“What’s so special about you?” Kayla asked me.

“I’ll -” I started, but Coanda cut over me.

“Explain on the way,” Coanda finished. “We don’t have time to lose. My spies inform me that Elias Munn has already set off for the Dust Palace.”

“He definitely won’t be invited in,” Isidor said.

“If he goes with an army, he won’t need to be invited in,” Coanda said, “He’ll just break down the door. Now let’s get moving.”

We left the resistance camp behind and Coanda briefed them to wait for his signal. Heading out through the upturned trees, the soft, covered ground soon gave way to a harder, rocky road that spiraled away into the distance. The road cut across a vast and desolate-looking land. It was red and arid, totally unlike the camp we had left behind. It reminded me of pictures I had seen on the internet that had been beamed back to Earth by exploration vehicles sent to Mars.

It was just turning dusk, and I pictured the Light House turning away from us, but its light still burnt fiercely on the horizon ahead, spinning its golden rays between the tips of two ragged mountains.

“What are those mountains called?’ Kayla asked Isidor as we walked together.

“They’re called The Weeping Peaks,” he said.

“The Weeping Peaks,” Kayla mused. “They sound nice.”

“Do they?” Isidor said, and I detected a note of dread in his voice. Then he sped up just slightly, just far enough not to have to engage in any further conversation with Kayla. Perhaps he wanted to be on his own.

The sight of the landscape was awe inspiring and even though I had seen and experienced so much over the last several months, the realisation that I was now racing across The Hollows filled my heart with inspiration. I tried to absorb every detail, every shard of light that glinted through those mountains and every rock that glowed like embers on the surface of this incredible world. I looked back at the way we had come, and in the distance I could see the tops of those upturned trees glistening. Some distance away, I could see Potter and Luke. I couldn’t tell if they were talking, but they walked apart.

“The Hollows is beautiful, don’t you think?” Kayla asked, her voice soft.

“Mmm?” I said thoughtfully as I stopped watching Luke and Potter and faced Kayla again.

“The Hollows are amazing, aren’t they?” Kayla said again.

“Incredible,” I replied, as I watched the jagged scenery slip into the shadows cast by the revolving Light House.

“So why are the Elders expecting you?”

Over the next couple of hours as we walked towards the Weeping Peaks, I told Kayla everything I had read in the letter Ravenwood had left for me. I explained to her all about the history of Elias Munn and how he despised the human race because he had been rejected by one of them. Kayla thought Munn’s story was tragic and sad. I told her about the importance of the half-breeds and one in particular, me. As I explained to her the decision I had been born to make, and how whichever one I chose to survive, we would take on that species form permanently, Kayla took my hand and I saw tears spill from her eyes and slide silently down her face.

“Why are you crying?” I asked her gently.

“I don’t want to change, Kiera,” she said. “I want to stay as I am.”

“But I didn’t think you liked being a half-breed – you know, with how you used to be bullied and everything,” I said.

“That was back then,” she sniffed. “That seems like it happened to a different person. I’ve just gotten used to the idea of who I really am – I don’t want to go through anymore changes.”

“So if you had to choose,” I asked her, “What would you do?”

Then slowing, she looked me straight in the eye and squeezed my hands with hers. “Kiera, I’d rather die than make that choice.” She walked away, and I watched the dying light shine off her flaming hair.

No pressure then, I thought to myself and walked on, lost to my thoughts.

We walked until it grew dark, my head down. Then without even noticing at first, we had drawn close to the foot of the Weeping Peaks.

“Why have we stopped?” I asked Coanda.

“This is as far as we go by road,” he said, as both Potter and Luke sauntered towards us. They reminded me of two naughty school boys who were sulking because they’d had their toys confiscated.

Coanda waited for them to catch up then said, “Let’s get going. We have a mountain to climb!”

Potter glanced at me then up at the mountain. He then made his way towards it. I looked up at the first Weeping Peak which stretched so far into the sky, that more than half of it seemed lost to darkness.

“Welcome to the Weeping Peaks,” Luke said, and brushed past me.

“We’ve really got to climb that?” Kayla asked breathlessly.

“Indeed we have, so the sooner we get going the better,” Coanda grinned.

“Can’t we just fly?” Kayla sighed.

“No. We can’t risk being tracked by echolocation,” he snapped, then started to climb.

