Chapter Twenty Seven

Summary: After falling out with Spencer over the secrets that the Blitzkreig Boys are hiding from him, Ian leads Hilary across the river to check on Amber and get answers. However, while there, Mariam returns to the apartment. Even though Hilary's reluctant to stay, Mariam convinces her that it's the right thing to do for all parties involved.

Amber stood in the dimly lit kitchenette, back to the counter, arms folded as she studied her guests. Hilary had taken one of the armchairs near the electric fire, her gaze bouncing from the photo frames arranged on the mantelpiece above the marble fireplace to the dark furniture arranged around the muted TV. Ian, on the other hand, stood by the window, peering out restlessly with his hands wedged deep into the pockets of his cargo pants. They looked uncomfortable, as if a sudden noise would have them darting from the room. And their nerves were making her jittery—in her own home no less.

Beside her, Mariam cut up a cake she'd bought back from the shops before arranging the slices on an empty silver tray. Amber couldn't say when her father had made such a purchase, or why. He didn't strike her as the kind of man who served high tea but maybe it impressed his lady friends. She tended not to think too hard or ask too many questions about that aspect of his life and he did the same for her. Not that she really had anything to say about such matters. It was hard to have a boyfriend when you had a voice in your head and were contemplating saving the world from kids with spinning tops. It didn't exactly inspire romance.

"You know, feeding them will only encourage them to stay."

Mariam slanted her a bemused look. "That's the point." When Amber grumbled, Mariam touched her wrist, commandeering her attention. "We need them if we want to succeed."

"Why though?" Amber asked, voice hushed as she turned to face the counter, plucking spoons from the counter and setting them in an empty beaker. "They're not bladers you know. Besides, I told you, I already tried to get them to help and they shot me down." That still stung, not that she'd admit it out loud to them.

She glanced over her shoulder just as Hilary picked up her phone, flipped it in her hand for a moment then put it back into her handbag. Ian continued to look out the window, shoulders tensed as if expecting an attack.

"So, you shared your story with them? Interesting choice."

"It wasn't exactly a choice. I ran into them, or they ran into me." At Mariam's pointed look, Amber braced against the counter and pressed her heels into the cool granite edge. "Ian caught me talking to Morrigan, although he just called me crazy."

Mariam dropped her head back and released a worn sigh. "Of course he did. How have you got this far? You're a walking disaster — when you're not fainting on the side of the road."

Amber wrinkled her nose at that assessment. It wasn't inaccurate but it certainly didn't do her confidence any favours. With a huff, she grabbed the pot of sugar and glass of teaspoons, taking them over to the cluster of seats and set them on the coffee table within easy reach.

Hilary tilted her head and eyed her under dark lashes, brown eyes shrewd. "Where are the other Saint Shields? Is this a distraction?"

Sticking her thumbs into her pockets, Amber pursed her lips. "I don't know about other Saint Shields, I only know Mariam and, no this not a distraction. You can phone your friends and—"

"She shouldn't do that," Mariam advised. "Now, the kettle is boiled, do you want tea or coffee?"

"Water," Hilary answered stiffly.

"Vodka."

Mariam lifted a brow and patiently waited. Ian shuffled his feet and muttered "water" in a grumbling tone. Satisfied, Mariam stalked back to the kitchen, leaving them in a heavy, awkward silence that had Amber scratching at her wrist. She wanted to retreat, to hide away until they were gone but that wouldn't fix anything. It sure as hell wouldn't help save her family, her world. So she'd suck it up. Dropping into the corner of the sofa, she kicked out her feet and ignored Hilary's pointed look.

"How do you know she won't poison us?" Ian left the window and rounded the furniture to sit in the vacant armchair opposite Hilary. He laced his fingers and braced them on his knees as he leaned forward, the glow from the electric fire throwing his features into sharp relief.

Amber sneered in his direction. "It's not her style."

