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Chapter 25
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2024-10-29 19:42:56"Before I tell you what we're doing here, take this," Felix says.
He reaches into the back pocket of his jeans, and takes out a small piece of paper folded in two. Alastaire rolls his eyes as Felix passes the note to me over the table, closing my hand over it.
I'm still in such a state of shock at finding them in my house that it takes a second to register that Felix Lockhart's hand just touched my hand.
"Read it after we've left," Felix says. "And don't show your friend. It's for your eyes only. Understand?"
I nod, tucking the paper away into my hoodie pocket.
"Basically, you're going to help us with a... project," Felix says.
He's ordering me. There's no 'please', no 'if you want to.'
"You want me to help you?" I ask, searching his face for some sign he's joking. His expression is as indecipherable and distant
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The dappled afternoon sunlight is warm against my back as I cycle through Forest Park.Everything is threaded with green, and the slow buzz of summer. Every now and again I stop riding to look at the sword ferns and bracken lining the dirt trail, and the thick canopy of firs and lushly leaved maples overhead.It feels so good to be back in the forest. We've lived on the edge of the park my whole life, and I used to know it like the back of my hand.Since the accident, I haven't visited even once.After I've been riding for almost half an hour, I hop off my rusty old BMX and pull Felix's note out of my pocket.Unfolding it, I study it for the hundredth time.I still can't believe he drew me a map.Two lines intersect at a 45-degree angle. One is labeled 'Wildwood', the other, 'Chestnut'. There's a big X where they meet.And at the
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Thump. Thump. Thump.My heart is beating so hard against my ribs I feel like it's about to jump out of my chest on to the kitchen counter.I've managed to keep fairly calm up to this point, but the thought of Lyall making pancakes for me... I want to do a crazy fangirl dance.Lyall hums quietly to himself while he stirs the batter, and Felix is sitting next to me with his head down on the counter. He hasn't even touched his tea yet.Alastaire flicks through something on his phone.There's no reception out here, so I'm tempted to ask what he's doing, but I don't want him to think I'm being nosy.The guys don't seem to notice how nervous I am, and realizing this helps me to calm down. I clutch my mug a little less tightly.Everyone's lost in their own thoughts.Apart from Lyall's softly murmured tune and the clinking of the spoon ag
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She sits high up in the branches of an ancient blackthorn tree, draped in a darkness blacker than midnight.They’re still searching for her.She can hear the faraway shouting, the breaking of twigs underfoot, even the beating of their hearts.Now she watches those five blazing hearts dancing through the dark far below, glowing like red embers in the dying fire.Her eyes travel further afield, to the heart of the forest, where a nimbus of brilliant silver blooms in the shadows.She smiles as the cold wind tugs on her hair, and she sends a tune out along the breeze, towards the silvery light.The oldest song she can remember.A lullaby.Soon, she’ll be free.She’ll destroy it. Music made magic, the chain unbroken for a thousand years.
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This can't be happening.The massive ball of silver light hanging in the air unfurls, opening up like the petals of an incandescent metallic rose.In the circle of luminosity, a wavy ribbon of radiance seems to move in a slow pattern, weaving in and out of itself like a twisting knot of smoke.As my eyes adjust, I make out its real shape.Impossible.A long, coiling body covered in glinting scales like a thousand tiny mirrors, reflecting the light of the full moon. A coffin-shaped head bobbing slowly on an invisible current. Two wide, glittering green eyes shining like emeralds.Even though it must be at least twenty feet above us, I can clearly see a series of markings on the underbelly of the serpent, darker scales or scarring, running down its length like Hieroglyphics or some ancient script.A figure-eight on its side. A cross looped o
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