Текст книги "Finding Sky"

Автор книги: Joss Stirling

Соавторы: Joss Stirling
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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

‘It’s a nursing home,’ Simon corrected me. ‘You’re not fit to go back to school yet and we couldn’t afford to stay in Vegas any longer, so this is the best we could come up with.’

Sal y stood up and shoved the drawer closed. ‘We could go back to the UK, Simon. Sky might feel better among her old friends.’

Old friends? I’d kept up with some of them on Facebook but somehow the old closeness had evaporated the longer I was away. It wouldn’t be like going back to how it had been.

Simon gave me a one-armed hug. ‘If that’s what it takes, we’l do it, but one step at a time, eh?’

‘We’ve got classes we have to teach at the Arts Centre,’ Sal y explained. ‘But one of us wil be over every day. Do you want to see your friends from Wrickenridge?’

I played with the curtain cord. ‘What have you told them?’

‘That you’ve had a bad reaction to the trauma of your kidnapping. Nothing too serious but you need time to recover.’

‘They’l think I’m crazy.’

‘They think you’re suffering—and you are—we can see it.’

‘I’d like to see Tina and Zoe. Nelson too if he wants to come.’

‘What about Zed?’

I leant my head against the cool glass. The gesture gave me a sudden flashback—a tal tower, neon signs. I shuddered.

‘What, love?’

‘I’m seeing other stuff now—stuff that makes no sense.’

‘To do with Zed?’

‘No.’ And it wasn’t, I realized. Zed hadn’t been there. And I’d been stal ing. I’d promised Victor I would try. Maybe if I saw Zed, it would help get things straight. ‘I’d like to see Zed too—just for a little while.’

Simon smiled. ‘Good. The boy’s been worried sick about you, phoning us every hour of the day and most of the night.’

‘You’ve changed your tune about him,’ I murmured, suddenly remembering clearly the argument we’d had about him a month ago. Hadn’t Zed said he loved me? So why did I feel as if he was my enemy?

‘Wel , you can’t help but like someone who walked into a trap to get his girl out.’

‘He did?’

‘Don’t you remember? He was there when you were injured.’

‘Yes, he was, wasn’t he?’

Simon squeezed my shoulder. ‘See, it’s coming back.’

The next day passed quietly. I read my way through a pile of novels, not leaving my room. My carer was a motherly woman from California who had a lot to say on the subject of the Colorado winters. She came in and out al day, but left me largely to my own devices.

At around five, just before she went off shift, she knocked on the door.

‘You’ve visitors, honey. Shal I send them up?’

I closed my book, my heart rate accelerating.

‘Who is it?’

She checked her list. ‘Tina Monterey, Zoe Stuart, and Nelson Hoffman.’

‘Oh.’ I felt a mixture of relief and disappointment.

‘Sure, send them up.’

Tina put her head round the door first. ‘Hi.’

It felt an age since I’d seen her. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her explosion of ginger brown dreadlocks and her outrageous nails.

‘Come in. There’s not much room but you can sit on the bed.’ I stayed in my chair by the window, knees drawn up to my chest. My smile felt fragile so I didn’t push it too far.

Zoe and Nelson fol owed her, al looking a bit awkward.

Tina put a pot of pink cyclamen on the bedside table. ‘For you,’ she said.

‘Thanks.’

‘So …’

‘So how are you, guys?’ I asked hurriedly. The very last thing I wanted was to explain my total y messed up brain. ‘How’s school?’

‘Fine. Everyone was worried about you—real y shocked. Nothing like this has ever happened in Wrickenridge before.’

My gaze drifted to the window. ‘I don’t suppose it has.’

‘I remember joking with you about that when you first came—I feel awful that you had to find out I was wrong. Are you, you know, OK?’

I gave a hol ow laugh. ‘Look around you, Tina: I’m here, aren’t I?’

Nelson got up abruptly. ‘Sky, if I could get the guys who did this to you, I’d kil them!’

‘I think they might be dead already. At least, that’s what the police think.’

Tina hauled Nelson back down on the bed. ‘Don’t, Nelson. Remember, we promised not to upset her.’

‘Sorry, Sky.’ Nelson put his arm round Tina and kissed the top of her head. ‘Thanks.’

