Dark Light Read online

  Chapter 12

  Amber left the house an hour later with Lyana, who had been instructed by Matt to take her home. They had debated that Lyana should remain with him, to look after him and make sure The Voice didn’t come back, but Matt got so stressed out at the thought of sending Amber home alone with The Voice on the loose, that they decided it was probably healthier for him if Lyana drove her back to her house. Amber enjoyed watching the neighbours’ expressions as they drove past in the beautiful, glossy yellow car.

  After that, she continued to journey back and forth to Lyana’s house frequently. They told Matt that Lyana was driving her, though most of the time she just took a taxi; he was being too overprotective.

  The clock on the high shelf was ticking. It annoyed Matt. He had heard it ticking constantly for five days now without pause. Tick, tick, tick, tick, over and over again. If he were able to get out of bed, he would go and shut it off, but after he had wandered downstairs one morning in search of food, Lyana had enchanted a blanket so that it wouldn’t let him leave the bed without her instructing it to.

  He was sick of the same room. Every morning, he woke up with the sun shining in one window, and every evening he watched it set in the other.

  And worst of all, he only got to see Amber for a couple of hours a day. It was strange, but being without her had made him miss her even more, and no matter what Lyana tried to do to entertain him, the only real smile that crossed his face came when he saw Amber walk through that door each morning.

  “I’m going to tell her I love her,” he said to Lyana one day.

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” she said.

  “You were ready to force me into it a few days ago.”

  “I know,” she said. “But I’ve really gotten to know her in the past few days, and she really seems to love this Will guy. I think if you tell her how you feel now, you’ll just make things awkward between you.”

  “Well, I think you’re wrong,” said Matt stubbornly.

  “I know you think you know her, but I’ve been around for centuries, and I’ve seen things like this over and over again. Trust me Matt, it wouldn’t do any good.”

  “How wouldn’t it? What’s bad about finding out someone loves you? It’s flattering, it’s charming, it’s generally nice to know. What’s not to like?”

  “Please Matt,” Lyana said. “Don’t do this now. You’re like a brother to me and I love you-“

  “See,” he said. “You just said you loved me, and I didn’t get offended.”

  “Matt.” Lyana took his hand. “She doesn’t feel the same way, at least not now. Don’t do this to yourself.”

  “You’re such a hypocrite!” Matt snatched his hand away from Lyana’s. “One minute you’re telling me to go for it, and the next you’re holding me back! I don’t think you know what you’re talking about,” he shouted.

  “I don’t know what I’m talking about? That’s rich! Remind me, how many years have you been on this earth?” Lyana yelled back.

  They were both being so noisy that they didn’t hear the front door open downstairs as Amber arrived at the house.

  “Here we go, play the age card why don’t you,” Matt said loudly. “You know most people your age have no hair or teeth, right?”

  “What’s wrong with you?” asked Lyana. “All I’m trying to do is protect you, and you’re being an idiot-as usual!”

  “Well sorry little miss I-know-everything.”

  Matt was so busy ranting that he didn’t sense Amber walking up the oak staircase.

  “Matt, all I’m saying is, don’t say anything until you find out more about Will. I mean, it must be pretty serious if he was willing to give his life for her-“

  “I was willing to give my life for her!” Matt shouted, blocking the sound of the doorknob twisting. “I love her! I love Amber!”

  “Excuse me?”

  Amber stood in the doorway, staring wide-eyed at Matt, who was looking for help at Lyana, who just kept staring from one to the other, her ruby red lips in a perfect ‘O’.

  “Did I just hear you right?” Amber asked Matt.

  “That depends on what you thought you heard.”

  “I think I’ll go and see what food I have left in the fridge,” said Lyana conspicuously. She quick-stepped from one end of the room to the other, and was out the door in one fluid motion.

  “Matt?” Amber moved to sit down on the edge of the bed. “Tell me what you said.”

  Matt sighed. It wasn’t quite how he had imagined this moment, but he figured it was too late now to go back anyway. His expression was half-joyful half-terrified as he looked up into Amber’s kind face.

