Chapter Three

Katherine wondered if her brother had chosen the booth at the window on purpose, as the ball of blue light bounced repeatedly off the large glass window.

None of the others seemed to notice it, she thought gratefully.

The light lit up the back of Eleanor's head, before spinning up into the air, coming back down and delightedly hitting the glass.

They had come to the bar after their college's formal. Eleanor and Katherine had met up with Roger and Malia from Statistics, running for shelter from the pelting rain. Aaron was there when they arrived, and Eleanor had slid into the seat next to him, leaning into the curve of his arm, taking the glass of wine he handed her, as if they had been doing it all their lives. They had been dating since the beginning of summer. Eleanor had spent June in London with her sister, and she met Aaron at the Natural History Museum where he was working. Katherine's first question had been why her brother felt the need to get a job when he didn't have to- he had countered her question by asking her why she was studying in Edinburgh when she probably wouldn't even finish her degree.

She kept silent after that.

Katherine drank the rest of the dark wine, feeling the liquid coat her mouth before she swallowed it.

"Where do you think you're going?" Eleanor was giggling- wine drunk, Katherine thought- as she was stuffing her phone and credit cards into her small purse.

"I don't know about you, but I still have essays to turn in. Term might have just begun, but I'm already behind." The lie was easy and sweet, tripping off her tongue with such effortlessness that Katherine was frightened of herself for a moment.

"Oh god Katherine. No one is expecting you to turn anything in right now. You can't be serious. They aren't going to crucify you if you're a day late." Eleanor gestured wildly with her glass, almost knocking into Aaron, who ducked, grabbing the glass smoothly from her. Eleanor moved closer to him, sighing a sleepy sigh, and something in Katherine's chest tightened again as she watched her brother gently dab at a stain on Eleanor's dress.

The feeling of impending doom was more urgent than it had ever been.

"Night guys, I'll see you all in class." She high-fived Malia, ignoring Aaron's pointed glance.

"I'll walk you out." Roger grabbed her jacket, and hopped up off his seat, shaking his red, curly hair.

They had to push through the packed pub- dozens of students had come, seeking reprieve from the weather. He helped her into her jacket at the door, and, pulling the hood tightly over her head, she ducked out into the rain. Stopping under the awning of the pub, Katherine turned to Roger expectantly.

"I have a six month's supply for you here." He handed her a brown paper bag- it seemed to Katherine that he had pulled it from thin air, he hadn't had it with him when they were walking out of the pub- the contents rattling as she took it from him.

"Why do you need that much? You've been getting it a month at a time for the past year and a half."

"I'm going away for a while." Katherine stuffed the bag into the inner pocket of her jacket.

"So I guess I won't be seeing you in class on Friday then?"

She shook her head.

"Is everything okay? Have you told Ellie yet?"

She shook her head again. "I just have to deal with some family stuff. Might not be near a doctor, or pharmacy for a while." She watched as the confusion, and then curiosity flashed across his face before his features settled into emotionless nonchalance.

Roger was nothing if not a very efficient drug dealer.

"Do you want me to save your work for you?" He asked.

"No, that's okay. I'll catch up when I come back. Hopefully."

The blue light was spinning dizzily above Roger's head.

"I've got to go now." He nodded.

It seemed the incessant rain had stopped for a moment, but the road was still covered in meters of water, and her boots filled up as soon as she stepped off the pavement. She splashed across the road after the light that bounced excitedly in the air, whistling shrilly as she followed it.

*

She had been on the rooftop for an hour before Aaron arrived, looking slightly harassed.

"I guess Eleanor took a while to pass out huh?"

She turned her gaze back to the street below. Her vision was perfect, even in the dark. Now she could see the individual wind currents splitting and then merging, then splitting again. She could see the outline of every droplet of rain, watched as frost stretched across the windowpanes of the building across the street.

Aaron laughed; his voice gruff. "It's more a case of her not being able to handle her liquor. She threw up all over my shoes. I had to clean her up. And myself." She glanced at him. He had changed his clothes, she noticed then. His trousers were now black instead of brown, boots instead of the shiny formal shoes he had walked into the bar with.

