Chapter Twenty

Maternal Deprivation

More than a month had elapsed since Theo’s devastating passing. For the most part, things were back to relative normality for Savannah. She had made it back to school, and that experience was standard - though a gaping hole remained in her soul, vacated by Theo, which would never be filled. Her mother, by contrast, remained bedridden and little more than a skeleton with a brain.

The single difference now was Savannah, Alexis, and Aaron were entirely self-sufficient - they did their own shopping, cooking, cleaning, and washing. Their parents had a great deal of money saved up (or, rather, Lyra did) and although neither of them were working now (Jeremy was still being held on remand and had been relieved of his duties, while Lyra was receiving sick pay), the children found it easy to manage. None of them found their new responsibilities enjoyable, but nor did they find it stressful.

A routine had been established: once Alexis and Aaron had gone to bed, Savannah and Lauren would journey to Archaic. The blissful delay of time there enabled Savannah to spend a week in the time it took a single Earth night to slip by. On these visits, she would train, eat, chat with new people, and delve into the history of the Assassin’s Quarter.

Savannah also had the privilege of exploring the Warrior’s Quarter neighbouring the Assassin’s. The two shared a training yard and were foul-weather friends, contrary to the other Quarters (which were predominantly isolationist). They were one massive, violent family unit.

The Warrior’s Quarter itself was less luxurious, more combative, and significantly more cluttered (you couldn’t move without stumbling over a sword or shield). The male warriors typified teen boys hopped up on testosterone - always spoiling for a fight, but once the aggro was out of their system, happy to have a good night as the best of friends.

Savannah didn’t believe she was progressing as far as Alyssa claimed she was, but she couldn’t deny that she had made notable strides. Her physique, which had always been lean and athletic, was more toned and muscled. Her arms were strong and her legs stronger still, and her core had been strengthened to multiple times its previous stability - a tough gain; Alyssa made her do crunches and other exercises hanging upside down on the ceiling with her feet beneath a bar. Effective, yes, but painful and challenging.

Lauren suggested Savannah explore the Sorcerer's Quarter and the full extent of her magical ability. Savannah, however, told her that she didn’t feel ready, that she was enjoying the training she was doing with Alyssa (they’d grown closer over the past month - given that in terms of Archaic timing, it was nigh on six months), and that when she was satisfied with her physical and combative progress, then she would explore the next mountain to climb.

The unspoken truth was that the mages terrified her - they were creepy as hell, wandering around in their robes with their hoods up even in glaring sunlight, without a word to say to anyone who wasn’t a member of their Quarter. That, and Savannah’s powers hadn’t surfaced again, giving further credence to the theory that they were still in their infancy and, thus, tied to traumatic experiences and immediate threats. Since she’d rather not be traumatised again, and felt safe, Savannah decided to give it a miss for the present.

The new time frame had also worked wonders for her grief. With the ability to leave Earth every evening and dive straight into training, where she could vent her emotions against a training dummy rather than having to scream at the world, was an outlet she found cathartic.

Despite this, spending her days on Earth had become disorienting. When it came time to return home, she was always excited to get back into school and see Alexis and Aaron again. All the same, the brevity of the days was dizzying.

Today was the beginning of the final week of term. With the Christmas holidays around the corner, there was a festive, joyous atmosphere around the school. Decorations had been erected in every classroom, a 10-foot tree assembled in the Hall, Christmas songs played throughout the day, tinsel hung on all the windows, fairy lights were strewn over the doorframes of the classrooms, and, the best bit - it was snowing. A thin, crystalline sheet blanketed the town and thick flakes fell from the sky, whose slate grey colour promised more.

Lauren and Savannah were in English, and Schofield was in one of his better moods. They were studying ‘A Christmas Carol’, and in his Santa hat and elf ears, Schofield relished in his impressions of the three spirits. Once he’d finished enjoying himself, he set them to work on a task and the usual hubbub of chatter sprang up. Little progress was made on the task, but Schofield didn’t care - he sat at his desk and put a Christmas film on. At one point, Schofield did wander around the room under the guise of checking their work - however, he didn’t disguise his utter lack of interest - and picked on Kate, who was subdued beside Matthew. Neither Kate nor Matthew looked happy, and they spoke no words to one another. Savannah felt a strange rush of pity towards Kate - she’d been in Kate’s place before, after all.

Under the noise from the class, Savannah asked Lauren a question that’d been on her mind for a long time, yet had been overtaken by about a million others.

‘Right, I just want to clear something up. Alexis's ‘miracle’ recovery - was that magic, too? I mean, her body was basically destroyed… and then it wasn’t.’

Lauren frowned. ‘I’d have to say... yes, but I would encourage caution on that one. Until it rears its head again, I can’t confirm it, but I expect so. I mean, I don’t want her to get hit by another car, but eventually, if it is magic, then something extraordinary will happen again and at that point, I can firmly say it is.’

