He was behind her now. She could hear him closing the gap between them, his footsteps quicker than hers, crushing leaves with astonishing speed. He was going to catch up with her.

  She found some strength that she did not know she still had, and careened through the shadows, running twice as fast as she’d ever thought possible.

  The glow was getting stronger. It was like a sunrise banishing the night and its fears. The slope was curving down now, down towards the road.

  She didn’t know what she’d do when she got to the road; that was irrelevant. She just needed something to hold onto, some thin sliver of hope that everything would be all right, that a car would pass by and she could wave it down for help.

  There was a grunt behind her; it was close – far too close.

  And then he was on her.

  They both slammed into the ground, crashing through the undergrowth and rolling down the slope. There was nothing but spinning gold and black for a moment, until Nada scrambled up, her head ringing, and looked about her.

  The crossbow, she thought. Get the crossbow.

  She could see it; it had fallen from his grasp and lay just a few metres from where she stood.

  She dived over him to get it, her fingers wrapping themselves around it. But as she pulled at it, she met a strong resistance. Noah had hold of it too.

  She cried out, and heaved with all her might, but he had both hands on it, and was winning the bizarre tug-of-war, clasping the weapon closer and closer to his chest.

  Nada had one final, desperate idea. She had no idea whether it would work, but she had no choice.

  She let go of the bow, and it slammed towards his chest. With one hand, she fumbled for the trigger, and before he could move away, she had pulled it.

  The bow snapped; the arrow soared out from its perch. It raked up the side of Noah’s neck, and lost itself in the woods beyond. He cried out, and a dark line appeared immediately around his collar, a necklace of blood forming.

  Nada scrambled away, hoping that she’d gained some precious seconds – but to no avail.

  Noah sprang up and swung the bow, cracking it across Nada’s forehead. As she collapsed onto the bed of leaves, the gold of the lamplight diminished and winked out, and there was blackness.

  Twenty-Seven

  When Nada woke up, she could hear the sea. It was insistent, loud. It was the sound of waves swilling about rocks, flinging themselves onto the shore. It was comforting. When her father had still been alive, her parents had taken Nada to the sea. She remembered long days in the sun, on the beach with her mother and father, back in the days when he’d still been around and their house wasn’t a prison.

  But then she opened her eyes, and was immediately hit with a blaze of pain. She groaned, and put her fingers to her forehead; there was a large lump, and a raw, open wound that stung at her touch.

  She rolled over; she was on a little patch of grass. All her friends were there, sitting around her, while the sea rumbled behind them, telling her they were on a cliff. It was the dead of night; away from the woodland, the moon gave everything a silver coating, but it was still dark, and Nada had difficulty making out who was who.

  A blurry figure came into her vision, and leant towards her. It was Paul; he still wore his rags.

  ‘She’s awake,’ he called out.

  There was the sound of footsteps, then Noah was there. There was a bloody trail down his front, and his voice brimmed with anger.

  ‘So, we begin. Everyone – get up.’

  With Paul and his axe on one side, and Noah with the crossbow on the other, there was no questioning the situation. They were hostages; if they made a false move, it could cost them their lives.

  Everyone rose to their feet; some held hands to steady each other, and then didn’t let go. The six of them stood and faced the men.

  With the threads of her vision still piecing together, Nada could see her surroundings a little better. The cliff overlooked a curved bay, and their patch of grass was at the foot of a rocky outcrop with views onto the sea.

  ‘The time for fun and games is over,’ announced Noah. ‘There is no more hunting, no more mysteries. This is where the story ends. He gestured to Paul. ‘Paul – tell us where we are.’

  ‘This, ladies, is Geoffrey’s Leap,’ Paul said. Nada could sense his relish, his enjoyment of the situation, and it made her sick to her stomach. ‘The story goes that a criminal called Geoffrey lived in that bay. One day he was caught, and sentenced to death. He was led up here, to those rocks’ – he pointed up at the outcrop – ‘and then he was flung into the sea. The thing is, he survived. He fell into the water, and missed all the rocks. At this point, no one knew what to do. Had he already served his sentence, or was he yet to serve it?’

