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Havok glared at her. ‘Which only proves what I’ve always told you. No witch can be trusted.’ He turned back to me. ‘He lied to me. Told me he didn’t know who the male Pendragon heir was. I told him that was a shame because it meant I had no further reason to keep him alive. That’s when he blurted out that he knew where the female Pendragon would be. That she’d recently been discovered and was heading to Whitby on business. Even better for us, Zephyr would be keeping an eye on her.’
‘Of course,’ Malliss said, his voice surprising me by how thin and reedy it sounded, ‘we gave him our word that we weren’t interested in Zephyr Ambrose. It was only Linnet Pendragon we wanted.’
Siofra laughed. ‘And he believed us!’
‘He was beside himself when I killed Zephyr,’ Malliss said gleefully. ‘He said he’d rather we’d killed him than take his great leader.’
‘We were about to do him a favour and grant him his wish,’ Havok said, ‘but his precious wife—the wife he’d begged us to spare—took matters into her own hands. It was so amusing, and they had no idea we were even there, watching them. You should see the efforts they went to trying to make it look as if it were our handiwork. I was quite insulted. Of course, I knew even witches would see through that little performance easily enough. So there you have it.’
‘But you failed, didn’t you?’ I said, thinking at least Bob hadn’t mentioned Sister Agnes. The Pendragons clearly had no idea that Trinity had, in fact, been in Whitby looking for details about our birth. ‘You didn’t kill Trinity, only Zephyr.’
Havok and Malliss exchanged glances.
‘It was one of Malliss’s rare failings,’ Havok admitted. ‘We’re not sure what happened there, but it won’t happen again. Besides,’ he added with a smug look, ‘it meant that I had the pleasure of meeting your sister in person. It was a most satisfying meeting.’
‘Tell me you didn’t kill her,’ I managed, my throat dry with terror.
‘Why would I do that?’ Havok enquired. ‘Anyway, what does it matter now? You won’t be alive long enough to grieve for her.’
His hand shot out and without thinking I hurled a fireball in his direction. He easily dodged it and laughed gleefully.
‘Enjoy yourself, my pets!’
Focus on the island, Wulfram. Focus!
I tried, I really tried, but I heard Siofra laughing and then the two dogs launched themselves at me.
Instinctively, I threw up my hands to protect myself, then stared in disbelief. They were frozen mid-leap. I looked past them to where the Pendragons were standing, but they weren’t moving either. What had happened?
I stepped away from the tree and moved out of the path of the dogs, noticing as I did so that I was wrong. They weren’t frozen. They were still moving, but so slowly it was difficult to notice without studying them closely.
Even as I registered that fact I realised that something else was happening. Malliss was somehow moving faster than the others. I remembered that Killian had said he was like quicksilver, and I supposed that, although I’d somehow managed to slow them all down, his abilities and speed were ensuring he could still move quicker than I liked.
He slowly turned his head to look at me, and I saw rage in his eyes. Very slowly his hand began to lift. He wanted to kill me, there was no doubt about it. I thought of Zephyr and what this man had done to him, and I was filled with a sudden rage. My fingers began to twitch, and I looked down, shocked to see a sickly green light emanating from them.
This wasn’t something I’d been able to do before and I knew instinctively that it was fae magic. I saw Malliss’s face change. The rage turned to fear as he tried desperately to move out of my line of fire. There was no way he could possibly be quick enough. I couldn’t fail to hit him.
And yet… I couldn’t do it. Whatever this was, I couldn’t kill him in cold blood, and something told me that’s exactly what I’d do, and it wouldn’t be quick or pretty.
No. I’m not that person. I don’t want to be that person.
His expression changed from fear to scorn as he realised I hadn’t taken the opportunity to inflict upon him what he’d inflicted upon who knows how many others. His hand was now glowing with the same green light I’d just extinguished in myself.
Without thinking I hurled a fireball at him, gasping in shock as it hit him squarely in the chest and he fell to the floor. Even as he did so, time moved on and things returned to normal speed again.
‘What have you done?’ Havok gasped, staring at Malliss in shock. His favourite henchman was dead on the ground and Havok turned to me, fury in his eyes. ‘You’ll pay for that, nephew. Your time is done!’
‘Look out, Wulfram!’
I looked round, staggered to see reinforcements had arrived. It was Emrick who’d shouted to me, and I was so overwhelmed to see him again that I almost forgot about the danger I was in, but quickly spun round again just in time to dodge a blast from Spite.
How had they known where I was? Sirius, Harley, and Trinity were with Emrick. And so was Keely! So they were all right. Havok hadn’t killed them! My heart lifted and I was filled with a new determination.
I edged my way backwards towards my family, keeping my eyes firmly on the Pendragons who were clearly shocked by the new arrivals.
‘What are you doing here?’ I managed, blasting a fireball at Havok.
‘No time for that now, we’ll explain later,’ Keely gasped. I nodded and she added, ‘I’m so glad you’re home.’
