Page 102 of The Shadows Beyond
At Elliot’s raised eyebrow, Julien said, “If Cinn says it’s her, then we’ll have to believe him.” He glared at him to close the matter.
“Obviously, you’d want to believe it,” Elliot protested.
“I’m not sure I’d want to believe that Béatrice has returned to us as some sort of eyeless cat demon thing,” Julien said, voice raised. He wasn’t in the mood to argue.
Darcy stepped into the middle of them. “Let’s not worry about it right now. I’m sure whatever it is isn’t dangerous,” she said, looking far less than sure. “We can ask… someone about it. I’ll do some reading.”
Ushering them all into her living room, Darcy poured them out some tea she’d brewed while Cinn was gone. This trip had taken him almost sixhours. Julien had remained at the table, watching the rise and fall of his sleeping body, tensing at his every twitch, whereas Darcy had eventually gotten restless and wandered around her cottage.
Cinn collapsed in the emerald armchair, exhaustion evident, plain as day. A shiver tore through his body.
Julien touched the back of his hand. “You’re freezing. Come sit by the fire.”
An eye roll. “I’m fine.”
Julien grabbed the blue blanket that was spread across Darcy’s sofa to drape it around Cinn’s shoulders. Cinn pulled it around him, mumbling his thanks without looking at him, tiny rosy splotches dotting his cheeks.
Julien sat on the rug by his feet, and as he looked up at him, he was struck by the memory of this same arrangement on the day they’d met him. A lifetime ago now. If he could go back in time to that moment, what would he say to himself?
This one is different.
Don’t fuck it up.
“So, you talked to her then?” asked Elliot. “Tell us what happened.”
Cinn sighed, wiping his hand over his face. Then he opened his mouth and began his tale.
A field of daisies, a field of poppies. A picnic Julien couldn’t remember, as idyllic as it sounded. That was okay. He would love to pretend that it had happened.
A tapestry of memories, briefly outlined, with several glances at Julien throughout, asking,is this okay to share?
Cinn kindly summarised the final memory as ‘the day their mother died’. Yes, it was the day their mother died. However, it was also the day a piece of him died, too. A day that altered his future in countless ways. It was the end of his childhood.
When Cinn described talking to Béatrice on a star-filled beach, Julien edged closer towards him, every muscle tense from anticipating whatmight finally be revealed. Listening to his recount, the Béatrice he’d described meeting didn’t sound quite right. She sounded too… childlike. And clearly, she was somewhat confused.
Some information had been gleaned, however. Julien held up Béatrice’s locket as Cinn relayed what she’d said about it.
“So, her locket was tampered with?” Julien wondered aloud, brushing his finger over the damaged side. “It’s what caused her to…”channel so many motes that she burst into flames.“If that’s true, then it fits with the difficulty I had getting the locket to be released to me. Someone high up was blocking the request.”
Darcy slid off the sofa to inspect it. “But who could have done that if she never took it off?”
Cinn leaned forward. “How did she get to wherever she was? What country was it again?”
“The Philippines.”
“She might have taken it off to use the Baths?”
“Oh!” gasped Darcy. “They didn’t travel directly to the Philippines. They don’t have any receiver baths there.” Darcy’s eyes came alive in the way they only did when she was on the verge of solving a puzzle. “I’m pretty sure the entire aid taskforce was displaced to the Ho Chi Minh Baths, in Vietnam. Then they would have flown across the ocean, I think. So you’re right, Cinn!”
Julien wanted to kiss her. And kiss Cinn. Though that wasn’t anything unusual.
“Their stuff would have followed by cargo plane a day later,” said Julien. “Plenty of time for someone to tamper with it.”
“Butwhatdid they do to it?” Elliot drummed his foot against the floor. “That’s the question.”
Yes, in addition to who, and why. And all of the other millions of questions that still remained.
Julien’s gaze returned to Cinn. “Was there anything else about the locket?”