"And what's her style? What do you really know about Mariam?" With her jaw tight enough to grind marble, Hilary braced her hands on the arms of her chair.

"She saved my life." That gained her a considering look and Amber squirmed in her seat. God, it felt so stupid to say something so monumental about another human being. "That day, when I left you guys at the arena, I collapsed outside the pub across the street. Mariam found me and brought me here."

With a begrudging look, Hilary glanced towards the kitchen and kept her voice low. "And how did she know to come here?"

"Does it matter? The point is, she helped me." And she didn't freak out when she saw Morrigan but they didn't need to know that. All in good time.

"And that's a good reason to team up with her? Amber, she seals Bitbeasts."

"Isn't that what Amber wants?" Ian muttered, disdain curling his lips.

Rolling her eyes, Amber drew her knees up. A draught crept up around her back and she shivered. Despite the fire and the radiators, the room's temperature seemed to dwindle as day crept into night. It was June, why was it so damn cold?

"I don't understand," Hilary said softly. "What did we ever do to you?"

"It's not what you have done, it's what you will do."

"So you're punishing us for something we haven't done yet? For something you can't know we'll do."

"I thought we decided to discuss this with food?" Mariam said pointedly, placing her tray on the coffee table. She removed the plate stacked with lemon cake and chocolate chip cookies—the good stuff from M&S—then passed around the glasses of water with slices of lemon and ice cubes. Amber balked when Mariam shoved one at her. At the firm look, she stifled her groan and took a greedy gulp, then winced as the ice made her teeth scream.

"I asked for tea."

"You can have your tea once you drink the water," Mariam told her, indicating the steaming mug on the table. "You're still dehydrated."

Glowering at her, Amber downed the rest of the water and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. This whole drinking water thing to rehydrate was the worst part of the recovery process. She set down her glass and flushed at Hilary's shrewd look.

Crossing her legs, Hilary sat back in her seat and regarded Mariam with a challenging look. "Okay, now that we're all fed and watered, what do you want from us? You said you don't want to seal our bitbeasts but you have to know, we won't be used to hurt or betray our teams."

Ian moved to stand by Hilary's chair, as if he planned to jump to her defence at the slightest provocation. The tension in the room ratcheted up a notch but if Mariam noticed, she made no sign of it. Instead, she casually tucked her feet under her body and cupped her mug between her hands as she blew on it. The scent of bittersweet coffee drifted from the mug.

"I don't want you to betray your teams. I want you to look at this first." She took the notepad from behind her on the sofa and handed it to Hilary.

"What is it?"

"Notes detailing what we know and what we suspect. Once you're caught up, we can discuss your role in this and our options for avoiding any bitbeast sealing."

Hilary sent her another sceptical look but began to read, angling the page so that Ian could study it over her shoulder. Silence filled the apartment, penetrated by the shifting of paper, the rhythmic tick, tick, tick from the clock on the mantlepiece and the artificial crackle from the fire.

Amber drew her tea close and took a sip. The heat travelled down her chest and into her stomach, soothing and comforting as a hug. There was a click, like her ears had popped and everything sharpened. Amber tried to focus on what had suddenly changed in the room but the others remained focused on the shared notes, with Mariam idly staring into the fire as if expecting it to show her something—or maybe it did. Still, they hadn't noticed anything different. Which meant that the change had only happened for her, maybe only happened within her. Tentatively, with just a dash of hope, she stretched out with her mind.

You're finally awake. About time. I was beginning to think we'd face the end of the world on our backs.

Amber closed her eyes, pressing her twitching lips together and absorbed the rush of relief. For all her complaints, she'd missed Morrigan's voice.

I'm sorry. I didn't realise—

Do you know how exhausting it is to be a human? Your body is so needy. It requires regular sustenance and recuperation, and do not get me started on bodily functions. How do you deal with the ennui? I refuse to do that again. Do not force me to repeat this experience.

I'm not planning to let you do it again. Once was enough.

