I walked into Wrickenridge High at eight thirty flanked by Yves and Zed. It felt strange: I’d only been away for a few weeks but it could have been months. As I anticipated, I attracted guiltily intrigued stares. I didn’t need to read their minds to know what they were thinking: There she is—the girl who was kid napped. Cracked up, we hear. Gone crazy.

‘That’s not true, Sky,’ murmured Zed. ‘No one thinks you’re mad. They understand.’

We walked into the office to register my return. Mr Joe practically leapt the desk to give me a hug.

‘Little Sky! You’re back! We’ve all been so worried!’ He wiped a tear from his eye and sniffed, part genuine, part enjoying the drama. ‘Are you quite sure you are ready?’

‘Yes, Mr Joe.’

He gave the Benedicts an assessing look. ‘You’re going to make sure she’s all right?’

‘Yes, sir,’ promised Zed.

‘You do that.’ Mr Joe handed me a card to take to my form room. ‘Now get along with you. You don’t want to be late on your first day back.’

And that was what it proved to be like: everyone was bending over backwards to help me settle in again. Even Sheena and her Vampire Brides were nice to me as if, like a spun glass bauble, I might shatter if they said anything cruel. Weirdly it made me miss their stupid bunny comments. I had got behind on all subjects but rather than present this as a problem the teachers organized ‘catch-up’ packs for me and students offered me the use of their notes. Tina had already photocopied hers. It dawned on me that somewhere along the way I had been accepted as belonging to the school and they were looking out for me as one of their own.

At lunch, I went along with Zed to the music practice. I wasn’t expecting to do any more than watch but Mr Keneally was having none of it. He put me back on piano.

‘But the concert’s next week!’ I protested.

He produced a score from his bag with a flourish.

‘You’re right. Plenty of time to learn the piece I picked out for you.’

‘You’re expecting me to perform on my own?’

I looked round the room hoping to find some support from my fellow students but even Nelson was grinning at Mr Keneally’s tactics.

‘You were expecting not to? Why learn an instrument if you don’t want to be heard?’ asked the teacher.

I didn’t think he’d understand the pleasure I took in playing for myself so I kept quiet about that. ‘I’m not sure I’m feeling up to this.’

‘Nonsense. Best response to a hard knock like you’ve had is to fight back.’

I suppose I shared that philosophy. ‘OK. I’ll have a look at the music.’

Mr Keneally moved on to the violins, saying over his shoulder. ‘You’d better do more than look. Your name is already on the programme. I told Nelson to put it back on as soon as I heard you’d come to school this morning.’

Victor was lounging against his car at the end of school, waiting for us to emerge. He had some bad but not entirely unanticipated news for me.

‘Maria Toscana—better known as Maria Toscana Kelly.’ He displayed a photo of Daniel Kelly’s daughter on his laptop as we sat in the back seat of his Prius. ‘She married an Italian Count but she dumped him two years ago and joined Daddy’s empire. Lucky escape for him, I’d say.’

So my instinct had been right. ‘They’re trying to get to me through my parents.’

‘And through you to us. The Kellys’ score with the Benedicts has grown longer since we took out two of their men at the warehouse. It might be the lead we’re looking for.’

Zed’s arm was draped around my shoulders. He now sat up straight, alerted to the dangerous situation that was brewing.

‘You can’t use Sky and her parents in this, Vick.’

Victor shut the lid of the laptop. ‘We’re beating our heads against a brick wall at the moment, not least on the whereabouts of the two escapees. The whole family should be behind bars, but we can’t even keep those we put there under lock and key. It’s frustrating to say the least.’

‘What do you think I can do?’ I asked.

‘I had in mind that you could wear a wire when you meet Maria Toscana Kelly.’

‘But she’ll be walking into a trap!’ protested Zed. ‘Vick, she’s not doing that.’

‘Not if we know about it first—then we can reverse it, catch them instead. These people won’t stop coming after us until we get them. I’m thinking of her as well as us—she’s one of us too.’

I toyed with the straps of my schoolbag. I could help the Benedicts if I did this. If nothing was done, they’d never be able to breathe freely. It was the least I could do as I had been increasingly panicking about the savant thing and was coming to the conclusion that the best thing I could do—the safest—was to run. I’d have to tell Zed that I had no intention of being anything more than his temporary girlfriend. Very soon I’d go back to England and leave the savant world behind.

‘Don’t listen to him, Sky,’ Zed said softly.

‘But I can help.’

He looked resolute. ‘I’d prefer to know you’re safe and well even if it means that the danger doesn’t go away for my family.’