What was this? I couldn’t help but grin—my first genuine smile in a very long while. ‘Hey, are you two

…?’

Zoe rol ed her eyes and offered me a stick of bubblegum. ‘Yeah, they so are. Driving me crazy, the pair of them. You’ve got to get straightened out, Sky, and keep me sane at school.’ Thank God for Zoe making fun of the madness—it made me feel a lot more normal.

‘When, how?’ I mimicked one of Tina’s favourite gestures—a pale imitation of her long-nailed beckon but it was something. ‘Give me the details, sister.’

Tina looked down, a little embarrassed. ‘When you were, you know, taken, Nelson was real y great.

Stopped me losing it big time. I thought it was my fault—what with the car and everything.’

Nelson rubbed her forearm. ‘Yeah, Tina saw my good side for once.’

‘I’m so pleased—for you both. You deserve each other,’ I said.

Tina laughed. ‘Is that, like, a Chinese curse?’

‘No, you dweeb,’ I threw my cushion at her, ‘it’s a compliment.’

They stayed for about an hour. As long as we kept off the subject of my abduction, I felt fine. I had no problem remembering things about school, no pain, no confusion. I began to feel like my old self.

Tina checked her watch and gave the others a nod. ‘We’d best go. Your next visitor is due at six.’

I gave them each a hug. ‘Thanks for coming to see the poor crazy girl.’

‘Nothing wrong with you that a little time won’t put right, Sky. We’l be back the day after tomorrow.

Sal y said she thought you’d be here at least until the end of the week.’

I shrugged. Time didn’t seem to mean so much to me. I’d stepped out of my normal routines. ‘I expect so. See you then.’

They left, exchanging greetings with someone in the hal . I went to the window to watch them go but I couldn’t spot the car park from my room.

There was a soft knock at the door.

I turned, expecting to see Sal y. ‘Come in.’

The door opened and Zed stepped over the threshold. He paused, unsure of his welcome.

‘Hi.’

My throat seized. ‘H … hi.’

He pul ed a massive gold box tied with a red satin ribbon from behind his back. ‘I come bearing chocolate.’

‘In that case, you’d better sit down.’ I sounded calm but inside my emotions were tossing like palm trees in advance of a hurricane. That tidal surge of feeling was coming back.

He didn’t sit. He put the box on the bed then came to stand beside me at the window.

‘Nice view.’

I clenched my teeth, keeping the door in my head firmly shut against the surge. ‘Yeah. We crazy people get to go out earlier in the day. I’m told there’s a snowman down in the orchard that looks like the head nurse.’ My fingers were shaking as I rested my hands on the sil .

A warm hand moved to cover mine, stil ing the trembling. ‘You’re not crazy.’

I tried to laugh but it came out wrong. I quickly wiped away a tear. ‘That’s what everyone keeps tel ing me but my brain feels like cold scrambled egg.’

‘You’re stil in shock.’

I shook my head. ‘No, Zed, it’s more than that. I see things that I don’t think happened. I’ve got al these terrible images in my head—stuff about you and Xav. But you’re not like that—part of me knows this. And I think I shot you both. I wake up in a cold sweat dreaming there’s a gun in my hand. I haven’t even touched a gun in my life so how do I know what it feels like to shoot one?’

‘Come here.’ He tugged me towards him, but I held back.

‘No, Zed, you don’t want to touch me. I’m … I’m broken.’

I don’t want her broken, not yet. Oh God, who had said that?

He refused to listen to me and pul ed me firmly into his arms.

‘You’re not broken, Sky. Even if you were, I’d stil want you, but you’re not. I don’t know why you see those things, but if you do, there’s a reason for it.

Perhaps that dead savant messed with your mind somehow? Whatever it takes, we’l find out and we’l help you.’ He sighed. ‘But Xav and I, we weren’t anywhere near you until we found you in the warehouse. Do you believe that?’

I nodded against his chest. ‘I think I do.’

He ran his hands up and down my back, kneading out the knots from my muscles. ‘I thought I’d lost you.

I can’t tel you what it means to me to hold you like this.’

‘You came for me even though you knew they might shoot you.’ I remembered that much, thanks to Simon.

