Chapter 30

Chapter

Thirty

W e heard Athair before we saw him and, even though I’d been praying for it, the sound of his booming, harsh voice still made me jump. ‘Where the fuck is my daughter?’

The recorded cries of the anonymous baby continued to echo out from my dying phone. It would shut down for good in the next few minutes but that no longer mattered because the twenty-first century technology had already served its purpose.

I recovered from my jolt and cricked my neck, watching as the crowd of vampires at the far end of the tunnel parted. It was impossible to make out Athair’s features from this distance but it was unmistakably him. His broad shoulders, combined with the way he held himself, were instantly recognisable, and when he walked into the tunnel the dim electric lights bounced off his golden skin.

At least, I thought darkly, he’s not bothered to conceal his true self again . I preferred it when he was honest about what he was – and this would be much easier if we were the only ones playing games.

‘Get back, you fucking fiend!’ Hugo roared.

I gave him an approving nod and he grinned, then we gave our full attention to Athair who was striding towards us.

‘For the record, can I just say that is the worst idea anyone has ever had in the history of all ideas ever?’ Hester muttered.

Gladys buzzed loudly by my side in disagreement. She was hungry for Athair’s blood – and so was I.

‘Hand over Daisy,’ Athair called, ‘and I will consider letting you go.’

Yeah, yeah. If he truly thought we’d believe that, he was a complete idiot. He still didn’t appear to have made the final connection and worked out who I was to him, although he surely had to have his suspicions by now. Still, it was a big fat tick on our list of things that we needed to survive this encounter.

I called back with a counter-demand. ‘Come any closer and we will kill her!’ Athair burst out laughing and my blood turned to ice. Dread that he’d already deciphered our plans filled every inch of my soul.

Then Hugo nudged me; Athair had slowed his steps. When he stopped and stretched his arms out wide, my tension eased. Maybe we had him.

‘Kill a baby?’ He laughed even harder. ‘You honestly think you’re capable of that? How do you plan to do it? Cut her throat and watch her blood spill out while the life drains from her innocent eyes? Perhaps you’ll smother her, or break her neck. I’ve done all those things to other children in the past and it was easy – enjoyable, in fact. I doubt you could say the same.’

The thought that Athair might have actually killed babies with his bare hands sickened me, but I couldn’t pretend to be surprised. ‘Better that she’s dead,’ I answered, ‘than that she becomes a fiend.’

‘Really?’ he asked sardonically. ‘You don’t believe in free will, then? You don’t believe she’s capable of making up her own mind as to what her future holds? I can’t force anyone, not even my own progeny, into becoming one of the most powerful beings this world has ever seen because that decision has to come from them. But if you harm her, that will be wholly on you. You will have to live with what you’ve done.’

Then he added, ‘Not that you will live for very long if you hurt her. It’s taken me far too long to find a woman capable of bearing my child and far too long to bring that child into existence. I won’t walk away, no matter how much you shake your fists or how many empty threats you throw out. That baby belongs with me.’

With that, he started to stride towards us once again. ‘There’s no way out of this for you. You’re already trapped and your fate is already drawn.’

That’s what he thought, but there was more than one reason why we’d chosen this tunnel as the venue for our showdown. It was damp, with a lot of moisture clinging to both the walls and the air, and that made it easier to pull on water magic and create the effect we required.

With Hugo still at my shoulder and the plastic doll and my phone in my arms, I yanked on every aspect of water magic that I could find. It was extraordinary how much easier it was to control my powers now; if I hadn’t killed Vargas, I’d have owed him a big favour.

I pulled my mouth into a smile and jerked my head at the brownies to move behind us, then muttered to Hugo. ‘Three,’ I said, ‘Two…’

He flicked his wrists. ‘One.’

The resulting cascade of rushing water was phenomenal.

The conjuration started in front of us, then we pushed it out, slamming our tsunami-like creation towards Athair. I didn’t waste time watching Athair being knocked off his feet and sent tumbling back towards the entrance of the tunnel; instead, I grabbed Gladys.

While she buzzed an alarmed protest, I twisted her blade and cut through my own skin. I winced at the pain, but I needed plenty of fresh blood for this to work. I thrust the doll at Hugo and he held it up while I smeared blood across her cold, plastic body and the blanket. Then I sucked in a breath and threw the doll after the gushing torrent.

The doll joined the swirl of water and the debris that had been caught up in the flood. As soon as it was sucked away, Hugo and I ran – heading towards Athair rather than away from him.