‘And… what about Alexis? If she does… y’know, if it turns out she is magic… will that mean she becomes part of this too?’ Savannah tugged her earlobe.

‘Most likely. We’ve found over the millennia that in societies where magic isn’t accepted or nourished - which, in fairness to the universe’s overall liberality, there’s not that many - we can’t leave the individual in that society. They may pose a risk to others and/or others may pose a risk to them. Humanity demonstrated their attitude to magic pretty blatantly with the Witch Trials. If a human does show magical ability, we remove them as seamlessly as we can and find them a new home where they are accepted, whether that be with us or another civilisation. Thankfully, very few humans from here ever do end up with powers. For whatever reason, this planet is disconnected from magic. Wasn’t always the case, but… nevertheless, individuals do crop up from time to time, and the few Earth provides tend to be exceptional.’

Savannah frowned now. She wasn’t sure she wanted Alexis to experience the world she did. She preferred the prospect of Alexis living a boring, mundane life where she was safe.

Would she be safe, though? Theo and Katerina hadn’t been… maybe it was better for Alexis's welfare that she did join Savannah…

‘So… if magic isn’t a big thing here, how come me and Alexis have it?’

Lauren shrugged. ‘Could be that there’s a gene that activates your magic, or is the direct cause of it, although… I think the likelihood is it’s a freak accident of nature. It’s a very rare thing to have two from the same family show abilities - magic doesn’t traditionally work like genetics. Along with Kiara and Kyra, you and Alexis make up a very small sample size of siblings with magical abilities - if Alexis does, that is - and their circumstances were… unique.’

‘What about Aaron? Could he… I mean, could he have something too?’

‘It’s… possible. Highly unlikely, but then, so is both you and Alexis having power.’

‘What about you? How come you have magic? And how did you find out?’

A glimmer of darkness and grief flitted through Lauren’s expression, almost undetectable. Her pupils dilated, her iris’s seemed to flash red, and her features slackened.

‘I don’t know the hows or the whys. One day, I just had this ability to shoot lightning out of my hands. I was 17, just a little younger than you and… just like that, I had something I’d never heard of. My parents were rich and upper class, so I had access to everything commonplace at the time - everything historical, everything scientific, all the literature… I’d never heard of anything like it. Then, next thing I know, Malik visits me and bam - within a year, I’m a fully-fledged member of The Seven. Obviously, you won’t be because we’re unique and our power level is much higher than yours, but… that’s my story.’

‘What happened with your parents?’

Lauren tapped her temple and looked at Savannah. ‘You’re thinking about what happens if you leave Lyra for good, aren’t you? The sad truth is… we don’t age, and they do. You can keep flitting back between the worlds and keep them happy and blissfully ignorant, but… we - well, you, I don’t, I’m like this for eternity - age a lot slower than humans. It’s a gift that comes with magic. It… it’s both a blessing and a curse. You get to look good, and healthy, and young, for an incredibly long time… but the flipside is that everyone you know will age and die and you’ll never look a day older as they fade away. It’s one thing to cope with the responsibilities that come with this life, it’s another to watch everyone you love die. With my parents, well… they died - not in a car crash, mind, Irene was just a cover - but they died. Not long after I discovered my powers. I never had any friends anyway, nor extended family, so for me it was significantly easier, but… it inevitably reaches the point where the simplest solution is to leave and never come back. There’s no immediate need to worry - the change in your ageing won’t be noticeable for a couple of decades.’

Savannah sighed and stared into the distance. She’d feared things would get messy and now… here was her confirmation. It wasn’t like she could confide in Lyra… Lyra would never believe her in a million years and even in the event that she did, it would terrify her. Even so… she couldn’t imagine a life without her mother in it. She couldn’t put Lyra through the ordeal of having her daughter disappear. She didn’t want to leave her. She adored Lyra and, in her mind, leaving her wasn’t an option.

They talked no more until the lesson ended and the class filtered out. Savannah was biting her lip, deep in thought, when a hand touched her arm.

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Savannah turned and released a small gasp - it was Matthew. She hadn’t spoken to him in months (not that she’d had any inclination to do so) and with the turbulence that was her life, she hadn’t given him any consideration in ages.

Lauren peered over her shoulder. When she saw who’d stopped Savannah, her lip curled.

‘Sav, can I-can I have a word?’ Matthew said, gaze jumping from Savannah to Lauren. His legs trembled. Savannah bristled at his use of ‘Sav’ and looked around for Kate; she was nowhere to be seen. Figured. There was no way Matthew would have the balls to approach Savannah had Kate been with him.

Savannah turned to Lauren. ‘You go on, I’ll catch up with you.’

