Cursed

Book 2: The Soulseer Chronicles

by Sue Tingey

Genres: Contemporary Fantasy; Mystery; Fantasy Romance; Paranormal

Synopsis

Lucky's being wooed by Jinx, the sexy Deathbringer and Jamie, the gorgeous Guardian, so the daemon world isn't too bad. But before Lucky can really start to enjoy her new life in the Underlands, Kayla's men are slain and Kayla herself is kidnapped by the Sicarii, assassins-for-hire members of a death-cult. Lucky's nemesis Henri le Dent has somehow escaped the Chambers of Rectification and court torturer Amaliel Cheriour is also missing . . . and daemon princess Kayla is just bait to catch Lucky. For Lucky's own powers are growing, and Amaliel has his own nefarious paln to use her. But first, he has to get past her Guards, not to mention Lucky herself . . . 'Check it out', says The Reading Agency. Amazon Rising Star Tingey is 'perfect for fans of Laini Taylor, Deborah Harkness and Anne Bishop.'

Release date: October 10, 2017

Publisher: Quercus Publishing

Print pages: 400

Sample

As I watched, ten small specks of black grew to dots and then to figures on horseback as they charged through the valley towards us, leaving a trail of dust in their wake. I had been back only three days and they had already found us.

‘Jinx!’ I called, my eyes not leaving the advancing riders. They were close enough now that I could see sunlight glinting off the armour that marked them out as Lord Baltheza’s royal guard. I supposed I should be grateful for the small mercy that they weren’t the chief executioner’s men.

In a moment Jinx was beside me, ‘What’s wrong?’

I gestured towards the valley. ‘We have visitors.’

He stared down at the fast approaching horsemen through narrowed eyes. ‘Come on,’ he said, taking my hand and leading me inside the isolated herdsman’s hut serving as our home for the night.

Jamie was sitting on a low stool – one of very few usable pieces of furniture. He didn’t look up from the thin blade he was sharpening, but continued the rhythmic turning of the steel as he rubbed one edge against the stone and then the other. The three rabbits Pyrites had caught for our supper lay at his feet, ready for skinning and cleaning. My drakon was sprawled on the floor beside them, his eyes fixed on Jamie, mesmerised by the motion of the blade.

‘Ten riders heading this way,’ Jinx said without any preamble.

Jamie still didn’t look up. ‘Amaliel?’

‘Baltheza’s guard.’

I let out a shuddery breath. What were we going to do? We couldn’t keep running forever.

‘Fight or flee?’ Jamie asked.

‘If they were here for a fight brother, they’d have approached by night so we wouldn’t see them coming.’

Jamie lifted the knife to examine its edge. ‘That should do it.’ He looked up at last and flashed me a smile that would normally make my toes curl and my stomach give a little flip, but today my heart felt like it was weighed down with fear.

‘Lucky,’ he said, getting to his feet. ‘Jinx and I will go and see what they want. You stay in here.’

I tried to smile but failed miserably. ‘Isn’t it obvious—?’

‘Not necessarily. As Jinx says, if they wanted trouble they’d have come after dark and there’d be more of them.’

‘Pyrites, stay with your mistress and guard her with your life,’ Jinx told my drakon. Pyrites puffed out his chest, sat to attention and began to grow to the size of a great dane – not that he really needed to; he had firepower and, where my safety was concerned, he wasn’t afraid to use it.

Jamie hugged me close. ‘Stay in here,’ he repeated.

Jinx handed Jamie one of the swords resting by the doorway and strapped another around his own waist, then stepped over to me, rested his hands on my shoulders and gave me an encouraging smile. ‘Don’t look so worried,’ he said and gave me a kiss full on the lips that went on for so long I began to feel dizzy.

‘Jinx,’ Jamie said with an exasperated sigh.

Jinx pulled away from me and winked. ‘Keep that thought,’ he said and followed Jamie out of the hut.

‘Be careful,’ I said from just inside the door, and Jinx waved once before calling out to Bob, his big, black powerhouse of a flying horse.

Despite my nerves, seeing Jinx and Jamie standing out in the sunshine together made me catch my breath. Two men couldn’t be more different, yet in some ways so much the same. Jamie – all blond hair, blue eyes and tanned skin – could have been human if not for his huge, snow-white wings. Jinx, on the other hand, couldn’t have been more daemon, with glossy, maroon skin, horns, an arrow-tipped tail and long maroon hair so dark it was almost black, hanging in a braid to just below his waist. They were both beautiful in their own way and I cared for each of them a lot more than was entirely good for me.