  He stopped for a moment, letting the question linger.

  ‘The village was divided. Some said that he should live; others that he should die. Geoffrey was a cocky man; he trusted in his good luck. So he decided to settle the issue once and for all. He said that he would do the jump again; if he survived a second time, he should be allowed his freedom. Everyone agreed to this, and the whole village gathered where we are now standing. He waved and grinned to them all, and then he leapt off the cliff – only to hit the rocks and die.

  ‘So it was that this place is named after him. They say that if you jump off these rocks, there is half a chance you’ll live … and half a chance you’ll die.’

  Noah took over. ‘So here we are. I leave it up to fate to decide whether you live or not – just as you did with me. One by one, you will make that leap, and hope to be as lucky as I was.’

  There was a sharp intake of breath. The friends gravitated towards each other, held each other. Someone clasped Nada’s hand; she turned, and saw that it was Clarisse. For some reason, this gave her a moment of warmth, of hope. Somehow it still mattered that she’d been forgiven, even if she was about to die.

  ‘Nada,’ declared Noah. ‘You will go first.’

  The words hit her as though she’d been struck with the crossbow again; her knees suddenly felt weak, like they were going to give way.

  ‘No – you can’t take her, you can’t do this,’ protested someone, Nada wasn’t sure who. She thought it might be Gaia, but it was nice to think that someone else might have stood up for her for a change.

  She wasn’t sure why her thoughts were resting on something so trivial; it was like she was disconnecting, experiencing an out-of-body experience where she could look at the details and forget what was actually happening.

  ‘Does someone want to take her place?’ Noah spat.

  There was silence.

  ‘I didn’t think so. You let her take the fall for the mystery, let her be hunted down. Now you’re going to let her jump first as well.’

  There was a wave of protest, of cries.

  ‘Will anyone take her place?’ Noah said again, but this time it was a roar of anger, of hate. ‘I ask, and I ask again. I give you the chance to do the right thing. But you don’t take it. Now … where’s Nada?’

  Nada could wait no longer. She was resigned now. She was going to die. She did not know quite what that meant; it had no truth to it. But she knew it was going to happen anyway.

  She was about to step forward when she felt something being pressed into her hand. It felt sharp, long.

  An arrow from Noah’s crossbow.

  She glanced briefly back at Clarisse, and found an encouraging look; one of strength and resilience. She felt Clarisse give her hand a squeeze, and it was that, the most normal and habitual of gestures, which made her snap back into reality.

  She found her strength replenished; her resolve hardening.

  Somehow, she was going to survive.

  She tucked the arrow up her sleeve, and stepped forward, emerging from the group. Noah nodded at her like she’d proven herself worthy in some way, like she’d shown a bravery the others lacked.

  He gestured towards the outcrop, and told her to climb.

  Nada heard some of her friends crying, others gasping. Maybe she even heard Afreya mutter a prayer. She ignored it; she needed to focus.

  She scrambled up onto the outcrop, followed by Noah and his crossbow. She had to move carefully so as not to reveal the arrow concealed in her sleeve; luckily, the darkness did most of the work for her.

  She only had to climb for a few moments before she reached the edge, and the coastline opened up in front of her. All there was beyond Geoffrey’s Leap was the shifting sea, and an eternity of stars. The coastline stretched out to her left and right, and even in the dark, she could see the feet of the cliffs underlined with foaming water.

  Three rocks surrounded her, forming a circle. She leant on one of them and peered down into the sea.

  It was a long drop; but more importantly, in the darkness there was no way to see how to avoid hitting the rocks beneath. It was all just a mass of frothing water and shadows; it would be impossible to leap with any aim whatsoever.

  Fate had little to do with it: the drop would be fatal.

  Nada turned, and there was Noah, facing her with his crossbow, a grim look on his scarred visage.

  ‘Time to go, Nada. I hope you live; you were my favourite, you know.’

