The Templar's Curse by Sarwat Chadda (classic books to read TXT) 📕

want to matter to him, because she wasn’t sure he mattered to her. Not enough.

Faustus was alone, but she wasn’t right for him. He was too much like Kay.

She hadn’t saved Kay. She couldn’t save Faustus.

The village lay up ahead.

She should have decided this earlier. “You need to go, Faustus. I’ll handle it from here.”

“Er… what?” He shook his head as if clearing out a misunderstanding. “Is this to avoid any awkwardness when we save your boyfriend? I promise to be utterly discreet. What happens during the apocalypse stays in the apocalypse.”

“Nothing actually happened during the apocalypse, Faustus.” How could he be so conceited? Did girls fall for such arrogance? Or was it just nerves? People hid their fear in many ways.

“It’s still early and I’m keeping my options open.”

“I’m being serious. Go home. I can handle it from here.”

“How?”

“How? The old-fashioned way. Faith and steel.”

“Against the Anunnaki? And Reggie? You think an exorcism is going to work on him? It ain’t. His power comes from another source and it’s got nothing to do with your Christian rituals. This is old-school. I mean the original school.”

“So you’re saying his god’s bigger than mine?”

“I’m saying he doesn’t care about gods at all. And that sword? You really willing to use it on Erin when the time comes? She may be possessed by Reggie but when you look into those bright blue eyes of hers, what are you going to do? You going to hesitate and in that moment Reggie will kill you.”

“So I bring you along so you can do it for me?”

“I’m the only one who can save Erin and you know it,” said Faustus. “You’ve got no other plan, have you?”

“Since when have I ever worried about a plan? I was just gonna barge in and make the rest up on the fly.”

“That approach work for you?”

“Your enemy can’t predict what you’re planning if you have no plan.”

He laughed. “Chaos rules, eh?”

“It always does.” She wasn’t going to win this one. “Come on, then.”

They walked the cobblestone streets of empty Hollburgh. Nature had taken back the village. Trees had sprouted within the ruined houses, pushing through walls, ripping through the old, moss-covered slate roofs. So much of the cliff had collapsed that the streets and buildings ran into the sea. Black rotten posts stuck out of the sea, waves broke against barnacle-embedded walls and there was a church spire half-rising out of the water. By some freak it hadn’t collapsed and still stood as straight as the day it had been built. The divine had done some serious intervening on that one.

Seagulls nested in the exposed eaves. Crabs scuttled across the cobbles. The doorways were draped with seaweed curtains. When the tide came in the whole village would once again vanish.

Two centuries had passed since anyone had lived there, but that didn’t mean it had been left alone, not entirely.

Someone had pasted a series of photos to one wall. In defiance of the sea and the sun, images lingered of a young man and woman, close up and grinning. Though much of the image had faded there was a light in their eyes that couldn’t be diminished by time nor tide.

“Will you look at that,” said Faustus, his gaze raised to the clifftop.

So Billi did.

A kilometre further along the beach the cliff had split, sheering away from the mainland. Hollburgh castle, what was left of it, clung precariously to the section now leaning over the sea, only connected to the mainland by what looked like a temporary scaffolding bridge. The battlements along the sea face had collapsed into the sea and taking a number of buildings with them, chunks of wall, partial foundations were visible in the exposed cliff face. It was as if a mythic titan had risen out of the waves, grabbed hold of the castle and tried to tear it away from the rest of the land, leaving a forty-metre-wide cleft at the top.

“That bridge looks rickety,” said Faustus.

He wasn’t wrong, but it was also the only way in.

No lights. She’d expected some signs of life. The only movement came from a pair of flags flapping from the top of the keep, one bearing the cross of St. George and the other the FitzRoy family crest. Billi peered through the binoculars she’d taken from the cottage. “The keep looks in good nick, the rest of the castle not so much. There are a few outbuildings that don’t look totally ruined but the eastward side of the castle has completely fallen into the sea. Give it another few decades and the keep will be gone too. The walls are already badly cracked and one of the turrets has fallen down. But I can’t see anyone.”

“Who are you expecting?”

“Reggie and his friends.”

“Like those asakku demons?” asked Faustus.

“Or worse. This is the big finale, isn’t it? Reggie’s spent a hundred years trying to get to this point and he won’t want us interrupting.” Billi gestured to the path leading up the cliff and towards the castle. “Let’s go spoil his day in the worst way possible.”

They hiked up the slope as the drizzle grew heavier. The wind up here bit the skin, nipping the ears and making your eyes water. Seagulls wheeled overhead, their wings outspread and riding the currents. There were a few small cottages up here, long abandoned as being too close to the edge. The long grass and weeds all but hid the path and the only other creature they saw was an adder curled up amongst the thistles.

And then they were at the bridge. The gate was chained and padlocked and the sign was bold.

No trespassers. Building at risk of collapse.

Billi peered over the edge. It was a long drop down onto the rocks. “We can climb over the gate and then just across the bridge. I can’t see any cameras.”

“Seems easy enough.”

Yeah, it did, didn’t it? Squatted on the cliff edge Billi gazed across the bridge. The scaffolders had done a good job. It