‘I get that. It’s not in you.’ He touched her finger with his, tracing the same pattern. ‘You can see them, can’t you?’
‘Yes.’ She pushed up his sleeve. ‘I don’t understand how a human can have developed anything so perfect.’
‘Generations of forced breeding.’
‘What?’ She removed her fingers quickly. ‘Forced?’
‘Yeah. Systematic and deliberate. The Perilous that didn’t fit pattern were culled or not allowed to breed.’
‘My ancestors did that?’
‘It’s not on you, Meri. They existed so long ago that I’d no more blame you than I would present day Egyptians for using slave labour on the pyramids.’
‘I want to say it’s beautiful but how can I now that I know it’s the result of such suffering?’ She started to roll his sleeve back down but he stopped her.
‘We’ve long since embraced the markings as a sign of pride in our families and culture. As I said, it’s not on you. An apology from you doesn’t mean anything as you’re not to blame.’
‘Can I feel sorry for your people then?’
‘Absolutely. And a kiss better would be appreciated.’
She raised his palm to her cheek, then turned her head to lay one in the centre. ‘There.’
‘I hope that was just a first instalment.’
‘You want me to touch you, even though you know what I can do? I’m not sure I can control it, not if we’re…you know….’ She’d never felt more embarrassed and was sure she had to be as red as a fire engine.
‘It would be a magnificent way to go.’
‘Don’t make fun of this. I’m serious.’
‘Meri, I’m not afraid of you. Please believe me.’
The waiter was back with their orders so they moved away from each other. Meri drank in the sight of Kel making easy conversation with their server, his eyes warm, smile genuine. She remembered how her first impression of him had been that he was filled with light; even on this dark December evening, he dispensed a glow to everyone that was nothing to do with his Perilous inheritance.
‘You’re just a good soul, aren’t you?’ she commented when the waiter moved on.
‘What? What have you been drinking?’ Laughing, Kel poured half his coke over the ice in his glass.
‘You’ve just got this…’ Meri twirled her hand, ‘ease about you that other people catch. They become nicer in your presence.’
‘That makes me sound like a cold.’
‘Ah-choo.’
‘What?’
‘I’m seeing if I can catch it from you.’
He smiled. ‘Let’s see if I can raise your temperature.’ He nibbled on the ends of her fingers sending lovely little shivers up her arm and down her spine. He was back to flirting again, which she took as a good sign. She’d missed him so much over the last months. It had been like a part of her was left behind. ‘What have you been doing, Miss Marlowe? Digging ditches?’
He meant it as a joke but, as that wasn’t far from the truth, she gave what she hoped was a mysterious smile. ‘I thought you didn’t want to know.’
‘I want to know every single thing about you but I can’t ask. This is taking risks as far as I dare, just sitting with you here. Now.’
‘But no one followed you?’
‘I wouldn’t endanger you by sticking around if I thought there was the slightest chance of that. They’re all at a party at the house tonight. I don’t think Ade would waste the manpower on having me watched. I’ve been busking often enough. They’d’ve got bored freezing their butts off watching me work the crowd.’
‘I didn’t know you could play like that.’
‘Did you like it?’
‘Loved it. You didn’t busk before?’
‘No. I didn’t have to. I do it now to make rent.’
‘Theo said you moved out.’
‘Yes, and lost my wage as Ade’s guard.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Another thing that’s not your fault.’
‘I don’t know. I think this might be.’
‘It’s a small sacrifice compared to what you’ve lost.’
With her drink finished, Meri feared that she was going to have to bring this to an end, that her stolen few minutes with Kel would be over and their goodbye would be final. That felt so wrong. Despite their differences, being with him was perfect; she felt like she had finally arrived home to a crackling fire after a long cold walk in the dark.
She then had an idea. Totally outrageous. Insane even. ‘The holidays have started, yes? Is there anyone waiting for you at home?’
‘Only the mould on the window ledge—my digs are a dump. I think the mould’s not far off turning into a sentient being.’