  “I said that I loved you, because I do,” he said.

  Amber sighed. She knew she should be happy; it was a good thing to be loved. But her life was complicated enough, and she simply couldn’t love Matt, because right now the boy she loved was being held captive by an evil creature of the night after he had sacrificed himself for her. She physically could not make herself love Matt.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “But I can’t-“

  “Wait a second,” Matt said. “Hear me out. I know you still love this Will guy, but that could change. You might think you love him now, but people change. I will always be here for you. For as long as I live. No one can take me away. I can protect you from all the terrible things that want to hurt you; I’ve already proved that. You need me as much as I need you now. We’ve been through a lot and I know you feel something for me, even if you don’t know it yourself.”

  “Matt,” Amber sighed. “I love you too, but not like that. You’re my best friend, and yes we’ve been through a lot together, and I can’t imagine life without you, but I love Will. I know it hurts you to hear, but you have to accept it. I can’t love anyone else right now; he sacrificed his life for me-“

  “He’s not dead,” Matt reminded her.

  “Yet,” she said. “The fact is, I loved him first, and I’ll always love him, because that’s what love means Matt. And I am truly, sincerely sorry, but that is the truth.”

  “I understand how you feel Amber, but don’t you think you should just give us a chance? I know I can be the right guy for you, if you let me.”

  “But I can’t let you Matt,” she said unhappily. “Maybe if I hadn’t known Will, I might have said yes. In fact, I probably would have. But I do know Will, and I wouldn’t be alive now without him, that’s a fact. I can’t love anyone else while there’s even the slightest possibility that Will might get hurt because of what he did for me. It’s not right.”

  “So, if I save him, you’ll consider me?” Matt asked. Amber could see he was trying to work out a loophole in what she had said. He would be disappointed.

  “I’m not saying that,” she said. “I’m saying that if Will…dies, because of me, I’ll never forgive myself. And I don’t think I’ll ever be able to love anyone ever again.”

  “All right,” said Matt nodding. “Objective one: save Will.”

  “Thank you.” Amber squeezed his hand as she got up to get off the bed, but Matt grabbed her hand.

  “I won’t give up,” he said. “I’ll tell you every day if I have to, but sooner or later you’re going to realise that I love you more than he does, and that you love me too.”

  “If you say so,” Amber replied. She stood up and headed to the door. She would go and find Lyana and tell her that the awkward atmosphere was sort of gone and the she could come back into the room. But then, the moment she thought this, in walked Lyana with a tray of toast and jam.

  “So,” she said as she set the tray on the desk by Matt. “What do you think of this weather we’re having?”

  Both Amber and Will looked at Lyana with blank expressions. You would have thought, that in two hundred years of life, she might have learned firstly, how to act, and secondly, a more subtle way of changing the subject.

  “What?” she asked, wide innocent eyes opening up. “Why are you lookin
g at me like that?”

  Amber raised an eyebrow.

  “I just wondered what you thought of the weather. Personally, I think it’s a lovely day, but a bit cold. It’s due to snow tomorrow, you know.”

  Lyana then continued to inform both Matt and Amber of the week’s weather forecast for the subsequent ten minutes.

  “Okay,” said Amber when she had finished. “Now that we’re done with that, do you think we could get down to doing some real work and figure out, firstly how we’re going to get Will back and secondly, how we’re going to get rid of The Voice once and for all.”

  “I’ve been reading up on that actually. Or trying to at least,” said Lyana. “It would be a whole lot easier if we knew what this thing actually is.”

  “Well, we know that he turned Matt into a Daemon, so he can create new life, or half-life or something like that. He must be pretty powerful. There can’t be that many creatures out there with that much power,” said Amber.

  “It’s a big world. You would not believe the amount of things that go on that most people just never find out about,” Lyana said grimly. “But then there’s the fact that what you said is right, this Voice person clearly has a lot of power, and has probably been around for thousands of years. He has centuries of knowledge and countless followers on his side, and we have Matt, a fairly young version of what he is, and me, who really wouldn’t be that much use in a crisis anyway.”

