Blackfin Sky (27 page)

Then Sky remembered Madame Curio. ‘Oh God, Sean! Madame Curio jumped off the pier – she’s … she must be dead.’

Sean was silent for a long moment, then pulled the car to the side of the road. ‘I’d better call Aunt Holly.’

Gravel popped and crunched beneath the tyres as they eased onto the shoulder. Sean gave her a small smile as he dipped his hand into the pocket of the duffle coat she was wearing and fished out his phone.

The display cast strange shadows over his face as he held the phone to his ear, then frowned as he looked at it.

‘No signal. I’ll have to call her when we get to the—’

Sky couldn’t immediately tell why he had stopped short, but then saw that his eyes were fixed on the rear-view mirror. Without looking away, he killed the headlights and turned off the engine.

‘What is it?’

Sean’s expression became inscrutable as the light on his phone display went out. ‘There’s a red car following us up the hill. Whoever’s in it just turned their headlights off.’

Sky wasn’t sure what this meant, but Sean’s tone made it clear he thought it was bad.

‘Do you think they’ve broken down or something?’

His head turned toward her, but she still couldn’t see him in the darkness of the car. ‘I think whoever’s following us doesn’t want us to see them coming.’

‘What do we do?’

‘Nothing much we can do, really. Except hope their car’s not four-wheel drive, like this one.’

He turned the ignition again and flipped on his headlights before pulling back onto the road.

‘Someone taped an anonymous note to my window Friday night. It said they know what I am – a Pathfinder – and that if I didn’t stop working with him – whoever
him
is – I’d have to deal with the consequences.’

Even as she spoke, Sky watched the mirror in the side door for any sign of a vehicle closing in on them. It was too dark to see far behind them, especially with no headlights to give the other vehicle away.

‘What does
Pathfinder
mean?’

‘That’s what Severin called himself. He says we can travel the pathways of different realities, like tracing lines on a map.’

‘We?’

‘Maybe Severin’s the one the note-writer wants me to stay away from.’

‘Sixteen years in the past?’

Sky shrugged, then realised Sean couldn’t see her. ‘Maybe.’

He looked at her for a second before he burst out laughing. And kept laughing.

‘Hey! We’re being chased by some weirdo who writes threatening notes, remember?’

‘Maybe. I mean, we don’t know it’s the same person. Do you still have it?’

Sky opened her mouth to explain that she didn’t, then remembered the letter Severin had slid into her hand as she lay shivering beneath the stands while the crowd surged and panicked above.

‘I don’t have that one, but I
do
have one Severin gave me.’

She had to undo the button fly on Sean’s borrowed jeans to get to her own jeans’ pocket underneath, and her fingers were stiff and unhelpful. Finally, she tugged the crinkled paper free of its envelope and squinted to read it.

‘Here, use the torch on my phone.’

Sky took Sean’s phone gratefully, and studied the letter. It wasn’t an explanation of how she’d become a Pathfinder, nor did it shed any light on the events sixteen years ago which had led
someone
to chase her off Blackfin Pier. Still, she grinned.

‘What? What is it, Sky?’

She held up the drawing, the series of intersecting lines and almost endless branches invisible to Sean in the dark. It was a map of sorts – the pathways laid out on paper, with a mark showing Sky exactly what Severin wanted her to see: where and when to find him. ‘It’s an invitation.’

The car lurched sharply, throwing Sky against the inside of the door.

‘Shit! They’ve caught up.’

‘What do we do?’

‘Try my phone again. Call the police if you can.
Shit!
’

There was a screech of tyres as the vehicle chasing them slid on the icy road trying to build enough speed to ram them again. Sean’s eyes narrowed.

‘Brace yourself, Sky. I’m going to slam on the brakes.’

Sky had a couple of seconds to do just as Sean had instructed before he hit the brakes, and she was thrown forward against her seatbelt. The crash sounded like a bomb going off, and was followed by a hiss of steam from the car behind them. It chugged off onto the hard shoulder.

‘Are you okay?’ Sean held his hand to her face, squinting so that he could see her expression in the wan light shining through the windscreen.

‘Yeah. What about your car—?’

‘The car’s fine. I have a tow hitch on the back, so the other car is probably pretty mangled right now.’ He laughed, and Sky whacked him on the arm.

‘This isn’t funny, Sean! Someone just tried to kill us.’

‘Somehow I don’t really think Miss Schwarz wanted us dead. The note didn’t say anything about killing you, did it? And that’s assuming it was even from her.’

‘Miss Schwarz?’

Sean nodded, then restarted the car. To Sky’s surprise it started up right away, and then they were driving through the mountain pass again as though nothing had happened.

‘I recognised her car.’

‘But why would she be following us? Why would she have written the note, and how could she know that I’m a Pathfinder?’

Sean shrugged. ‘That’s something we’ll have to ask her. But first, I’m getting you to the hospital. You still don’t look the right colour.’

They drove the rest of the way to Oakridge General Hospital in silence, no sign of any other cars until they had reached the town.

‘I wonder if they’ve been called out because of the crash,’ Sean muttered, and Sky realised she must have been half-dozing in the warmth of the car’s heaters and several layers of Sean’s clothing. As she opened her eyes, the flashing lights made her heart pound, thinking she was about to fade again – but these lights were blue, and racing past them up into the Lychgate Mountains.