  Nada’s flesh crawled; her insides felt heavy, like they were made of lead.

  ‘You’ll be caught,’ she said. ‘You’ll be punished, too.’

  ‘This time tomorrow, I’ll be on the other side of the world. Back where I belong.’

  Nada felt something clogging her throat, but she managed to say the words anyway. ‘You’ll be found wherever you go.’

  There was a call from behind them. She glanced back down to where she’d come from: her friends were still there on the grass, in a line in front of Paul, as if he was going to execute them then and there. The call was Paul’s: he’d had to raise his voice to make himself heard over the noise of the sea. ‘Uh … Noah? Isn’t that enough now? What are you doing? I thought we were just scaring them …’

  Of course, Nada thought. That was why he’d had that terrible grin the whole evening. For Paul, it was just supposed to be a joke. He’d never hurt them; not really. In his mind, this was a logical progression from mutilating cats and scaring the neighbours. He wasn’t a killer; he just liked rattling people, using his knowledge of cults and legends to terrify the wits out of his boring island.

  All of a sudden, there was movement. Emboldened, Gaia had surged forward, breaking out of the ranks and starting up the outcrop towards Nada.

  Noah cried out with anger, then raised the crossbow and fired. An arrow whistled through the air and plunged into Paul’s chest. For a moment, he just stood there, and Nada could make out his wide-eyed disbelief; it was pitiful, childlike even. Her throat closed; she couldn’t breathe. All she could do was watch as he crumpled to the grass, axe slipping from his dying hands. There was a collective gasp, and a scream from one of the girls ripped across the bay. Gaia, who had come forward with such urgency, was stopped in her tracks, looking back at the still body.

  Nada felt weak; her knees wanted to give way. But some part of her dismissed the sight of Paul’s body, dismissed everything that wasn’t important to her survival. Noah was lowering the bow, breathing heavily, looking at his kill with an expression that was part exhilaration, part shock. Nada couldn’t fathom it, and nor did she want to. What was important was that he was distracted; that he wasn’t watching her.

  He brought the crossbow round and pointed it at Gaia. ‘Move again, and you’re next,’ he warned.

  With his back almost completely turned, Nada knew.

  It was now or never.

  She tore the arrow out of her sleeve, and stepped forward, ready to drive it into Noah’s back – but he was too quick. Turning, he caught her hand, and the arrowhead stopped just inches from his shoulder.

  ‘What is this?’ he grunted.

  He let go of the crossbow to grasp the arrow with both hands. As he pushed it aside, Nada lost her balance and was thrown against the rock, her breath punched out of her. Before she had time to recover, his hands were curling around her neck. She gulped at the huge force on her throat, squeezing it, denting it …

  She felt her vision reel, and suddenly all her strength was swallowed up, taken away by that pressure on her neck. She tried to prise his fingers away, but could not get a grip.

  With her legs weakening, Noah was able to push her towards the edge. There was nothing but air behind her. Nada scrambled to get a foothold, to find some sort of leverage, but in vain. She was being drawn inexorably to the drop. To Geoffrey’s Leap.

  ‘Enough …’ muttered Noah. There was a crazed look in his eyes; a look of madness, determination. ‘Enough, now …’

  Nada’s vision was beginning to black out; still hazy from the knock, her head felt like a fire was raging through it, consuming her.

  She did the only thing she could think of, and instead of trying to unlock his grasp from her neck, she took hold of his wrists.

  He looked down, pausing for a moment when he saw her hands locked on his. Nada was squeezing them with all her might.

  ‘If I go, you go,’ she croaked.

  ‘Letting fate take care of the both of us,’ he breathed. ‘Fascinating right up to the end, Nada. I could do that, you know. I could do the jump with you.’

  Nada closed her eyes. She was ready; she’d done all she could. It was time … time to go.

  Then there was Gaia’s voice. ‘Let her fall, and this arrow is going straight into your head.’

  Nada opened her eyes; Gaia had the crossbow pointed at the back of Noah’s skull. ‘Bring her away from the edge.’

