Page 112 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

“Tsk tsk tsk.”

I almost wet myself with fear. But then I bolted, screaming into what felt like a void.

“Help! Somebody help me!”

“Nobody’s coming, Noelle.” Peter’s voice taunted me as he followed.

Through the trees and bushes I crashed, running for my life, but my desperation wasn’t enough. Peter was taller and faster than me, plus he had the advantage of boots. I tripped, and I would have fallen if he hadn’t grabbed my hair and yanked me back against him.

“Didn’t the others tell you what happens when you try to escape? You get sanctioned, and one of your friends gets punished too. Who do you want to suffer for your sins, Noelle?” He leaned closer, his voice a harsh whisper in my ear. “Emma? Leanne? Jacqueline?”

“Stop!”

A voice came from straight ahead of me, and a familiar figure stepped out of the shadows. Reed. Oh, Reed. He looked mad as hell, and he had a gun aimed at Peter.

Too late, I felt the point of the knife digging into my neck. After all this, I was going to die anyway? Reed couldn’t shoot Peter without the bullet going through me first, and now the freak began backing away.

A second figure appeared beside Reed, a man I’d never seen before with a phone pressed to his ear. “We’ve located the suspect, but he has a hostage. Yes, High Grove Farm, near Bluemont.”

“Drop your weapon,” Reed said, his voice eerily calm. “The game’s up. The police are on their way.”

Peter began laughing. “They can’t touch me. I’ve got diplomatic immunity. They’re not even allowed to set foot on the property.”

“Funny things, boundary lines. Out in a forest like this, it’s sometimes difficult to work out where one property ends and another begins. But I’m sure if anyone makes a mistake, we can sort it out after you’re dead.”

Peter’s grip loosened infinitesimally. “Well, I’m telling you, the edge of this property is a quarter mile behind where you’re standing, so you’re trespassing.”

“Sorry? I didn’t quite catch that. I’ve been having trouble with my hearing lately. Probably because my ears have gotten blocked up with all the bullshit your father and his cronies have been spouting.”

Reed took a step forward, and Peter’s arm tightened around my waist as he pressed the knife in harder with his other hand. I felt a sting as the point broke my skin, a warm tickle as blood ran down my neck.

“Let her go and walk away, and I’m sure the British government will find some way to cover this up.”

“Don’t you understand? Noelle’s mine now.”

“My name isn’t—”

“Shut up!” he shrieked. “Why can’t you—”

He never got to finish the sentence. Blood and brain matter splattered over me, and my ears rang from the gunshot. I twisted in Peter’s arms, and for the first time, I saw a black soul rise from a person’s body and scatter on the wind as he crumpled to the ground.

The gunshot hadn’t come from Reed. No, he lowered his pistol and looked to my right. A woman stood beside Wyatt, another stranger, but somehow I felt as though we knew each other. And that wasn’t all. She had an aura around her, a white light that shimmered as she moved.

I felt myself drawn to her. Despite everything that had just happened, with Reed in front of me and Peter’s body lying behind, I staggered in her direction. This beautiful but dark girl who opened her arms and lit up the gloom from the inside out.

When she hugged me, I realised I didn’t know who she was, but I knew what she was. She was a part of me.

And then I cried.

CHAPTER 34 - KIMBERLY

REED TUCKED A jacket around me, and his arm settled into place over my shoulders. I didn’t have to look to know it was him—I’d recognise him even in the pitch black. His musky smell. His gentle touch. The calming vibes that washed over me.

“He’s gone, sweetheart.”

“I know.”

“This is Rania. She’s another—”

---