Scattering Like Light (2 page)

“Well, panic over anyway,” I said. “It’s just I still remember that horrible fight with Lucas.” I tried not to shudder as I thought about it. Lucas had very nearly compelled me to remove the amulet, and I never wanted to go through that again.

I could feel Callum’s featherlight touch on my cheek. “He’s gone, I promise, and none of the others will do that to you, not while I’m around.”

I couldn’t resist it any longer; I pulled a little mirror out of my pocket and pretended to check my hair. Callum’s glorious face appeared behind my shoulder in its usual spot. It was even better than my memory, and I just had to smile at him. I reached up towards my shoulder and gently stroked his cheek, trying to be an unobtrusive as possible. It felt as if I were trying to stroke a thin gossamer film. “Thank you for keeping me safe,” I breathed, staring into those deep-blue eyes.

“I love you, Alex, and I’m going to look after you in whatever way I can.”

“I’m going to miss you so much while we’re away,” I sighed, glancing at my watch. “Oh! I’ve got to get back to the others, Mum’ll be having kittens if I’m much longer. Will you stay with me until we get to the gate, even if I can’t speak to you?”

“Of course,” said Callum. “I just wish I could come with you.”

I stashed the mirror back in my pocket after one last glimpse of his face, then walked quickly back towards my family.

“Oh, Alex, there you are! I was just going to send out a search party,” scolded my mum as I threw myself down into one of the empty chairs.

“I don’t know why you get so het up,” drawled my brother, Josh. “We’ll be ages here, and then even longer at the gate. It’s all a ploy to get us to go shopping.” He paused, then smirked at me. “Time for you to go and get some overpriced perfume to make you irresistible to Max.”

I laughed. We were going to meet some old friends of our parents’ in Spain, who had two kids, Max and Sabrina. We hadn’t seen them for a few years and we were all looking forward to meeting up again at the hotel. But the last time I’d seen Max he was short for his age with huge braces on his teeth, lank, greasy hair and an obsessive interest in sports cars.

“Max!” I snorted. “Oh sure, he’s just my type. More likely that you’ll need something to win Sabrina over – perhaps a paper bag to put over your head?”

I could tell that Josh was about to come up with some pithy put-down when Mum butted in. “I told you we didn’t have much time. Our flight has just been called.” She didn’t even try to keep the smugness out of her voice. “Come on, let’s go.”

I could see Dad smiling as he turned to pick up the bags.
“You played right into your mum’s hands. She’ll have us here at the crack of dawn next time!”

“Oh don’t,” groaned Josh. “I might refuse to come with you if she gets me out of bed any earlier.”

“And turn down a free beach holiday in Spain?” I laughed. “Yeah, right!”

We gathered all our hand luggage and started the long walk to the gate. All the time I was conscious of the familiar tingle in my wrist that told me Callum was next to me. He was mostly quiet but I loved knowing he was there, only occasionally asking questions, which I could answer with a nod or shake of the head. I tried hard not to think about the fact that I was going to have to say goodbye very soon.

At the gate the plane didn’t seem to be ready, so we settled ourselves down into another set of chairs to wait again. Callum continued to talk to me about the things he was seeing, what he had been doing and generally anything that would stop both of us dwelling on our impending separation. He was talking about the security guard at the scanner, when I suddenly remembered the inscription on the amulet.

“I just need to tell Grace something,” I announced as I leapt up from my chair. “I’m going to ring her quickly.”

“I do wish you’d thought of that earlier. Don’t go far,” said Mum, exasperated.

“I won’t,” I muttered, reaching for my earphones. I walked towards one of the windows and looked out at the plane that was waiting to take us to Spain. There was a frenzy of activity going on underneath, with hordes of people getting it ready to leave.

“What’s up, Alex?” Callum’s voice was crystal clear in my head.

“Earlier, when I took off the amulet I saw something inside, some engraving. Did you see it?”

“Nope, don’t think so. What was it?”

“Well, words, I guess. Not a picture anyway.”

“So it has engraving – what’s the big deal?”

“It didn’t used to, that’s what. When I first got it I examined it pretty closely, and there was nothing there. I did think at one point I had seen something, but when I looked again it was just the beaten silverwork. But today it was really clear.”

“That’s weird. What did it say?”

“I didn’t have the chance to read it. Is it safe to have another look now?”

I could sense Callum’s hesitation, but he finally spoke. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone about. Keep your finger in it while it’s off your wrist; that should give you some extra protection, and we’ll still be able to talk. I’ll let you know immediately if I see anyone.”

“OK, let’s have a look.” I gently prised the C-shaped bracelet off my wrist, keeping my index finger firmly inside the band as instructed, and the comforting tingle told me that I still had my connection with Callum. I quickly turned it over, peering into the inside. There, engraved along the underside of the silver band, were some ornate letters.

mor memoriae

“Can you see that?” I breathed. “That so wasn’t there before!”

“Spooky. What does it mean?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s Latin, but I’m not sure. And is that scratch between the words an ‘s’, do you think?”

“Let me look. I don’t even know if I know any Latin.” We both peered at it silently for a minute, then he sighed. “Nope, not a
clue. Can’t have been one of my subjects.”

“But it’s so weird! How come I can suddenly see it when it wasn’t there when I first found it?”

He considered that silently for a moment. “Hmm. Have you looked at the inside since we got it back on your wrist in the hospital?”

I thought back. So much had happened in the few short weeks since my brush with death at the hands of Callum’s sister, Catherine. She had stolen the amulet and then persuaded me that she had destroyed it. The second I finally got it back from her accomplice, my ex-boyfriend Rob, I had stuck it back on my wrist and refused to take it off. The danger was one thing, but the thought of not being able to talk to Callum was far worse. Without it I couldn’t call him to my side, see him in the mirror, feel his featherlight touch. I’d never felt so lonely in all my life.

