Leo, please be OK …
Leo shivered and straightened up quickly, looking around as if he had heard her. Merry hurriedly waved her hand, causing the vision to vanish. Surely, he hadn’t really sensed her presence? She’d said the charm properly, in full, and Leo was no wizard.
But perhaps, if there was something from the shadow realm still inside him …
Merry poured the water away into the ground. Rest, that was what she needed now. She needed to be at the top of her game, so she could rescue Leo and make Ronan pay. Taking the second blanket from her bag she went to lie next to Finn.
‘Finn?’
There was no answer. Hopefully, he was asleep. Merry touched him lightly on the shoulder, by way of goodnight, wrapped the blanket round her body and lay down.
Someone just walked over my grave.
That’s what Gran would have said.
But there was more to it than that, he was sure. The sensation of his sister being nearby had felt impossibly real: as if she’d physically been there in the room with him. Maybe … maybe it meant something. Maybe Merry had finally found a way to follow him to wherever this place was, and now she was here, planning her attack on Ronan. And because their bond was so strong, he could somehow guess, he could somehow know, when she was near …
He shook his head, still slightly disorientated.
Maybe.
At first Leo had dreamt about Merry rescuing him almost every night. She’d show up, sometimes alone, sometimes with Gran, or with Mum and the rest of the coven. There would be a vicious, bloody battle. The details would vary, but every time Merry would destroy Ronan, annihilate him, burn him into the earth until there was nothing left of him but ash, drifting across scorched ground. But over time – as weeks, then months passed – the dreams had become less frequent. Merry had not shown up, and Leo had not been rescued. He swallowed hard, trying to force back the now familiar tide of fear. Although he didn’t want to admit it, he was terrified at the thought that perhaps Ronan was right: Merry was never going to come for him.
It wouldn’t be because she hadn’t even tried. Despite Ronan’s taunts, Leo was certain that his sister would never willingly give up on him. He knew she would have tried – over and over – to find a way to free him. Hadn’t he seen her determination himself, on the day Ronan had kidnapped him? He could remember her fighting Ronan, just before Ronan dragged him back through the gateway, or portal, or whatever it was that had opened in the space by the Black Lake. Merry had been hurling spells at Ronan, and she’d almost defeated him. But then something had gone wrong. Leo blinked, trying to recall what he had seen. But the image was gone. He hadn’t been fully in control of either his body or his mind that day. And there had been so much pain …
Still, what did any of it really matter now? He knew that Merry loved him, and she was certainly a powerful witch. But perhaps she wasn’t powerful enough. Not this time … That sensation he’d felt earlier? It was most likely nothing more than the by-product of his increasingly fragile state of mind. Despair had driven him to hallucinate, to conjure up the ghostly presence of his sister when he needed her most.
It was late now, and the chill of evening was creeping in through the narrow, round-arched windows of his room. Leo lay on his bed and tried to sleep for a while, but he couldn’t stop thinking, couldn’t stop unwelcome thoughts intruding. Turning his head, he glanced at the marks he’d been carving into the grey flint wall to keep track of the days. By his reckoning, at least four months had past. Four whole months! Anger swelled in his chest. Four months of living – no, this couldn’t be called living – of merely existing in this place. Four months of waking every morning to panic, to a suffocating realisation that he was not in his bed at home. That he was not dreaming. That the everyday nightmare was, in fact, reality. Four months of Ronan professing his love for him, offering Leo everything he could possibly want or need; except, of course, his freedom. Four months of, for the main part, having no one else to talk to other than Osric, the servant who had been assigned to him. And Ronan, of course.
No wonder I’m starting to lose it. One way or another, I need to get out of here. I can’t wait for Merry any longer.
Looking towards the window and the dark skies outside, he sighed. The day was at an end. He picked up a stone, carefully carved another mark into the wall, then shut his eyes. Eventually, he fell asleep.
Leo gasped and sat bolt upright, his heart hammering on the inside of his chest. Someone was pounding on his door, making it shake in the frame, screaming his name over and over. Just in time, he jumped out of bed. The door flew open and Ronan staggered into the room, clutching a leather bottle. Mead, almost certainly; the scent of honey had filled the air. Every muscle in Leo’s body was singing with tension. But at the same time, he tried hard to wipe any emotion from his face, to stay calm. He had learnt some time ago that it was best not to do or say anything to antagonise Ronan when he’d fallen into one of these … moods. Instead he stood by the table, his hands clenching the back of the chair as Ronan approached.
‘It’s been months, Leo. Months since the King of Hearts brought us here. But still, you refuse to join your life to mine as I’ve asked. You refuse to swear your allegiance to me. You won’t even come to the hall to celebrate my victories. I offer you the chance to rule this land by my side, but you’d rather waste away, locked up in this tower instead.’ He rubbed a hand roughly over his face. Had he been crying? ‘Why can’t you understand how much I love you? Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for us. For you. So why do you deny your feelings for me? I know that you love me, Leo. That much you’ve shown me, in the past.’ Ronan reached one hand out to touch Leo’s face, grazing his cheek softly.
Once, Leo would have done anything to have Ronan look at him, to touch him in that way. But not any more. He couldn’t help it: he flinched.
Anger blazed in Ronan’s eyes, and Leo swore silently in his head.
Ronan stared at Leo for one long minute, then shook his head. ‘Fine. Have it your own way.’
Ronan turned and clapped his hands together. Moments later, two guards – human ones, at least – dragged someone through the doorway. It was a boy, about the same age as Leo, perhaps a couple of years younger. His face was mottled with bruises, and there were bloody gashes running across his forehead. Ronan gestured towards him. ‘I have someone I’d like you to meet. This is Edwin. He and his family were captured this afternoon.’
Ronan began writing in the air with his forefinger. Glowing blue lines appeared, forming shapes: fire runes. Ronan’s favourite form of magic since he’d acquired the power from the King of Hearts. The runes floated across the room towards the boy. He shrieked in fear, trying to twist out of the grasp of his guards. But it was no good. The runes settled on him, searing his skin, and the boy began to scream and writhe.
It was unbearable. Leo wanted to hit Ronan, to force him to stop. But he knew that it would just goad Ronan to more violence. There was nothing he could do to help the boy. Not yet. He lowered his gaze to the floor, wishing he could shut out the shrieks, and the stench of burning.
Finally, the screams faded into sobs.
Ronan took hold of Leo’s chin and raised his head. ‘It didn’t