  “We don’t have a choice,” said Amber. “There’s nothing else we can do-“

  “If I could just get a word in edgeways,” Matt said from over in his little corner. “I think we could definitely take this guy if we tried. And we discussed ways of getting more powers on our side,” Matt looked meaningfully at Lyana.

  “No,” she said. “That was not a discussion. That was you talking and me refusing your ideas because they were too dangerous.”

  “What was it?” Amber asked. “Does Matt know a way of getting more people to join us?”

  Both of them ignored her, and Lyana gave Matt a silencing look with her wide blue eyes.

  “I think I know her limitations a bit better than you do Ly,” he said.

  “Tell me,” Amber stepped in between them.

  Lyana sighed. “He wants me to give you some powers,” she said.

  “What?” Amber looked wide-eyed from one of them to the other. “I could have proper powers?”

  “It’s not like it sounds,” Lyana said. “No matter what enchantment or potion I use on you, you will always be human. You weren’t meant to have powers; your body wasn’t designed to cope with it.”

  “But it’ll only be for an hour or two,” Matt said. “She’s proved how strong she is.”

  “I want to help,” Amber looked at the sorceress pleadingly.

  “See, now look what you’ve started,” said Lyana to Matt. “No. I refuse to do it.”

  “What sort of powers are they?” asked Amber, turning to Matt, who smiled. This would count to him as proving that he was the right guy for her; he knew what she wanted.

  “It varies with the individual. Some people can read minds; some can wipe them. I’ve heard of one case where the boy could shoot lasers from his eyes.”

  “Wow. Wait a minute,” said Amber. “You’re making this up aren’t you?”

  “Only the last part, but there are some really cool powers,” he smiled widely.

  “Why don’t you tell her about the deaths too?” Lyana asked as she flicked through her spell book on the lectern.

  “Deaths?” Amber repeated the word.

  “Okay, so some people die, but it’s only like one in a hundred million,” Matt said.

  Lyana snapped the book shut.

  “I do not believe you,” she stormed. “You’re supposed to be protecting her and here you are trying to convince her to risk her life so she can have powers like you. What is it, you think that you’ll have more in common then so she might actually want to go out with you?”

  Amber thought this was a very below the belt shot. Matt looked hurt and also ashamed. Still, though Amber wasn’t planning on getting herself killed, she committed that fact that she had the ability to have powers to her memory.

  The room was silent. Lyana didn’t apologise, but went back to flicking through her book, breathing sharply.

  “So, about Will…” said Amber.

  “Yes,” Lyana said. “I was thinking that, seen as both you and Matt have seen Will since he was-“

  “Actually, I don’t think Matt saw him, did you?” Amber turned back to Matt.

  He looked unhappily at Lyana before answering. “Nope.”

  “Well, you were both in the same sort of realm as The Voice was, and that was where I presume he was keeping Will, so I’m hoping that I can run some tests on you and that might help us figure a few things out.”

  “You can do that?” Amber asked. “I thought you were a witch-“

  “Sorceress,” Lyana corrected flatly.

  “Yes sorry, sorceress, so can’t you just say a few magic words and bring him back or something?”

  “Again, it doesn’t work like that. It’s a lot to explain, and I think we’ve done enough explaining for one day,” she looked to Matt. “And Matt still needs to drink his daily dose of potion.”

  “I hate it when you say it like that, it makes me sound like I’m incapable of doing anything unless I drink some liquid made of bird beaks and all that other-“ he employed a choicy swear word. Amber had never heard Matt swear before.

  “Firstly,” said Lyana. “Please refrain from swearing while you’re in my house; it’s not very gentlemanly. Secondly, seeing as you would be dead without this potion, yes I think you would be fairly incapable of doing anything.”

  “Oh ha-ha,” said Matt sarcastically.

  “Matt, please,” Amber said. She looked at him imploringly.

  “Okay,” he sighed. “I’m sorry Lyana, I know you only want what’s best. I’ll get the flask-”

  “I’ll get the flask, thank you,” Lyana said.