Jinx called out again and within moments I could hear the beating of wings and a dark shadow passed overhead. Bob glided down to land in front of the hut with a grace that belied his bulk and fierce demeanour, and in one fluid movement, Jinx had grasped his shaggy black mane and pulled himself up onto the creature. Bob snorted and stamped his hooves, his red eyes glowing with infernal fire. Unperturbed, Jinx gave him a slap on the rump; the beast surged forward and, with two powerful flaps of his leathery wings, was airborne. Jamie gave me one last smile, unfurled his own wings and then he too was flying into the sky.

I shut the door and sank down on to the stool. Three days: it had taken them only three days to find us and it made me wonder whether the Underlands was really the place I should be making my home. How could I ever be safe here?

Pyrites somehow knew where my mind was going as he put a claw on my knee and made a small mewing noise.

‘I know. If I went back I would have to leave you and Jinx, and I couldn’t bear to do that,’ I told him, scratching the underside of his chin. And it was true: I couldn’t take even a small drakon into my world, and I certainly couldn’t take a daemon who, on earth, would leave a trail of death and destruction in his wake. And without them – well, without them I was lost.

The last time I’d returned to my world I had lasted only five days alone. I’d missed them hugely and I’d known it was no safer on Earth than in the Underlands – even less so without my daemon guard – so, by the end of the five days I was a nervous wreck with every unexplained sound causing me to reach for a strategically placed carving knife or hammer. Of course, there was also the matter of Lord Baltheza: if he had sanctioned a visit by one of the court assassins I would have been history in no time without my friends.

I started thinking about all I’d learned over the past few days. I’d tried to find out as much about my new home as I could – as if the knowledge would somehow protect me – and I’d begun by asking questions. Every time we’d stopped in our travels, or settled down for the night, I’d put every question I’d thought of to Jamie and Jinx. One of my first was: were there other countries in the Underlands? But apparently there weren’t; instead, the Underlands were divided into states overseen locally by their individual lords, but ultimately ruled over by Baltheza.

Another question I’d asked had been: how come Amaliel has so much power? This was something neither Jamie nor Jinx could answer. Everyone, except for perhaps Baltheza, hated him, and yet he appeared to wield almost as much authority within court as Lord Baltheza himself.

If he was one of the approaching riders I just knew we were destined for trouble, which set me to worrying about my two men yet again.

They were gone a long time; at least it seemed that way. I kept getting up and walking to the door to peer out, but from the cabin I couldn’t see the valley below and that was where they would be. I was tempted to go outside to take a look, but I knew from experience that if Jinx and Jamie had told me to do something it was usually for good reason, even if it didn’t always sit easily with me.

Actually, this was something I had planned to talk to them about. I hated that sometimes they treated me like the ‘little woman’. Jinx might not know any better, but Jamie bloody well should having spent a lot of time in my world, and if anything he was the worst of the two. Of course, now they were gone risking their lives for me, and I was alone and worrying about them, my getting bolshy about this seemed pretty pathetic.

When I thought I couldn’t stand the wait any longer, Pyrites’ head jerked up and his ears pricked forward. He gave a low rumble in his chest and jumped to his feet, growing a few more sizes until he was as big as a small pony. He moved so he was between me and the door and stood glaring at it, snorting puffs of steam which gradually changed from white to grey to black.

‘What is it, boy?’

He gave another low grumble. I grabbed the knife Jamie had been sharpening from where it lay and backed towards the bedroom. The handle to the front door began to turn and Pyrites roared . . .

‘It’s only us, you stupid sod,’ I heard Jinx say as the door swung open. Pyrites stood his ground until Jinx appeared in the doorway followed by Jamie. ‘I swear, one day he’s going to roast us.’

‘Why do you think I always let you go first?’ Jamie said with a grin.

‘And there I was thinking you were being deferential to your elder and better.’

Pyrites gave a puff of smoke, shrank until he was not much bigger than a Yorkshire Terrier and scampered out of their way as Jamie closed the door behind them.

‘Well?’ I asked.

Jinx gave a bob of his head in Jamie’s direction giving him the job of telling me the bad news, as I knew it must be from the change in their expressions.

‘Just tell me,’ I said.