‘I was wearing a bul etproof vest.’

‘You stil could’ve been kil ed. They could’ve taken a head shot.’

He cradled my face in his hand, rubbing his thumb over the dip in my chin. ‘Price worth paying. Without you, I’d become the coldest, most cynical tough nut on the planet, worse even than the guys who took you.’

‘I don’t believe that.’

‘It’s true. You are my anchor, keeping me on the right side of wrong. I’ve been drifting since you shut me out.’

Guilt swamped me. ‘Victor told me.’

Zed frowned. ‘I told him to leave you alone.’

‘He’s worried about you.’

‘But you come first.’

‘I’m sorry I wouldn’t let you visit. I was so ashamed of myself.’

‘You’ve nothing to be ashamed of.’

‘I left you to suffer.’

‘I’m a big boy—I can take it.’

‘You got in a fight.’

‘I’m also stupid.’

I smiled, rubbing my nose against the cotton of his shirt. ‘You’re not stupid; you were hurting.’

‘It’s stil stupid to take that out on a couple of Frat boys for looking at me the wrong way.’ Zed sighed at his own behaviour, then gave up the subject. ‘I know you’re confused about a lot right now, Sky, but I want you to know one thing for sure: I love you and would give my life for yours if it meant I could save you.’

Tears, always near the surface at the moment, brimmed in my eyes. ‘I know. I felt it. I could read your emotions. That’s what told me my mind was lying to me.’

He kissed my forehead.

‘And I think,’ I continued, ‘that under al this, when I find myself again, I wil also find that I love you too.’

‘That’s good to know.’

And so we stood, watching the stars come out, both praying that the explanation for why I was so messed up would not be long delayed.

Sal y and Simon took me home a few days into December. Some early celebrators had already strung up their Christmas lights. Mrs Hoffman’s house was a blaze of colour, enough to be worth a detour off the highway. Our home was dark, not a candle or a bauble in sight.

Simon opened the door. ‘Now you’re back, Sky, we can get decorating.’

‘So, do we go for tasteful Olde England or brash new world?’ asked Sal y too cheerful y.

I played along, knowing they wanted to think I was better than I was. ‘If we do, can I have an inflatable Santa hanging out of my window.’

‘Absolutely, as long as I can have flashing reindeer on the roof.’

Flashing lights—a palm tree, rol ercoaster rides.

‘What is it, love?’ Simon put his arm round me.

This was happening al the time now: I’d see glimpses of things—a chair, a jet plane, a bed—

none of which I understood.

‘Nothing. Just having one of my moments.’

I dumped my case on my bed and sat down, staring at the wal s. Turquoise. I’d quite forgotten to practise shielding. I must be leaking thoughts and feelings to Zed al the time but he’d been too kind to tel me. Somehow I didn’t have the energy to pick up where I left off. He’d told me I’d contacted him while I was being held by my mystery kidnappers. I’d claimed to be in Las Vegas, which he’d found hard to believe until I turned up in the warehouse. He thought I’d tried to tel him exactly where I was but he had missed most of my message. The Benedicts had acted on what I’d managed to say and travel ed to Vegas because the city was Daniel Kel y’s powerbase—the coincidence was too much to be ignored. They stil believed there was a link: Gator, the man who had died in the warehouse, had been employed by Kel y’s corporation, but the police had been unable to connect the kidnapping back to the head man.

Victor was feeling pretty steamed about the whole thing. To add insult to injury, the two Kel ys the Benedicts helped put away had slipped out of jail a few weeks ago; no one quite knew how they did it.

‘Sky, supper’s on the table!’ Sal y cal ed.

I went down and pretended to have a greater appetite than I did. Sal y had cooked my favourite pasta and bought in a tub of special ice cream. We were al making an effort to make the evening a success.

I toyed with the spaghetti. ‘Do you think I should go back to school?’

Simon topped up Sal y’s wine then poured himself a glass. ‘Not just yet, love. Actual y, I’ve … er … been wondering.’

‘Hmm?’ Sal y looked up, hearing the cautious note in his voice.

‘I heard from this lady from Las Vegas today—Mrs Toscana. She runs one of those casino hotels. Turns out she was behind the secret donation that paid for the convalescent home.’

