The Everlasting by Tim Lebbon Page A

Papa think this way about everyone?
he thought.
Maybe Mother and Father, yes, but surely not me. He was training me. Grooming me to continue his quest. I was sixteen when he died . . . how much longer was he waiting before he told me so much more?
    In the shop he bought some tissues and wet wipes, along with several bottles of water and some prepacked sandwiches.
Does an immortal get hungry?
he wondered, and then he remembered Nina relishing the coffee he’d made for her. He bought two strong coffees and went back out to the car. He passed a dozen people on the way, and only one of them nodded a brief acknowledgment. Even having seen what he’d seen these last two days, he was still just another man.
    As soon as he opened the car door he knew somethinghad changed. Nina looked up at him without smiling, waited until he’d sat in his seat and put the coffee down, then handed Papa’s note back to him.
    â€œGot some stuff to tell you,” she said.
    â€œI was hoping you might.”
    â€œThat for me?” She took one of the cups and swigged the scorching liquid, sighing and licking her lips.
    â€œSo what was in the note?”
    â€œYou read it, Scott. What do you think?”
    â€œDirections. It was telling me how to get somewhere, but I don’t know those symbols.”
    â€œTelling you where to find something, more like.”
    â€œThe book?”
    Nina rested her head back against the headrest. “It’s much, much more than a book, Scott. It’s the Chord of Souls. It contains the original Chord of Souls, as well as many other things.”
    â€œThe Chord of Souls is the spell for immortality?”
    â€œA large part of it.”
    â€œSo what else is in the book?”
    â€œStuff.” The look she gave him convinced Scott that nothing would encourage her to elaborate. Not now, at least.
    And he was fine with that. For now.
Jesus, I’m starting to think just like Papa!
    â€œSo where is it?”
    â€œI don’t know. But Papa’s note illustrates where he hid the parts he and Lewis found in Africa.”
    â€œThen let’s go, let’s—”
    â€œLewis can never have the book, you know. Nobody can.”
    â€œMy wife . . .”
    â€œI’ll do my best to help you, but Lewis will never have the Chord of Souls. I’ll make sure of that. However I can, however I have to. Understand?”
    â€œA threat?”
    â€œNo, not really. Just a statement of intent.”
    Scott nodded. “Why can’t he have it? Papa did.”
    â€œPapa and Lewis had only a few pages from the book. They discovered parts of the Chord of Souls, though not all. But what I think Papa
did
discover—somehow, and I have yet to work out how—is where the rest of the book is hidden. Lewis must have been close to discovering this as well . . . and that’s why Papa killed him.” Nina glanced at Scott and then down at her bloodied hands. They fisted in her lap, unclenched, and she lifted them to stare at where blood had dried in her lifeline.
    â€œAnd then Papa killed himself.”
    â€œYes. He had knowledge he could never lose. Lewis wasn’t the only man alive who would value that knowledge.”
    â€œBut the note?”
    Nina took a pack of tissues and began wiping down the windshield. “Lucky for me, some people can’t let go of such powerful knowledge. It’s like trying to un-invent the bomb.”
    â€œWhy do you want the rest of the book?”
    â€œBecause we’ve been looking for it forever. And because it’ll remind me how to die.” She spit on the glass to clear a patch of blood that had already dried.
    â€œPapa died a good man,” Scott said. He had always known. Whatever people said about him—his mother and father included, at times—he had always believed that there was much more to the death of those two old men than met the eye. Some gossiped that they were old lovers and that