‘An attempt has been made on the life of Lord Baltheza.’

‘Is he dead?’ I asked, though I didn’t really care. Baltheza was, in my opinion, a sadistic monster – if he was dead, he deserved it.

‘He lost two of his guard and another was injured, but Baltheza was unhurt,’ Jamie told me.

More’s the pity, I thought. Until something else struck me: ‘Does he think Kayla and I were somehow involved?’ As he had only recently ordered me to be executed for plotting to kill him, this was a real concern. It was also why I was on the run: in this world justice was served out fast and with little chance to defend oneself.

‘No,’ Jamie said, ‘not you.’

My two daemons were studiously avoiding eye contact with me, which sent my anxiety levels soaring. ‘What about Kayla?’

‘She and her entourage have disappeared.’

‘I thought that was the point: she’s in hiding.’

‘Well, it didn’t take him long to find us; he has spies everywhere,’ Jamie said. ‘Anyway staying in a mini palace on the coast is hardly hiding out. She might as well have sent Baltheza a postcard.’

‘And now Kayla’s gone,’ Jinx said, ‘leaving not a trace of her or her guard. It doesn’t look good.’ I scowled at him. Upon seeing my expression he gave me an apologetic smile. ‘I’m only telling you how it is. That they have truly disappeared makes Baltheza suspicious.’

‘I suppose Lord Daltas has convinced him she’s as guilty as sin,’ I said. He was the daemon who had got me into this mess in the first place. He thought he could use me as a lever to get Kayla to marry him, which would have brought him one step closer to the throne. His plan had misfired, and now I doubted Kayla would marry him if he was the last daemon in the Underlands.

‘Daltas is currently persona non grata at court. Though this could change at any time,’ Jamie said.

‘Why would Baltheza think I had nothing to do with it, but Kayla had? He was pretty sure I did before.’

‘Why would you send armed assassins to kill a man when one of your consorts is a Death Daemon?’ Jamie said.

Put like that I suppose he had a point. ‘So, what of the riders?’ I asked.

‘Here.’ Jamie pulled a small scroll of parchment from his pocket and handed it to me. ‘They were coming to tell you all charges against you have been dropped and to escort you back to court.’

‘Like that’s going to happen,’ I said as I opened up the document and scanned the contents. Sure enough, it confirmed I was no longer a wanted woman, but although it should have made me feel safe and secure, I couldn’t help but think it was some kind of trick.

‘I think perhaps you should go,’ Jinx said.

Jamie swung around to face him. ‘Are you mad?’

Jinx leaned back against the doorframe. ‘Do you believe Kayla had anything to do with the assassination attempt?’

Jamie’s brow furrowed for a moment then he shook his head.

‘Nor do I, and yet she has disappeared. Poof! she and her guard have completely vanished. Does that not strike you as strange?’

It was true; Kayla and Baltheza may not have a typical, cosy, father-daughter relationship, but she’d chosen Vaybian over Daltas when Daltas would have seen her on the throne. By all accounts, Daltas would have had no qualms about killing Baltheza to seize power – Kayla had told me that herself and it hadn’t sat well with her, so it made no sense for her to want to kill her father. I said as much to Jamie and Jinx.

‘Unfortunately, it makes sense to Baltheza,’ Jinx said.

‘Only because she’s disappeared,’ Jamie said.

‘Where do you think she’s gone?’ I asked. ‘Do you think she’s all right?’ And then, slowly, something started to make sense to me: if Kayla hadn’t tried to kill Baltheza, was it possible someone was trying to make it look like she had? I glanced at Jinx, whose expression was grim. My mouth went dry. ‘Is it possible Kayla has been taken by someone against her will?’

‘By whom?’ Jamie asked.

‘Now there’s the question,’ Jinx said. ‘We should go to the villa where she was staying and take a look around; maybe we can persuade Baltheza that Kayla is in as much danger as he is.’ Then he smiled his dangerous smile, the one that meant violence was not very far from his mind.

Jinx and Jamie went back down the mountain to tell the riders we would be returning to court in due course, and to request that they pass our felicitations – whatever that meant – to Lord Baltheza. I still had my doubts about returning to the palace. Although Baltheza had claimed I was his daughter, he certainly didn’t trust me and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he only wanted me at court so he could keep an eye on me. Either that, or he wanted to use me to draw Kayla out into the open. Of course, it may also have been the case that the pardon wasn’t worth the parchment it’s written on, and his intention was to arrest me immediately upon arrival. Though, if that were a possibility, I imagined Jamie and Jinx would be more worried.