Still, hearing Morrigan rant was almost worth the hours she'd lost. Almost. She glanced across at Hilary and Ian, and felt Morrigan's disapproval.

They're back. I thought after your last encounter…

They came to check on me, or so they say. Ian says the gate is open.

It opened in the woods and no one closed it, what other state could it possibly be in?

"Morrigan back online?" Mariam prodded with a gentle nudge of her elbow.

Amber snapped from her internal conversation and nodded. "Yeah. She woke up."

"Good. I have a few questions for her."

Hilary set the page aside to study them with open suspicion. "You know about Morrigan?"

Mariam stretched out her legs and flexed her toes. "We became acquainted."

"You met Morrigan too?" Ian demanded, springing to his feet. "Is everyone meeting her? Why not me?"

Amber sneered at him. "Because she doesn't like you."

"Can you two stop fighting?" Hilary scolded.

Amber flopped back against the sofa. "It's not a trick I just conjure up. Besides," she drawled with a thin smile, "I invited you to meet her and you called me a psycho."

And now you treat me like your personal pet to pull out of your pocket whenever you wish to make friends.

"You did not invite me to meet her. You told us faeries are real and after our bitbeasts and now you've convinced her too."

Unimpressed with the finger being shoved in her direction, Mariam pushed it out of her face. "Well, it's difficult to ignore Morrigan when she's piloting Amber's body around the apartment."

"Wait, you saw her outside the stone circle?" Hilary's voice jumped an octave, eyes widening as she studied Amber like a bomb about to go off. "I thought that wasn't possible. You said you needed the circle."

"Make her show up now," Ian demanded.

"I can't just make her show up. I was unconscious and she took over."

So that you did not die. Now I am beginning to regret it. The world is clearly doomed.

"You need to be unconscious? I can do that."

"Ian!"

"Oh please, try—"

A sharp whistled pierced the room and Amber flinched back into her chair, one hand moving to cover her ear. Mariam removed her fingers from between her lips. "If you're quite finished."

"You know, it's funny," Hilary said, with no amount of humour colouring her voice, "you never mentioned Morrigan in your notes."

Mariam's eyes flicked to the ceiling before she plastered on a tight but pleasant smile. "No, I didn't write that down. It didn't seem important."

"Is that because you plan to seal Morrigan too?"

"No, Hilary, it's because I don't plan to seal Morrigan. How many times do I have to say this? I'm not here to seal anything unless I absolutely have to. We have a plan, one I will tell you about, where we can avoid sealing any bitbeasts and still help stop this."

"Stop what? We're here to beyblade, not hurt anyone. And just because Amber says we will doesn't mean it's true."

As the two bickered back and forth, Amber found herself hyper fixated on Hilary's words. "But, could you? If you wanted to?"

Mariam broke off her point and turned to Amber with a frown. "Could I what?"

"Seal Morrigan?" Not that Amber wanted that, but should it be necessary… at least to have the option available.

"No!" Mariam snapped, rising to her feet and stalking to the fireplace. She turned to them and rubbed her temples, looking more frazzled than Amber had ever seen her look. She closed her eyes and exhaled softly, then mustered up a tight smile. "It's a possibility, but you remember what I told you about how bitbeasts are tethered to their mediums? Morrigan is very intricately tethered to you. Trying to separate you both could lead to tragic consequences and I'm not willing to risk that."

So that's why the other vessels died. They couldn't be separated. Amber's stomach turned to lead and plummeted. Of course. She should have known.

"So I'm stuck forever."

No need to sound so very disappointed.

You know that's not it.

It was just the lack of choice. She'd thought that someday she would be free, if she managed to save the world. Now that looked less likely. How could something just move on when it was all but fused within her?

It will not be so bad. Should our separation prove impossible, I will retreat to the darkest corner of your mind and erect a barrier between us. It will be as if I do not exist.

"That doesn't sound like much fun for you," she whispered, eyes stinging. Surreptitiously, she wiped away the dampness with the heels of her palms and ignored the pitying look Hilary shot her.

