Page 12

Chapter 12

We spent a further half an hour with Wise, each of us giving a brief statement about what we’d seen – all of which amounted to three statements that said little. We hung around long enough for the crime-scene investigation team to arrive and then Wise cut us loose.

‘I’ll be in touch after the forensic pathologist has examined the body and has an idea of cause of death.’ She offered the olive branch grudgingly, but she was a smart woman and she knew she needed connections and allies to get ahead.

I took the same approach: powerful associates are helpful. ‘Thank you, I’d appreciate that,’ I said as warmly as I could, which was a shade above glacial.

She nodded briskly and turned back to managing the scene. We returned to the car. Frogmatch’s absence worried me. Would he follow us out or would he wreak havoc with Wise’s crime scene? I looked around but I couldn’t see him.

Reluctantly, I slid into the car without him. ‘Well,’ I said as I shut the door, ‘that’s made things a lot more difficult.’ I sighed, rubbing my tired eyes. Someone else had to know the prophecy. ‘Who else knows the prophecy besides Melva?’ I asked the men.

‘Your mum heard it,’ Oscar pointed out. ‘But it could be weeks before she’s … present again. And even then, there’s every possibility she will mis-remember a word or phrase. You can’t afford that.’

Frogmatch popped up from the boot again, making me start in surprise. ‘Goddess! You startled me!’ I protested.

Bastion didn’t so much as blink. He was aware of his surroundings in a way I would never be. Once more, he’d known that Frogmatch was there; I was glad that one of us had.

‘I saw something surprising,’ Frogmatch said, looking at me oddly.

‘What?’ I asked impatiently.

‘You.’

‘How is that surprising?’ I raised an eyebrow.

‘There were two of you.’

Oscar thunked his head on the steering wheel and let out a low groan. ‘I guess we know where we’re going next.’ He sighed.

‘Indeed,’ Bastion murmured.

I looked at them. Two of me at one time only meant one thing – time travel.

Hellhounds can manipulate the realms, including the Third realm that allows you to influence time. Jinx’s bonded hellhound, Gato, was off on honeymoon with her and Emory.

‘Gato isn’t accessible right now.’ I pointed out. Indy had been left at home with Tom Smith, but she was a pup; I wasn’t sure I’d trust her to shove me through time when she could barely restrain any of her baser urges. She’d destroyed Emory’s shoes. A lot of them.

‘We don’t need a hellhound,’ Oscar confirmed grimly.

I frowned. The only alternative to a hellhound was a temporal portal. There was only one in the whole of the UK. Surely he couldn’t mean that?

‘The temporal portal in St Luke’s is heavily guarded,’ I pointed out. ‘Prohibitively so. Besides, we’ve just driven all the way from Scotland. You can’t seriously want to turn around and drive all the way to Liverpool right now?

‘Want to? No,’ Oscar confirmed. ‘But do we need to? It looks like it. If Frogmatch saw two of you, then it’s time for some temporal surfing.’

‘Sneaking in past the portal’s wizard guards will be virtually impossible,’ I argued. ‘That means we need permission from the Symposium and the only Symposium member who might vote to let us in is Kass. And as the newest member, I doubt she’s even been to a Symposium meeting yet. She’ll have zero clout to get the others to agree.’

‘We don’t need her clout,’ Bastion said. ‘We have Oscar’s.’

‘What has Oscar got to do with anything?’ I frowned. I hated how Bastion seemed to know more about Oscar than me, even though Oscar had virtually raised me and was my father in all but name.

Oscar met my gaze in the rear-view mirror. ‘You know that I worked for the Connection before I formally joined the Coven as Luna’s bodyguard.’

‘Yes…’

‘I worked as a temporal guard.’

My mouth dropped open. ‘What?’ Temporal guards are reputed to be hardened killers, former black-operators doing a slightly cushier job before retirement came their way. Being a temporal guard is physically demanding and only the operatives at the top of their game are invited to become one. They retain the position for a year or two, then the cream of the next crop replaces them.

From waking Oscar abruptly a time or two I knew that he’d been a dangerous man at some point in his life – that he still was. Even so, I still found it hard to reconcile that knowledge with the image of the man who put overnight oats and fresh orange juice in my fridge.

Oscar went on, ‘For seven years.’

Seven years? ‘That’s unheard of.’

‘He’s something of a legend,’ Bastion confirmed. ‘Think Rambo but guarding the bombed-out church instead.’

I wondered whether Mum had known what Oscar had done for a living before she hired him. Suddenly everything clicked into place. Of course she had; Oscar and Mum had dated before he’d become her bodyguard. He’d only agreed to be her driver and guard on condition that their relationship was noted – and permitted – under the contract of employment.

I stared at Oscar dumbly and he grimaced as I finally connected the dots. Mum had worked several jobs to make ends meet, yet she’d been present during my childhood. She’d raised me and been mother and father to me until Oscar had stepped into the latter role. ‘You let her use the portal,’ I whispered.

‘You’ve met your mother, haven’t you?’ he demanded. ‘There was no “letting” her, not once she’d got her claws into my heart. She said it was essential, that there had been a prophecy… I shouldn’t have done it, but I did. There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t regret it.’

My jaw dropped. ‘Are you seriously saying that she used the portal to do … what?’

Oscar grimaced again. ‘I can’t tell you why she used the portal. You try saying no to your mother. She’s a force of nature.’

‘She was ,’ I agreed harshly. ‘Goddess … her dementia. It’s not dementia at all, is it? It’s temporal displacement.’ I didn’t even try to keep the fury out of my voice. ‘It’s your fault she’s like this,’ my voice whipped out.

I was feeling the sharp sting of betrayal, never mind that the betrayal had been carried out three decades earlier. I didn’t have my mum now and it was Oscar’s fault. It wasn’t just a heinous disease ravaging her but something more: a conscious choice on her part. She had chosen to raise me back then knowing that she would be leaving me now. It was a bitter pill to swallow – and Oscar had enabled it. Oh, he and Bastion were right – of course they were. Mum was a difficult woman to say no to, but I didn’t have her to rail at right now so Oscar would have to do.

‘Amber—’ Bastion said softly.

‘No,’ Oscar interrupted. ‘She’s right. It kills me, but she’s right.’

‘Luna made her decision. She knew what it would cost her,’ Bastion disagreed firmly. ‘I warned her at the time. She is responsible for her own actions. She always was.’

‘Oscar enabled her actions,’ I spat. Bastion grimaced but had nothing to rebut that.

My world was imploding. I was angry not just with Oscar but with Mum. She’d meddled with time and lost her mind, and she had done it willingly. I suffered every day in her absence and she had chosen it.

And worse – I was about to do the same thing.