‘For the love of God,’ I muttered, and then I was down at her side, rubbing at her arm, stroking her hair back from her face like she was a nipper and I was her mam. She had a nasty bruise on one cheek and blood running from her nostril. There seemed to be a patch of hair missing from her scalp.

‘Sera,’ I said, trying to get her to sit up. ‘John, grab that coffee …’

I took the flask and waved it under her nose, feeling hopeless. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment and when she started to open her mouth, her lips stayed half stuck together and she had to work her tongue into the dry places just to get some spit working around her mouth. She sipped at the coffee, sitting back against me, wincing as she raised her hands to her face and checked her bruises.

‘Are you all right?’ I asked, and it’s never anything other than a stupid question.

‘Something has gone wrong,’ she whispered, looking up and seeing me and then glancing into the darkness where John stood. ‘He is better? He is well?’

‘I’m soldiering on, love,’ said John. ‘Grateful to you.’

‘Who hurt you?’ I asked, feeling my temper start to boil. ‘Was it that nasty sod who dumped you here?’

She didn’t speak at first. Got a grip of herself and then raised her hands to hold her cross. ‘They have deceived me,’ she said, and there was exhaustion in her voice. ‘The people who tried to help me – they spoke of being on the side of the angels but there is a demon in their midst who will never permit the change that we are promised.’

I looked to John, worry writ in every line of my face, feeling so far out of my depth that I couldn’t imagine ever nearing the shore. ‘I don’t understand,’ I said, and it seemed to refer to so much more than the events of the evening so far.

‘My brother, he knows now what has been done. I did not have his faith, you see. I had doubts and when I spoke them he quieted me and swore that our protectors could indeed be trusted. Now he sees the truth. That man …’ She pointed at the wall as if expecting a monster to come through it.

‘Go on, love,’ said John, squatting down beside us and giving a hiss of pain as he remembered his open wound.