Lauren’s eyes narrowed, but she departed, leaving Matthew and Savannah alone in the corridor.

‘So, erm… listen, I’ve heard... I’m sorry about your brother. I can’t… it’s really sad.’

Savannah’s brow furrowed. ‘Well, obviously it’s very sad, you fuckin’ dough ball. Is that all?’

Matthew laughed and glanced down both ends of the corridor, making sure they couldn’t be overheard. ‘Look. I really… I miss you. I love you so-‘

Savannah held up a hand. ‘I’m just going to stop you right there, bro. First, you’re still with Kate, so that’s a definite no. Second, even if you weren’t, I still don’t want to hear it.’

Matthew moved in closer, legs still trembling. ‘Come on, you know we were great together and being with Kate has just made me realise just how special you are. I can’t live without you, Sav.’

‘Matthew…’ She staggered back a step. He grabbed her arm and moved in again.

‘Come on, you know you want to…’

She twisted herself from his grip and lurched away, her face twisted in disgust. ‘No, no. Don’t tear my heart in two and act like you’re the one who’s bleeding. Do you honestly think I’d put another girl through what you put me through? I don’t want to know because, to be completely honest, I do not care. I haven’t thought about you in god knows how long, but I’ve not forgotten what you did. I don’t love you, I doubt I ever did, and the brutal truth is, I could do so much better than you. Don’t ever try this again.’

Savannah strode away and left Matthew with his jaw hanging open. She smiled; for the first time, the realisation that she was over him hit, and that felt amazing.

*

Bradshaw sat hunched at his desk, Robertson perched on the edge of it. The pair examined the whiteboard containing all the information they’d gathered on the two murders. Leads were scarce, evidence even more so. A mugshot of Jeremy was slapped in the board’s centre, two red threads extending from it to pictures of Theo and Katerina.

The case against Jeremy was open-and-shut a month and a half ago - Katerina had died from a stab wound, Jeremy had no alibi, and the murder weapon, found in Katerina’s garden, had Jeremy’s fingerprints on it. It didn’t take a genius to figure that one out.

They were still going to get a conviction for Katerina’s murder, of course. The problem Theo’s death posed - aside from being an utter tragedy; Bradshaw felt it was diabolical that someone would take the life of a child - was that Jeremy couldn’t have done it. There was no CCTV in his cell, but… he couldn’t have escaped, in broad daylight, stolen a car, ran over his son and daughter, then returned to the police station and locked himself back in his cell, all without anyone noticing.

Bradshaw’s boss had told him and Robertson to consider (or rather accept) that Theo’s death and Alexis's near-death (which was an issue in itself - how does a teenage girl, with a broken body, heal and regain her original level of health, so much so she was able to leave the hospital a couple of days later?) was the result of a hit and run.

‘Something isn’t sitting right,’ Bradshaw said. ‘It feels far too coincidental.’

Robertson rubbed her cheek. ‘I agree. I don’t know what, but my gut is telling me that there’s a link. That we’re missing something.’

They’d had this conversation a million times, and on no occasion had they had any sort of breakthrough.

‘The possibility remains,’ Bradshaw stood and approached the board, a pen in his hand. ‘That this poor soul,’ he circled Theo and wrote ‘H+R’ beneath him. ‘Was the result of a tragic accident. But how,’ he drew a line connecting Theo with Katerina. ‘Does it just so happen that he’s the grandson of a woman who was definitely murdered? Not to mention,’ he wrote ‘Alexis’ beneath Jeremy. ‘Alexis was caught up in it too and was almost certainly intended to have been killed, and would have been, were it not for a so-called ‘miracle’.’

Robertson gave a heavy sigh. ‘So, who’s the killer? I think, Ryan, at this point we have to at least hypothesise that Jeremy really was framed, though I’d really rather believe the opposite. We can’t pin murders on him just because he’s a good-for-nothing lowlife. So, let’s just pretend for the moment he was framed. Why frame him?’

Bradshaw chewed the end of the pen in thought. ‘I mean, the man has a history of domestic violence, drunk and disorderly, ABH, GBH… charges Lyra has consistently extricated him from, hence his ‘clean record’. Anyone close to either, one of the children, or really anyone who passes a pub would know he’s not exactly the most endearing of people.’

‘But to get the knife to kill Katerina? I’d hazard a guess that knife came from the Glasco-Mason household, otherwise the killer wouldn’t have been able to get Jeremy’s fingerprints. Which means…’

Bradshaw’s expression brightened. ‘Whoever killed her had to have access to the house. While the G-Ms could have been burgled and not known about it - we’ll keep that as a possibility, just in case - the more likely option is it’s someone close to the family. Which narrows the net a lot. Bit reckless, though, killing Theo and trying to do the same to Alexis while Jeremy was still being held. If you’re trying to frame someone…’

Robertson checked a file on the desk. ‘Hold on, Ryan. Look at the date.’

