20 Years Later by Emma Newman Page A

Boy would be, he was laid on the sofa. Miri had prepared bandages and ointments already, and water was boiling over the fire.
    Zane directed her attention to the various injuries faster than she could diagnose them. Callum lurked in the doorway for a few moments before saying very quietly, “I’ll see if I can find the others,” and slipping away.
    The boy seemed older than Zane had first thought him to be, maybe the same age as he was, now that he could be seen by the light of several candles. He helped Miri tend to him as he murmured and frowned, barely conscious. His face was scraped and his lip cut, but aside from the broken ribs he was only bruised elsewhere. When Miri had done all she could, she told Zane to stay close to him as she made some tea to treat the shock.
    Zane knelt next to the boy, watching him closely with concern. He was struggling to raise his head and trying to get up, but was too dazed and hurt to do so.
    â€œStay still,” Zane said quietly. “It’ll hurt less.”
    The boy tipped his head towards Zane, and through his bloody lips croaked, “Lyssa.”
    â€œCallum is getting her,” Zane said but the boy frowned, still very disoriented.
    â€œLyssa,” he mumbled again and his eyes fluttered open to look at Zane. Zane’s back straightened when he saw them and he shuddered. He’d seen them before in a dream, looking back at him from a mirror. The boy had violet eyes.

Chapter 10
TITUS
    The next morning Zane wandered out of his bedroom to find Jay lying on the floor on a blanket and his mother having a hushed conversation with Callum at the doorway.
    Zane looked down at Jay, lying on his back. His jacket was missing and the t-shirt he wore was blackened from the chest downwards. A large hole gaped over the right-hand side of his torso, the edges crisped as if it had been burnt. One of his mother’s poultices was smeared onto a large burn that spread from the top of his right hip to his ribs. Jay’s mouth was slack and eyes shut, his long eyelashes especially black against the pallor of his face. He didn’t look so scary now, and Zane found it hard to remember how he could have seemed so threatening the night before.
    The boy had gone from the sofa, but Zane peeped into Miri’s bedroom to see that he had been placed on the top of her bed and was sleeping too.
    Miri and Callum were so involved in their conference that they hadn’t noticed him.
    â€œThey’ll have her now,” Callum was saying as Miri leant against the doorframe wearily.
    â€œI can’t believe it was so close to here,” she replied. “Poor girl.”
    Callum sighed. “Not sure what the boy had to do with her, but they were close.”
    Miri nodded. “He kept asking for her. I have no idea how to tell him.”
    â€œTell him what?” Zane made his mother jump.
    Both she and Callum looked at him with the guilty faces of interrupted conspirators.
    â€œNothing,” she lied.
    â€œWho has her now?” Zane focused the question at Callum, making him shuffle awkwardly.
    At a pointed look from Miri, he coughed and mumbled, “I’d better get over to the Boys. They don’t have anyone watching them at the moment.”
    Zane watched him withdraw from the doorstep and slip out of sight. Miri shut the door and turned to Zane.
    â€œAre you hungry?” she asked, using an old distraction tactic.
    Zane shook his head. “What’s going on?” he asked, frustrated.
    Miri’s eyes flicked around the room, searching for something to concentrate on other than her son’s suspicious look. They settled on Jay. “Jay’s badly hurt and he may be here a while.” She came over to Zane, moved his long hair off his cheek and smoothed it affectionately, sadly. “Zane … Mark and Grame died.”
    Zane looked past her, through the window and into the garden, the day taking on the quality of a strange and