Chapter Twenty-one
LUCAS
Ididn’t know if I’d ever been this cold before.
Years ago, Aster had bullied me into ice skating with him outside the Natural History Museum, despite my protests that his co-ordination was poor enough on solid ground and I wasn’t particularly interested in testing his theory that it would magically be better on ice.
He’d clung to me the whole half-hour. As a result, I’d slammed into the freezing slush every time he did.
I’d been cold, but it was quickly remedied by the purchase of hot chocolates and by the, for once, welcome mugginess of the tube ride home.
Now, the thought of a warm beverage made me light headed.
My jeans were plastered to my legs, rain soaking through to my skin again and again as sheet after sheet washed over me.
My shins ached with the cold, the fleshy parts of my thighs stinging.
My chest was worse. My waterproof coat kept out most of the rain but not all of it, so wet trickles wound down my back.
My torso was damp, any body heat I generated tramping along the narrow path stolen away as the wind battered me.
My hands were tucked into my pockets, but my arms cramped with the force of the shivers juddering through them.
My aim had been reduced from getting to Kit’s cosy cottage to finding one of the goat huts and taking shelter until the storm passed.
I’d definitely walked by a couple of the crude shelters as I headed out to check on the eagles, but even though I scanned the land either side of the winding path, I hadn’t seen one yet.
I wasn’t totally sure I was on the path anymore.
I’d followed the route of least resistance along the bottoms of the mountains, but as the storm intensified the light had dropped.
Everything looked strange and unfamiliar.
Bright flashes of lightning made the plants around me otherworldly.
Rain ran down from my saturated eyebrows and blurred my vision.
I kept walking. That was all I could do.
I huddled in to myself as best I could, but no part of me was warm. I longed for the comfort of Kit’s living room. Being tucked under a blanket beside him with Kat on my lap felt a million miles away.
I wished I’d acted differently this morning, that I was fundamentally changed and could have given Kit what he wanted. If we’d kissed, maybe I wouldn’t have headed out to work. Even if I had, I wouldn’t have been so eager to check for some imaginary new eagle.
Maybe I would have been with him now, pressed close to his soft skin. So warm. So dry.
I stumbled over a tuft of grass and almost face planted.
A couple of tottering steps, and I regained my footing.
I stopped walking, breathing heavily through chattering teeth.
Briefly, I toyed with the idea of pulling my hands from my pockets so that I was ready to catch myself if I fell, but the thought of baring another part of myself to the relentless rain made me want to crumple into a ball and sob.
I’d occasionally curled in around myself to peer at my rain-streaked phone, but I had no more signal as I headed in what I hoped was the direction of the village than I had out near the cliff.
I’d tucked my hands away quickly afterwards, my skin achingly cold and strangely numb.
My footsteps heavy, I started moving again. The important thing to do was keep going. I would find shelter soon. I had to.
A particularly violent gust of wind pushed me to the side.
My boot slid on the slick ground, then my heart skipped a beat when there was nothing under it at all.
I veered to the side, my elbows flailing as I struggled to keep my balance.
My boot came down on solid ground lower than expected, in a hole or something, but I’d gathered too much momentum.
Another violent gust of wind finished the job.
I fell.
A sickening crack came from somewhere far closer than the sky, followed by a blinding flash of pain from my leg.
Everything went dark.