‘What about it?’

‘Theo’s murder coincides with the date of Jeremy’s bail hearing.’

Bradshaw wrinkled his nose. ‘So… that means one of three things. One - Jeremy escaped in transit and managed to get back in time to get behind the wheel of the jeep - he was held at court all afternoon, not prison, so… it’s unlikely but theoretically possible. Two - the actual killer banked on Jeremy getting bail and didn’t hear the outcome, killing on that assumption, or three - they heard that he’d been denied bail and thought they’d kill anyway. In the last two, the killer sacrifices their initial framing of Jeremy, which seems too reckless to have been intentional. Either way, that brings us a great deal closer.’ He grabbed his jacket, a spring in his step once more. ‘Come on, we’re gonna establish whether he could have escaped. Then we’ll get to questioning him. We’ll either get confirmation or denial of his involvement in Theo’s death or rule out one of three possibilities. Let’s get going.’

*

Savannah, Lauren, and Alexis returned home. The after-school walk had become a surreal experience. Nowadays, every time they passed Theo’s school without having to pick him up, their expressions darkened and their bodies slumped. For the first week, they’d automatically turned the corner and walked up the path to the school before realising, causing Savannah to bawl.

Though having to go past his school five days a week caused horrendous heartache, they were strong enough to manage.

Aaron no longer came with them. Ever since the hit-and-run, he’d been in a downwards spiral. He stumbled home every night in the early hours of the morning. Initially, his vice had been marijuana, which he’d always dabbled in with his mates now and then; as his friends progressed to harder drugs, got into circles with other, older people, and his mental state and ability to cope worsened, so did the consistency and concentration of his narcotic intake, progressing to cocaine.

Savannah hoped against hope that Aaron would be able to put his foot down and that this was just an initial phase of grief and would become no more than that. She felt a pit in her stomach whenever she thought about him (akin to that of when she thought of Theo) resulting from her inability to slow his descent.

The girls slung their bags down by the door and went into the living room. Alexis and Lauren jumped on the sofa, while Savannah checked her phone. Alexis flicked on the TV. After a few minutes, Savannah put her phone down.

‘I’m gonna check on mum.’

‘Has she eaten yet?’ Alexis said without diverting her attention from the TV. Savannah shook her head. ‘God, at what point do we start force-feeding her?’

Savannah shrugged and walked up the stairs. She reached Lyra’s room and tapped on the door. No response, as expected. She edged the door open.

The room stank of alcohol and stale sweat. Littered around the bed were empty bottles of wine. At the base of the bed were old family photo albums. Lyra lay on the bed, her complexion the same grey as the winter sky outside, her arm curled around one of the more recent family albums which Savannah knew for a fact was mostly of Theo.

‘Jesus fucking Christ,’ she muttered, covering her nose with her sleeve. She moved around the room, picking up the bottles. A cursory glance around the room confirmed there were no glasses.

I should have expected this, Savannah thought. She can only fight the depression so long before she begins drowning her sorrows.

Was it any wonder Aaron chose to mask his trauma with intoxication? He’d seen both his parents do the same for years. It was more of a wonder Savannah and Alexis had never seen the appeal themselves.

Savannah went downstairs and chucked the bottles into the glass bin. Alexis wandered through - her eyes sparkled upon glimpsing the bottles. ‘Been having fun at night, have you? Without me?’ she said, hand on her chest.

Savannah forced a laugh. ‘No, they’re… from mum’s room.’

Alexis's face fell. ‘Aw, god, really? Not again… That fuckin’ alkie.’

‘Yup,’ Savannah said, filling a glass with water. She hesitated by the toaster. ‘Is it worth even bothering to make her something to eat?’

Alexis gave a sardonic laugh. ‘I doubt it. Seems all she can hack is alcohol, I doubt she’s re-developed an interest in food.’

‘True,’ Savannah said. She made her way back upstairs with the water. She re-entered Lyra’s room, set the glass down on her bedside table - and stopped.

Lyra’s breathing was ragged and shallow. Savannah moved closer. Her skin was grey, her violet, blotchy veins were visible. Deep red circles, like ponds of blood, encircled her eyes.

‘Mum?’ Savannah shook her.

No response.

‘Mum?!’ she said again, shaking her with more urgency.

Lyra didn’t stir.

‘ALEX!’ she yelled. She continued to shake Lyra with ever more ferocity.

Alex burst into the room. ‘What? What is it?’

Savannah’s head shot towards her. Tears were streaming, her face the same shade as her mother’s. ‘Call an ambulance, now!’

‘Shit,’ Alexis muttered. She hurtled downstairs for her phone.

Savannah kept shaking Lyra. Lyra refused to twitch.