“She is. You’d like her. She’s smart.”
And once I start to tell him about Ellen it gets easier and I explain about Bob and Mary and then the assessments and Clay and all of it.
When I’ve finished Gabriel says, “Mary said you should trust no one. But you trusted Ellen and you’re trusting me.”
I shrug. I do trust him, though.
He leans over and hugs me. It feels a bit awkward.
Gabriel is convinced that Mercury will want to steal the Fairborn. Then she will pair me up with it and set us against Marcus. He says that if I work for her for a year she will use all her powers to manipulate me to kill Marcus. He thinks that is part of the pleasure she will have, setting me against Marcus, having power over his son. He says, “You’re right to believe in your father.”
He says he no longer wants Mercury’s help.
I remind him. “But I need her help. It’s only six days to my birthday. I need three gifts.”
“Yes, that’s a problem,” he says. “We need a plan.”
But a plan is hard to find. We agree that we need to destroy the knife, or throw it into the lake where it can never be recovered, but Mercury will be furious and out for revenge if we do that. And anyway my father may not believe what we have done. We could try to give the knife to him, but clearly this has the twin dangers of both getting it to him and giving it to him when he doesn’t trust me.
We decide to go along with any plan Mercury comes up with to steal the Fairborn as it’s better in her hands than the hands of the Hunters. We can only hope that after I have three gifts and I’m working for Mercury I will get an opportunity to destroy it. It’s not much of a plan.
That evening Mercury is in a celebratory mood. Rose has been to Geneva and is back. She tells us what she has seen: the same as Gabriel. Clay is staying in a house in the suburbs of Geneva. There are at least twenty Hunters in the area around the city, which is nothing to celebrate in my opinion. Pilot has left for Spain.
Mercury doesn’t sit, she stands and paces, but the fabric of her dress is dancing around in glee. She doesn’t seem to care how many Hunters there are. She wants the Fairborn and thinks Rose can steal it.
Gabriel says, “If Clay has it. Pilot has often been wrong.”
Rose says, “Pilot told me there’s a rota of people who guard the Fairborn. It’s Clay’s turn at the moment. Wherever he goes, the Fairborn goes.”
“Getting it from Clay isn’t going to be easy.”
“No, not easy,” Mercury agrees. “But quite within the capability of my wonderful, darling, genius Rose of a White Witch, who has the talent to take anything, however securely it is kept.”
Rose blushes and giggles.
Mercury says, “Tomorrow, Rose, you and Gabriel go to the house, find the Fairborn, and bring it to me.”
Just like that.
“And how—?” I begin.
Gabriel puts his hand on my arm. “It’s fine. We’ll be careful. Mercury is right. Rose is very good. Even Hunters are fooled by her mist. But we won’t take any chances. If the house is protected by trespass spells we won’t try. It would be impossible, even for Rose.”
Rose adds, “But Shites don’t like to use them in case fains get hurt. They wouldn’t want to kill a fain burglar. It can bring them into the limelight too much. Cleaning up after fains is a chore.”
I say, “So you’ll just walk into a house full of Hunters, pick up the knife, and walk out again.”
“They won’t see me,” Rose says.
“It’s too dangerous,” I say to Gabriel.
“You are becoming more fain than me,” he says. “We’ll be careful.”
Mercury laughs again.
“Then I’ll come too,” I say.
Mercury says, “No. You stay here.”
I curse her and she laughs. There is a clap of thunder above the cottage and hairpins spin around the room.
“And the girl?” Rose asks.
“Ah yes. The girl . . .” Mercury looks to Gabriel. “What did you say her name was?”
“Annalise. Annalise O’Brien.”
And when Gabriel says her name, it doesn’t make sense. Annalise can’t be trying to find Mercury. She can’t need Mercury’s help.
Gabriel asks me what’s wrong.
When I don’t answer he stares hard at me. “You know her?”
I don’t know what I say.
“She’s the one you . . . like?” And I can see the disgust on his face.
I say to Mercury, “I need to see her. She’s a friend.”
“How lovely.” Rose blushes.
Mercury stares at me too, her eyes flashing wildly. “A friend? Who arrives just as your birthday approaches, just as Geneva fills with Hunters?”
Mercury says to Rose, “You are going to get the Fairborn tomorrow night.” She stands to leave and goes to the door but then turns back and says to Gabriel, “Make sure Nathan doesn’t see the girl. Not yet. I need to think about her.”
To me she says, “If you go, Gabriel will pay for failing to stop you.” And then Mercury’s gone.
Rose looks from Gabriel to me and blushes, saying, “The course of true love never did run smooth.” She giggles and reaches out to hold Gabriel’s hand. “But I’m on Team Gabriel.”
Gabriel snatches his hand away from Rose and looks at me. “I knew there was something wrong all the time I was with her, Nathan. She’s a spy. She’s working for the Council.”
I shake my head. “She isn’t.”
“She’s come to capture you or spy on you or kill you. They are using her to get you.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Am I? She’s a White Witch. Pure White. I bet half her family are Hunters or Council members.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s like them.”
“Oh, of course not. She’s different.” His voice is mocking. “And she thinks you’re special, she understands you, she knows you’re not bad really, she doesn’t mind that your father is the most wanted Black Witch, she’s not interested in him, just in you. She sees the real you. The kinder, gentler you. And she swishes her blonde hair and smiles her bright smile and—”
But I’m out of there.
I run. It feels like the only good thing to do, running until I can’t run any more. I sleep in the forest, badly, even though I’m exhausted. I stay there for most of the day, walking, staring at the sky. It’s only five days until my birthday, and I feel like everything is spinning out of control. I can only imagine Annalise is here because things have got bad back at home with her family. And for her to risk coming to Mercury, it must be really bad. But she is not here for her Giving; she was seventeen in September.
Late in the afternoon I go back to the cottage. Preparations are underway for stealing the Fairborn from a house full of Hunters.
As I walk in, Gabriel continues what he’s doing, which I’m surprised to see is cleaning a gun.
“Do you know how to use that?” I ask. I can’t stop myself from sounding angry, even though I told myself not to be.
“I lived in the U.S. of A. for more than a year, didn’t I?” His voice is soft, joking.
“But have you ever actually shot anyone?”
He stops cleaning the gun and looks up at me but doesn’t answer.
And I almost see the Black Witch in him.
“Who did you kill?”
He keeps his eyes locked on mine and says, so I can only just hear, “A spy.”
“That’s your speciality, is it? Killing spies.”
“Nathan, don’t.” He starts cleaning the gun again.
“I’ve known Annalise a long time. She’s not a spy. I trust her.”
“Those are the ones they choose.”
“So that’s it? There’s nothing she can do to convince you otherwise? Everything she does will be suspicious because of who she is.”