‘Oh, how kind of her.’

‘That’s what I told her. Anyway, she heard about the kidnapping and has seen our portfolio on the web; she wondered if we might consider a new contract advising on the art acquisitions made by the hotel chain. They’ve got hotels al over—Rome, Milan, Madrid, Tokyo, London, as wel as throughout the States. It would last longer than a year and al ow Sky to finish her schooling in one place. She mentioned there were some excel ent high schools in Vegas. She even recommended a few.’

Sal y swirled her wine in the glass. ‘I don’t know, Simon. If we move anywhere, I’d prefer to go back to England. I don’t think our American adventure has been a great success. And Vegas—wel , the memories aren’t pleasant.’

Simon twisted the spaghetti expertly around his fork. ‘I didn’t commit us. She suggested that we talked more about it, explored the possibilities before rejecting the idea. She invited us down for a weekend—Sky too.’ He took a bite. ‘I must say the salary

she

mentioned

far

exceeded

my

expectations.’

‘Sky? What do you think?’ Sal y asked.

‘Huh? Oh, I wasn’t real y listening.’

‘Do you need a change from Wrickenridge?’

‘I don’t think I want to move again just now.’

‘Can you face school here knowing that everyone is aware what happened to you? We wouldn’t blame you if you wanted a fresh start somewhere else.’

‘Can you let me think about this?’

Simon nodded. ‘Of course. We can go take a look without making any commitments. It’l help you decide. After al , you didn’t real y get to see Vegas, just the hospital and that … that warehouse. You might enjoy the city.’

‘Maybe.’ I shelved that for the moment, my mind too caught up with getting used to being home again to think about moving.

Karla and Saul Benedict came to cal on Saturday morning. I’d never felt at ease with Zed’s mother since our first meeting, but she was on her best behaviour today, giving no sign that she was reading me. Ironical y, I wouldn’t have minded someone tel ing me what was going on in my head as I hadn’t a clue. I remembered the conversation I’d had with Saul about my relationship with their son; would they stil be so keen on having me in their family now they knew I’d cracked up in Vegas?

Sal y and Simon sat with me as we entertained the Benedicts in the kitchen. There was none of the zany fun I’d had in the Benedict home when I’d gone there.

They exchanged a few stilted pleasantries, talking about the concerts planned for Christmas and the busy season on the slopes. I felt sad that I wasn’t taking part in the music as I had planned to do.

Rehearsals would be going on at school without me.

Final y, Saul turned to me, coming to the point of the visit.

‘Sky, it’s good to see you back in Wrickenridge.’

‘Thanks, Mr Benedict.’

‘Zed’s told us what you said to him about having false memories.’

I looked down at my hands.

‘We think we can help you.’

Simon cleared his throat. ‘Now, Mr Benedict, I appreciate you coming here, but we’ve got Sky an excel ent doctor. She’s seeing to her treatment. I don’t think we should mess around with it.’

‘That would be al very wel in the normal course of things,’ said Karla, her tone betraying an edge of impatience, ‘but we believe Sky’s problem might lie out of the realms of normal medicine.’

The look Sal y and Simon exchanged was clear.

They were hostile to any suggestions out of their control; the Benedicts were not the only family who knew how to circle the wagons.

‘That may be so, but she’s our daughter and we wil decide with her what’s best.’ Simon stood, signal ing that as far as he was concerned this friendly visit was at an end.

Saul kept his eyes on me. ‘We would like you to spend some time with our family, Sky. When we get together, there are things we can do to help someone in your situation.’

The prospect terrified me—but I also knew I wasn’t getting anywhere under the doctor’s methods for al Sal y’s and Simon’s optimism.

‘It is time spent with your family that got Sky into the fix she’s in now!’ Simon no longer bothered to hide his anger. ‘Look, Mr Benedict—’

‘Please, cal me Saul. We’ve been through too much together to stil be so formal.’

Simon sighed, wind taken out of his sails. ‘Saul, we like Zed—he’s a fine boy—but Sky’s not likely to be around much longer to spend this time you’re talking about. Please, just leave us alone now. Sky’s had enough to put up with in her short life; don’t add to the stress she’s already under by making claims on her.’