There was only so much water we could magick up in one go. By the time we started sprinting towards him, Athair had recovered enough to regain his footing, although he’d been forced back to the tunnel’s entrance.

He roared with fury, somehow managing to make more racket than the water had achieved. I answered him with a high-pitched scream, timing it to the very moment that the doll tumbled past his feet into the crowd of watching vampires.

Athair’s head jerked as he spotted it, but it was already too late. Although the water would have washed away most of my smeared blood, there was enough on the blanket to send the bloodsuckers into a frenzy. Athair had great control over them – but in the end their bloodlust was greater.

As if they were one amorphous group, they descended on the doll, screaming and chomping their teeth. Athair bellowed a command, but the vampires had been waiting for too long and they were starving.

My fiendish father spun and plunged towards the vampires, using his magic to send them flying in all directions. I could hear the delighted screams of the vampires at the other end of the tunnel as they whooped and raced after us .

I bit my lip, concentrated hard and threw a jet of hot fire over my shoulder in their direction. I didn’t check to see if I’d hit my targets.

While he blasted away the last of the crazed vampires and bent down to reach for whatever remained of the doll, we reached the end of the tunnel. I couldn’t allow a second’s delay; it wouldn’t take Athair long to discover our trick.

When his body jerked with belated comprehension that he was desperately trying to save a doll, I thrust Gladys at him, swiping her blade at his exposed back. She hummed loudly in anticipation as I slashed at his flesh. His skin was tougher than I’d expected, but she still managed to slice an inch deep into his body.

Hugo followed up my heavy swipe with a burst of air magic. Athair let out a strangled cry and pitched forward face first. I leapt forward, more than prepared to finish him off with a single killing blow, but my father wasn’t done yet. Without so much as a twitch, power rocketed out of him, and Hugo, both brownies and I were sent crashing backwards. Cumbubbling bollocks.

I tried to get to my feet, but my brain wasn’t sending the right messages to my body and my limbs wouldn’t obey. Gulping for air sent scalding pain through my chest. I hadn’t lost my grip on Gladys, but when I tried to lift her blade towards me for close defence I couldn’t manage it. Athair had sent no more than a single flare of air magic towards us and it had almost destroyed us.

A shadow fell across my body. I dimly registered the blood dripping from his side. From the way he was acting it was nothing more than a scratch, although his face was contorted with rage. He leaned over my useless body, grabbed my throat with one hand and hauled me up until we were face to face.

‘You’re brave,’ he snarled. ‘And that was a clever feint.’ He bared his teeth and his scarlet eyes burned into me. ‘But it wasn’t close to being clever enough.’ He turned his head to stare at Hugo. ‘Tell me where my daughter is or your girlfriend dies.’

I choked and spluttered – it felt like my eyes were bulging out of their sockets. My legs were kicking uselessly in the air. I could hear Hester and Otis shouting at Athair but their words barely registered. ‘Let her go! Let her go!’

Athair tightened his fingers. My vision was all but gone and I could no longer see him, even though he was right in front of me. I had seconds left – at best.

Hugo muttered something. Hester cried out again, ‘Let Daisy go!’

And then Athair released me and I landed on the tunnel floor with a heavy thump.

Arms reached around me, but this time it was Hugo who was holding me. He pulled me back and wrapped himself around me as I swallowed repeatedly, trying to regain control of my bruised throat and trembling vocal chords.

‘My name,’ I croaked eventually, ‘is Daisy.’

Athair spat on the ground. ‘That means nothing.’

‘We weren’t lying before, you wanker,’ Hester yelled.

‘We’re from the future!’ Otis shouted. ‘We’ve travelled back from 2024 because you made Daisy trip a magical golden skull into action. It sent us here!’

‘We can prove who we are,’ Hugo added. ‘Manchester United will win the FA Cup this weekend.’

Athair snorted. ‘Which proves nothing.’

I gave a mocking smile. With the last of my energy, I tossed out a flicker of lightning; it wasn’t enough to hurt Athair, but it sizzled when it hit the damp ground at his feet .

‘When was the last time you saw an ordinary elf do that?’ I whispered.

He stared at me as the penny finally dropped. I took advantage of the moment and struggled to my feet with Hugo’s help. It seemed to take an age, but eventually we were both looking directly into Athair’s face.

‘I have to say that when you come to me in the future and tell me I’m your daughter, I deal with the information far better than you’re doing right now.’

