A Hollow in the Hills

  If she pretended to be terrified, incoherent, and useless to her, would the demon let her go? Would she back off and release Ash? She couldn’t lose someone else to demons and their shades. Her hand closed on the hilt of the knife deep in her bag. It was no use against a demon, she knew that. Their last encounter had proved it. Not unless she could draw a circle and there wasn’t time for that.

  There wasn’t time for anything.

  An icy cold hand grabbed her throat, cutting off the air and burning against her skin. Izzy gasped, struggling to pull away, but Lili was too strong. Dark eyes filled her field of vision, dark eyes all she could see. They swallowed her up, blotted all thoughts from her mind, and smothered her will with their darkness.

  ‘The truth now, sweet child. Tell me the truth. You know it’s for the best. Trust me.’

  The scrabbling terror in the base of her throat clawed to escape, like a rat trapped at the bottom of a well. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t break away from the demon, couldn’t even close her eyes.

  And the words came, grating from her throat, ripping their own way out in spite of her.

  ‘I saw Holly looking here. When she killed the angel.’

  ‘Which angel?’

  ‘Haniel.’

  Lili laughed, a bright, girlish laugh that rang out across the hillside. ‘How marvellous. I wondered what had happened to him. So, Holly’s killing angels. But why, Isabel? Tell me why?’

  The ground shook beneath them and abruptly the spell holding Izzy shattered. Lili staggered back as the air beside them trembled and shimmered. Flashes of lightning cut the distortion, making it look like a localised thunderstorm, and the smell of ozone filled the air, making the hair on Izzy’s arm straighten.

  ‘This is why,’ said Holly, stepping out of the vortex. It was a gate to the Sídheways, Izzy realised, like the one Sorath had used on the hill, broken and distorted and bent to Holly’s will.

  Holly, wild-eyed and dangerous, moved so fast Izzy could barely follow her. She grabbed Ardat Lili by the hair and pulled her onto the foot-long knife she carried. The demon only made a hiss, the air forced out of her lungs, bubbles of blood frothing from her lips. The shades surrounding them howled as they vanished, twisting to scraps of smoke and then they were gone as if they’d never been.

  Izzy screamed, recoiling. A hand grabbed her, warm and trembling. Ash’s hand pulling her back and out of the way. No one was looking at them now. The shades had scattered.

  Holly threw the demon down and leaped astride her, her face focused entirely on her work, gutting and butchering her body without a glance at Izzy or Ash. Blood splashed up onto her flawless face, just as Haniel’s had before, drenching her hair, so dark a red it was almost black like tar. But there was no mistaking it as anything other than blood. She gathered up something from the gaping hole in Lili’s chest and lifted it. Shrivelled and black, like a dried-out, over-roasted cut of meat, it took a moment before Izzy realised what she was seeing.

  Lili’s heart.

  Holly smiled triumphantly and kicked the corpse aside. ‘I thought she’d never bloody get here. And thank you so much for making it happen, Isabel Gregory. I couldn’t have managed without you. You and little Art of course. Where has he got to? I promised him a reward.’ She grinned wildly and pushed her golden hair back from her face with her free hand, leaving a smear of red on her skin. Izzy’s stomach lurched in disgust. ‘Oh, don’t look like that. She was following you. What better way to get her here, I thought. So I lured you here as she tracked you. And now it’s done. An angel’s spark, a demon’s heart.’ She thrust the knot of desiccated meat into the ground, which opened beneath her touch, swallowing both the offering and Holly’s arm up to the elbow.

  The rumbling in the ground started again, a roar like a great beast trapped. But there was no cairn here, no lock to open. Was there? Or maybe there had been, so long ago that no one remembered it anymore, on this high point of land, in line with Howth and who knew what else?

  Holly pulled back, shaking dirt off her clothes. From the ground she drew a line of light, just as she had in Izzy’s vision. As she watched, the line moved like a dowsing rod, as if looking for something to touch, as if it was a sentient thing. It glowed.

  ‘Stand back. They’re coming and they’re dying to get their hands on you. The king most of all.’ She paused, thinking about it, a cruel smile spreading over her face. ‘Or better yet …’ She leaned in close, driving Izzy back further so she bumped into Ash. ‘Run!’