‘What’s the use of that? We’ll all be in a kind of prison—one run by Daniel Kelly.’

‘Oh God, Sky, don’t do this to me.’ Zed put his forehead to mine, his distress reaching me in black waves shot through with lightning flashes of silver.

He was so quick to protect me; it was about time he allowed me to return the favour. I wasn’t the frail damsel in distress he seemed to think; I had my own power, my own agenda. If I couldn’t be the brave partner he needed, the least I wanted was to make sure he and his family would never be harmed by these people.

‘No, I won’t be doing it to you, I’ll be doing it for all of us—and because it’s the right thing. I don’t want it on my conscience that I did nothing when I had a chance to make a difference. Who else will Daniel Kelly mind-mug if I don’t help stop him?’

‘Vick!’ pleaded Zed. ‘You can’t let anything happen to her.’

Victor nodded solemnly. ‘I promise. She’s one of us, isn’t she? I wouldn’t let those creeps get us, so I won’t let them touch Sky. And she won’t be going in without protection.’

Zed was still unconvinced. In some ways he was like my parents, seeing me as too delicate to face the threats out in the world. I wanted to prove him wrong. I could handle this.

‘What kind of protection?’ I asked Victor.

Zed wasn’t having it. ‘Sky, just shut up. You’re not doing this. I’ve seen what these people can do—I’m not letting you get messed up in that.’

I thumped him in the ribs—hard. ‘You have no right to tell me to shut up, Zed Benedict. You act like I have to be kept in cotton wool. I’ve seen bad stuff too—you know I have.’

‘Not like this. I don’t want it touching you.’

‘So it’s OK for you to fill your head with these horrors, but not me?’

‘Well, yeah.’

‘That’s just stupid—and sexist.’

‘Zed, we need her,’ added his brother.

‘Keep out of this, Victor,’ I snapped.

‘Yes, ma’am.’

I glared at them both. ‘I’ve been wanting to say this to you for some time now. You need help, Zed, help coping with the stuff your family dump in your head. I know it makes you angry and frustrated and you take it out on other people, like the teachers, because you can’t reach the people who did the bad stuff …’

Zed tried to cut me off. ‘Just a moment, Sky …’

‘No, you wait a moment, I’m not finished. I happen to know rather more than most about what bad experiences can do to your head and you need time to sort yourself out without Kelly’s threat hanging over you. So to give you that, I’m going to Las Vegas to … to kick Daniel Kelly’s butt.’

‘Well said, Sky,’ Victor applauded as Zed glowered at me.

‘Now, back to business,’ I said briskly. ‘What protection did you have in mind?’

‘We’re not finished here,’ growled Zed.

‘Yes, we are. Victor, you were saying?’

Victor grinned at his brother. ‘The lady’s made up her mind, Zed. I’d drop it if I were you. Sky, I’ll work with you on your shields. Last time, they were pretty weak. Bedroom walls, right?’

I nodded.

‘This time it’ll be Windsor Castle thick, rings of protection, OK?’

I smiled. ‘OK.’

‘And I have a few ideas of what you can do to that scum, Sean, if he goes sniffing around your emotions.’

‘Even better.’

Victor patted my hand. ‘I like you, Sky. You’re a fighter.’

‘I am, aren’t I? Hear that, Zed? No more Bambi comparisons. I’m a Rottweiler—with a temper.’

‘A very small Rottweiler,’ said Zed, still not convinced.

The biggest issue as the weekend approached was how much my parents should know about the set up. As a mother herself, Karla was in favour of full disclosure; I was against, knowing they’d immediately ban me from going and pull the meeting, tipping off the Kellys that we were on to them. Victor agreed with me; in the end it was decided that he should have a talk with Sally and Simon about the possibility of those behind the kidnapping still being out there, without actually naming Maria Toscana Kelly.

On Friday evening, my last day before the trip, I lay curled up on the sofa at the Benedicts’ house next to Zed while he watched baseball. He had an arm around me, the other digging into the large bowl of popcorn. Everyone else in the family had made themselves scarce, knowing that Zed wanted this time alone with me before sending me off to Vegas in the morning. Less interested in the mysteries of baseball than studying him, I gazed at the curve of his neck, the line of his jaw, and the slope of his nose. How could anyone be so outrageously … well, the only word I could come up with was ‘hot’? It didn’t seem fair to the rest of us tepid mortals. I thought he was too hooked by the game to notice my study, but I was wrong. He started to laugh.

‘Sky, you’re being sappy again.’