  The day after she had revived Matt, Lyana had made a cauldron-full of some sort of sustaining liquid that would help Matt gather up his strength again. She had filled several small copper flasks with the potion and was storing them in a cupboard under the shelf. Matt had to drink a full flask everyday to keep healthy, and apparently the drink tasted absolutely vile.

  Amber watched as Lyana, who had refused to allow Matt to leave the bed, poured a thick, gloopy grey liquid from a flask into a tiny cup that looked a little like a shot glass.

  Matt took the glass, thanked Lyana, then pinched his nose and threw back the glass in one mouthful. Amber saw him trying not to retch, and noticed his eyes watering slightly, like they do when you eat something that makes you feel physically sick.

  “How many more of these things have I got to have?” Matt asked.

  “Well, there are three more flasks in the cupboard, and that glass you had just now was only about a quarter of a flask-“

  Matt groaned loudly.

  “Are you sure I really need them? I feel fine, really,” he added when he saw Lyana looking at him shrewdly. “I’m at least well enough to get out of bed, for crying out loud.”

  “Alright,” Lyana said slowly. Even Amber had to admit it was time Matt was allowed to go for a walk, he must have been dying with boredom. “I’ll lift the enchantment and let you out if you promise not to go running off. I know you think you feel fine Matt, but I still think that if you use your powers now you could end up hurting yourself permanently.”

  “Okay Ly, I promise.”

  Lyana closed her eyes, muttered some words, and when she opened them again, Matt was standing in front of her smiling.

  “Thank you,” he said, and gave the sorceress a quick hug.

  Then he walked over to Amber, who smiled nervously. “Want to go for a walk?” he asked.

  “Yeah, alright,” she nodded.

  “But-“

  “Don’t worry
Lyana, we won’t go further than the front door,” Amber said. It was her duty now to make sure Matt kept his word and didn’t go wandering off to find The Voice on his own.

  Of course, this was not as easy as it sounded.

  In the moment it took Amber to turn around and shut the door on Lyana, Matt had disappeared.

  “Matt?” she whispered. If Lyana heard she would have her skin for a coat. “Matt, this isn’t funny, get back here now or I’ll-“

  “Or you’ll what?” Matt asked. He had appeared in front of her, just a few inches away. Too close. Amber stepped back.

  “I’ll tell Lyana to put you under house arrest for the rest of the month.”

  Matt groaned; he knew she wasn’t joking.

  “But it’s not fair,” he said. “Can you imagine what it’s like not being able to move for over a week?”

  “Well, it was either that or die, so…”

  “Please Amber,” he said. “I’ve been cooped up for ages, just let me have a run around for a few minutes. I promise I won’t leave the house.”

  “Lyana said you shouldn’t be using your powers, you could get hurt.”

  “I’m fine, I know I’m fine. I’m not going to get hurt. Five minutes? Please?”

  “Okay,” Amber sighed. “But if Lyana finds out then I’m blaming you.”

  “Thank you,” he smiled widely and brilliantly, and then Matthew was gone.

  “Five minutes,” Amber whispered to the air. “Any more than that and you’ll be in serious trouble.”

  She heard Matt laugh somewhere downstairs.

  So Amber had a free five minutes to kill, and she wasn’t planning on standing outside the attic door; that wouldn’t look good if Lyana came out. She knew she shouldn’t, but she decided to go for a wander around the house.

  Amber had never really been in any of the other rooms in Lyana’s house, not that there weren’t plenty to choose from. She wasn’t sure whether the sorceress had put some sort of enchantment on the house that made it bigger on the inside than the outside, but this place really was massive compared with how it looked from the street.

  Door after door Amber opened. First, a room painted neutral cream with a pale blue bedspread, and then a room furnished with beautiful beach-wood furniture. Each room seemed bigger than the last. It was when she reached what she counted as the seventh bedroom that Amber encountered what she presumed was Lyana’s room.