We set off early the next morning. There wasn’t much to pack; we’d been travelling light as we’d gone from one hiding place to another in an effort to keep one step ahead of Baltheza and his men. That we had failed miserably wasn’t lost on me; I’d just have to hope my supposed father and I wouldn’t have any further falling outs, though I wasn’t going to hold my breath on that one.

I hadn’t slept a wink, but neither of my two daemons had any trouble. Even Pyrites, who was usually most sensitive to my moods, had begun snoring as soon as he’d curled up on the pillow above our heads. Consequently, by the time we set off I was tired, I was worried and I was fractious. Jamie and Jinx both knew it and didn’t even bother to try talking to me.

Kayla and her guard had been staying at a villa not far from the mountain where Pyrites and I had holed up last time I was on the run. I recognised some of the landscape flashing by beneath us as we flew over small villages and fields of rust, copper and bronze crops. Soon, though, we left the rural areas behind and the vegetation changed to tall forests of scarlet and burgundy pines. As we sped closer to the mountains, the lush maroon, purple and red foliage faded away to be replaced by grey rock. Unlike the last time I’d been here, we carried on up over their snowy peaks where the air turned frigid and I was glad of the cloak Jamie had insisted I tie around my shoulders.

As soon as I saw the villa in the distance I knew Jamie was right; this was not some bolthole or hiding place. It was a mini palace. Kayla was obviously not as afraid of her psychotic father as I was.

The villa was quite beautiful; a vision of midnight blue marble and gold. Had I been Kayla, I would have been happy to live out my days in such tranquil surroundings. So why did Baltheza think she would leave such an idyllic place to live in a fortress and be saddled with a position that would very likely get her killed? She had forsaken court for over twenty-five years to be with me, she had left Vaybian to be with me – these were not the actions of a woman hell-bent on becoming queen. And if nothing else, knowing this made me fear for her safety even more.

‘I think we were right,’ I said, as we walked through the marble hallways and past a huge swimming pool filled with water the colour of amethysts.

‘Right?’ Jamie said, turning to look at me.

‘I don’t think Kayla left here by choice.’ In my heart I knew she hadn’t, but if Baltheza hadn’t taken her, then who had? I felt totally miserable. Kayla and I may have had our quarrels recently, but I still loved her as my sister; we had spent so long together.

Jinx nodded in agreement, but his mind was elsewhere. He stopped and turned full circle. ‘This place has recently seen violence,’ he said.

My heart skipped a beat. If anything had happened to Kayla . . .

‘There’s no blood,’ Jamie said. ‘If she had been taken there would be blood. Her guard would have defended her to their last breaths.’

‘Blood can be washed away,’ Jinx said.

‘Jinx,’ Jamie warned and looked my way, his brow creased with worry.

‘There’s no point hiding this,’ Jinx said, ‘the air reeks of hostility.’ He turned to Jamie. ‘Can’t you smell it; feel it?’

Jamie gave an almost imperceptible nod. ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘let’s search the place.’ So that’s what we did, even Pyrites trotted around sniffing and snuffling like a little bloodhound.

‘Here,’ Jinx called. ‘What do you make of this?’

Jamie hurried to his side and I followed as Jinx pointed at a spot about waist high on one of the marble columns. We both leaned in close to take a look.

‘It’s been chipped,’ I said.

‘Hit by a sword,’ Jamie agreed.

‘Judging by its colour, it’s quite recent,’ Jinx said, running his finger along the blemish.

Pyrites made a mewing sound and when we looked his way he started to paddle from foot to foot in agitation.

‘What is it lad?’ Jinx asked.

Pyrites pawed the floor then sat back on his haunches waiting for us to come and see. We all crossed to where he sat and as soon as we joined him he jumped back up onto his feet and once again began to paw the marble slabs.

Jinx crouched down beside him with Jamie opposite. ‘I can’t see anything,’ I said, peering over their shoulders.

Jinx squinted at the floor. ‘We can’t see it, but Pyrites can smell it. Is it blood boy?’ Pyrites made the mewing sound again.

‘Let’s check the bedrooms,’ Jinx said to Jamie and me. ‘They would have come at night.’ Both men got to their feet and together we went looking for the bedrooms.