Do not pity me. I am a spirit. I weary of this world. To be quite honest, I yearn for the long sleep. I am not human, I do not require sustenance or stimulus. A sleep while you live out the rest of your life would do me as much good as moving on. I will barely notice the time pass.

Biting her lip, Mariam crossed back to the sofa and sat down, facing Amber with a serious expression. "I won't say it can't be done, but if it can I want to do as much research as possible first. I won't put your life at risk in that way. Or Morrigan's existence."

"But you're quite happy to seal our bitbeasts," Hilary muttered.

"Like a dog with a bone," Mariam ground out, then turned to Hilary with a saccharine smile. "I am not out to seal your bitbeasts, and all bitbeasts are tethered to a Beyblade, not a human. Trust me, that does change things. Untethering a spirit from an inanimate object does not kill the blader."

Amber felt Hilary's sharp scrutiny and pushed to her feet, crossing to the fireplace to get control of her emotions. The sinking dread, the overwhelming disappointment, all of it was so frustrating. She kept feeling her hope spiralling down into the depths of despair. When were things going to go right?

"So you don't want to seal our bitbeasts, but you want our help. How and why should we?" Ian demanded, thumping back into the vacant armchair across from Hilary.

Mariam exhaled through her nose then sat up straight, fixing them both with a grim look. "I want you to talk your teams into leaving the tournament."

The words hung in the air for a moment, like anvils dropped into the middle of the room, and then Ian laughed and laughed.

Hilary shook her head, looking uncomfortable as she clutched the strap of her handbag between her fingers. "I don't think I can do that."

"No," Ian said, eyes hard and bright. "We will not do this. My team will win. It is our year."

Hilary sniffed in Ian's direction and jerked her gaze back to Mariam. "If they leave, they forfeit. That's akin to betraying them. Besides, they would never just drop out without a good reason. And you have not given me a good reason."

Silence simmered in the apartment and light flickered from the TV screen as a presenter chatted to a politician about the state of the country. Amber privately thought that if they knew the state to come, they would never take their seats in parliament again.

"Amber's told you about what's at stake, right?"

"Faerie stories," Ian scoffed.

"Faerie tales have some basis in fact. You're Russian, you know the tales of Baba Yaga and Hilary you're from Japan, an inherently spiritual place. And you both know about bitbeasts. Why is it so easy to believe in them but not believe in other kinds of spirits?"

"We've seen bitbeasts. I've never seen anything else."

Amber opened her mouth to retort but Mariam caught her gaze and shook her head imperceptibly, then she settled herself back on the sofa, legs crossed. "By the time you see something, it's too late. The fae can do things beyond your wildest imagination."

Ian snorted. "Yeah, like what?"

Mariam licked her dry lips and sipped her drink again. "Mostly petty things, like souring milk or stealing food. Some torment drunkards on the road, or steal children and replace them with their own. There are other things like the Sluagh, the Dullahan, but I've not heard of them in recent times. I've only encountered something like the fae once. I was in Europe and there was a town. It was affluent enough, a growing metropolis of sorts. All who visited said that it was one of the fastest growing towns in the country. People moved there and they developed suburban neighbourhoods. It was a nice place. Busy and full of families. Children played in the streets during the day and people went to work, kissing their spouses farewell. I visited a time or two while I was in the town doing a courier job for the elders. Once it was completed, I left but decided to extend my trip to a nearby seaside village.

"And that's when I heard the news. Everyone was talking about it. That neighbourhood, everyone in it just disappeared one evening. Roughly 300 people, all gone. No warnings, no letters, no signs. No one saw anything but people noticed the next day. You notice 300 people just vanish into thin air. They called the authorities, it was on the news. No one knew what happened. There was no evidence of foul play, no ransom notes. It was a mystery. I went to look. It sounded so farfetched, I wanted to see was it something spirit related though I'd never heard of anything on that scale. And I walked into that neighbourhood with its yellow tape and empty streets. I visited those houses, with their lights still on and the meals still on the table, TVs and radios playing, toys abandoned in the yard. It was… it didn't feel empty. It felt like they would just come back, like I was trespassing in their homes while they had just popped out for an errand. But they never returned."

