Page 3
“I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Just a bit of a headache.”
Nora looked across me. “Maybe the Prosecco.”
“Probably.”
“Three glasses,” Ivy said. “Lightweight.”
Nora smiled, and I almost joined her, but the pain suddenly spread, burning into my temples until I could feel my pulse beating there. The hairs on both my arms lifted even though there was no wind.
Ivy looked at me as I slowed. “What?”
“Can you feel that?”
“Feel what?”
The air felt wrong, too heavy, like the pressure before a thunderstorm, even though the sky was clear. “Nothing. Never mind.”
A sharp rustle came from the hedge beside Nora, and she jumped hard enough to yank my right arm backwards and knock me into Ivy. “What was that?”
“Fox,” I said.
“You don’t know that.”
“Rabbit, then.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“We live in Surrey. I think we’ll survive the wildlife.”
“That’s exactly what somebody says before being dragged into a hedge.”
“By a dangerous rabbit?”
Ivy and I burst out laughing, and I almost forgot my headache until something moved above us. I looked up to see the stars shifting again. Thousands of points of light dragged sideways, smearing into silver lines across the darkness before springing back into place.
“Elowen?”
“Did you see that?”
“See what?” Ivy asked.
“The stars.”
Nora tipped her head back. “What about them?”
“They moved. All of them.”
Ivy slipped her arm free and turned to look at my face. “Are you dizzy?”
“A little.”
“Did you have more than three glasses?”
“I don’t think so.”