‘Is sappy the same as the English soppy?’

‘I guess.’

‘But I like looking at you.’

‘I’m trying to watch baseball here—it’s, like, a sacred pursuit.’

I snuggled closer. How much longer would I be able to do this? ‘I’m not stopping you.’

‘You are. I can feel your eyes on my face almost as if you were touching me.’

‘You’ve got a very nice face.’

‘Why, thank you, Miss Bright.’

‘You’re welcome, Mr Benedict.’ I waited a moment, then whispered. ‘Now you’re supposed to say “And yours isn’t bad either.”’

He removed his attention from the screen to look down at my upturned face. ‘There’s a script for this? What, in “Romance 101”?’

‘Uh-huh. One compliment demands one in return.’

He wrinkled his brow in thought. ‘Well then, Miss Bright, you have a mighty fine … left ear.’

I pelted him with a handful of popcorn.

‘I blew it?’ he asked innocently.

‘Yes, you did.’

He removed the ammunition from my reach, kicked his legs up on the sofa and pulled me on top of him so I lay with my head on his chest, toes touching. I traced little circles on his chest, enjoying his shiver of pleasure. He was so different from me—strong where I had always been slight.

‘That’s better. Then let me say, Miss Bright, you have the most beautiful left ear, right ear and everything in between that I have had the privilege of seeing. I’m particularly fond of your hair, even though it does get everywhere.’ He brushed a strand off his mouth.

‘Well, if you do insist on kissing it.’

‘Yeah, I do insist. I’ll have to get it written into the constitution as my personal inalienable right. I’ll send a letter to the president tonight.’

‘Hmm.’ I turned my head to the screen. ‘What’s the score?’

‘Who cares?’

Now there was the right answer.

A few minutes of just lying together passed. I felt at peace, despite what was waiting tomorrow. Complete. But then, idiot that I am, I had to chisel at the harmony and let the first crack develop between us. ‘Zed?’

‘Hmm?’

‘Don’t you think this attempt to get me back to Vegas is, well, a bit obvious?’

I felt him tense. ‘What do you mean?’

‘The Kellys—Daniel Kelly and Maria at least—they struck me as being clever. Surely they know you would still be keeping a lookout for me? They’d expect you to be suspicious of an invitation out of the blue like this.’

His fingers stroked along my spine, sending little electrical pulses zipping throughout my body. ‘Yeah, you’ve got a point. So what does that mean?’

I shrugged, wishing I could concentrate on the lovely sensations he was provoking rather than fixate on my anxious thoughts. ‘I can’t work it out. Can you see what’s going to happen?’

He was silent for a moment. ‘No, I can’t. I see you in Vegas—a flash of a casino—but it doesn’t go any further. Like I said, I don’t control what I see and with you and my family, at this distance from the events, there are too many variables to get a clear picture.’

‘What if they’re using me to draw your family in again? They might guess Victor will be on hand to protect me. I might be leading my parents and your brother into real danger.’

‘You forget to mention yourself. You know I’m against you doing this. If you’ve got doubts, it’s not too late to back out.’

‘But that would still leave us with your family under threat.’

‘Yeah, it would.’

‘It’s not fair.’

‘No, but I believe we do good work when we use our gifts together. It’s worth it. No one else in the Savant Net can do quite what we do.’

I pushed up on my elbows. ‘I couldn’t live that way.’ I slid off him, sitting on the edge of the sofa. He was already half killing himself with the strain of his work. He’d never said, but I would put money on him having nightmares about the things he had witnessed. What would he do when he realized I wasn’t going to stick around—that I was running scared because I feared the soulfinder thing far more than I feared Daniel Kelly?

He must have overheard an echo of my fears because he caught me by the waist to stop me putting more distance between us. ‘I want you to be happy. We’ll work it out.’

No, we wouldn’t. ‘You say that now, but people do let you down, you know.’ I was trying to warn him not to invest too much in me. ‘Things change. I mean, I doubt many people stay with their high school sweethearts.’

His expression clouded. ‘You’re not being fair, Sky. I’ve sensed for a few days now that you’re shaken up by the soulfinder thing, but soulfinders have nothing in common with high school sweethearts—it goes much deeper.’

We were still side by side but no longer moulded to each other; I only had myself to blame because I was the one who had taken a step back.

I tried to sound mature and reasonable. ‘I think I am being fair. I think I’m being realistic.’

‘Is that how you see me?’ Zed’s face hardened, reminding me he didn’t have a reputation for trouble without cause. ‘Haven’t you felt what I feel? Are you still closing off your gift?’