"I probably should've warned you about that." She was laughing before she knew it, and the light that still glowed above their heads whistled again.

"It's okay, you can go now." Aaron spoke up at the light, which spun in the air, becoming dimmer and then going out completely, leaving them in darkness.

"What are we doing here exactly?" There had been no movement from the solitary building that stood on the street below in the hour that Katherine had been waiting for her brother. She almost thought she had gotten the wrong address, but the ball of light remained, casting a warm glow around her.

"The fire in Djibouti awoke a lot of things. The other side has started summoning up their army. We've been tracking these beasts for a few weeks now. We've got them cornered. I think." He added the last phrase, his head tilting.

"You think? You aren't very good at your job, are you?" She murmured under her breath, smiling when he punched her arm lightly.

"I guess it's just dumb luck for us that they're right here." She continued, reaching for the sleek black case that was nestled under the ledge of the roof.

Flipping it open and assembling the gun that lay inside took a matter of minutes for Katherine, for whom the movement was as natural as brushing her hair.

She shivered slightly as she lifted it, peering through the scope lens that she didn't really need. It was a thrill of excitement she thought. She shook her head. She didn't want to feel like she was happy to be on that rooftop after midnight, with a storm hanging in the air, just kilometers away, the rain ready to fall at any moment. But she was, she was extremely happy to be there.

Her brother stepped closer to her, and she turned, looking at him carefully. His long, angular face was haggard, his dark beard bristly and uncombed.

"So what now?" She whispered the words, knowing that her brother would hear. He could hear a snowflake melt- where she had perfect eyesight, Aaron's hearing rivalled that of a predator bird.

"We wait, what do you think?" She stared down at the street below. There came a rustling noise from behind her.

"You're really going to eat here?" The smell of freshly baked bread made her mouth water.

"I'm hungry,' he spoke with his mouth full, 'besides, you probably had a five-course meal at that formal."

"Yeah whatever, the entire street can hear that fucking plastic."

"They probably served you espresso in those little mugs too.' The rustling had stopped. 'I haven't had caffeine in hours, I'm practically asleep right now."

In the next moment, the air was changing, almost imperceptibly and Katherine thought she might have missed it if she hadn't been waiting for it. She knew that she was only feeling her brother's reaction to something he had heard. He became completely still, and she followed suit, her breathing slowing down as she watched the doors of the building on the street below.

The doors swung open almost too slowly and Katherine bit back frustration as she waited for their targets to step outside.

The figures that stepped out were tall and thin, and almost faceless. Their features were smooth, shiny. They were hairless, and they wore no thick clothing to shield themselves from the weather.

The beasts they were hunting had never been good at taking on human form.

"So I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but you have a clean shot right there." He whispered, his mouth next to her ear.

"Shut up." She hissed through gritted teeth. But he was right. She could take the shot; she should take the shot and just be done with it.

They could not let the beasts get away.

She inhaled deeply but did not let the air reach her lungs. Instead, she squeezed the trigger, and watched the figure closest to the street fall.

The other two turned at the sound of the bullet hitting the body with a dull thud, and she squeezed the trigger twice, in quick succession. The bodies dropped silently, the mushy snow on the ground muffling their fall.

She was pulling away from the gun, ready to flex her arm where the recoil had wrenched into her muscles, but her brother was placing a hand lightly on her shoulder, his brow furrowed.

Katherine leaned forward slightly again. "I hear someone else in the building." She tilted her head, her eyes trained on the open door.

"I thought there were only three of them."

"So did I." He whispered the words. "But I definitely hear someone else, or something else, coming."

The noise came first, a bang, and then a crash as the doors swung shut before being pushed open by the person still inside the building. The doors hit the wall of the building, and then the person behind them stepped out.