His red eyes remained narrowed. ‘I don’t believe you.’

I felt incredibly calm. ‘Yes, you do. You know who I am.’ I paused, actually enjoying the moment. ‘Haven’t you wondered where Vargas has been for the last few days?’

Athair jerked.

I was only getting warmed up; any trace of fear had melted away.

I touched my hair. ‘I have this from Lady Rose.’ I pointed at my face. ‘I suspect most of this is from you, not that you’d be able to tell nowadays with all your fiend shit. My skin isn’t golden and it never will be. You might as well carry on strangling me, Athair. I might be your daughter by blood but I’ll never be your daughter in reality. I’ll never be yours .’

Athair reached out and for a moment I thought he’d follow through and continue with his bid to kill me. Instead, he extended a finger and swiped a bead of blood from the wound I’d sliced on my arm. He raised it to his lips and licked it, he blinked once and stared at me again.

I squinted. ‘Really?’ I asked. ‘Can you tell we share a few genes from that ?’

Athair didn’t answer.

I tried to shrug, but unfortunately I mostly just winced. ‘I can’t tell you what will happen beyond May of 2024,’ I said. ‘ But I do know that you won’t find me for another twenty-nine years. I’m gone, and so is Rose. You won’t see her ever again.’

I waited, holding my breath. Hugo’s body also tightened.

Athair’s expression cleared, although this time there was a definite hint of awe in his face. So he did believe me; he knew I was telling the truth.

His eyes swept me up and down and he nodded. ‘Yes,’ he whispered. ‘ Yes . You’re scrawnier than I’d envisaged – and yet you are her. You are my daughter. And from what you say, I do find you eventually.’ He released a low whistle. ‘Time travel. What an extraordinary feat. I should have expected nothing less from a child of my own loins.’

Ick . ‘I think I just threw up a little in my mouth,’ I said to Hugo.

A slow smile spread across Athair’s face. ‘I’ve found you, Daisy. You’re right here. And you’re mine.’

I smirked. ‘Not for long. The magic that brought us here is temporary. No matter what you might try to do, all four of us will be hauled back to where we belong.’ I glanced at Hugo. ‘In a day, do you think?’

‘Less, I imagine,’ Hugo replied.

‘Rose is no longer in your clutches,’ I sneered. ‘And soon I will be far away too.’

Athair chuckled. ‘Oh, Daisy, not that far away. Twenty-nine years is little more than a breath for me.’ He exhaled with satisfaction. ‘You and I will do great things together.’

Wanker. ‘I will never become a fiend. I’ll never be like you.’

He was still smiling. ‘We’ll have to see about that.’ He leaned closer. ‘I can show you the world. It will be ours for the taking, just wait and see.’

‘Never going to happen.’ There was an odd crackling sound in my ears as I tossed his own words at him. ‘You don’t believe in free will? I promise you now, Daddy Dearest, I will never be like you.’

My stomach lurched suddenly. ‘The apple has fallen much further from the tree than you might think,’ I hissed.

Athair’s lips were moving but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I swayed from side to side, feeling very light-headed, and the crackling sound morphed into a high-pitched ringing.

My eyes widened. No. Not yet . I wasn’t done yet. Cumbubbling bollocks. ‘See you in twenty-nine years or so,’ I said, and as soon as the last word left my mouth there was a flash of blinding white light.

I fell onto my hands and knees, retching uncontrollably. There was a loud expletive from behind me and I raised my head in time to see a cyclist veer past me. ‘Watch out, you fucking muppet!’ he yelled. ‘You can’t appear out of nowhere like that!’ I retched again.

Hester grabbed a curl of my hair. ‘Daisy!’ she shrieked. ‘Are you alright?’

Otis flitted in front of my face. ‘It’s daylight! We’re back. We did it, Daisy!’

‘Hugo,’ I groaned. He wasn’t here: he was still in 1994 with Athair. ‘Hugo,’ I said again. ‘Where?—?’

The air popped. A second later there was a loud thump and Hugo’s body hit the ground next to me. I lurched towards him, my fingers scrabbling at his skin to check if he was alright.

He moaned and raised his blue eyes to mine. ‘We were brought back far sooner than I expected,’ he whispered. ‘But I think it worked. I think we gave Athair enough reason to leave Rose alone. He knows he’ll catch up to you again, no matter what happens. He doesn’t need her any more.’

He sagged forward into my arms and we clung onto each other for dear life.