‘Don’t run into the forest—’ he shouts, but the rest of his sentence is drowned out as I dart instinctively towards the trees.
I hear the slap of boots behind me, Marquis’s ragged breath at my shoulder.
‘Viv, on your left!’ Atlas screams from somewhere unseen.
My head snaps to the left just as a group of people storm out from behind a tree and I’m slammed to the ground.
I HEAR SERENA SCREAM AS MY face grazes the forest floor, before the person on top of me pulls me roughly to my feet. I blink dirt from my eyes. Marquis and Gideon are on their knees, their captors standing over them in brown clothes and odd-looking masks made of tree bark and leaves. Serena writhes in the arms of another, spitting insults.
Where is Atlas?
‘Do what they tell you,’ Gideon says, his eyes on the ground.
Ten people surround us, their faces hidden, poison pouches hanging around their necks.
‘Search their packs,’ someone barks.
A couple of them take our packs and begin rifling through the contents, pulling out medicine and spare socks and ammunition. One takes a step towards Gideon. The person is broad-shouldered with long, blond curls tied back with a piece of cloth. Their hands are small, fingernails bitten down to their beds.
‘I don’t believe my eyes.’
The voice behind the mask is low and gravely, but young. I hear a London accent, probably Third Class. Its owner removes their disguise and behind it is a boy our age. He has a round, bullish face and a sneer that means nothing good. His green eyes watch us hungrily.
‘Gideon?’ he says.
‘It is!’ one of them laughs. ‘Thought they took you back to the mainland.’
The first grabs Gideon by the hair and stares into his face. ‘Giddy, my boy. Is it really you?’
Gideon scowls, his arms still pinned to his sides by the person holding him.
‘Hello, Freddie,’ he mutters.
Freddie lets out an incredulous laugh. ‘We just get luckier and luckier, don’t we boys?’
The boys surrounding us let out loud jeers as they remove their masks.
‘Gideon?’ I say. ‘Who is this?’
Freddie’s head jerks towards me. He comes so close his nose almost touches mine and as I breathe in the hot, dirty smell of him, I see Marquis tense in my peripheral vision.
‘Viv, right?’ he says. ‘Pretty. You can stay.’
Freddie moves to Serena. ‘Nice accent,’ he says with a coy smile. ‘Could have listened to you all day. But what’s a First Class girl like you doing so far from home?’
Serena doesn’t flinch as she meets his gaze. ‘We’re here as part of the Human-Dragon Coalition.’
Freddie snorts. ‘So that’s what you call it. And what’s your name?’
‘Serena Serpentine,’ she replies, lifting her chin.
Freddie’s eyes linger on Serena’s face as two more boys burst through the bushes.
‘The other one took off,’ the first mutters.
I blink back tears as I stare at my boots. Did Atlas really just abandon us? Freddie doesn’t seem to care that he has escaped. His eyes narrow in Gideon’s direction. ‘But how can Giddy be a rebel, when he was taken from us months ago by order of the very Prime Minister the rebels are fighting? Turncoat, are you?’
I look at Gideon. ‘This is the group you were with on Canna?’