  The room itself was large and light, with another sunlight in the ceiling like the one down in the kitchen. The furniture was fairly modern and simplistic, which seemed to be Lyana’s style. The bed was carved beautifully out of pinewood, and covered with light pink pillows. Lyana had said her favourite colour was pink. In the corner was a bookshelf, with old books that contrasted with the modern set of the room, and under the window was a white woven wicker seat, on which slept a snowy white cat. Amber wasn’t sure if the cat was real or a toy; it lay perfectly still on the cushion, almost blending in with the light background. All in all, the room would look at home in a design catalogue, but there were just a few hints that this bedroom belonged to someone not entirely human. On the chest of drawers opposite the door, for example, was a small silver object. Granted, it is not so abnormal to see silver objects in the room of a regular girl, but this silver object floated just a few inches from the surface of the chest. Amber couldn’t quite make out what it was; the object was barely bigger than the palm of her hand, and the expansive room left the chest of drawers a good distance away.

  She wanted to go and have a look around the room, she really did, but she knew that would be wrong. She was also afraid of what Lyana would do to her if she caught her. Amber didn’t like the prospect of spending her teenage years as a toad.

  But just one look around couldn’t hurt, could it?

  She was over the threshold before she could answer that question. Amber was in Lyana’s bedroom.

  Alright, she would just look at the silver thing, and then she would go. Amber walked over to the object, in which she saw her own eye reflected. So it was a mirror. The commode was quite tall, which meant that as the mirror hung in midair, it was just the right height for someone to look into. Lyana must have bought it for exactly that reason.

  Okay, so she had seen the mirror now, Amber could go. But then, as she left, another object caught her eye. On the bookshelf, which was only a foot or so away, was a book whose title Amber found interesting: The Arte of Magike it read, then as a subtitle: Learning it, teaching it, creating it. It was the creating part that she had found appealing. Did this book hold the secrets of how Amber could get magic of her own, just like Matt and Lyana?

  She pulled it gently of the shelf and flicked through the thick pages. There was nothing about giving someone else powers. The book actually held some pretty dark spells, and some very nasty diagrams to accompany them.

  She replaced the book back on the shelf.

  It had been more than five minutes, Matt should be returning by now, and Amber should be heading back towards the attic-room to find him.

  But this was a once in a lifetime chance, when was she ever going to get to look at spell books again?

  She plucked another one off the shelf…

  Amber was halfway through reading up on how to turn a pumpkin into a carriage when the clock on the wall chimed midday. She cursed under her breath. She had been gone for almost an hour.

  Carefully replacing the book on the shelf, she got up from where she had been sitting on the floor (the cat, which turned out to be real, had refused to vacate the seat) and walked quietly to the door and back into the hallway.

  “Matt?” she whispered. “Matt, where are you? We need to go back.”

  “Hi.”

  Matt appeared behind her, and Amber jumped so much she practically fell into him.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  Matt looked paler than when Amber had left him, and the circles under his eyes were darker, but he was smiling.

  “Did you have a nice time?” Amber asked.

  “Yes thank you,” he said.

  “And you didn’t leave the house?”

  “Well…” Matt shrugged.

  “Matt!” said Amber, crossly but quietly in case Lyana heard. “You promised you wouldn’t go outside. It’s not safe.”

  “Oh please,” Matt waved a hand. “You sound like my mother.”

  “Well, I won’t be letting you out again. I’ll go tell Lyana now that she should keep you in that room because you clearly aren’t well enough to go walk-a-bout.”

  Amber turned in the direction of the stairs, but Matt caught her hand.

  “No, please don’t. It’s horrible up there. I hate being cooped up all day, Lyana’s treating me like Anne Frank.”

  “Well, I’m not going to let you run off on your own without us knowing Matt, The Voice could be out there, and you’re still weak.”

  “Why does everyone keep saying that?” said Matt loudly. “I’m not weak, I know how to look after myself!”

  “I know Matt,” said Amber. She put her hand on his shoulder calmingly. “I’m not saying you can’t, but you had us really worried for a while back then, and I don’t want to go through that again…so, do you think you could stay in the house for now, for me?”