  It was afternoon by the time Jinx persuaded Silver to go with him and she could find time to get away. He couldn’t go alone. The old hollow was a broken and grim place, filled with traces of pain and misery, the memories of much happier times shredded to rags and tatters by all the things Holly had done there. Jinx stood in the laneway outside, the cobbles loose beneath his feet like old rotten teeth. Even now, no one had dared recolonize the place. The door hung limply on one hinge and the taint of blood – old, congealed, rancid blood – filled his nostrils.

  ‘We shouldn’t be here,’ said Silver again. She hung back, her arms wrapped around her body to hide the shivers. She had grown weaker, her need for sustenance growing by the second. Perhaps it was the proximity to her old touchstone, the tree Holly had torn down and burned. Perhaps it had just been far too long since she had dared to touch Dylan.

  He’d tried to talk to her about that before, but she didn’t want to. Silver had glared at him and gone back to whatever she was doing at the time. When he pressed her – because he was the only one who could press her on delicate subjects and get anywhere – the glare had turned to iron.

  ‘He’s … he’s too much, okay? I don’t want to be beholden to him.’

  ‘And you don’t want to lose him either.’

  ‘I don’t want to kill him. Say it as it is.’

  ‘But he’s getting stronger. Like … like the magic is seeping out of him. Don’t you see that?’

  ‘Of course I see it. But … I can’t explain it. I don’t understand it. And that scares me, Jinx. Everyone expects me to know everything, and I don’t. Okay?’

  The death glare he knew. It wasn’t actually dangerous – not like Holly’s – but he knew it as a signal to back the hell off.

  Everyone expected her to know everything. Like now. Like he did.

  And she didn’t. She was lost, which was why she had him. They could only trust each other.

  ‘We need to take a look at least,’ was all Jinx could say in reply. It had taken a solid hour of arguing to get her to agree to come with him. She wouldn’t let him go alone. He’d already explained his theory to her. It sounded feeble to him now, standing here in front of the place where so many of their friends had died. But if Mari was back, why not the others? Why not someone who would know more? They had to look. Holly’s victims were so many, and Mari had been but one incidental death along the way. One that closely affected Izzy. Could Holly pick and choose who was raised? Was it just her victims? Or were all the dead coming back? The veil between life and death was always thin so near to Samhain. That was why she’d chosen now to open the gates of the prison holding the Fear. And the Shining Ones.

  He needed to find out. If it wasn’t for him this wouldn’t be happening. If it wasn’t for him, the friends who had died here would still be alive.

  ‘This wasn’t your fault,’ Silver said to him. ‘You know that, don’t you? You didn’t cause this.’

  That was the thing with Silver. Sometimes it felt like she could look straight into his damaged soul to winnow out his secrets, his guilt.

  ‘Would she have doubted you if it wasn’t for me?’

  ‘Jinx, don’t. I refused to tell her where you were. If that was anyone’s fault—’

  Yes.

  The door of the hollow breathed the word, a long, low sigh, agony and hatred combined with longing. Silver took a step back, shivering like a deer poised for flight.

  Silver, the voice came again. We begged, we bled, you
did … nothing!

  ‘I couldn’t,’ she whispered. ‘I didn’t know what she wanted to know. She saw through any lies. But I … I avenged you.’

  A figure resolved itself from the shadows in the doorway, one that Jinx hardly recognised at first. The last time he’d seen that face it had been broken, those laughing eyes had been like glass marbles, gazing at eternity.

  ‘Not very effective, your vengeance. She’s as strong as ever she was. Maybe stronger.’

  Sage tried to step through the doorway, but something unseen held him back. Such was the way of spirits until the nights when the veil was thinner, the turning days. Samhain was barely a day away, but still the veil held. Frustration darkened his features.

  ‘Come in then,’ he said. ‘And ask your questions. We may not answer though. And you may never leave.’

  ‘Sage.’ Silver reached out her hand as she staggered forward but Jinx caught her, holding her back. The dead never released things they could grasp easily.

  ‘Don’t,’ Jinx whispered.

  ‘You wanted to come here.’ Her voice came out in a hoarse sob.

