Page 31 of Out of the Blue
‘I have to admit, this place was a good call,’ Calum says, calmer now he’s realized their dad isn’t going to burst in and catch us trespassing. ‘She seems so much happier here.’
Looking around, I finally notice how incredible the building is. The front wall is decorated with colourful Italian-style frescoes bending into a wide arch below the roof, with a huge wooden organ taking centre stage. The ceiling is a vast dome split into thin strips, each one decorated with a figure representing a different subject: a woman with a small lute for Music; a man holding a scale for Medicine. It’s almost like a church, but, instead of biblical figures, the characters on the walls represent research and knowledge.
‘Our cousin did her exams in here last year,’ Allie says when I sit down beside her. ‘I don’t know how she managed to concentrate. Beautiful, isn’t it?’
She shuffles in her seat towards me. Her little finger is just a millimetre from mine. A few hours ago, I might have slid my hand into hers, if I’d been feeling bold enough. But now I can’t concentrate on anything except the memory of Leah standing on the rooftop outside. It was just a few seconds, barely a glimpse of her – but that’s all it takes for everything, once again, to change.
By five o’clock, Allie is starting to wilt: her cough sounds horribly painful, and she’s so tired she needs help walking down the stairs. Nonetheless, she still manages to get things organized (‘boss us around’, as her brother puts it) before she heads home. She gets Calum to set up a living area for Teacake with some pillows, blankets, biscuits and a radio she’s taken from home, while she splits our days into shifts: tomorrow morning, she and I will keep working on Teacake’s wing; then Calum will join her to look after Teacake in the afternoon.
‘I think it’ll be easier if we do it in twos, or on our own,’ she says. ‘We won’t draw as much attention to ourselves that way.’
I nod as she reads out the rest of the week’s rota, but I still can’t focus. I try calling Leah again on the way home, though I know she won’t pick up. There are a few small articles about the Standing Fallen’s appearance online, but nobody seems to have noticed that there were members from other chapters there too. The thought makes me nervous. It feels like they’re planning something.
When I get home, I hear a half-familiar voice coming from the living room. It takes me a second to place it: Shona.Shona?She’s not supposed to be back until tomorrow.
‘My Buddha is still there, thank goodness, and my grandmother’s jewellery,’ she’s saying. ‘All that’s missing is food and some of my clothes. I don’t see what anyone would want with those; they’re hardly Golce and Dabbana.’
She’s sitting on the sofa, wearing a long purple dress and clutching a cup of tea. Her eyes are red from crying. Rani and Dad are nodding along, making sympathetic sounds, but their eyes keep being pulled away: hers to her phone, and his to the laptop. I catch a glimpse of Dad’s screen: footage of the Fall in South Africa the other day, metallic brown feathers and dark gold blood.
Shona gives me a watery smile as I step into the room. ‘Hiya, hen. Sorry, I’m bringing awful negative energy into your living space here – I just got home and my flat’s been burgled. Nothing of value, thankfully, but still quite upsetting.’
‘Oh, no.’ My insides feel like they’ve been tied into knots. ‘That’s awful. I’m really sorry.’
‘It’s just so odd.’ There’s a pause as Shona blows her nose. ‘My mattress was on the living-room table – goodness knows why.’
Dad scrolls down the page and pauses at a photo of a teary-eyed white man clutching a handful of matted red feathers. ‘Maybe just someone looking for a place to stay the night,’ he says absent-mindedly. ‘That’d explain the food and clothes going missing.’
Shona nods. ‘Aye, the police did say it could have been a couple of dossers. You didn’t see anything while you were watering my bonsai, did you, hen? Nobody dodgy hanging around?’
‘No, no one,’ I say. ‘I went the other day. Everything looked fine then.’
Rani looks at me, her eyebrows knitted into a frown. Even Dad glances up. For a moment it looks as if he’s about to say something, but then the laptop makes a pinging sound and his head swivels back to the screen. Shona sighs and takes another long sip of tea.
‘It must have happened today or yesterday, then.’ Her lipstick leaves a mulberry smudge on the rim of the cup. ‘You know, in a way it’s a blessing I wasn’t there. I might have socked the poor sods with one of my elephants and spent the rest of my life in jail.’
She stays a while longer, mulling over possible explanations. My pulse is racing. If we hadn’t moved Teacake a day early, Shona would have caught us right there, feeding her biscuits to a real-life Being. She may be a bit of a hippy, but I wouldn’t trust her to keep Teacake safe. I wouldn’t trust anyone with Teacake, except Allie and Calum.
As she gets up to leave, Shona squeezes my arm.
‘Those gemstones are working wonders on you, hen. Your aura’s much lighter now, a lovely bright orange.’
The amethyst and quartz are still lying under my bunk bed, untouched since she brought them to me two weeks ago.
‘Oh, yeah, thanks. They helped a lot,’ I say. ‘I’ll bring them down to you tomorrow. And I’ll help you tidy up then too.’
I don’t know what makes me say that. Guilt, probably. It’s not like we left her flat in a state on purpose though: I had every intention of popping in tomorrow to tidy up the mess before going back to McEwan Hall.
‘I’ll come too,’ Rani says. ‘It’ll be faster with three of us.’
I stare at her. She smiles sweetly as Shona tells Dad what nice, thoughtful daughters he has, then goes back to browsing Wingpin on her phone.
My heart is still thumping after Shona leaves. That was way too close. And, judging by the way Rani was looking at me, we’re not out of danger yet.
NINETEEN
We left more of a mess in our wake than I’d realized. There are biscuit crumbs and dried teabags on the kitchen counters, streaks of make-up around the edge of the coffee table. Even the ornaments and picture frames that Teacake knocked over are still lying on the carpet. I really don’t know why we didn’t pick them up. I guess tidying just doesn’t seem that important when you’re hanging out with a living Being.
‘Whoever these folk were, they were obviously raised in a barn,’ Shona tuts. ‘Would you look at the state of my settee!’
