She moved away, towards the trapdoor, but his quiet resigned words stopped her.
“We’ll go together.”
She felt a jumble of fear and relief, and the next moment they were through the trapdoor and running down the winding stairs. The wind dropped when they reached the door, and Zek was able to open it without too much of a struggle. She followed him out into the spitting rain, clinging to the wall of the lighthouse as they rounded it and made their way towards the cliff edge.
Before them, the massive form of Neptune was swaying in the storm and, behind him, Izzy could see the looming shape of the steamer approaching the rocks.
History must not be repeated, she told herself. If necessary she would give her life to save the others. To save her husband. An odd calmness came over her as she gazed over the dizzying drop to the water below, to where the god of the sea waited.
Zek stepped in front of her, spread his arms wide and threw back his head. “I’m here, my lord Neptune!” he shouted into the wind.
Neptune’s oily eyes gleamed and his hair writhed. He swooped down, his face half fish and half man, and hovered over them. His mouth opened to show long sharp teeth. “I saved your life, now I’m here to collect on the deal, Captain Cole. The time has come to pay up.”
“Tell me what you want,” Zek said, but he was only playing for time.
“Isabel,” the monster said, his voice hissing like spray against the rocks. He smiled as she stepped out from the shadows.
Zek wanted to turn her around and run with her back to the lighthouse, to safety, but he forced himself to remain still. The Sorceress was right, Isabel was right - they needed to face this together.
Izzy spoke calmly, as if she dealt with sea gods every day of the week. “I want you to bring back the light and save the passenger steamer.”
The unblinking eyes fixed on her. “Why should I?”
“You said you wanted me. I’m here. Now do as I say.”
Neptune laughed. Behind him they could see the steamer struggling in the storm, all those souls aboard.
“Come with me,” Neptune hissed. “I command it, Isabel.”
“Not until you turn the light back on,” she shouted, angry and desperate.
But the monster just laughed, and suddenly they knew the truth. “You never meant to save the steamer, did you? If I hadn’t died and negated our deal, you would have come back over and over again. Isabel was just an excuse to make me give you the steamer. There would have been another ship after that, and then another.”
The monster’s eyes were cold and pitiless. “Those who go to sea must pay a price. I only ask for what is fair.”
“How is that fair?” Izzy cried.
“A life given for a life saved,” he hissed. “This is my domain and I make the rules.”
“But here’s the thing, Neptune. The days of the old gods are past, and if anyone makes the rules, then it’s me.” The Sorceress was standing beside them on the cliff top, her long red hair streaming in the wind, her arms raised, the crackle of blue lightning flying from her fingers.
“No!” he roared, his tail thumping on the surface, sending water streaming into the air around him.
“Neptune, come with me,” she shouted, her voice like a sonic boom.
“You cannot make me! I was in this world before you and your kind were even thought of. I belong here.”
But the Sorceress had begun to sing, words with no meaning, weaving them into an achingly beautiful and yet terrifying song. The monster clasped his hands to his head and began to groan, and then he shook himself, trying to be rid of the sounds.
“You tricked me. This isn’t fair . . .”
“I am the Sorceress and this isn’t about being fair. I brought Zek back from the between-worlds so that he could redeem himself— become the hero he should have been. No, Neptune, I played you at your own game. You are a liar. You’re not to be trusted. Isabel was willing to give up her life, but that wasn’t enough for you. I knew you wouldn’t stand by your word. You have no honour. Your time is over and you will leave here now.”
Her words had hardly been spoken when Neptune began to vanish, fading like an old sepia photograph, until he was utterly gone.
Zek’s hair was wet, plastered to his head, his clothes dripping, but he was alive. His eye glowed with passion as he drew Isabel into his arms, and they clung together as the storm began to wane.
“I have sent him somewhere he can do no more harm,” the Sorceress said calmly, watching them. “When you called to him during the storm on your ship, you gave him the power to command you. If you’d let him, he would have sunk other ships and drowned many more people to satisfy his bloodlust.”