She shook her head helplessly, her voice catching and she cleared her throat. "I stuck around for a few days, tried to do a bit of research, investigated a bit but there were no leads, no evidence. They'd just left. After a while, I began to hear rumours, theories, the stories people spread to explain something strange. Some said aliens, others said cults, but others kept repeating, the elves, the fae. You see, there was a circle of trees in a field close by. No one ever cut them down, they weren't in the way. But the council, they wanted to build a road, improve infrastructure. It would bypass the main town and give easy access to those who lived close to it. That neighbourhood would benefit the most from it, even though they had no say in the development. So to make the road, the trees were cut down, the circle demolished. No one thought anything of it, until the people disappeared and then they began to talk about the fae, their rings and trees and mounds. How they can't be disturbed."

Amber glanced at Mariam and then closed her eyes in realisation, in grief for the sheer waste of human life. They had ignored the old tales, the unspoken rules, and they had suffered for it.

With a sniff, Mariam smiled wanly. "A few weeks later the road suffered complications. They chose a different route and that area was revamped. New families moved in. But those 300 people were never found. They never returned. Their families held a memorial for them because they were no bodies for funerals. They still live in hope that their loved ones will come back, because people don't just disappear. Faeries don't exist you see. You don't lose your life because you cut down a tree. That's nonsense, right?" She leaned forward, eyes cold with jade fire. "Faerie tales. No one believes in the fae but that doesn't stop them."

Ian shifted uncomfortably and jerked his chin up, defiant to the last. "Well, that doesn't mean the world is ending. We didn't cut down a—" The word choked on his tongue and he jolted his gaze to Ambers.

Her stomach swooped. They hadn't cut down a tree but a tree had been felled. She clasped her hands together, feeling the blood drain from her face.

"What?" Mariam demanded.

Hilary closed her eyes with a grimace. "There's a tree in the woods, near the circle where Amber showed Morrigan to me. It… I don't know what happened to it. It was down when we went back."

With a groan, Mariam dropped her head back against the sofa. "Right, of course. I felt it come down, felt the energy from it. You three were there? Did you see who did it?"

"No, like we said, it was down by the time we went back."

"Wyborg said the gate is open," Hilary confessed, shifting uncomfortably under Ian's dark look. "Well, you said she confirmed it."

Mariam sighed. "It's started then. We need to stop it."

"This is still not proof."

"What more do you need, Ian?" Amber demanded, rising to her feet.

Hilary exchanged a wary look with Ian before shrugging sheepishly. "There's nothing to say that it's the bitbeasts that have caused this. Maybe it's just something that was going to happen because of Ireland being home to the… fae. Like that town."

"Except all of this happened since the bitbeasts arrived in Ireland. Nothing like that ever happened before."

"Well, why hasn't it happened in any other place before this? Other places have faerie tales, right? Like Mariam said, Russia has them and we had a tournament there and nothing weird happened." Hilary looked to Ian for affirmation and he jerked his shoulder, not a yes but definitely not a no.

"Russia does have them but Russia is a very big country. Ireland is not." Mariam closed her hands around her mug and stared into the glow of the fire. "It might not have anything to do with the size of the country," she admitted. "I'm not certain of all the details, but you can't ignore that there's something strange happening here—"

"Look," Amber said, fisting her hands on her knees, to prevent them from doing something violent, "if you don't want to help, just go. There's nothing I can do to prove it. All I have is word of mouth, and any time that I do have anything, no one's ever around to see it."

"Like the Eoin attack?"

