‘The pink one.’ She smiles up at me, her teeth like rice grains, her cheeks rosy and her brown eyes bright. I look in the window again. There’s a book near the front, a girl in a pink dress on the cover.Posey Prefers Pink, reads the title.
I swallow. ‘It does look very good.’ I think of my library, of the piles of children’s books put to one side once I grew out of them, discarded and gathering dust.
‘Yes, I want to have it.’
‘Amber!’ The young woman comes up, smiling apologetically. ‘I’m sorry,’ she says, taking the little girl by the hand as if to pull her away.
‘No, it’s fine,’ I say. Seized by a sudden impulse, I reach into my pocket, pulling out the roll of bills Kyle gave me. The young woman’s eyes widen. I pull a bill loose, tucking the rest back in my pocket. ‘Please.’ I hold it out. ‘Please, if this is enough, buy it for her.’
‘Oh, I couldn’t possibly accept.’
‘Please please please, Mummy!’ The little girl hugs my legs. It’s all I can do not to burst out crying. I keep holding out the money and the young woman, looking uncertain, finally takes it.
‘It’s too much,’ she says, her voice soft. ‘I’ll bring you the change.’
‘No.’ I shake my head, a tear escaping. ‘Please. Keep it.’
The little girl lets go of my legs. Ruth touches my arm. ‘You ready to go?’
I nod.
The little girl tugs her mother’s hand, pulling her towards the shop. I wave, wiping my eyes as I walk away, following Ruth towards the water. The air is wonderfully fresh and cold, filled with the sounds of people talking, laughing, living life. I barely register any of it. I’ve been so naïve, I realise. So sheltered. ‘Your family farm,’ Kyle had called it, a distant mirage under a starlit sky. I’d thought it would be so different, just like the lives I’d seen on screen, a shining dream. But now I see it’s nothing like that at all.
And how, but for an accident of birth, it would have been my lot as well.
Ruth stops, joining a small queue leading to a window. The faded sign depicts ice cream in cones. I stand with her, not knowing what else to do.
ChapterTwenty-Five
THE SCENT OF VIOLETS
‘You hungry?’
The words cut through my thoughts. I’m lying on my side, running my fingers through cold sand, marvelling at the colours in the tiny grains, polished pearl and gold and brown. I sit up, wrapping my arms around my knees.
‘A little.’ The sea is a glittering line in the distance, the sun high. A round tower stands on the edge of the shore, not too far away. The walls are smooth and brown with no windows, only a door in the base. Just below the crenellated top is the glint, silver and black, of my family insignia. Further along the curving coastline is another tower, squat and round like a troll guarding the shore.
‘What are the towers for?’ I ask.
Ruth takes in a long breath, blowing it out of her nose. ‘I guess you wouldn’t know, not having seen the sea before. They’re guard towers.’
‘Guard towers?’ I grow cold. What if they have cameras? What if they’re watching me, right now? There’s movement along the top wall, someone’s head and shoulders silhouetted against the sky. Shit. ‘Er… who, what…?’
Ruth glances over at the tower and her lip curls. ‘Vamps at night, human guards during the day. The great lords of Raven like to keep us safe.’
I feel sick. ‘Guarding against people… coming here?’
Ruth laughs without humour. ‘Why would anyone come here? No, they’re to stop us leaving. Don’t know where they think we’d go. Europe is no better than here, if not worse. Out of the frying pan into the fire.’
‘But can’t you visit other Safe Zones? And, aren’t there islands, out there? In the Channel?’ This I did know. I’d seen the maps in our library, studied them in my lessons. Maybe Kyle and I will go there, if we can.
Ruth frowns at me, taking a moment to answer. ‘There are. They used to be free folk, living there. Some of the last places. But the vamps found them all, eventually. Can’t even let us have that, a couple of tiny islands.’ She huffs out a laugh, humourless. ‘And forget about going to any other Safe Zones. They like to keep us where they can see us. Besides, how are we supposed to get there?’
She sounds more resigned than bitter, but her words fall like stones into my stomach. Fuck. I know I have Kyle, and he can run as fast as any car. But I’m worried, now. What if we can’t get to the next Safe Zone?
Ruth touches my arm. ‘C’mon. It’s getting cold. I’ll get you lunch.’
I think of the roll of money in my pocket, the way the little girl’s mother’s eyes had widened when she saw it. Of towers filled with darkness that border her world. ‘Let me pay. You’ve been so good to me already.’
