My feet kick into gear before my mind does, propelling me forward. I have to get to her. I have to find her,now.
‘Stop!’ Spinner yells. ‘Somebody grab him!’
But the Bandits seem reluctant to touch me and shrink back as I pass.
‘Let him go.’ I barely register the smug smile in Darrow’s voice.
‘No,’ wails Spinner as I duck among the trees, the light from the firefly lanterns fading with every step.
Branches tear at my arms and face as I plunge through the darkened forest, stumbling blindly, tripping over roots in my haste to reach my sister.
‘Blaze!’
‘Flint!’
I can’t see a thing. Twice I fall headlong, then pick myself up and charge on.
All of a sudden the way ahead is illuminated by a series of tiny green orbs. They sputter to life amid the gloom, lighting a path through the trees. I follow them, not stopping to question what they are or who might have sent them. My thoughts are all for Blaze.
‘Flint, where are you?’
Her voice sounds so close and yet far away. I whip my head round frantically, straining my ears.
‘Hold on!’ I call. ‘I’m coming!’
The trail of lights leads me deeper into the forest, driven on by my sister’s voice. What is she doing here? Did she manage to track us as far as Heathcross and then lose her way? Or has she been stuck in the Greenwood for days, terrified out of her wits?
‘Blaze!’ I scream again. ‘Bla–Argh!’
Something slams into my back so hard that I’m sent sprawling in a patch of moss. The air is knocked from my lungs and I begin to cough.
‘Blaze?’ I roll over, blinking dazedly. ‘Is that you?’
The something – or rathersomeone– pins me to the ground, the hard lines of their body pressing into mine.
‘Of course not, youfool.’ Sheen’s violet eyes flash furiously in the pale-green light.
‘Get off!’ I protest, wriggling frantically beneath his weight. ‘I have to find her.’
‘She’s not here, Harglade.’
‘What do you mean,she’s not here? I may be half-blind but I’m notdeaf. Listen!’
Yet to my dismay the forest is silent.
‘Blaze? Blaze!’
Sheen covers my mouth with his hand, smothering my cries. I scrabble furiously at his fingers, scratching and tugging until he snatches both my wrists and slams them into the ground above my head, his face just inches from mine. ‘Shut.Up.’
I’ve never hated him more than I do in this moment. ‘Let go of me.’
‘Not until you stop.’
‘But Blaze –’
‘It’s not her, Flint,’ Sheen hisses, my name uncertain on his tongue. ‘It’s not real. Don’t you see? Were the will-o’-the-wisps not clue enough? We were warned about the spirits that dwell in the Greenwood, but as always you were too arrogant to listen.’
Iris’s words come back to me.
