‘OK. How do we get to it?’

Zed smiled grimly. ‘You’re amazing, Sky. Most people would have lost it by now. We crawl—make like lizards. I’l go first.’

He slithered on his bel y over the ground then dropped over the ridge out of sight. I fol owed, trying not to think about what it would feel like to get a bul et in the back. It was too dark to see what was down there so I just had to trust him. I slipped head first down the bank, rol ed and landed with my butt in icy water.

This way, said Zed.

Keeping low, Zed led

me down the course of a

shal ow stream that fed into the Eyrie. He was wearing walking boots, but my canvas sneakers had no purchase on the stones and I kept stumbling.

Hold on to my jacket, he told me. Almost there.

As the stream got deeper, the bank lowered al owing us to clamber out of the gul y. We emerged on the grassy slope in front of the house.

‘Sense anything?’ Zed asked.

‘No. You?’

‘I can’t see anything. Let’s make a run for the house.’ He gave my arm a squeeze. ‘On three. One

—two—three!’

Feet squelching in my shoes, I sprinted across the open ground and through the front door. I heard the lock click behind me without Zed touching it.

‘Your dad and Xav OK?’ I panted.

He looked distant for a second, checking in with the rest of the family.

‘They’re fine, but they lost the hunters. You were right: there were two of them. They took off out of town in an unmarked SUV. Black, dark windows.

Hundreds of cars like it in the mountains. Dad says to stay here til he gets back. Let’s look at that eye.’

Zed steered me into the downstairs bathroom and sat me on the edge of the bath. As he fumbled with the first aid box, I realized that he was shaking.

I put my hand on his arm. ‘It’s OK.’

‘It’s not OK.’ He ripped open a pack of cotton wool, shooting the bal s al over the vanity unit.

‘We’re supposed to be safe here.’ Fury rather than shock was making him tremble.

‘Why wouldn’t you be safe? What’s going on, Zed? You seem not real y surprised that someone wanted to shoot you.’

He gave a hol ow laugh. ‘It does make a kind of horrible sense, Sky.’ He rinsed out a flannel and placed it against my eye, the cold dul ing the edge off the pain. ‘Hold that there.’ He then cleaned my cuts and scratches with the cotton wool. ‘I realize you want to know why that might be, but it’s better for you and for us if you don’t.’

‘And I’m supposed to be OK with that? I go for a walk with you, and get shot at, and I’m not supposed to wonder why? I can live with exploding lemons and the rest of it, but this is different. You almost died.’

He pushed the cloth back against my cheek where I had let it drop away. ‘I know you’re mad at me.’

‘I’m not mad at you! I’m mad at the people who just tried to kil us! Have you told the police?’

‘Yeah, Dad’s handling it. They’l be along. They’l probably want to talk to you.’ He took the cloth away and whistled. ‘How’s this for a first date: I’ve given you a black eye.’

That gave me a jolt.

‘This was a date? You asked me here on, like, a date and I missed it?’

‘Yeah, wel , not many boys take their girls out on a duck shoot with them as the target for a first date.

You have to give me points for style.’

I hadn’t got past first base yet. ‘This was a date?’ I repeated.

He pul ed me up into his arms, my head against his chest. ‘It was a date—I was trying to get you used to me, kinda in my natural habitat. But I can do better, I promise.’

‘What? Gladiatorial combat next?’

‘Now there’s an idea.’ He nuzzled my hair. ‘Thanks for keeping a cool head out there.’

‘Thanks for bringing us through it.’

‘Zed? Sky? Are you al right?’ Saul was shouting from the hal way.

‘In here, Dad. I’m fine. Sky’s a bit roughed up, but she’s OK.’

Saul hovered in the door, his expression anguished. ‘What happened? Didn’t you see the danger, Zed?’

‘Yeah, obviously I saw. I thought, “Let’s take my girlfriend out for a walk and try and get her kil ed”. Of course, I didn’t see—no more than you sensed it.’

‘Sorry, stupid question. Vick’s on his way. I’ve cal ed your mom and Yves back. Trace wil be here as soon as possible.’

‘Who was it?’

‘I don’t know. The two Kel ys were sent down on Tuesday. It could be payback. But they shouldn’t know where to find us.’

I turned in Zed’s arms to look at Saul. ‘Who are the Kel ys?’

Saul saw my face properly for the first time. ‘Sky, you’re hurt! Xav, get in here.’

The bathroom was beginning to feel very crowded with so many Benedicts hovering over me.

‘I’m fine. I just want some answers.’

Xav came running. ‘She’s not fine. Her face feels like it’s on fire.’

I opened my mouth to protest.

‘Don’t bother, Sky, I can feel what you’re feeling.

An echo of it.’ Xav reached out and put his fingertip on the bruise. I experienced a tingling like pins and needles on the right side of my face.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Trying to stop you looking like a panda tomorrow.’

He lifted his finger away. ‘It’s my gift.’

I touched my face cautiously. Though the bruise throbbed, the intensity of the pain had dimmed.

‘You’l stil have a bit of a bruise. I haven’t had time to get rid of al of it. Pain’s quick, bruises take more time to clear up—at least another fifteen minutes or so.’

‘We’d better get Sky home. The further from this mess she is, the better.’ Saul ushered us out of the bathroom.

‘Won’t the police want to take her statement?’ Zed handed me a dry pair of socks from the clean laundry basket.

‘Vick’s sorting it out. He doesn’t think we should involve the local cops; he’l get his people on to it. If he wants to talk to her, he can go to her to do so.’

Another thread for me to tug. ‘And his people are?’ I kicked off my shoes to rub my icy feet.

‘The FBI.’

‘That’s like the CIA—spies and stuff?’

‘No, not real y. The Federal Bureau of Investigation deals with crimes that cross state boundaries. The big felonies. They’re plain clothes. Agents rather than cops.’

I slipped the tie from my unravel ing plait and clumped my hair together in a ponytail. ‘Zoe always says Victor’s a man of mystery.’

Saul flicked his eyes to Zed, clearly uncomfortable with how much I was learning about them.

‘But the less that’s known about his other life, the better, understood?’

‘Another Benedict family secret?’

‘They do seem to be piling up, don’t they?’ Saul chucked Zed a set of keys. ‘Take Sky home on the bike—but don’t go direct. We don’t want you leading anyone to her.’

‘You could take me to my parents’ studio and they can run me back.’

‘Good thinking. Zed, give my apologies to Mr and Mrs Bright for not taking proper care of their daughter.’

‘What do I tel them about it al ?’ Zed asked, guiding me out of the house.

Saul rubbed the back of his neck. ‘I’l get Victor to explain. He’l know what and how much to say. For now, tel them it was some idiot running wild in the woods. Ask them to keep a lid on it until the authorities have had a chance to deal with it. Is that OK with you, Sky?’

I nodded.

‘Good. You did great.’ Saul kissed the top of my head and hugged his son. ‘Thank God we’ve only got one black eye to show for it. And thank you, Sky, for being so patient with us.’

I mounted the motorbike behind Zed, gripping on to his jacket like a lifebelt.

‘I’m going to take us by some back roads that skirt round Wrickenridge to your side of town,’ he warned me. ‘Just in case.’

The so-cal ed back roads proved to be little more than dirt tracks. To help myself cope, I fel back into my habit of seeing the drive in my head as a storyboard: headlamp cutting through the dark—