Of course, I’d felt it—too much and it was scaring me. ‘I don’t know what’s normal and what’s not. I know I love you but I just can’t do this.’ I gestured between us.

‘I see.’ He sat up and moved down the far end of the sofa. ‘Well, while you think that one out, I’ll just watch the rest of the game.’

‘Zed, please. I need to talk about this.’

He floated the popcorn bowl to his lap. ‘We’ve been talking. So far we’ve established that I’m just a boy you’re dating. You’re running from the miracle that we’ve found each other.’

I wrung my hands. I hadn’t wanted to upset him but how could I not when I was fighting for my emotional survival? He didn’t understand what was at stake for me.

‘Look, Zed, my parents killed each other over my mother’s soulfinder. I don’t want history to repeat itself. I don’t have that kind of strength in here.’ I tapped my head.

He gave a curt nod. ‘I understand. Your mom and dad lost it, so we will too. It doesn’t make a blind bit of sense but you probably know that. The way I see it, your parents got into problems because Fate pulled a mean trick on them and your mom ran out on your dad when she should’ve handled finding her soulfinder more fairly. They made a mistake and you paid for it.’

I didn’t like his criticism of my mum for running. ‘I’m trying to explain how I feel, Zed.’

‘And what about how I feel, Sky?’ He pulverized a handful of popcorn, struggling to keep his temper. ‘I’d walk across burning coals for you. Hell, I walked in front of a gun for you. But is that enough to prove I love you? That you are it for me? I don’t know what more I can do.’

‘Please don’t be angry.’

‘I’m not angry. I’m disappointed.’

God, that was worse. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Yeah, well.’ He pretended to watch the game but I could see that his emotions were fluctuating wildly between anger and hurt.

I felt absolutely gutted by what I’d just done. He’d offered me love—it was something unique—like a Fabergé egg—which I’d proceeded to smash. To have your soulfinder reject you was like tearing yourself in two, but somehow I couldn’t help myself. I was hurting him because I was plain terrified. Like that mountaineer who cut off his own hand to save himself, pain now was better than more suffering later, wasn’t it? Oh God, was I right or just running?

Confused and scared, I switched off the television.

‘Hey!’ Zed reached for the controller.

‘Just give me a moment then you can switch it back on.’ I tucked the controller behind my back. ‘I really am sorry. This is me—I’m not the most confident person. You said once I always act surprised when someone likes me—but it isn’t an act. I don’t expect people to like me—let alone love me. I just don’t feel that lovable and now you can see why. I suppose it’s kinda your bad luck to end up with me as a soulfinder.’

Zed ran a hand across his face and through his hair, trying to muster his thoughts. ‘I don’t blame you.’

‘I know you don’t. You’ve seen what’s inside me, warts and all.’ I gave a slightly hysterical laugh. My heart was pounding: I’d messed up big time but I couldn’t leave him thinking I didn’t have strong feelings for him. Maybe I couldn’t be what he wanted, but I could prove I loved him. ‘You said you walked in front of a gun to show that you loved me. Well, I suppose I can only do the same for you. I’m going to Vegas tomorrow—and I’ll be doing it for you.’

He shot to his feet. ‘No way!’

I chucked him the controller which he caught on reflex. ‘I’m not as sorted as you are about this savant stuff and we both have to live with that. I just can’t risk being that way with you—I don’t think I’ll survive the life.’ I took a breath. ‘But Victor’s plan is the only way I can think of to give you proof that, despite my messed-up head, I do love you.’

There—I’d said my piece. I couldn’t read Zed’s response—his emotions were confused and he was ominously silent.

‘So, you can … um … get back to the game. I’m going to turn in—get an early night.’

He held out a hand to me. ‘Sky?’

‘Yes?’

‘I still love you—more than ever. I’ll wait till you’re ready.’

I felt a huge rush of guilt. I’d never be ready.

‘I don’t want you to put yourself on the line for me.’

I folded my arms. ‘Yeah, I kinda guessed that bit.’

He tugged me closer, his large hand rose to cradle the back of my head, warmth seeping through to the skin. ‘I’ll talk to Victor about your worries. I’m gonna insist I come. My future sense works well just before an event even with interference. I can help anticipate problems.’

‘From a safe distance?’

‘From a reasonable distance. Close enough to be there to help, but not so close to hand the Kellys the advantage.’

‘OK.’ I rubbed my palm over his heart, silently apologizing for the heartache I was causing. ‘I can cope with that.’