Everything feels light. Kit and me, we’re drifting above the trees and fields. We’re free of the lake at last. It should feel right but it doesn’t quite. Not yet. Being this high up makes me giddy as if I’ve risen too high too quick. Kit looks startled too. The snow has cleared, and now the stars are out. The cold is blade-sharp.
Spread below us is someone’s old coat. On top of it, all curled up, lies a girl with wild dark hair. Her eyes are shut. She seems to be sleeping; I can’t quite be sure. Something twists in my chest and I realise I’m looking down on myself. I know this feeling – last time it happened I nearly died. Only now I’m too light-headed to care.
Who’d miss me if I did die?
The answer comes so fast it takes my breath away.
Ma. It would kill her. I’m all she’s got left.
I gaze down at the girl, and out the corner of my eye, I see a movement. A dark shape is striding towards her, the lantern he holds casting light across the snow. The person looks familiar.
Will!
He’s found me, and I know I should be glad, but in truth I’m torn.
‘You can’t hold on for ever,’ Kit says. ‘You have to let go.’
He’s so close I can see the colour of his eyes, the shades of blue all mixed up together. The pain in them is fading. He looks tired, ready to sleep at long last. Not yet, though. Not yet.
‘The truth is very near now,’ says Kit. ‘ Go back for it.’
The most beautiful smile lights up his face. Just for a moment it dazzles me. He begins to move away from me. I try to hold onto his hand but it’s impossible; his fingers are as slippery as ice. And though my heart feels fit to break, I know what this means; I can’t stay here. It’s not my time. The truth is out there. To find it, I must leave Kit behind.