‘You are the most arrogant prick I’ve ever met. No wonder Rosey gave you the boot.’
‘Shows what you know. She didn’t boot me anywhere. I booted her!’ As soon as the words are out of his mouth, Kyor winces. He turns to face me, an apology in his eyes.
The rawness that cuts through me is enough to steal my breath and my head throbs with tears I refuse to let him see.
‘Rose,’ Caz says softly. ‘Come with me.’ She beckons, but I don’t move. Wherever she’s suggesting we go, it’s not far enough. A thousand seas wouldn’t be far enough away from Kyor, with his sorry eyes, his betrayals and half-truths. But maybe … maybe there is somewhere I can go.
Maybe I could fly.
Closing my eyes, I draw in a long breath, and I push off.
I feel a rush of relief as the world drops away beneath me.
Chapter 22
There’s no cold, no noise, no Kyor. But I’m not soaring in the sky. Nor am I perched on a wall or window ledge. Instead, I’m looking up through a canopy of dense trees at the quarter moon.
I continue to stare at the view for a moment longer before I lower my gaze and look around me. I’m surrounded by dense trees and bushes. A forest. With a sense of trepidation, I edge forward. When something glints in front of me, my pace quickens in anticipation.
When I reach the object, I stare down at it, only to feel my pulse pounding through my temples.
I’m looking at a ring.
My heart thunders in my little chest. Not just any ring, but mymother’sring. The one Kay used to wear with its pale blue opal and gold band. The one precious thing we never hocked for food or clothes, no matter how bad things got.
My breath hitches. Mother’s ring. I thought it was gone forever, a piece of her lost to us. But somehow … I’ve found it.
With my lungs trembling, I reach down, ready to pick it up, only I do not reach with hands. The realisation gives me such a jolt that my eyes snap open.
Faces are looming over me,all with the same fear etched into their expressions.
‘Give her room,’ Ruben says as I start to push myself upright.
‘I’m fine. I’m fine,’ I say.
‘You collapsed. You’re not fine,’ Kyor growls. ‘You need to eat and sleep properly.’
‘It’s not food or sleep that’s the issue,’ Caz snaps. ‘It’s you two.’ She gestures between Kyor and Ruben. ‘Whenever you two bicker, she … escapes. Goes away somewhere else.’
Both men wince. They exchange uneasy glances but say nothing.
My pulse is racing too fast, though I can’t work out why. Needing to release the tension in my neck, I turn my head from side to side before looking directly upwards. There, without so much as a branch to block my view, is the same quarter moon I gazed at only moments ago.
It’s not some sort of illusory vision I’m having, I realise.
It’s real.
And if it’s real … then Mother’s ring must be achingly close. I can find it. And I have the sinking feeling that if I don’t go soon, it won’t remain there much longer.
‘We need to go straight through Afaven Forest to Galreck,’ I say firmly.
‘We’re not going through the forest,’ Kyor says, forehead furrowing. ‘It’s not safe.’
‘That’s the way we’re going,’ I say with absolute finality in my voice. ‘You don’t want to come, then don’t. In case you’ve forgotten, I never asked you to join us.’
Kyor’s frustration is clear in his clenched fists and his tight jaw, but he doesn’t speak again.
No one else argues.
