Lockie heard his name being called. He glanced back, and saw Réiltín running towards him, waving. He stopped, and ran back to her.
‘What the hell?’ said Réiltín. ‘What are you thinking? Who’s gone over?’
‘All of us,’ said Lockie. ‘Sorry, but…’
‘I can’t believe you’re doing this,’ said Réiltín.
‘Not on purpose,’ said Lockie. ‘I mean – nobody wants to get you in trouble.’
‘Ironically,’ said Réiltín, ‘Kelly’s the only one who won’t.’
Lockie made an apologetic face. ‘Actually…’
‘What the hell? But… I just saw her in bed.’
‘Nope,’ said Lockie, ‘that was LB’s bag.’
‘Oh my God,’ said Réiltín. ‘I am so dead. I am so dead. I just told Johnny she’s on lockdown, and he’s gone off to bed. And what the hell? I need to stop you guys. Seriously. This is insane.’
‘The only reason we didn’t say anything is you were busy. We knew you’d worry… It’s all going to be wrapped up in an hour, anyway, according to Amber. Like, including getting up and back.’
‘That’s not the point—’
‘But if Johnny’s asleep,’ said Lockie, ‘then it doesn’t matter—’
‘If Johnny’s already asleep, he’ll definitely be awake about seven hours from now, which, if you don’t stick to your timing, is the earliest you idiots will get back across.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Lockie.
‘Tidal island?’ said Réiltín. ‘The tide will be in within the hour.’
On top of the rock, under the full moon, Amber and Kelly were at the healing well, setting everything up around it for the ritual. The candles were grouped on the stone ledge above the well, shining in the narrow streams of water that trickled down the rock, glowing against the chipped and faded religious statues and empty candle holders, their red plastic turned a pale shade of coral. On the ground next to the well, on its little stand, was Amber’s selenite sphere, glowing like the moon.
LB was sitting on a grassy mound, her eyes on Kelly, her jaw clenched.
Rupert came up beside her. ‘Not interested in the set-up?’
LB smiled. ‘Not interested in being around Kelly right now.’ She looked at him. ‘But in the spirit of letting things go…’
Kelly laughed over to them, and pointed to herself and Amber, and their hoods. ‘We look like monks.’
‘Solemnly tending to our religious artefacts,’ said Amber.
LB glanced at Rupert. ‘How come you’re wearing your crime scene?’ she said, pointing to his college hoodie.
He leaned down and smelled it. ‘Because it’s m’boyfriend’s. I was a little chilly in the night air. He’s never getting it back. Even if I have to lose an arm to the clothes bank to do swapsies.’ He smelled it again, offered it to LB. She laughed. ‘Laundry. Nice.’
‘He smells like life itself,’ said Rupert.
LB laughed again. ‘How did your drive go?’
‘Well, I made the decision not to mention the whole “in love” thing until at least the first kiss.’
‘Oh, wow,’ said LB. ‘The restraint.’
‘Just until later, I suspect.’ He paused. ‘I have this fear of kissing boys I need to let go of.’ He smiled. It was nervous.
LB side-eyed him. ‘What’s that about? Is there reluctance there?’
‘No,’ said Rupert. ‘Not reluctance.’ His gaze drifted towards Kelly. LB followed it.
‘What?’ said LB. ‘Something to do with Kelly?’
Rupert looked around, leaned in to LB. ‘I don’t want to ruin anyone’s night…’
LB frowned at him. ‘But you look so sad.’
Tears welled in Rupert’s eyes. ‘Oh God… sorry.’ He turned away from the others.
‘It’s OK,’ said LB. ‘It’s always OK.’
Rupert let out a shaky sigh, tipped his head back, blinked away his tears. ‘He’s so sweet – Tadhg. When we were coming back in the car, a text came in from Johnny to say there was a call from Páidí, our neighbour, and I was to call him back. Anyway, I just thought it was about picking me up from the train station, and Tadhg lent me his phone, and anyway…’ He spoke through fresh tears. ‘Dad’s been in hospital since last Monday… Everything’s fine; he’s OK; there’s a problem with his heart, but he’s OK. They didn’t want to worry me. And poor Páidí is coming all the way here to pick me up tomorrow… He’ll take me to Dad on the way home.’
