Page 17 of Carousel

The radio crackles from behind us. A voice says, “We found him.”

Found who?

I spin around. Try to fight the hands off me.

“Bring him to me,” Vikemy orders. “And call Dezeeves. Get his time of arrival.”

Vikemy’s face looms over mine.

“Today, we truly will be providing for The Assembly.”

I’m plunged into darkness.

My eyes are open, though it’s so dark they might as well be shut.

“Ara?” a familiar voice says, quietly.

Jolting upright, I make out the vague shape of someone further away.

I failed. He was caught anyway.

“Drake,” I say, my voice cracking. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about. And I have only gratitude for you.”

I pull my legs to my chest. “Where are we?”

“An old wine cellar, it would seem. With only one way out.”

I glance up and see the trap door, thin thin slivers of light – the only light in the room – surrounding it. It’s a long, long way away.

“Wonderful,” I mutter.

I’m silent. There is nothing more to say.

Apart from, maybe, “Why are you all the way over there?”

As though to confirm the thought in his mind, he states, “You would prefer it if I sat beside you.”

“Yes, I would prefer it,” I say, with amusement. “You speak quite formally. Has anyone told you that?”

“It is how I was taught. Speak as a noble and you will be treated as one. I have found it to have truth.”

I blink through the dark. “Let me come to you.”

I crawl over to the shape of him. He’s by a wall, resting with his back against it. I do the same.

And sigh. It’s instantly comforting, somehow, to have the wide, solid heat of his body next to mine. I stretch my legs out to get more comfortable, accidentally knock my leg against his, and realise something.

“You’re shaking.” I can see the gleam that must be his black eyes. Him, seeing me.

“It would appear so.”

“Are you afraid? Of what’s going to happen to us?”

“Not particularly. As of right now.”

“What are you afraid of, then?”