  ‘To see if what I suspected was true. To be sure. It’s almost Samhain after all. No good comes from talking to the dead, nor from entering their hallways. You taught me that long ago, remember? Among all the old poems and songs of our people. When the veil is weakest—’

  ‘The dead will walk abroad.’

  ‘The veil grows weaker every day,’ Sage interrupted. ‘We’ll all walk free again come Samhain. That night is our night. And if Holly succeeds the veil will be no more. The Shining Ones will tear it to shreds on their way through and burn the world to ashes. The Fear are already abroad. When their king trades places with the Grigori and becomes flesh again, all the dead will walk free. There will be no rest for any of us then, dead or alive.’

  Rage set fire to Silver’s voice and her hand tightened on Jinx’s arm. ‘What do you know of Holly’s plan?’

  Sage shrugged, a gesture so familiar, so like him that it felt as if Jinx had been punched in the gut. He held Silver tighter still. This had been their friend, their companion. Together they had made such music that mortals had wept, enraptured and bewitched. They could raise the Sídhe to a frenzy of lust or violence, or lull them to a calm so perfect they’d never want to disturb it. He’d been part of their lives for much longer than Izzy or Dylan.

  ‘Holly will do as Holly always does – what Holly wants. But I know that this is the optimum time for her to raise a Shining One. She has everything she needs to hand. She has prepared for millennia, just in case the opportunity every presented itself, just in case she ever needed them. You spoke of vengeance, Silver. No one knows the nuances of revenge like your mother. She’ll tear you all to pieces. She’ll use you to destroy all those you love. Only the Lord of Death can help you stop her, but he’s holed up in his hollow, up there in the hills.’

  ‘Donn?’ Silver’s nails dug into Jinx’s arm and she shuddered. She hadn’t truly seemed afraid until this moment, or rather the fear that emanated from her now was far sharper, so much more terrible. ‘Why would we deal with Donn now? After so long.’

  Sage laughed a bitter laugh. ‘What choice do you have? The Fear are ghosts. Who knows more about ghosts than Donn? Who else is the Lord of the Dead?’

  ‘And you know all this, how?’ asked Jinx. ‘When did you become so wise?’

  Sage tapped his nose and grinned. So like himself. So like the being he once was. ‘Sage means wise.’

  ‘Yeah mate,’ Jinx replied evenly. ‘But it’s also a type of herb.’

  To his surprise the drummer laughed again, a genuine laugh this time. ‘I’ve missed you, Jinx. Be seeing you soon. Real soon.’

  The ground shook, rocking and bucking beneath them and Jinx felt something he had almost forgotten spear through him. Fear. Not for himself. For her. Izzy’s fear infecting him like a poison.

  Silver saw it, saw him stagger back. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’

  ‘Izzy. Isn’t it always Izzy?’

  ‘Where?’

  He could feel it, could follow her fear like a scent, like a trace of vivid colours on the wind. ‘This way. Quickly. She’s in danger.’

  ‘Run!’

  The word echoed after them, cut with laughter and the two girls sprinted for the trees, scrambling downhill and trying desperately to keep their feet underneath them. Up ahead they saw a group of lads, laughing, passing a beer can between them and Izzy knew it was all going to go wrong. She knew, even as she hurtled towards them, that this was going straight to hell.

  And there was nothing she could do to stop it.

  Because morons were morons wherever you went.

  ‘Hey, girls, where’re yous off to so fast?’

  ‘Keep going,’ Ash yelled, her voice barely out of breath. How fit was she? ‘Just keep going, Izzy.’

  ‘Get out of the way!’ Izzy tried to avoid them, but they spread out, ready to catch her. Clearly this was hilarious. Couldn’t they see how serious it was? Couldn’t they tell? ‘There’s a psycho up there. Get out of the way!’

  And before she could slip by one of them grabbed her, his hand like a clamp on her arm, fingers digging painfully into her muscles. Her feet went out from underneath her in spray of dirt and stones and she landed full on her back, winded.

  ‘You little bastards!’ said Ash. ‘Let her go.’

  ‘Or what? What are you going to do, darling? Come here, let’s look at you.’

  There was a dull thud and a gasp of breath forced from a pair of lungs.

  ‘Jaysus, bitch!’ The one holding Izzy hauled her up by the arm. His friend was rolling down the hill and Ash had taken on a fighting stance, fists up.

