His hand falling limp on the bare earth, as laughter filled the air all around her, rippling through the canopy of trees like birdsong…
It hit her like a blow to the stomach.
This was where she’d found him. She’d been lost in the woods but this was where?—
‘What the hell are you doing in here?’ a voice shouted from the forest.
Alex screamed. She couldn’t help herself. She twisted around to see Nick Walker stalk out of the trees, his expression dark and terrible. He carried an axe, and all she could think of was an executioner.
Alex stumbled back and collided with one of the stones. It was cold, far too cold on such a sunny autumn day. The urge to throw herself behind it and hide from him was so strong.
And then she got a hold of herself. Hide? No. Absolutely not. Anger surged back.
‘This is my land,’ she reminded him with a snarl. ‘Remember? Why shouldn’t I be here?’
‘Because it isn’t safe. This is protected woodland. Wild. It should be left alone, untouched. It’s a boundary to a world that will destroy it given half a chance. Didn’t you listen to anything your brother ever said?’
She shoved herself forward, using the stone as a launching pad. ‘You don’t get to tell me about Theo.’
‘Well, someone should. Just as a warning. So you don’t end up like him. Fionnuala rang, from the pub. Said to tell you the car got picked up. Good God, woman, what happened? Where have you been?’
‘Walking back here.’
‘Forthreehours? Why didn’t you ring me? I would have come to get you.’
How had it possibly been three hours? Alex frowned at him, feeling more herself again. He’d been worried about her? She could tell that now just from looking at him. He wasn’t angry, but scared. Why had he been worried about her?
‘I was fine. I must have…I got a bit turned around in the woods, that’s all.’
He shook his head slowly, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘A bit turned around.Right.’ At least he wasn’t shouting at her anymore. Even if he was looking at her like she’d lost her mind instead of her way. ‘We should get back to the house.’
His eyes darted around the clearing, at the treeline.
‘What are you worried about?’ she asked, curious now. ‘I saw a hare. Are they dangerous here?’
She meant it as a joke but Nick flinched. She saw that. No mistaking it. Oh he tried to hide it but she knew what she’d seen.
‘They can be,’ he replied, gruffly, and beckoned her with one hand. ‘Come on. Let’s go back.’ She made to take a step forward and to her surprise his eyes went wide in genuine alarm. ‘Not through the circle!’ he snapped.
Alex glared at him but took a step back all the same. There were old superstitions about stone circles and the like around here.
‘Are you afraid the fairies are going to come and carry me off?’ she said, trying to lighten the mood, before she thought about the ramifications. People held old traditions very dear to their hearts in this country. They might not admit it, or like to be teased about it, but folk belief was still strong.
Nick all but bared his teeth as he bit out the words. ‘I’mafraidyou’re going todamagea pristinearchaeologicalsite, all right? And like I said, these woods are dangerous. If you fell here, who’d find you?’
And then, as if he’d said something he shouldn’t, he froze, the words dying on his lips.
Theo had been found here. And Nick had been the one to find him. She realised that the moment she saw his expression.
Just like her father. Exactly like her father. God, what had happened?
Dad’s hands falling still, limp on the rich and hungry earth.
Here in the heart of the wild wood, in this ring of stones…
The taste of blood in her mouth, choking her, and the world blurring through tears and terror. The gleam of gold beneath rotting foliage.
Alex drew in a shuddering breath and edged her way around the circle, giving it as wide a berth as possible.
