Cassie had swallowed. ‘Both sides?’
‘Both. And not merely once. The first time, as I seem to remember from the records, it was the host of your spirit who finally plunged a blade into the chest of her lover – the Knife of the Few, as it happens – but you are aware how strong your spirits are. He survived long enough to escape into a new host – I believe your spirit made sure of that, by having a new young host ready and waiting – and he eventually retaliated in your next incarnations. In three different generations of spirit-birth, history repeated itself. He has murdered you almost as often as you have murdered him.’
Cassie had swallowed.
‘Whenever your spirits came together, they were deadly both to other Few and to the human race. They were too alike – like an atom that had been split. Perhaps, once, they were a single spirit, divided somehow. But now they are two: forever … in love. And forever at war. The war part, humanity can handle, just. It’s the passion behind their power that is deadliest of all.’
‘What about Estelle Azzedine? The old woman, I mean, not her spirit. Why wasn’t she trying to rip Ranjit’s clothes off when I met her in Paris and got into all this mess?’
‘She would have,’ he’d told her grimly, ‘if I’d allowed them to ever meet. Remember, Ranjit had been host to his spirit for only a few years by then. Before that, Estelle was the lover of his spirit’s previous host.’ He added, matter-of-factly, ‘She killed him, of course.’
‘So … Oh God, is that why she chose me? So that she could be close to Ranjit again?’
‘It was one of many factors. It didn’t escape anyone’s attention that he was attracted to you even before you became Few. Well, Estelle got her way in the end as you know, despite my efforts to stop it. But believe me, this will end badly. If you fail to listen to me, that is.’
‘But it’s our spirits you’re talking about here!’ Cassie had blurted. ‘It’s not Ranjit and me who do the killing, it’s them!’
‘You are your spirits; they are you.’ His eyes were cold and hard. ‘There is no difference. Accept it, and we might be able to control the collateral damage. Disobey me, give in to your desire for Ranjit, and there will be carnage. Again.’
Cassie had repeated his words to herself, over and over again. She believed Sir Alric absolutely, she couldn’t deny it. In this she trusted him; she remembered Katerina’s taunts about the things she hadn’t been told; and more vividly than that, she remembered the violent wildness that stirred and flared into fire whenever she’d touched Ranjit.
Oh, she believed Sir Alric, all right.
Obeying him? That was another matter entirely.
So their spirits must never be together. Fine, and fair enough. But Sir Alric be damned; she and Ranjit could and would.
She’d blown it by giving away those artefacts, and she was even more angry with herself than Sir Alric was. But damn the Svenssons, and damn their plans. She’d find them, and get the artefacts back. Cassie clenched her jaw determinedly. She didn’t care how long it took: she’d free herself from the spidery, choking clutches of the Few spirit inside her.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The corridors seemed alien and strange, teeming with normal school life, echoing with the shouts and chatter of students who were thinking of nothing but lunch. It all seemed to Cassie like life on a distant planet.
She wasn’t even hungry herself, but she’d been determined to grab something from the dining room that might tempt Ranjit when he woke again, properly this time. It was a moment she was desperate for, but at the same time she wasn’t sure how he was going to react to everything that had happened. She just hoped Ranjit would be OK. For the first time she’d found herself resenting Jake, resenting the fact that he’d had the Tears, that he’d even taken the remainder with him so that nothing was available for Ranjit.
But Jake had nearly died, Cassie reminded herself. And it was Ranjit who’d done that to him.
It never got any easier wondering how on earth things were going to work out for the best. Clutching a soft roll and some cheese wrapped in a linen napkin, she turned into her own corridor, worrying for the first time about the other type of hunger Ranjit would inevitably have by the time he woke up…
Cassie was so distracted by her thoughts that she let out an involuntary gasp as she saw a figure standing in front of her. Richard was standing at her door, hand raised as if he’d only just knocked on the door, or was about to. As she arrived he turned, and gave her a broad surprised smile.
‘Cassie! There you are. Where have you been?’
She hesitated. ‘It’s a long story. Can it … ah … wait?’
He stepped closer, trying to catch her eye. ‘Well, I’m here now,’ he said. ‘And you look like you could use someone to talk to?’
Cassie hesitated – if there was anyone to unload all this stress on, it was Richard.
‘Come on, Cassie Bell,’ Richard said with a raised eyebrow and an encouraging smile. ‘You’re up to something, and I want to know what it is. You weren’t anywhere to be seen yesterday. You weren’t at breakfast this morning, and you cut Maths. Maths! What’s wrong with you, gorgeous? Are you sick?’
‘As if,’ she blustered. ‘I’m tired, that’s all. After the field trip.’
‘Alice made it to Maths,’ he scolded. ‘And you weren’t up till six on Monday morning, canoodling with Yuri in his tent. Well, not unless things got more interesting than even I had heard …’