‘Then don’t go back yet. Spend Christmas with me. I can’t risk going to see Theo so I’ll be alone. You’ll be alone too by the sounds of it.’
‘Meri, I—’
‘Is the only reason you’re about to say no that you think it’ll put me in danger?’
‘Yes, but—’
‘I’m going to be in danger for the rest of my life. Don’t you think I should grab my chance of a little happiness when it comes along?’
He rubbed his chin, considering. ‘I just don’t go home?’
‘Exactly. You weren’t followed so no one will be tracking you.’ As she laid out the reasons, she found she was persuading herself how absolutely sensible the mad plan was. ‘You’ve not made any preparations so there’s no tip off as to what you’re doing. There’ll be plenty of space in my hostel as everyone else is going home to family tomorrow. They don’t even have to know. I can smuggle you in. And you can keep your phone switched off.’
‘Meri, I don’t even have a change of clothes.’ From his tone she could tell he was persuaded. His protest was token.
‘That sounds just about perfect to me. Spend Christmas with me.’
11
Lying with her head on Kel’s chest, Meri discovered a sense of contentment she’d never before experienced. He was so warm. A haven—yes, that was the right word. She let her fingers explore the spirals, getting to know his pattern. All her life, she’d associated Perilous markings with terror, but now she recognized them for what they were: beautiful, exquisite. The pattern was like a butterfly’s wings, a mirror image on his rib cage, scrolling out from the breastbone.
While she did her investigation, his fingers were stroking her upper arm, the other hand resting behind his head. Beyond the door, the rest of the hostel was busy with people having a late breakfast, laughter, a few groans as people regretted the night before. The snow continued to fall, softening the light coming through the window, building up on the sill.
There came a brisk rap at the door. ‘Em, I’m off. Just want to say goodbye.’
Meri had been expecting this. No way would Anna leave without getting the gossip. She leapt off the bed and threw the duvet over Kel, burying his mischievous eyes under the cover. ‘Ssh, OK?’ She opened the door. ‘Anna, have a great time with your parents.’
Booted and hatted, Anna was all packed and ready to go. ‘You can still come, you know?’
‘I’ll be fine here.’
Anna leant against the doorpost trying to see around her. ‘What happened to you last night? Dexter said you’d run into a friend. He was very dischuffed.’
Meri couldn’t help a betraying glance over her shoulder. ‘Yes, I did. From my old school.’
‘Oh, I see. A really good old friend? Or the deliciously bad sort?’ Anna wiggled her eyebrows.
Meri could feel a blush rising. ‘A mixture of both.’
‘Oh, right then. I’ll make myself scarce. Two’s company, three’s a crowd. I’ll tell Zara you’re occupied.’
‘Thanks, Anna.’
She came closer for a hug, keeping her arms around Meri a moment longer. ‘I expect details,’ she whispered.
‘You can wish.’
‘I can hope, though you are always so annoyingly privat
e. I’ll just have to get you drunk one night. See you in the New Year.’
As the front door banged a final time after the last person, the hostel fell silent. Deciding it was safe to emerge, Meri went down to the kitchen and brought back a breakfast tray. It would be safer to keep Kel out of sight until she was sure no one was coming back for something. Entering her bedroom, she found Kel standing by the window, holding her shirt up to the light.
‘Hey, can you see that?’ she asked.
‘Sorry.’ He dropped it back on the chair where she’d dumped her clothes. ‘I wasn’t pinching it. I was looking for something to wear.’
Meri thought it was a shame to cover up so much gorgeousness but she couldn’t keep him locked up half naked in her room all holidays, more’s the pity. ‘I’ll raid one of the boys’ rooms in a moment. They’re bound to have left some of their stuff behind. Have some cereal.’ She set out the breakfast on the rickety desk. ‘What I meant was: can you see the pattern on the shirt?’
‘I think I can see something faintly. Swirls, right?’