Kayla and I went after him, followed by Isidor, who still seemed quiet. The gradient of the mountain wasn’t steep like I had expected it to be, but was more like climbing a hill. Coanda stormed ahead.

As we climbed, the last of the light faded as night drew in all around us. With it came a chilly wind that whipped up a blanket of rusty-coloured dust. We climbed for what seemed like hours, and my stomach began to rumble with hunger. And it was then that I realized that since being in The Hollows, I hadn’t craved human flesh. I wondered if that was the same for Kayla and Isidor.

After a few more hours of walking, Coanda stopped ahead of us. He had come to rest on a jagged piece of rock that jutted out from the side of the mountain. Rubbing his huge hands together, he looked at us as we gathered around him and said, “We’ll take some rest here for a few hours and start again at dawn.”

I watched Potter and Luke walk away from each other like two fighters preparing to duel at first light. Both slumped against some nearby rocks. Luke lay on his side, and using his hands as makeshift pillows, he closed his eyes. Potter took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and then looked at me as he blew smoke up into the night. Isidor and Kayla lay on the ground nearby and snuggled close to one another next to a fire that Coanda had started. Wanting to be alone, I walked some distance away. I lowered myself onto the ledge of a nearby rock. Stretching out on the ground, I winced at the pain in my calf muscles. The walk had been a long one and my eyelids felt heavy with tiredness.

Taking my iPod from my pocket, I thumbed through the tracks. Putting in the earphones, I rolled onto my side and fell asleep listening to Run by Leona Lewis.

Chapter Fourteen

“I’ve had my heart ripped out!” I wanted to scream at her. But just like my arms had refused to move, so did my mouth. I could feel the words working their way up the back of my throat, but they had become entangled around my tonsils and just couldn’t free themselves.

Then I felt a finger force its way into my mouth. It wiggled up and down then left and right. It prodded my tongue and it tasted of rubber.

“I can taste rubber!” I screamed inside. “Please don’t cut me open! I can taste rubber! You can’t open me up if I can taste rubber!”

The finger ran itself over my teeth and I realised it was covered with a surgical glove.

Of course she’d be wearing gloves! She’s doing a medical examination. They can be messy especially when it comes to cutting…

The pathologist continued her examination of me and said, “Teeth present. I will start with the upper left side. Eight present. Seven present. Six missing. Five missing. Four present…wait a minute…!”

I didn’t know if it was the sound of her soft voice counting backwards, but I could feel my head floating again, falling backwards…falling backwards into darkness. The nothingness took me again.

I woke. Not in the very sense of the word. I woke up inside. My mind was awake again, but I wasn’t sure if my body had woken. But this time my awakening was different. Everything was red. The world was covered in a red film. There were shadows and these were red too. The shadows took on forms and shapes. They were people. One lent over me. She was female. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her face looked flushed scarlet. Her hands were covered in rubber gloves and they looked pink. At first I thought they were covered in blood…

My blood?

Then, I realised it was just the red film of blood covering my eyeball that was making them that colour. I managed to swivel my eye in its socket and the red got darker almost black. Then three thoughts hit me at once.

I can move my eye! And the red is blood. I can move my eye and it’s covered with blood! And it’s cold…why is it so cold?

Swivelling my one good eye, I tried to look down the length of my body. I couldn’t see my toes, but I could see my chest and that was enough.

I’m naked! They’ve removed my clothes! Why have they taken off my clothes?

The pathologist spoke again. “Moving down the body, all internal organs seem to be intact apart from the heart.” She prodded my abdomen with her pink glove and continued. “There are no signs of bruising, puncture wounds, or lacerations, apart from those above her left breast.”

Through the red haze, I watched her turn to another shape in the corner. “Can you take a sample for blood group analysis?” she asked the shape.

The shape moved towards me, needle in hand.

“Please no needles. I hate needles!” I shouted inside.

I looked at the shape that came towards me. I couldn’t tell if I had been stuck with a needle, all I could feel was coldness. I looked at the male working on me and guessed he wasn’t the owner of the voice I had heard earlier. Hadn’t that voice said he was a police officer?

Police officers don’t take blood samples. I knew that because I used to be one. My thoughts were broken by the sight of something bright and gleaming passing in front of my field of vision. It looked sharp – pointed.