‘Keep my voice down?’ I am going to kill him. ‘I wouldn’tbein danger if it wasn’t for you, asshole!’
‘Asshole?’ One corner of his mouth curves up. Is helaughingat me? ‘And here I am, thinking I’m doing you a favour.’
‘How is bringing me to the middle of nowhere and disappearing doing me a favour?’ I want to shriek so loudly the treetops sway, but I keep my voice to a sharp whisper.
‘I brought you out here because I thought you needed it.’
‘Ineededto be put in danger? That is literally the opposite of what a guard is supposed to do!’
‘You’re not in danger. As long as you’re with me, anyway.’ He draws back from me, his silver gaze narrowing slightly. ‘And I will take you home.’
‘And then you’ll be fired, when I tell my parents what you did!’ Okay. Probably not the wisest thing to say to the person who holds my safety in his hands. He could disappear again, and then I’d be screwed. Still, it’s done now. I fold my arms and wait, hoping he hasn’t noticed how much my legs are trembling.
‘You won’t tell them.’
‘I won’t?’ Fear, now, clenching around my insides like a fist. ‘Why?’
‘Because, like I say, I’m doing you a favour. I’m going to show you something wonderful.’ He steps back, stretching his arms out and turning his face to the moon. ‘Can’t you feel it? Step outside your narrow world for a moment.’
‘Feel what?’ A couple of tears trickle down my cheek. I wipe them away, quickly. The last thing I need to do is tempt him.
‘Just think about where you are right now.’ His silver gaze softens, slightly. ‘Come on, Emelia. I can tell you need this.’
I frown, looking around. What in darkness is he on about? What, about any of this, could I possibly need? Then, as I stand in the cold meadow, frost forming on my boots, something inside me shifts. And I realise. There’s no one here to judge me. No family name. No need to pretend. Just me. And Kyle. Who, I realise, has done me a favour after all.
This is how things will be, once I escape my destiny. How it will feel to be alone, and free. It’s an extraordinary revelation. I tingle all over, turning slowly, breathing in the night, the open space, the fresh air.
‘Good,’ he says, in a self-satisfied sort of way, and I want to smack him again. But instead, I meet his gaze.
‘All right then,’ I say, feeling as though I’m about to step off a cliff. ‘What do you want to show me?’
* * *
Water tumbles past us, phosphorescent foam spattering against the dark flow. I can see more now we’re out from under the trees, the moon’s light unhindered.
It’s beautiful.
The waterfall thunders into the gorge, the stream rushing through the forest to throw itself over the cliff. My toes are at the edge, stone slick beneath my feet. Kyle’s arm is around my waist. I know it’s to stop me from falling, but wonder whether it’s just the waterfall that’s making my heart beat so fast.
‘This is amazing!’ My voice is lost in the roar of falling water. I lean forward, the drop sheer below me to a moonlit pool churned silver and black.
‘Careful!’ He pulls me back. ‘If you fall in I’ll be in trouble.’
I try to imagine what this place will look like in daylight, how sunlight will dance off the water, blue and green and white and gold. I want to stay longer, feel the power surging in the water, droplets misting my skin. But the pressure on my waist increases, Kyle pulling me back towards the trees.
The Great Forest is a place of mysteries, of dark stories, the black mass of it glimpsed from my bedroom window just another thing to fear. But now, walking through it with Kyle, moonlight painting the trees with silver and picking out the details on his jacket, it feels more like a fairy tale. I’m transfixed by it, stopping to examine delicate lichen on a branch, frost patterns on a leaf, my breath puffing clouds into the air. Moon-silvered trees surround us, their branches tangled like lace against the sky, roots lost in shadow.
I should be afraid, out here alone in the middle of nowhere. It’s what I’ve been guarded against my whole life, a wall of silver and black between me and the world, my parents keeping me safe. But as I stop again, my fingers tracing the velvet curves of a small mossy nest tucked into a low branch, all I feel is wonder.
The land falls away to one side of us, shimmers of golden light in the distance. I can still faintly hear the roar of the waterfall. It’s as though there’s a fluttering bird in my chest, and I can’t quite place the feeling. But, as we head deeper among the tangled trees, I realise what it is. Freedom. Out here, I’m not Raven. I’m no one. My walls are completely gone. I have no idea who I am without them. It’s terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
Kyle was right. It’s exactly what I need.
‘Keep moving.’ Kyle’s tone is brusque, crashing into my reverie.
‘But it’s so beautiful. The moonlight. The forest. Everything.’ I feel almost drunk. Maybe I am drunk, though I only had one glass of wine at the bar.
‘Is it?’