The master bedroom was another expanse of dark blue marble; the bed took up most of the far wall and was big enough to sleep a small army of bodyguards, which it quite literally did. At last count Kayla had seven, though this could have changed.

The bed had been freshly made with clean, silken gold sheets and pillowcases. Jinx picked up one of the pillows, sniffed it and threw it down, repeating this action with all of the others.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked.

He picked up a fifth pillow and lifted it to his nose, his nostrils flared and he ripped off the case. ‘Look,’ he said.

I moved a little closer and gave it a tentative glance, scared at what I might see, but there was nothing. ‘I . . . I can’t see anything.’

‘Smell it,’ he said holding it out to me.

I moved closer and he shoved it under my nose, so I did as he said and took a tentative sniff. ‘It doesn’t smell of anything much.’

‘Exactly,’ Jinx said.

Jamie gave him a puzzled look and took the pillow from him and he too sniffed the fabric. ‘It’s new,’ Jamie said. ‘As in: never been slept on.’

I frowned at him, took the pillow back and turned it over in my hands, then sniffed at it again. It was true – used pillows normally smelled musky, or at least a little like the person who had slept on it.

‘I wonder if they went as far as changing the mattress?’ Jinx said as he started stripping off the sheets. He gave a grunt. ‘Give me a hand turning this.’

Jamie stepped forward and grabbed the other side of the mattress. Being so large it was difficult to manage, and they struggled to lift it as it bent and flexed in the middle, so Pyrites joined in by stuffing his snout under its foot and pushing upwards until it flipped over.

‘Oh hell,’ I said.

Whoever had taken Kayla hadn’t been thorough enough; there was a dark green stain right in the middle of the mattress. Pyrites padded over to take a sniff and gave a little whine.

‘Blood?’ I asked.

‘Blood,’ Jinx said.

‘Maybe it isn’t theirs. Maybe the bed was already stained. Maybe . . .’ I came to a halt as both my men and Pyrites were looking at me as though I was the village idiot.

‘They must have come at night. Kayla’s guard were overcome and she, and most probably her men, were taken.’

‘Would they have bothered taking Kayla’s bodyguards as well?’ I asked.

Jinx blew air out through pursed lips and lifted his fist to his chin in thought. ‘Only in as much as they wouldn’t want to leave any signs of violence: if the guards were overcome, either they or their bodies would have been taken. Kayla can’t be both villain and victim.’

‘Do you think she’s . . .?’ I hesitated, not wanting to say the word.

Jinx shook his head. ‘They may well have killed her guard, but I doubt they’d have killed Kayla. What good is a dead scapegoat?’

‘I hate to point it out, but if she’s dead, she wouldn’t be able to argue her innocence,’ Jamie said, giving me an apologetic grimace. My fists clenched at my side so hard I could feel my nails biting into my palms – I wanted to believe Jinx, but Jamie had a point.

‘Like Baltheza would listen,’ Jinx said. ‘You know how he is when he gets all of a lather. And this last attempt on his life was too close for comfort; he won’t be happy until he has someone’s head on a spike. If two of his guard hadn’t died trying to save him he’d probably have had them executed for incompetence anyway.’

‘I knew he was insane,’ I said, ‘but it’s like he’s getting worse.’ I hoped it didn’t run in the family, though I still couldn’t really believe he was my father and didn’t think I ever would. As for my mother – well, that she was meant to be Kayla’s aunt didn’t sit very well with me either. I couldn’t be totally daemon, I just couldn’t.

‘They do say power corrupts, and he’s been ruler of the Underlands for a considerable amount of time,’ Jamie said, interrupting my maudlin thoughts. ‘The power and the temptation to use it for personal gratification have gradually turned him and his court into a hotbed of decadence and depravity. Once on that slippery slope, insanity looms large.’

‘I think he’s paid that price in full,’ Jinx said, ‘he’s as mad as a rat in a cage surrounded by a pack of cats.’

‘So, what do we do about Kayla?’ I asked.

‘We carry on searching the place and hope we find something that might give us a clue as to who has taken her – and where.’

We searched the villa from top to bottom, then the gardens. Pyrites scampered ahead of us, sniffing and snuffling as he went. When he reached an area of lawn he started to grumble again. As I drew nearer, I could see watery streaks of jade decorating the russet blades and the red earth below. It looked as though the attackers had tried to wash the blood into the grass.

‘Do you think it’s Kayla’s?’ I asked.