Sal y knitted her fingers together, clenching them tightly. ‘We’ve always known, since she was a little girl, that Sky’s mental condition is delicate. It’s not your fault, but it’s turned out that the association with your family with its exceptional problems has upset that balance. Please, leave her alone now.’

The argument was carrying on over my head. It was almost as if I wasn’t there.

‘Sal y, please.’

‘It’s al right, Sky. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.’

‘Your daughter needs us,’ said Mrs Benedict.

‘I’m sorry, but I don’t agree.’ Sal y joined Simon by the door, body language crystal clear. ‘We know what’s best for Sky. She’s been ours six years now and I think we know her rather better than you do.’

‘Stop it, al of you, please.’ I felt like a bone being quarrel ed over by a pack of dogs. Everyone was so busy tel ing me they knew best, I couldn’t decide what that might be for myself.

Saul rose from the table. ‘Karla, we’re distressing Sky. We’d better go.’ He darted a glance at me. ‘The offer stands, Sky. Just think about it. For Zed’s sake, as wel as yours.’

The Benedicts left with a slamming of car doors and strained goodbyes at the front gate. I remained behind in the living room, running my fingers over the piano keyboard. Was it my imagination, or did it sound out of tune too?

‘Wel , real y,’ said Sal y, coming back into the house in a huff. ‘Is there nobody in Wrickenridge who doesn’t think they know better than us?’

‘Sorry you had to sit through that, love.’ Simon ruffled my hair. ‘I think they mean wel .’

‘Right now Las Vegas is looking very tempting,’

added Sal y.

Simon’s eyes glinted, like a driver seeing a gap in the rush hour traffic, knowing he could make a break for it. ‘Then I’l give Mrs Toscana a ring, see what we can fix up.’

I didn’t want this attitude of ful steam ahead to a new life; I wanted time to adjust to the one I’d been making for myself here. I wanted time to find out what there was between Zed and me. And for al this I needed my head back in the right place.

I closed the piano lid. ‘Can we not just think for a minute about what Mr and Mrs Benedict said?

Maybe they can help.’

‘Sorry, Sky, but once bitten, twice shy.’ Simon flipped through the business cards until he found the one for the hotel in Vegas. ‘Getting tangled up in that family’s business has been a disaster. We don’t mind you seeing Zed here, but you’re not to go over to his house. You’re making progress, we don’t want any setbacks. I’l just make this cal .’

I had little energy for a fight at the moment so I made no promises, just got up, saying I was off to bed. I could hear Simon talking animatedly to his new contact, mentioning what weekends we had free and how much we were looking forward to visiting. I had no desire to go back to Vegas; why would I?

Everything I wanted was here.

I sat at the end of my bed looking out of the window long after my parents had retired for the night. The sky was clear, moon shadows turning the snow a bruised blue. Winter had set in, the snow packed down, prepared to stay til spring. The thermometer was wel below freezing, the icicles dripping from the eaves, lengthening daily. I scratched at my arms. I couldn’t bear this. I wanted to scream, pummel my head until it was back in shape.

I was trying hard to pretend I was getting better but in fact I felt I was getting worse. I clung on to sanity, stepping lightly on the thin ice protecting my mind, but I feared that this was an il usion: I had already plunged through the cracks.

I stood up abruptly and walked to the window, fists clenched. I had to do something. There was only one place I could think of to go to prevent the damage spreading. Grabbing my dressing gown, I shoved open the casement. I knew what I was contemplating was mad, but then again I thought I was crazy, so what the hel . Regretting that my snow boots were downstairs—I didn’t want to risk alerting my parents to my plan—I climbed on to the porch roof, slid down to the edge and dropped to the ground. My soft shoes were immediately soaked but I now felt too driven by the belief that this was my one last hope to care.

I started to run down the road, feet crunching in the powder snow. I travel ed from shivering cold to not feeling. Passing our car parked in the garage, I spared a wish that I had taken the opportunity of Coloradan laws letting sixteen year olds behind the wheel—Zed had once said he’d give me lessons but we’d never got to it. Never mind, it was only a couple of miles across town. I could make it.