Amber met Hilary's brown eyes and nodded. "Yeah. Like that. The thing is, what do you have to lose if you do go with our plan? So the tournament gets cancelled or moved to another venue, big deal. You'll survive but if you don't, a lot of people will die. It won't just be a suburban neighbourhood this time. It'll be an entire island and maybe more. Who knows how far they could go. I know it sounds far fetched but I can't keep trying to prove it to you."

Looking as exhausted as Amber felt, Hilary scrubbed hands over her face, looking exhausted and worn. "What do you want from us?"

Mariam set her cup on the table. "I want you to talk to your teams. We plan to meet with Dickinson, ask him to move the tournament elsewhere. But if he doesn't listen, if we could convince the Bladebreakers and the Blitzkrieg Boys to boycott the tournament, he might reconsider. They're the big draws, people want to battle them, people come here to watch them. If they left, the tournament wouldn't be as big, and the stronger bitbeasts won't feed the fae, which means I won't have to seal anyone's bitbeast. It's the safest way to do this, the most peaceful."

With a soft moan, Hilary shook her head. "I don't know if that will work. The WBBA cannot afford to move. They have sunk a lot of money into making this tournament a success, they can't lose that investment, not after BEGA. Not to mention the sponsorships, publicity, the money for booking the arena, the flights, the hotels. It's too much. It would ruin them."

Mariam smiled thinly. "Trust me, they can't afford this scandal either. People will die Hilary. It won't be destroyed buildings this time. It will be a nation gone. Can they really afford to have that placed at their feet?"

Amber shivered at the finality of Mariam's tone. Outside the Albert clock struck nine, its bong loud in the eerily muted silence from beyond the curtains.

"Even if this the fae," Hilary began, "why would anyone blame the WBBA for this? It's not like they know what they're doing."

"No, but I'll make them aware. Look, Hilary, it's either this plan or I seal every bitbeast and risk making everything worse. That's the only choices we have. So what can you live with?"

Amber studied the battle of wills between the two girls while Ian rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket, drawing out his Beyblade. A shimmer of light hovered over his shoulders and the faintest outline of a snake appeared around his neck like a scarf. Amber sucked in a quiet breath.

Bitbeast. More proof.

Swallowing, Amber shifted onto her knees. "Does your bitbeast always stay around your neck?"

Ian peered open an eye and then his lips twisted in displeasure. "No. You see her?"

"Faintly. I saw her on the day of the woods too."

Ian closed his eyes before lifting them to Hilary with a look of resignation. "They're not making this up. Something strange is happening here."

Hilary's lips twitched and she quickly licked them, eyes darting from his neck to Mariam. "I'm not saying they're making things up. I believe you but… it's not enough. We need more. We need proof. Tangible proof. My team is loyal to the WBBA, there needs to be more if you even hope to persuade them. Telling them that their bitbeasts are food… it's hard to believe."

Mariam shoved her hand into the front pocket of her hoodie and drew out her own navy blade. Closing her eyes, she wrapped her fingers around the blade and above her a shape fishtailed casting an unmistakable shadow.

Amber shrank back in her seat, heart lodging in her throat. "Is that a shark? Mariam, you have a shark?! I am not okay with Jaws chilling in my apartment." The words were sharp and brittle, an attempt at humour when nothing was funny anymore.

Lips tilting, Mariam stretched up her free hand and tentatively brushed her fingers along the sleek side of her bitbeast. "Would this count as proof?"

Hilary bit her lip and dropped to the chair. "Maybe. I don't know. Some bitbeasts can manifest outside a bey battle. Dragoon has. Once when we were on an island, he talked to Tyson. I still don't think it's enough. But we can ask."

Mariam frowned, her eyes sliding away from Hilary and she leaned forward to pick up the remote. The volume rose and the female news caster finally caught their attention.