  Amber looked Matt full on in the eyes. She knew she was being unfair; firstly, it was now built into Matt’s nature not to do anything that may hurt Amber, and now he loved her, he would do anything to make her happy. She felt quite guilty about it actually, but it would keep Matt safe, and that was what mattered.

  “Okay,” Matt broke the eye contact and sighed. “I won’t leave the house until I’m fully recuperated.”

  “Thank you,” Amber said. “Now I think we should probably get back to Lyana, because I think she’ll find it quite hard to believe that we spent all this time walking around the house, and it won’t help adding more time onto that.”

  “You’re right,” said Matt, and before Amber could st
op him, he had pulled her over his back in a fireman’s lift, and was zooming off towards the attic room. Before Amber had lost the churning sensation in her gut, they were at the door.

  Matt set Amber on the ground and allowed her a second to get her breath back before opening the door.

  “You took your time,” said Lyana.

  “Yeah sorry, we got talking.” Matt lounged over to where Lyana stood, over a bubbling brass pot. “What’cha doing?” he asked over her shoulder.

  “Making a potion,” said Lyana.

  “No, really? And there I was thinking it was stew for my dinner,” Matt said sarcastically.

  “Oh ha-ha,” Lyana turned briefly from her work to give Matt a sardonic look, before returning to the steaming liquid.

  “So…you going to tell us what kind of potion, or do we have to guess?” Matt leaned over and looked into the small pot.

  “If you must know,” said Lyana. “It’s an Armacaisse potion.”

  Matt froze for a moment and looked more intently into the depths of the clear potion. To Amber, it looked just like water.

  “It’s not water,” Matt said when he heard this thought-line. “Arma is Latin for power, and caisse is French for giving.”

  “So it’s a potion that gives people powers?” asked Amber.

  “No,” Lyana cut in. Matt looked at her questioningly, but the look she gave him kept him from making any queries. “It helps people get better after they’ve been ill, like Matt has.” Amber saw Matt’s jaw clench when Lyana said about him being ‘ill’

  “It was invented by a Roman, but a Frenchman improved it in the eighteen-hundreds. Before that it was just a couple of herbs in a lot of alcohol. Which surprises me, because I would have thought a French person would quite like the sound of the original.”

  “So it doesn’t give people powers?” Amber asked dejectedly.

  “No,” Lyana said. “I thought you would know by now that I am not going to help you in that pursuit; it’s too dangerous.”

  “But it’s what I want Lyana,” said Amber.

  “You don’t understand, and why would you, you’re only human-“ Amber’s jaw clenched at the words ‘only human’ like Matt’s had done at the word ‘ill’- “Your body wasn’t designed to have powers.”

  “But you have powers and look human, so does Matt,” Amber said.

  “Only on the outside. Inside we’re nothing alike.”

  “Well, Matt said it wasn’t that dangerous, and he’s meant to be looking after me, so it must be safe.”

  “Amber, please don’t argue with me on this,” Lyana said. “I know you don’t believe me, but playing with your humanity like that just isn’t right.”

  “Please Lyana,” said Amber.

  “No.” Lyana’s tone of voice was definite and final, but Amber didn’t give up; she would leave it for a while and bring the subject back up when she wasn’t expecting it. She couldn’t say no forever.

  “So, shall I order a pizza for dinner or what?” asked Lyana, probably because Matt looked like he was about to start arguing with her again.

  “I can’t stay,” said Amber “I promised my mum I’d be home before dark, she doesn’t like me being out on my own with no one to look after me.”

  “What about me?” Matt asked.

  “Or me,” said Lyana.

  “Yes,” Amber said. “But I didn’t think she would be so keen on me hanging out with a witch-“

  “Sorceress,” interrupted Lyana.

  “-Or a strange mythical creature thing,” Amber finished.

  “Glad to be of service,” Matt said.

  “I guess I had better be getting back now then,” she said. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

  “Bye,” said Lyana.

  “Love you,” Matt said loudly.

  Amber carried on out the door without responding; she knew she hadn’t heard the last of the whole ‘love’ situation.