I was walking by the time I turned into the steep road behind the ski lodges that led up to the cable car. The snow here was stamped down, freezing in icy ridges. When I looked at my toes, I realized the soles of my shoes were in shreds and my feet bleeding. Oddly, I couldn’t bring myself to care too much. I approached the Benedict house cautiously, wondering what security they had instal ed. They’d been expecting an attack and wouldn’t have let down their guard yet. A hundred yards out, I did feel a barrier—not a physical one but a sensation of unwil ingness and fear compel ing me to turn back.

Slamming up my shield, I pushed on through, my determination to reach Zed far stronger than this counter-instinct. When I broke free, I sensed that I’d tripped some kind of alarm. Lights went on in the house ahead, first upstairs in the bedrooms, then down on the porch.

What was I thinking? I was planning to go knocking on their door in the middle of the night?

This was gun-toting America, not England: I’d probably get shot before they realized who it was.

My certainty that this was a good idea evaporated. I stood irresolutely on the path, considering if I had the energy to turn round and go home.

‘Stop right there. Put your hands up where we can see them.’ A man’s voice—one I didn’t recognize.

I was frozen to the spot—too cold to move, to think.

There came the unmistakable sound of a rifle bolt being slid—something I’d only ever heard in the movies. Images spun: Bugsy Malone—‘come out with your hands up’. I swal owed a hysterical gulp of laughter.

‘Step into the light so we can see you.’

I forced myself to move.

‘And I said ‘‘hands up’’!’

I raised my hands shakily.

‘Trace, it’s Sky!’ Zed burst from the house only to be pul ed back by his arm. His oldest brother, Trace, the policeman from Denver, wasn’t letting him go.

‘It might be a trap,’ Trace warned.

Victor stepped out of the darkness behind me.

He’d circled round to cut me off, gun trained on my back.

‘Let go of me!’ Zed struggled, but Saul joined the blockade.

‘Why aren’t you using telepathy, Sky?’ Saul spoke calmly, for al the world as if it were natural to have a girl turn up in her dressing gown at three in the morning.

I swal owed. There were too many voices in my head already. ‘Can I come in? You said I could come.’

‘Is she alone?’ Trace asked Victor.

‘Seems so.’

‘You ask her, just to make sure.’ Trace lowered the gun. ‘We can’t risk a mistake.’

‘Don’t you touch her, Vick! Leave her alone!’ Zed burst from his brother’s grasp and jumped the steps.

‘Zed!’ shouted Saul.

But too late. Zed reached me and folded me in his arms. ‘Oh baby, you’re freezing!’

‘I … I’m sorry to come like this,’ I murmured.

‘Stop being so damn British about it—you don’t need to apologize. Ssh, it’s fine.’

Saul reached us but didn’t have the heart to separate me from his son. ‘It’s not fine, not until we know why she’s here. She walked right through our security perimeter. She can’t have done that without help. Her powers aren’t that strong.’

Victor eased me away from Zed’s chest and held my eyes with his steely gaze. ‘Tell us why you’re here. Did someone send you?’ He was using his gift, layering his words with a compulsion to answer. I could hear it like a harmony running under the melody. It hurt. ‘Sky, you must tell me.’

‘Stop it, stop it!’ I sobbed, pul ing away from them, stumbling backwards. ‘Get out of my brain, al of you!’ I tripped over, ending up sitting in the snow, head squeezed between my hands.

Zed shoved Victor out of the way and scooped me up in his arms. He was furious. ‘I’m taking her inside and I don’t care what you say. She’s mine—my soulfinder—and you’d better not try and stop me.’

This announcement was met with shock from his brothers, resignation from Saul.

‘Look at her—she’s blue with cold.’ Zed shouldered his way past his family and took me into the kitchen. Xav was there, along with Wil , one of the brothers I was yet to meet properly; they were checking a monitor that had been set up on the kitchen counter.

‘She walked in,’ Wil said. He was running some CCTV coverage of the gate to the cable car compound. ‘No sign of anyone else.’

‘Sky, what are you playing at?’ Xav moved towards me, then spotted my feet. ‘Sheesh, Zed, didn’t you notice she’s bleeding? Put her on the counter.’

