Looking for Lucy Jo (22 page)
Read Looking for Lucy Jo Online
Authors: Suzy Turner
‘I thought the condition was for me to be alone with you.’
Again, he smiled. ‘I just have one request of you.’
She looked at him and dropped her head to the side, ‘What?’
‘I want you to use those healing powers of yours and reverse them.’ Sthenelaus lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘I want you to kill me.’
Emma suddenly stood up.
Lana banged on the other side of the glass.
Turning to face the window, Emma mouthed, ‘It’s okay. I’m fine.’
She turned back to Sthenelaus. ‘Why? Why me? I don’t kill people.’
‘It’s not like you’d be murdering me. Look at it more like assisted suicide.’
Emma was horrified. ‘I can’t. I won’t.’
‘My dear, this is the only way I’ll give you what you want. What you need. Help me or lose Madge for good.’
After a couple of moments, Emma slowly nodded.
He grinned and fell back down into the bed. ‘Very well,’ he said quietly. ‘Start the process and I’ll tell you everything.’
Emma nodded and turned away from the others at the window. Holding his hand, she focussed on pulling the healing from him, sucking out the goodness she, Theo and Diarmuid had given him earlier.
As his breath started to become more shallow, he began to talk. After twenty minutes, she knew all that she needed to know and Sthenelaus was no more.
Emma walked out of the room and didn’t say a word to anyone, despite them all trying to find out what had happened. When they arrived back at Praxos, she wrote down what Declan needed to know for their trip and then she went to her room and sobbed for hours.
When Lana followed her, Emma asked her to leave. She wouldn’t even speak to Diarmuid, or any of the others who tried to get through to her. There was one person who she would have liked to speak to, but that person wasn’t there. Eleanor. She really needed Eleanor.
That night, she dreamed of Sthenelaus; the life seeping out of his body. The life she’d taken. She felt her body shuddering with sobs, even in sleep. She knew Lana had climbed onto the bed with her and had tried to comfort her, but nothing would take the pain away. She’d killed a person. Willingly. She would never be able to take that back, and she hated herself for it.
As she dreamed, she imagined Eleanor sitting beside her, stroking her hair. ‘There, there, my dear Emma Jane. Don’t be sad.’
Emma sat up. ‘Eleanor?’
‘I’m here, I’m right here.’
‘I killed a man, Eleanor,’ she whimpered.
‘No, child. You didn’t kill anyone. He was an evil beast who was already dying. You didn’t kill him, you merely sped it up a little. This is precisely what he wanted. He wanted to get to you. It was his dying wish, to take a little of the innocence from a dear, sweet Watcher with a heart of gold. No matter what he made you think or feel, you did what was right. I would have done exactly the same thing. And so would Declan, or Lana, or even Diarmuid. It needed to be done so you could find me.’
‘Are you still alive, Eleanor?’
‘Barely, my dear. If you get to me in time, I should survive. But John is close to death. He has been in this condition, on and off, for many years. You must hurry. Tell Declan to hurry.’
‘We will, Eleanor. We will. Do you know where you are?’
‘Canada, Emma. We’re in Canada. Sthenelaus told you where to find me, didn’t he?”
‘Roughly, but he said Madge would certainly not stay there for long. Can you be any more specific?’
‘In the mountains somewhere, lots of snow. Alberta, perhaps? I’m not sure. I must go now. Sleep, Emma Jane. Rest. I have confidence in you,’ Eleanor smiled, stroking her face.
‘Oh, Eleanor?’ Emma whispered.
‘Yes dear?’
‘Your daughter has returned. Marlene is here.’
Eleanor’s face filled with light and joy for a split second before she faded back into the darkness.
‘Eleanor? Eleanor? Eleanor?’
‘Emma? Wake up, wake up.’
‘Huh? Lana?’
‘You were sobbing and talking in your sleep. Are you alright?’
Emma slowly opened her eyes and hugged her sister. ‘I’m fine, sis. I’m going to be just fine,’ she smiled.
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