To her they were as plain as checks on a chess board. ‘Yes. I bought it because it reminded me of you.’
Kel grinned and held the shirt up again against his chest. It was an uncanny match.
‘Snap,’ she murmured.
‘It’s in peril, isn’t it? How would anyone know to put that on a fabric?’
‘I guess because they can see it too.’ Meri explained where she had bought it. ‘Do you know if the river people are Perilous? The woman who sold it to me could see some, but not all the patterns. She checked my arms for markings but there were none on hers.’
He frowned, thinking. ‘That’s weird. I’ve never heard that they were connected to us in any way.’
‘It was really odd. She gave me this card.’ Meri showed him. ‘Can you read it?’
Holding it up to the light, Kel squinted. ‘There’s something there. Text and numbers but too faint for me to make it out. I think I’d need to put it under a UV light to read. What does it say?’
How far she could trust him? Maybe that was no longer the question, she acknowledged, as she’d really made the choice when she invited him to stay. He felt right to her—safe. Added to that, Kel was her only source on Teans and the Perilous. There was nothing more coming from her parents. ‘It says “Tea and Sympathy”. It didn’t take me long to run that together and you get—’
‘Tean Sympathy.’ His eyes widened. ‘Wow.’
‘I wondered if it was a trap? If I’m the only one who can see this, see what’s on the clothes, she might have been laying it out like sticky fly paper, to see what she caught.’
‘But there are hardly swarms of Teans walking around to be snapped up and she had no idea you were coming that day. Seems too elaborate, too unfocused.’
‘That’s what gets me wondering. She couldn’t see all that I could see but she did recognize a few of the patterns. She saw the spirals, that’s for sure.’
Kel rubbed his face with the heel of his hands, an adorable effort to wake up some more so he could puzzle this out with her. ‘Where does that get us? Her ability sits between yours and mine?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Then what does that make her?’ He sat down on the foot of the bed and pulled a blanket over his shoulders.
Meri delayed her answer by moving the bowls off the tray She was worried that her guess might make Kel freak out. There was a real risk this might be too much for a Perilous, even an enlightened one like Kel, to take in his stride. But she wouldn’t know unless she tried him, would she? ‘Our two peoples made a fuss about breeding for different traits, a dangerous kind of racial purity deal. But still, it seems hard to believe that my kind are down to just me, like I’m some sort of last white rhino. OK, maybe I’m the last full blood Tean, but humans being humans, I imagine Teans have, you know, diddled with others throughout the centuries.’
‘Diddled?’
‘OK, that was childish. I mean had sex and produced babies.’
‘You’re talking watered down gifts out there. You’re probably right.’ Kel frowned as the idea sank in.
Not freaking out but he wasn’t happy either, Meri noted. ‘That can’t be something to get your knickers in a twist about. I doubt they’d be able to do the full attack-a-Perilous thing—might not even know about that aspect of a Tean’s power.’
Kel got up and walked to the window, trailing the blanket like a prince’s cloak. ‘We’ve not talked much about that—among the Perilous I hang out with—but of course that would be the case after all these centuries. Life isn’t tidy. And we’ve left our traces out there too—we call them the lost ones. That’s what we thought you were. And I suppose if a Perilous can diddle, so can a Tean.’ He smiled at her, teasing her with her own word.
‘I bet they can.’ Scooting up the bed to rest against the headboard, Meri hugged her knees to her chest. ‘I’m not sure what I should do about it. The lady I met, she might be a good contact, help me maybe, but it’s a risk exposing myself to her. If I’m wrong, and she’s a Perilous despite not having the markings….’
Kel shook his head. ‘She won’t be. You said she was a mature woman. Her markings would’ve been through long ago. But I could come with you if you go back. Just in case.’
‘Thanks. That makes me feel better about returning.’