  Noah grimaced, and looked into Nada’s eyes. There it was: that gaze, one last time.

  Time to jump, it said.

  Nada screamed – and then everything happened fast.

  Gaia pulled with one hand, dragging Noah back from the edge, and shot with the other. There was a sickening crack as the arrow passed through bone, and Nada found herself crumpled in a heap with Noah’s motionless body on top of her.

  Shaking, she pushed him off her, and found Gaia; they wrapped their arms around each other, trembling, holding each other, surrounded by stars and sea.

  They stayed like that for what seemed a long time before they separated. Then Nada crawled to the end of the outcrop, and looked down.

  The girls were climbing up to them; they’d all come to try and help.

  All but one.

  Nada let out an exclamation; it was supposed to be a word, but it came out a garbled mess.

  On the patch of grass where they’d all been lined up, Clarisse was standing on her own. Beside her, ignored, lay Paul’s body.

  And in her hands was a phone, filming them.

  She lowered the phone and looked up at Nada with a blank, unreadable stare.

  Twenty-Eight

  Nada scrambled down, passing the others. They all paused, asking her whether she was all right, what had happened. She ignored them. Something wasn’t right. There had been something in Clarisse’s look, and that phone, that made everything feel wrong; like success had been snatched from them.

  She jumped down from the outcrop and strode up to Clarisse, the others behind her. There was a gust of cold wind, and it rippled through Clarisse’s nun’s habit.

  ‘What was that?’ Nada demanded; her voice was hoarse, her throat agony.

  Clarisse did not answer at once; she just regarded Nada with that same blank look as before.

  ‘Evidence,’ she replied eventually.

  ‘Of what?!’

  Clarisse’s gaze hardened; no longer other-worldly or distant, it focused in on Nada.

  ‘Of you killing Noah.’

  There was an explosion of questions in Nada’s mind. Nothing seemed to make sense. Nothing seemed to hang together.

  Unless …

  ‘You knew,’ she whispered. ‘You knew about today; you let it happen.’

  Clarisse’s eyes darkened. ‘I did more than that, Nada. I made it happen.’

  Nada’s thoughts reeled as the others gathered around her. The parchments in Clarisse’s room. The newspaper clippings that had been mysteriously left at the front door. Even that strange, secret conversation with Tamsyn made sense now; she’d been conferring, giving instructions on what the Bard had to do.

  ‘You don’t understand what it felt like to have my Noah come back to me after all those years,’ said Clarisse, back in her own little world again. ‘What it was like to find that love, that promise again. He just reappeared one day. It didn’t matter that he’d abandoned me. It didn’t matter that he’d left me for so long. I was simply happy to have him back in my arms, where he belonged.’

  Her eyes began to water.

  ‘When he told me what you’d done, I couldn’t believe it. I refused to believe it. My friends, I thought. I’ve done so much for them. They wouldn’t let me down like that, would they? I asked Tamsyn, and even she kept it from me.’ She glanced over at Tamsyn. ‘You only told the truth when Noah forced it out of you.’

  There was a strangled quality to her voice, as though years of frustration had cursed her, changed her into someone else. The words flowed as if she were talking about something mundane, but her cheeks were taut and her eyes disturbed.

  ‘All of my friends … murdering, lying, cheating … I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t see it. Would my Tamsyn, my Nada take away my happiness and lie to my face about it? After all I’d done for them? I always wondered what it was like for you, that next day, when we woke up in our tents. You knew Noah was in the valley, just a few minutes from where we were, and you said nothing. Noah said that he would show me who you really were. He said that he would expose you. And he did.’

  All five of them were standing around Clarisse now, listening to her every word. But it was like they weren’t there; it was like she was talking to herself.

  ‘What about James?’ said Nada.

  Clarisse gave a little smile. ‘I hired him to pose as my fiancé. He’s not even straight.’

  ‘But Clarisse – you gave me that arrow. To kill Noah …’ Nada could barely force the words out: she could not tell whether it was because of the pain in her throat, or her emotion.

 

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