  ‘I said let her go. And you’d all better get the hell out of here too because—’

  A wall of fog rolled down the hillside. And in the fog …

  The boy holding Izzy’s arm dropped her and she scrambled back, trying to put as much space between herself and these scumbags as possible. But they weren’t interested in her now.

  They seemed mesmerized, transfixed by the sighing, singing voices coming from the fog. Stronger than ever, both the mist and the voices. She could see their faces, terror draining the colour away, leaving them gaunt and pale. Aged.

  ‘We’ve got to go,’ said Ash, reaching her side and pulling her forward, down the hill, away.

  But the Fear were coming out of the fog now, no longer indistinct. They wore more solid forms this time. Their hands were long and their nails sharp as knives, as sharp as their grimacing smiles, which drew up too wide on their skeletal faces. Their eyes, hollowed out pits of darkness, fixed on the group before them and Izzy knew what they were thinking. Just one word. Prey.

  ‘Izzy, please. We have to run.’

  ‘We can’t leave them. Ash, we can’t just—’

  But it was already too late.

  Eochaid peeled back his lips from bone white teeth and spoke. ‘Daughter of Míl, come to me now.’ He seemed more solid now, more real than when she’d seen him before.

  His voice sounded like tortured piano wires. When no one answered, he reached out, as he had reached out to Izzy in the school, and touched the nearest thug on the forehead.

  The boy let out a strangled sob, his eyes bulging until they looked like they were half out of the sockets. Izzy watched a dark stain spread down the leg of his jeans, and the stink of piss reached her.

  ‘Barely enough to feed a viper.’ Eochaid’s voice was an irritated hiss. ‘Let alone all of us.’ He tightened his grip and the boy went rigid, colour draining from him. He shuddered, once, twice and screamed, his hands stretching out like claws. Eochaid loomed over him, his mouth opening in a snarl, or a smile as he drank down his victim’s terror. The scream tailed off, and left him gasping, whimpering and then silent. Ice crusted on his skin, in his eyes and he fell still. Eochaid shook him once, checking to see if there was any life left in him and then threw him aside like a discarded t
oy. He crashed against the nearest tree and landed heavily, rolling down the slope. Eochaid nodded to the other Fear who fell on the other terrified boys in a rush of screams and freezing terror. It was over far too quickly.

  Eochaid watched in silence. And then he turned to Izzy, his cunning eyes fixed on her.

  ‘Run!’ Ash screamed and pulled her down the hill. This time Izzy didn’t hesitate.

  Half way down there was a tree. It might have been two trees or one split apart when it was just a sapling. Whatever it was, they grew side by side, almost forming an oval as they curved back towards each other.

  It jerked back and forth in her view and Izzy fixed all her attention on it as if it would help her, as if it would save her. She threw herself downhill with Ash beside her. She could feel them coming, feel the wall of cold and terror behind her, rolling down towards them, towards the unsuspecting town.

  ‘Oh God, oh God, oh God,’ she could hear Ash beside her, the words like a mantra, forcing her to keep going, to keep running.

  And the air between the trees shimmered. It moved in that way she knew too well. It was the gate to Sídheway, the same one she’d come through. And even as she threw herself towards it, the air parted.

  Jinx stepped out, and caught her in his arms.

  It was so sudden her feet swept on, as if she was still running, and nothing could stop her. Off balance on the hill, she fell, taking Jinx with her and they rolled, body over body down over rocks and tree roots.

  The fog followed them, sweeping over the steep slope, carrying nightmares with it. It was going to get them. Her and now Jinx too. And it was all her fault. The Fear were going to get them.

  But nothing happened. She looked up, tears blinding her, the thundering of her heart inside her drowning out everything.

  Holly walked down the hill, the Fear parting for her like an honour guard. She smiled at them, not a good smile. But then Izzy had never seem Holly smile what she’d term a good smile. This was laced with venom and the triumph of revenge about to strike.

  ‘Well now, I was wondering when you’d get here, Jinx by Jasper. It’s about time.’ She stopped, regarding the two of them tangled together. Ash crouched off to one side, half hiding, unwilling or unable to leave. Holly ignored her for the moment.