"A national severe weather warning has been declared for the counties of Northern Ireland this evening with a sudden temperature decrease making this the coldest June on record. The vortex of bitterly cold weather settled over the northeast of the island today turning torrential downpours into blizzards. The red warning comes into effect from 10 o'clock tonight until 6 o'clock tomorrow morning and with many roads now impassable, including the Glenshane Pass, the Met Office has advised people to avoid travelling where possible and to stay indoors. In reaction to the warning, the PSNI has imposed a curfew and public transport have stopped for the night. People are warned to keep their pets indoors and to check on their elderly if it's safe to do so."

Amber threw herself from the couch and crossed to the balcony, yanking back the drapes and fumbling with the key in the lock. Pushing the door open, the cold stole the air from her lungs, like an icy hand reaching into her chest and squeezing tight. She watched her breath escape in a plume of smoke and disperse into the eerie darkness filled with white flakes.

Something wicked this way comes, Morrigan intoned.

Breath hitching from the sudden slap of frigidity, Amber curled her suddenly numb fingers around the door frame. Snow fell from the midnight dark sky in front of her face, dancing in past her legs to melt on the floor. It covered every visible surface outside, blanketing the world in white. Flakes swirled and fluttered in the pale street lights and dotted across her cheeks and shoulders, catching in her hair. Across the way McHugh's bar sat dark and empty, it's patrons having left at the sudden change of weather. The world was still, the streets abandoned.

"Tyson messaged," Hilary muttered behind her, voice tight with concern. "They're not going back to the hotel. He says they've been moved to the hotel beside the arena because it's too dangerous to go further. There are strict orders not to go outside."

Mariam came to stand beside Amber and reached out a hand, turning it palm up to catch a snowflake. The delicate crystal lay there before slowly, slowly dissolving. "This isn't normal," she murmured, squinting against the curtain of white.

As they watched, the snow gathered ferocity until the Albert Clock at the bottom of the street began to disappear, lost within the flurry. Soon the rest of the buildings disappeared too. Amber's mouth went dry. Everything was gone, closed away behind the sudden blizzard.

She shivered and hunched her shoulders, shrinking inside herself to get away from the cold.

Mariam shot her a sharp look before bustling her back into the room and closing the door with a snap as she turned to regard the two bladers. "No one is going anywhere tonight. It's too cold and there's zero visibility out there. There's plenty of space here. We'll set up beds and turn up the heating. Amber go stand by the fire. Your lips are blue."

Mariam marched off to the temperature gauge while Hilary shifted forward, studying Amber's face. "You okay?"

"Yeah, it's just bloody freezing out there. I don't get it, we get shite weather sure, but snow like this, in June? I'm still sunburned! Now I might as well add frostbite to it all."

"It's snow," Ian grumbled snidely, pulling on his jacket. "In Russia, if we stayed at home every time it snowed, we'd never go anywhere."

Hilary twisted the strap of her handbag between her hands. "I don't think this is normal snow, Ian."

"What the fairies did this too?"

Shooting him a scathing look, Hilary huffed out a breath. "I don't know. Maybe. No, of course not. But I don't think we should risk travelling out in it, so, Amber, if you don't mind, I think it would be safer to stay here. Just for tonight."

Amber nodded. Not like she had much of a choice. She couldn't send them out into the snow. It was likely to get them killed. Still, she wasn't big enough of a person to not take a little vindictive delight in their discomfort. After all, if they had listened to her in the first place, this might not have happened.

TBC

A.N. I've been sitting on this chapter for weeks and it wasn't flowing properly. I think this is the best I can do with it, so I'm posting now so I'll stop writing and rewriting it. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed last chapter, honestly your words keep me going when I start doubting myself. You'll never know how much I value the time you take to review. Hopefully now with everything starting to move forward, I'll be able to get the next chapter out sooner. We're heading into the fun stuff, this is just the tip of the faerie iceberg! Let me know your thoughts, whether you're on Hilary's side of this or falling on Mariam's side. And we'll pop back to the Bladebreakers next time - maybe check in with Brooklyn too. I think he's doing a bit of a Sleeping Beauty act these past few chapters!