Zed held me to him as Xav eased off what was left of my shoes. He closed his eyes and placed his palms on the soles of my feet. I immediately felt a tingling sensation like pins-and-needles and then pain as sensation flowed back into my toes.

Victor dropped his gun on the counter and took out the magazine. ‘Wil , Xav, there’s something little brother’s forgotten to mention.’

Trace shook his head. ‘Yeah, meet his soulfinder.’

Xav’s touch pinched for a second, a jolt in the flow of energy, then he went back to healing.

Wil whistled. ‘No kidding?’

‘That’s what he says.’ Trace glanced at his father, seeking confirmation. Saul nodded.

‘Wel , wha’d’ya know.’ Wil grinned at me, his happiness genuine. ‘Got any older sisters, Sky?’

Zed smiled at him grateful y. ‘Not that she knows—

but we’l try and find out for you.’

‘Don’t forget the rest of us,’ said Trace, his smile a little forced. ‘Some of us are running out of time.’

Saul clasped his son’s shoulder briefly. ‘Patience, son. You’l find her.’

‘You walked here al on your own?’ Zed asked gently while the healing was progressing. ‘Why?’

‘I need help,’ I whispered, wishing I could burrow into his chest and disappear. He was so warm and I was so cold. ‘I needed you.’

Trace and Victor were stil suspicious about my strange arrival. I could feel the waves of emotion flowing off them. Oh God, my gift had switched on again. I’d read the emotions in the warehouse but deadened myself to them ever since; here, in this house of savants, the ability to see people from their feelings came rushing back.

‘I want your brothers to know I’m tel ing the truth.’ I didn’t need to open my eyes to be aware where everyone was. The two older Benedicts hovered protectively by the door into the rest of the house.

Their father’s emotions were mixed—fear, concern for me, and puzzlement. Wil leaned on the counter, glowing with a cheerful spring green. Xav was concentrating on healing my feet, his presence a cool blue of concentration. And Zed, he was glowing with golden love and a purple edge of desperation to do something to help me.

‘You don’t think I’m here because someone sent me to hurt you, do you?’ I murmured, rubbing my cheek against his sweatshirt.

‘No, baby,’ he replied, nuzzling my hair.

‘Your dad said I could come.’

‘I know.’

Saul picked up the phone lying on the table.

‘What’s her number?’ he asked.

I’d forgotten al about my parents. ‘They don’t know I’m gone.’

‘Better to wake them up to tel them you’re safe than to let them discover your empty bed and worry.’

Zed reeled off the number and Saul had a quick conversation with Simon. I knew they would want to jump in the car and fetch me, but I didn’t want that after having come al this way.

‘I want to stay,’ I whispered. Then I found a stronger voice. ‘I want to stay.’

Saul glanced at me and nodded. ‘Yes, Simon, she’s OK, a little cold but we’re looking after her.

She’s sure she wants to stay. Why not come and col ect her after breakfast? No point turning out in the middle of the night when there’s no need. Yep, wil do.’ He put the phone down. ‘He’l drive over in the morning. He says that you were to get some rest and not worry.’

‘Am I grounded again?’

Zed ruffled the hair at the back of my neck.

‘He didn’t mention that.’ Saul smiled.

‘I bet I am.’

‘Until you’re fifty,’ said Zed.

‘I thought as much.’

Xav let go of my feet. ‘I’ve done what I can for your soulfinder.’ He used the term with relish. ‘She needs to keep warm and sleep it off now. The cuts are pretty much healed.’

‘Thanks.’ Zed lifted me up. ‘I’l put her in my bed for tonight. Mom’s going to lend her some dry nightclothes.’

Snug and warm under Zed’s duvet, I didn’t feel sleepy. He was sitting on the window seat, guitar in hand, running through some soothing tunes. Karla had clucked a little about me being in Zed’s room but when it was clear he was not going to let me out of his sight, gave in, saying she trusted us to behave.

Zed leant his forehead against his mother’s, a gesture I found oddly touching seeing how much tal er he was than her. ‘Tel me what you see, Mom.

I’ve dropped my shields.’

Karla sighed. ‘I see you standing guard over her and behaving like a perfect gentleman.’