When Catherine had stolen all my memories in order to escape life as a Dirge, Callum had been able to take a copy and had saved my life by putting them back. Now, with my amulet on, I was able to see the emotion in people’s thoughts. When people were happy or thinking of good memories, their auras were shades of yellow, bright sparks of happiness that flicked above their heads like fireflies. Angry thoughts showed up as red clouds, while unhappy, miserable people had purple mist around their heads. Glancing at a crowd of passengers whose flight had been delayed I could see mostly red clouds above the adults and flecks of yellow bouncing around above the heads of the children.

Something in the transfer of memories back to me had given me this unexpected ability, and I loved it. I could tell when my friends were down and needed cheering up, or if Mum was cross about something. Maybe the amulet had given me the ability
to see the mysterious lettering too.

“Apart from when it was stolen, it’s not left my wrist for a second, so I haven’t looked,” I admitted. “But it could make sense that I got this talent from you too.” In the faint reflection in the large plate-glass window I could see him behind me, looking at the amulets that were on our superimposed wrists. The strange blue opal-like stone glinted in the bright light, the flecks of gold flashing briefly whenever I moved.

“What else is it going to reveal, I wonder?” he murmured. “What other strange things will you find that you can do?”

“Who knows?” I replied as casually as possible, not wanting to discuss those possibilities. Not in the middle of the airport, and not before I had done some investigating. “I’ll ask Josh about the inscription; I think he did some Latin at school. Or google it when I get to the hotel.”

“Look – your mum’s waving at you. I think you’re all about to go through the gate. Do you want to say goodbye now, rather than on the plane?”

“I wish you could come with me,” I grumbled.

“I know, it sounds like fun. Two weeks of eating, sleeping and surfing – what more could you possibly want?”

“You, silly. That’s what I want, and don’t pretend you don’t know.”

“I’ll be here when you get back, I promise.”

“I love you, Callum, more than anything else in the world.”

“Me, too. Look, your mum’s coming over; you should go. I’ll see you back here really soon.” I felt his lips brush my cheek with the softest of touches.

“Bye,” I sighed. “I just wish I could give you a hug and say goodbye properly.”

“Have a good time, gorgeous. I love you.” His beautiful voice echoed in my head, and then abruptly the tingle was gone.

The trip to our favourite holiday destination was uneventful but slow, and it gave me time to think about my plan. I knew that I had been responsible for releasing the Dirge called Lucas from his life of misery. What I didn’t yet know was what had happened to him: if, as I hoped, he was alive somewhere, that meant I could rescue Callum too. But if I had allowed him to die … I had to find out, to be sure. I had spent the last few weeks scouring the Internet for information, but there had been nothing about him appearing in the river as Catherine had done. So my plan to be united with Callum in the real world was on hold until I knew that he would be safe. And then I would also be sure that I would never again have to speak with Catherine. She seemed to know about how to release the Dirges, and thought that I needed her. It made me feel pretty smug to know that I didn’t. Thinking about Callum kept me occupied for most of the rest of the flight, imagining how brilliant it would be to have him with me; the fun we would have in Spain.

It was late afternoon before we finally reached the hotel, and Josh and I had the opportunity to go down to the beach. The weather was perfect, still warm but with a light wind to cool us down. The beach was long and wide, and out on the water huge numbers of bright sails whipped back and forth as the expert kite-surfers took advantage of the constant breeze and jumped and twisted above the waves. As usual I was amazed that none of them got tangled up, but they were all too good. Every few minutes one of them glided effortlessly to the shore, and in a single motion scooped up their boards and guided their huge kites up the beach
where teams of beautiful people were ready to anchor them to the ground. As an advert for a healthy, athletic lifestyle it was hard to beat.

Josh and I walked further along the sand towards the area where the new surfers were learning to control their slightly smaller kites. As we walked I couldn’t help relive one of my favourite fantasies: walking along the beach hand in hand with Callum, watching the sun glint off his golden hair, feeling his strong fingers intertwined with mine. He was gorgeous and fit enough to blend seamlessly into the picture, I thought, looking at all the toned bodies lying around. I wondered again how long it would be before I could put my plan into action, a plan that would rescue him from his hideous existence and allow us to be together.

“Max should be here somewhere,” said Josh, interrupting my happy thoughts. “He said that his lesson should be finishing around now. Can you see him anywhere?”

“No,” I replied, squinting into the sun, which although low in the sky was still bright.

A deep voice cut across our conversation. “Alex and Josh! Long time no see!”

I looked round in surprise at the stranger standing behind us. With his wetsuit rolled down to his hips, revealing a perfect six-pack, he towered above me, his wet dark hair pushed casually off his forehead.

“Max?” I gasped, as he and Josh hugged briefly.

“Hi, Alex.” He turned towards me, flashing the most perfect smile. I felt my jaw drop: the geeky teenager was long gone. Max could have been modelling the surf gear. He was absolutely stunning.

“Honestly, Max, I would totally have passed you in the street, you’ve changed so much since I last saw you.” We were lounging around one of the low tables in our favourite beach bar, keeping a wary eye out for stray volleyballs from the match going on in front of us.

“How many years has it been since we were all last here?” asked Max, looking at his sister, Sabrina. “I can never remember that sort of stuff.”

Sabrina pursed her lips and folded her arms. “Oh, ages. I mean, we were both pretty young then, weren’t we, Alex?”

“Young enough that we weren’t allowed out alone in the evening, any of us!”

“However hard we begged, I remember that!” laughed Josh.

Although we were old family friends, Max and Sabrina had been living in Hong Kong for a few years. They’d recently moved back to England, to a house not far from ours, and I was looking forward to catching up with Sabrina during the holiday.