‘Oh, sweetheart,’ said LB. She gave him a huge hug. ‘I’m so sorry. I’m glad he’s OK, though. And they were right not to worry you… And he’ll be so looking forward to seeing you.’
‘Me too,’ said Rupert, tears spilling down his face. He let out another sigh. ‘Right!’ he said, pulling down the sleeve of Tadhg’s hoodie, wiping his eyes. ‘That’s when he gave me this. And a little kiss on the cheek.’
Kelly stood up from straightening the candles and turned around to see Lockie walking towards her.
‘There he is – slow-moving vehicle,’ she said, opening her arms, walking towards him. ‘Sweating like a…’ She stopped when she saw Réiltín following a few feet behind him.
‘Oh my God!’ said Kelly, eyes instantly alight. ‘What the hell is she doing here?’
‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ said Lockie, taking Kelly’s elbow, and guiding her further away, out of Réiltín’s earshot. ‘Keep your voice down, will you?’
‘Oh my God,’ said Kelly again, eyes wild. ‘She cannot be here—’
‘She shouldn’t be here because she could get killed—’
‘Yeah – by me,’ said Kelly.
‘Grow up,’ said Lockie. ‘There’s no reason she can’t be here. I said come up, because I knew there’d be a hope of the whole thing wrapping up in time if she was here.’ He paused. ‘And I like her, OK?’
‘Who’s suddenly on a timer?’ said Kelly. She grabbed him by the shirt. ‘I’m telling you – go over there and tell her to get her ass back down—’
‘We all have to get our asses down,’ said Lockie, pulling her hands away. ‘This is insane.’
‘We haven’t even done the ritual yet,’ said Kelly. ‘What – we climb all the way—’
‘Listen to me!’ said Lockie.
‘… up here,’ continued Kelly, ignoring him, ‘and…’ She paused, glancing over at Réiltín, then back at Lockie. ‘Oh, are we all in trouble now with the cuinteoir? Is that why we have to go? We’re having fun, so let’s end that?’
‘No!’ hissed Lockie. ‘She’s trying to look out for us. Would you listen! We have to get down off the rock, now, or we’ll be cut off by the tide and stuck here for hours.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Kelly, looking over towards Réiltín. ‘She’s totally making that up. Why wouldn’t you just have come up here on your own to tell us that? She could have sent you up.’
‘What you’re not getting,’ said Lockie, ‘is that, whether you like it or not, she’s kind of responsible for us, so she wants to make sure we actually all get off safely—’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ said Kelly. ‘What difference can she make? What’s she going to do? Break someone’s fall? The size of her.’
Lockie put his hands on his hips, shook his head.
Kelly leaned into his face. ‘You’re so thick. How can you not see what she’s doing? She just wants to get into the group. She starts with you – obviously saw you were vulnerable—’
‘I wasn’t “vulnerable”,’ said Lockie. ‘I was sad, like a normal person.’
‘Sad, whatever,’ said Kelly. ‘And then she moves onto LB. Jumping around – “Oh, yay, congratulations, we’re both nerds now.” ’
‘What?’ said Lockie.
‘I’m telling you,’ hissed Kelly. ‘Réiltín heard about this, probably from Tadhg or whoever, and she didn’t want to be left out—’
‘No. Why would she want to be part of this?’ said Lockie, raising his voice. ‘Hanging out over here with a group of friends, including one who hates her, when – if it doesn’t get her fired – us being up here will get her in major trouble—’
‘Probably the only trouble she’s ever got into in her life,’ said Kelly, throwing Réiltín a dismissive glance.
Lockie held up his hands in surrender. ‘In. Sane.’
Kelly walked away. ‘Ass. Hole.’
Lockie turned around to Réiltín and beckoned her to come with him. He hadn’t seen Kelly do a U-turn…