Patrol cars.

‘Maybe somebody found Madame Curio.’ Either way, Sky hoped they’d find her soon, before her body got swept away on the tide.

23

One diagnosis of mild hypothermia later, Sky lay in the hospital bed waiting for her parents to arrive. Sean’s voice drifted in from the hallway where he was calling his aunt – partly to let her know what had happened with the accident and Madame Curio, and partly to find out which one the patrol cars were responding to.

They had agreed to fudge the truth a little about how Sky had come to be shivering with cold, her own clothes still soggy beneath the layers Sean had piled over them. As far as the hospital staff were aware, Sky had tried to save Madame Curio but ended up having to wade back to the beach, where Sean had spotted her as he drove home from football practice. They’d raised a few eyebrows when they saw Sky’s medical records, the marker strike through the red ‘DECEASED’ stamp showing she had suffered a similar misadventure only a few months earlier.

Teen suicide,
their expressions said as they wrote her off. It also explained why they didn’t seem concerned about finding out what had become of Madame Curio’s body.

Sean’s expression was grim as he re-entered.

‘Sky, I’m afraid your parents won’t be here for a while yet.’

A fist grabbed her heart and squeezed it painfully. ‘You mean – has something happened to them?’

‘Oh, no! They’re
fine,
Sky. It’s not them, it’s the Swiveller brothers.’

Her relief at knowing her parents were fine made her brain sluggish. ‘What about them?’

Sean took the seat next to the bed. ‘They were in an accident. Felix’s car went over the Point, with all four brothers inside. Looks like the ice must have caused the car to skid…’

He didn’t need to finish. Sky could imagine it all too well, sailing over the edge of that sheer cliff and plummeting into the dark abyss below. She shuddered.

‘Are they…?’ Sean nodded, and Sky had to focus on her fingernails for a little while. ‘Oh God, that’s awful.’ When she looked up at Sean again, he was smiling at her. ‘What?’

‘I’m just amazed you can feel bad for them after what they did to you.’

Sky considered.
Did
she feel bad for them? Or was it just the shocking way they’d died?

‘It’s got to be terrible for their parents. No matter what they did, Mr and Mrs Swiveller didn’t deserve to lose all their kids. And I’ve known them my whole life – they’re like Silas up on the school roof, or the blackfins down at the pier: always there, a part of Blackfin.’
But not anymore.

‘But that doesn’t explain why my parents aren’t here.’

Sean fidgeted uncomfortably. ‘Aunt Holly told me that a witness saw a man get out of the Swivellers’ car just before it drove over the cliff, and then the car didn’t even brake before it reached the edge. They’re asking your dad some questions because he knows about car stuff, and because of what happened to you.’

Horror washed over Sky. ‘They think my dad did it? Like, cut their brakes or something?’

Sean looked pained. ‘I don’t know, Sky, but both your parents are at Oakridge Station. My aunt’s asked me to stay with you, and take you home when they discharge you.’

Sky didn’t even hear the last part. ‘Jared!’ Sean looked at her, confused. ‘Jared works with my dad at the garage, he’d probably know as much about cutting someone’s brakes as my dad would!’

Sean reached for her hand. ‘But why would Jared want to kill the Swivellers?’

Sky sank back into the stiff hospital bed, deflated. ‘I don’t know.’ Despite her words, she knew Sean was right. Her dad had a motive to kill the Swivellers, even though she knew he could never do it. What could Jared’s motive be?

She squeezed Sean’s hand, so intensely glad to have him there with her.

‘Cam and Bo are on their way here, too. They’re worried about you.’ Sean stroked the bedraggled hair from her face with his free hand. Sky felt her eyelids getting heavier, the weight of the cold water and everything that had happened forcing them to close. ‘But you should get some sleep. I’ll stay here, fill them in when they arrive.’

She only had the energy to nod before she was swallowed by dreamless darkness.

Even when she whispered, Cam Vega’s voice could cut glass.

‘You promised me you’d be nice to her, and that means making sure she doesn’t die again, idiot!’

Cam almost never got angry, and in truth it was more amusing than intimidating, like an irate squirrel.

‘I’m trying to—’ Sean’s reply was cut short as Bo chimed in, her voice as dry as sawdust.

‘It doesn’t seem like you’re making her terribly happy if she keeps throwing herself off the pier.’

‘She wasn’t trying to kill herself, though.’

At least Sean believed that. Sky sat up in bed to give them a piece of her mind, but the spinning in her head forced her to lie back down.

‘So what the hell
is
going on with her, then?’

Sean didn’t answer, and Sky couldn’t blame him. She hadn’t explained any of this to her friends, and now the mess had grown so gigantic she didn’t know where to begin.

‘I can hear you, you know.’

Hearing her voice, they all filtered in through the swing door, looking sheepish. Well, except Bo, who only looked peeved that she couldn’t light the roll-up hanging from her fingers.

‘So, what’s up?’ Bo asked, taking the uncomfortable visitor chair and throwing her feet up onto the mattress next to Sky. Cam perched at the foot of the hospital bed, and Sean settled back to lean against the wheeled medical trolley in the corner. It suddenly seemed like a long way from her.