‘Return … from death?’ said Katherine.
‘The Lady couldn’t return as he could, so she had a child, hoping that if the Dark King rose again, her descendant would take up the fight.’
You. She felt the word, like a throb, as she looked into Will’s eyes. You, you, you. And there was something about him, something that felt ancient and part of this, like he was the key, like he was terribly important, if only she could grasp the edge of it—
‘Simon’s killing the Lady’s descendants,’ said Will. ‘He thinks it will return the Dark King.’
A Dark King who was merciless. A Dark King who wanted to rule. A Dark King who could destroy the world …
Katherine shivered in her wet clothes. Even by the fire, she couldn’t seem to get warm.
‘And will it?’ said Katherine.
Will didn’t answer right away. He glanced across at Violet, and the two seemed to share something before he looked back at her.
‘He killed my aunt before I was born,’ said Will. ‘I think she was the first. When the Dark King didn’t appear after he did that—’
‘He had to kill all of them,’ said Violet. ‘Anyone who might have the blood.’
‘It’s why he killed your mother. It’s why he’s chasing you,’ said Cyprian. ‘“Killing one isn’t enough. It has to be all of them.”’
Lord Crenshaw’s conversational voice saying, I needed to kill all of them. And I have. They’re all dead. All but one.
She looked at Will, the flames from the fire lighting his face.
You. It made sense of his strangeness, the otherworldly quality that he had, the way he’d always seemed – sharper and brighter in her mind than other people, even as he’d seemed separate and apart.
Will was the one Lord Crenshaw was chasing. The one he needed to kill to succeed in his plans.
‘The Shadow Kings can’t be stopped,’ said Cyprian. ‘If he sends them after you—’
‘He hasn’t released them yet,’ said Will. ‘He needs the Blood of the Lady to release them from the Stone.’
‘Your blood,’ said Violet to Will, and Katherine felt her skin prickle.
‘And once he has it?’ said Cyprian.
Will said, ‘He’ll release the Shadow Kings, slaughter his enemies, and end the Lady’s line.’
‘And He will rise,’ said Cyprian, as cold ran down Katherine’s spine.
She saw the look Will exchanged with Cyprian and Violet, right before the three of them left the gatekeep together. She waited just long enough after they had gone, then rose from the fireside stool, telling the two girls, Grace and Sarah, ‘I need some air.’
And just as she had followed Lord Crenshaw, she slipped out after Will and his friends, wanting to know what they were saying when they thought she couldn’t hear.
She saw Will in the courtyard not far from the gatekeep, speaking to Cyprian and Violet in a low-voiced, tight cluster. She pressed herself behind a jut of wall, out of sight but within earshot.
‘He needs you,’ Cyprian was saying to Will. ‘But he won’t get you.’
‘We know how to stop him now,’ said Violet. ‘Katherine said it. He needs your blood. Without it, he can’t release the Shadow Kings. All we have to do is keep you away from him.’
‘You mean run,’ said Will.
She had never heard him sound like that before. She couldn’t see the expression on his face but desperately wanted to. She pressed herself more closely against the wall, hoping not to be seen.
‘The Hall can keep us safe—’ Cyprian began, but Violet cut him off.
‘Simon knows we’re here,’ said Violet. ‘We don’t have supplies to last for more than a month. It’s too easy for him to stake us out. We can’t stay in the Hall.’
Will was silent.
‘Simon’s not unbeatable.’ Violet pressed her point. ‘Your mother evaded him for years until he found her. Gauthier stayed ahead of him his whole life. If we stay on the move, we can keep you away from him.’
It was Cyprian who broke the long, difficult pause. ‘She’s right. We run. We leave England and we get as far away as possible.’
‘We?’ said Will.
‘That’s right,’ said Cyprian.
‘The Hall’s your home,’ said Will.
‘I didn’t swear my oath to the Hall,’ said Cyprian. ‘I swore it to the people of this world. To remember and protect. That’s what I trained to do.’