The girl who walked out of the building froze as her eyes dropped to the three prone figures on the sidewalk outside the building. Blood pooled beneath the bodies, although Katherine knew that any remnants of the scene would disappear when the beasts did, some hours from now.

She knew that the girl was not a beast in disguise. She was much shorter than the unnaturally tall figures that had been the beasts. She wore a dark coat and trousers, and red wool gloves. Her skin was brown, several shades lighter than Aaron's, her eyes dark and shining, her features distinct.

And her hair.

Katherine supposed that her hair was why her brother had just jerked away from her, his hand falling from her arm.

The girl's hair was white, silvery-white, stark against the dark of her skin and clothes.

Silvery-white hair belonging to someone Katherine thought she would never see again.

The girl stood on the street below, staring at the bodies of the three beasts. Their human forms were sloughing off in their death, leaving behind misshapen, grotesque bodies. She took a step forward, the light from a dim streetlamp highlighting the strands of white hair that fell around her face.

Katherine saw the look of horror dawn across the girl's face, watched as the terror followed rapidly. Her chest was rising and falling quickly, and Katherine thought she might start hyperventilating soon.

Then she must have woken to the reality in front of her and she stepped back, away from the bodies on the ground, turning, running.

The silver-haired girl disappeared down the dark street next to the building.

"Katherine." Her brother's voice was hoarse, desperate. She turned.

"Yes. I saw her too. I really saw her." She answered his unspoken question. His first thought would have been that he was hallucinating, and she moved to dispel his fears quickly.

He was swallowing- he was shaking, she saw.

"She's gone. She left." His face fell, his eyes wild.

"I didn't think she was nearby. I didn't think she… If she had been, if I had known, then…"

"I know. I know.' She cut him off before he began apologizing for every decision he had made in the last two years. 'I need to call Marjorie, find out where she is, find out if she knew that she was here."

"I didn't know." He was murmuring the words over and over under his breath.

"Aaron.' He turned unwillingly to her, and she thought that maybe he knew what she would say next. 'Aaron, I think she must have died. She would have come back to us otherwise." He nodded. It was the only thing that made sense.

"We need to go now. We need to get home. I'll call Marjorie and put the word out, make sure she's safe wherever she is."

"We can't, we can't talk to her or anything. We can't involve her. No matter what Alaric or anyone else says."

"I know we can't." Katherine was disassembling the gun, packing all the separate parts into the case.

"We just need to make sure she's safe. That's all." She was doing her best to reassure her brother.

Aaron nodded.

*

The white-haired girl arrived at the tiny Airbnb minutes after she found the bodies. She had started running and hadn't looked back once.

She slipped several times, landing once on her hands and knees in a pile of freezing mush. She straightened quickly, running again, the dirty ice slipping off her hands and clothes. She was breathless, but she didn't stop once, even though she was afraid that she was going to be sick.

She struggled with the key to the door outside the flat. Finally, she had to stop and take deep breaths, leaning her head against the cool door. Then, trying again, she managed to get the key into the lock. She stumbled into the flat and then it was a matter of slamming the door shut and locking the gate.

When she looked down, her hazy reflection stared up at her from a small pool of brown water. She must have stepped in the blood that had been blooming across the wet pavement.

She kicked off her shoes, almost tripping over her feet to get to the overnight bag she had left on the kitchen counter.

The painting that she removed carefully from the bottom of the bag, wrapped in bubble wrap, was small and delicate, a glow of browns and reds.

Every detail of the painting was perfect, microscopically perfect. A tiny house on a tiny hill, overlooking a fierce but tiny orange sea.

Her hands were shaking.

She closed her eyes, every millimeter of the painting visible in her mind's eye, reaching through the color and the slight, heady whiff of oil paint. She just needed something to hold onto.

The voice came quickly.

"Snow? What happened?" Hearing her father say her name with no reproach in his voice, only worry, brought a small wave of relief that threatened to make her knees buckle.

"Dad, I need to come home. Please let me come home."

There was no hesitation in the words that followed. No hint of disappointment.

"Of course. I'll be waiting."