.That’s how much he ever cared about me.
‘Don’t worry, I’m out of your hair now,’ Faye said, Annie’s arm around her shoulders. ‘You can get on with things with Mallory.’
‘For fuck’s sake, Faye. I’m not with Mallory,’ Rav muttered. ‘You’re obsessed with her. You need help.’
‘Don’t lie!’ Annie yelled.
He stood up, putting his computer to one side.
‘It wasyouthat cheated on me, Faye. With your faerie king, or one of your witch friends. Oh, don’t worry. Mallory told me allabout him. The one with the shop? I guess it’s nice for you to find someone who speaks the same weird language as you,’ he spat angrily.
‘What? Gabriel? We never…’ Faye argued, but Rav spoke over her.
‘You don’t see it, do you? You’re so lost in your…magic, your shop, all that stuff your mum and your grandmother taught you, you can’t see what’s real.Iwas real, Faye.Iloved you. We could have had a future together, but I could never get to you. It’s like you’re behind this wall of water. I can’t see you clearly, everything’s…It’s all an illusion. And no matter how hard I shout, you can’t hear me.’
Despair overwhelmed Faye. She wanted to tell him so badly that she was carrying his child. The words sat in her throat like a frog, but she couldn’t say them. They would cost her too much.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘You have no idea how sorry.’ She wiped a tear from the side of her eye and felt the strength of Annie’s arm; felt the love of their long friendship filling her. She was sad, but she was also worth more than this.
‘I was born a witch, Rav. I was raised a witch. My family, the Morgans, are a family of witches. We’ve always had this power. My great-grandmothers, my ancestors: some of them were killed for who they were. Some of them were tortured. So, if you don’t like who I am, that’s tough. You liked it well enough when you were kneeling at my feet.’
‘Faye. We need to talk. Please…’ Rav held his hand out to her, but she turned away, her heart breaking.
‘Come on, darlin’. Let’s go.’ Annie opened the front door.
In the moment before she walked out of the flat, Faye’s eyes alighted on a picture frame. In it, there was a photo of her and Rav; he’d taken it while they lay in her bed back in Abercolme. Before they had come to London, in that bubble of sweetness, when they had holed up in her flat above the shop and donenothing but slept and ate and made love. They had known very little of each other then. Though it was months ago, it felt like an age had passed.
In front of the framed photo, a new one had been wedged into the gap where the frame met the glass. The small black and white picture was blurry, but the outline of the foetus was obvious.
Faye’s eyes met Rav’s, and the tears at what she couldn’t say came roaring out of her – the sorrow that she couldn’t contain. Annie pulled her through the door and down the stairs. She heard Rav shouting after her,It’s not mine, it’s not mine. I’m just looking after her. She had nowhere else to go.But she couldn’t focus, couldn’t respond. If that was Mallory’s baby, then she must already have been pregnant before going to Falias with Lyr. Or, Lyr had kept Mallory there for as long as he needed her, and sent her back pregnant – time did move differently in the faerie realms. Could it be that she was back, pregnant by Lyr, already?
It was possible. But it was also possible that Mallory’s baby wasn’t a half-faerie baby at all and someone else’s. Someone much closer to home.
As Annie gunned the engine, Faye closed her eyes and reached for the necklace that Moronoe had given her. The cube-shaped jet and citrine beads were cold in her hand.
39
The shop was exactly as Faye left it, apart from the thick dust that had accumulated on the shelves while she’d been away. She sank into one of the easy chairs by the old hearth with a deep sigh – five hours on the train from London followed by a taxi to Abercolme was a long time travelling. She reached down and rubbed her swollen ankles. She had had morning sickness, though she hadn’t realised what it was, and now other things were starting to bother her.
Faye stared around at the shop, at the pictures on the wall that were so familiar she didn’t usually see them: theSupport Your Local Witchessign that Moddie had hand-drawn and hung behind the counter; the photo of Grandmother in an old gilt frame. The comfort of being home emanated from the thick walls of the old house like heat, wrapping her back up again in its protection. She was home. But the shop also reminded her painfully of Aisha.
She looked at her phone; there were several missed calls from Rav and a text message.I’m sorry for the way it all happened. She deleted the message immediately.