He started pacing, picking up the few things she had scattered around the room, a postcard from Canvey Island, a piece of drift wood she’d picked up off the beach, a pebble with a hole in it. ‘You know, a watered-down Tean community might be good news.’ He held up the bleached twig to find the most pleasing curve.
‘Really?’
‘Yeah. It might persuade my friends that you can find a way of living that poses little or no threat.’ He replaced the driftwood on the mantlepiece in its new position.
‘I really hope so. And you know something else?’
He approached her on the other side of the bed and crawled across the duvet towards her, playful mood returning. ‘That you are incredibly kissable at ten in the morning? And at eleven. And all other hours of the day come to think of it.’
She reached out to take the kiss he wanted to give her. They had stopped pretending they were just friends at midnight. The months apart had proved they wanted so much more from each other. They ended up flat on the bed again, but this time with his head on her chest. ‘That wasn’t what I was thinking.’
‘Shame as I think about kissing you all the time.’
‘Let me be serious a second.’
‘OK.’
‘So stop tickling my ribs.’
‘Oh. OK. Spoilsport.’
‘I was thinking that Tean and Perilous must’ve started as the same people once upon a time.’
His questing fingers stilled. ‘How do you mean?’
‘Well, obviously, in evolutionary terms all humans came from some ancient ancestor but I mean closer than that. Our abilities are similar, linked to our ability to process UV in a different way from other humans. It must be that something switched on in the DNA to allow us to do that.’
‘Aren’t you the clever clogs this morning?’
‘I might be a high school dropout but I can still put a few biological facts together.’
‘So somewhere back in the day some caveman on the island noticed a few of us were developing these skin markings and decided “hey, that guy’s different from me: let’s make him our slave”?’
‘More or less. I think the changes must’ve been made more quickly than by natural selection. You told me about the captive breeding. That fits.’
‘And the Teans, marrying among their own kind. Choosing partners with the strongest UV vision?’
‘They artificially selected themselves too, but it was framed as a cultural thing, marriage practices.’
‘And built a civilization on it. Teans to the top, Perilous to the bottom.’
‘History is littered with cases where people persecuted ot
hers for the stupidest reasons. We don’t ever seem to get beyond it.’ She ran her fingers through his hair, feeling the silk tug and tickle. She treated him gently, afraid to let her attraction to him get out of hand in case she inadvertently hurt him. ‘I wish we could.’
Going up on an elbow, he leaned forward and kissed her. ‘Maybe we can. You and me. Maybe we can be the end of this vendetta?’
‘I’m all for that, if only others would let us.’
Meri’s suggestion that the barge people could be connected to Teans nagged at Kel. How had his own people not known? Could he square it with his conscience that he had no intention of telling his fellow Perilous if this river community was a way out for Meri? He spent some time over the next few days researching the possibility on the internet, wishing he had access to the library at Ade’s where the resources were much better than anything that had gone online. By typing in a few key terms, he did come across message boards and websites that could have fitted the bill but they required passwords to get beyond the initial page and he didn’t have the skills to hack beyond that.
‘I’m getting possible hits worldwide,’ he told Meri.
‘Hmm-hmm.’
That wasn’t an I’m-following-every-step-of-your-investigation sound. He looked up. She was drawing again, this time sketching him as he worked on the hostel computer. This was an ancient machine on a desk in the shared lounge, positioned strategically below a cork board of take-out menus—its main function in life being to order in—but it could still run a basic search. Slowly.
‘Six in the US alone that have some mention of Tea and Sympathy.’
‘Hmm.’ She flicked her gaze up then corrected a line on the sketch, tip of tongue poking through her teeth. She said she loved sketching him almost as much as she loved tracing his markings. Personally he preferred it when she did the latter. Much preferred.
‘It could be the tip of the iceberg, Meri.’
‘Mmm.’
‘And there is a party of Martians about to land on the doorstep. To have tea. With us.’
‘Um, good.’
He cleared his search and swivelled round on the chair. ‘And you hereby promise to do the washing up for all eternity. Say “hmm” if you agree.’