“Yes, it was Arthur the whole time. And it’ll be Arthur who makes sure that Liv’s smile is wiped off her face forever.”
Henry took a step closer. His casual expression gave way to genuine tension. “I regret every minute I have to spend with you, Arthur,” he said slowly. “And don’t imagine that I trusted you for a single second. What’s the point of all this?”
“There isn’t necessarily a point to everything.” Arthur was giving him a nasty look. “It’s enough for me to feel satisfaction. For Liv to suffer the way I’ve suffered. For her to lose everything she loves.” He gave a breathless laugh. “Although you two managed there without my help. Nice of you to dump her, Henry. I think that hit her hard, didn’t it, Liv?”
Yes. Unfortunately he was right.
Henry glanced at me briefly, then turned back to Arthur. “Natural catastrophes … snakes … Your repertoire hasn’t changed much, anyway,” he said. “And I can dream rings around you any day.”
That was true too. Anyway, conjuring up a white horse at this point would have been very suitable (and it would have harmonized so well with my nightgown).
Arthur nodded slightly. “Maybe,” he said. “But, Henry, believe me, I’m going to see this through. One way or another. No one will keep me from getting my revenge.” He pointed to Mia, who had picked up one of the baby chicks and was stroking it, enchanted. I didn’t want him to go on, but I didn’t know how to stop him. Now he was smiling again, and it was the most unpleasant smile I’d ever seen.
“Look at my little puppet there,” he said. “You do realize that you won’t be able to guard her around the clock every night, don’t you? I can do anything I like with her. Anything! At any time!” He looked around for Mia’s door. “And I can end it soon, but I can just as easily wait.” His eyes wandered carelessly over me. “Waiting can sometimes really wear you down, Liv. Yes, I think I’m going to enjoy that.” He laughed again. “To be honest, I’m quite enjoying it now. I wish you could see your faces. See it dawning on you slowly but surely that there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, you can do to stop me.”
I bit my lip. He was right—I felt totally helpless, and I had no plans. There was nothing to be done about so much hostility.
“It will give me pleasure to watch you suffering, Liv,” said Arthur solemnly.
“And it will give me pleasure to thwart every last one of your projects,” said Henry.
“You may be overestimating yourself, my old friend,” said Arthur. With a huge leap, he crossed the meadow and landed right outside Mia’s door. “Now, excuse me. I have to go and tell Secrecy how Liv once wet herself in a bus in Hyderabad.”
We waited until the door had latched behind him and then looked at each other.
“He’s out of his mind,” I said. “Just like Anabel.”
“No, he isn’t,” Henry contradicted me, coming closer. For a moment I thought he was going to take me in his arms, but luckily I noticed just in time that he was only going to take a leaf out of my hair. “He’s just a vengeful egomaniac who hasn’t learned from his mistakes, and so vain that he can’t bear to have been knocked out by a girl.”
“Kicked,” I corrected him.
Henry smiled slightly. “Whatever you say.” He was still taking leaves out of my hair, although there weren’t any left now.
“I’m scared,” I whispered. “He wants Mia to harm herself. And I’ve seen that it works. She very nearly jumped out of that window.”
“It won’t happen, Liv, I promise you. I … we…” He took my hand and pressed it. “We’ll think of something.”
I’ve no idea what would have happened if the ground hadn’t suddenly disappeared from under us at that moment. Everything went dark. For a fraction of a second, I could still feel Henry’s hand in mine, and then I fell alone into a bottomless abyss.
28
THIS WAS AT least the tenth door I was opening, and the tenth room I was crossing. There were doors in all four of its walls, just as there had been in all the other rooms before it, and I had no idea where I was really going.
I stopped, out of breath. My heart was in my mouth, the palms of my hands were sweating, my leg muscles ached. All that even though I knew for sure that this was only a dream. Although not my dream; I was in Mia’s dream.
“Mia?” I called, and my voice echoed back from the walls. “Where are you?”
No answer. Instead I heard a soft laugh somewhere. Arthur’s laugh.
I pulled myself together and moved on. The door opposite would do as well—or as badly—as any other. It led into another empty room with doors, all of them in their own turn leading into more rooms with more doors. I knew this would never end. I felt that I had been wandering in this labyrinth forever, while valuable minutes passed, and all I wanted was to wake at long last. But I simply couldn’t do it, never mind how desperately I tried.