Jinx frowned at me. ‘She’s a royal.’

‘So?’

‘Kayla’s a blue blood. Green is the colour of a lesser daemon.’

‘When you were wounded your blood was red,’ I said to Jamie.

‘Jinx and I are Higher Daemon, our blood is red, just like yours.’

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘But that would mean that if Baltheza is telling the truth my blood should be blue?’

‘I suppose it could be purple. I’ve never seen the blood of a daemon-human cross,’ Jinx said.

‘Purple?’ Jamie said.

‘Red plus blue equals purple.’

‘I don’t think it works quite like that, Jinx.’

‘Baltheza told me my mother was Kayla’s aunt,’ I said.

‘Hmm.’ Jinx and Jamie both pulled faces of disbelief. ‘I’m not so sure about that,’ Jinx said.

‘Me neither,’ Jamie agreed. ‘We’ve been giving it some thought and it doesn’t really make sense that you’re totally daemon – for one thing you can shed tears – but then, a lot of the things Baltheza says and does are a mystery, so who knows?’

‘I guess we can give it more thought later, but we have enough to worry about for the moment,’ Jinx said, ‘like finding Kayla.’

They were right: Kayla had to come first. If it was the other way round, I was sure she’d give everything to find me. I followed the three of them across the grass, Pyrites surging ahead, his snout moving from left to right as he scented the ground and the air. Then we entered a grove of trees and he put on a sudden spurt of speed and disappeared into the undergrowth. I heard a pathetic little whimper and he began to howl, a terrible heart-wrenching sound. Both Jinx and Jamie pulled their swords.

‘Look after Lucinda,’ Jinx said and strode through the grove to find the drakon.

I went to run after him and Jamie grabbed me by the arm. ‘We wait here.’

‘Jamie, Pyrites sounds like he’s been hurt.’

‘He’s upset ’tis all.’

‘He sounds more than upset.’

‘We wait here until Jinx tells us otherwise.’

‘But Pyrites—’

‘Pyrites will be fine.’ I pulled my arm free and hugged myself. ‘Honestly, he will be fine,’ Jamie promised. I really hoped he was right.

The seconds stretched into minutes, and had there been walls to climb I would have been climbing them. Then Jinx called, ‘It’s all safe,’ and Jamie took my hand and we moved through the trees.

I didn’t need Jinx to tell me that acts of violence had occurred within the grove. Trees were gouged and green bloody handprints stained the bark, marking the passage of a fierce battle, and despite the heat of the day I felt cold and sick with apprehension.

The trees gave way to gardens and there was nothing they could have done to hide the evidence of an almighty fight here. Flowers were trampled and bushes and saplings crushed and snapped. More blood stained the flagstone pathway that led out through a gate, and on the other side we found a cliff which dropped away sharply from us.

Jinx was standing at the edge, overlooking the sea, with his hand resting on the drakon’s head. Pyrites was puffing black smoke and his wings were pulled back tight against his body.

Jinx turned his head to glance our way. ‘I wouldn’t come any closer,’ he said, his voice bleak.

‘Wait here,’ Jamie said to me and walked over to join Jinx, who gestured downwards with his head. ‘Oh shit,’ he said, when he’d looked down.

Jinx uttered a curse, turned his back on the cliff’s edge and went to walk away, then hesitated mid-step. ‘Did you hear something?’ he asked Jamie.

Jamie leaned forward to peer over the edge. ‘I thought so.’

Jinx strode back to join him and they both looked down. I moved a few steps towards them, my own ears pricked and listening hard. I wanted to know what was down there, but I’m not good with heights and I couldn’t quite bring myself to get any closer to the edge.

‘There,’ Jinx said.

Jamie frowned in concentration as he listened, then all of a sudden launched himself off the side of the cliff. It was so unexpected I gasped and started towards the edge before remembering Jamie had wings and could fly.

‘What is it, Jinx?’

‘Stay where you are,’ he said.

‘Jinx?’

‘They threw their bodies over the cliff,’ he said. ‘I suppose they hoped they would eventually be washed away by the tide.’

‘Bodies? Whose bodies?’ I asked, rushing to stand beside him, my fear for Kayla outweighing my fear of falling.

Jinx grabbed hold of me and pulled me away from the edge. ‘Kayla’s bodyguards.’

‘Kayla?’ I asked struggling to break free of him.

‘No,’ he said. . .