Elsa dropped the canister and sprinted towards the camp. Too late. Another guard appeared from behind a stalagmite cluster and knelt beside Estelle. A swift slash and her blood joined her husband's in staining the orange stone.

Elsa entered the light. Rage consumed her heart and drove away her fear. She picked up the gun from where Walt had left it against a rock and aimed it at the closest guard. His bloody knife froze.

“Get back!”

The men complied.

“What are you going to do, Elsa?” Melker emerged from behind the flowstone to stand next to his men. “You’re not a killer.”

“You dog,” she shouted. “How could you?”

“How could I not?” He asked. “They were leaving. No one in and no one out without a permit. You know that.”

“They just wanted a better life. You had no right to stop them.”

“Don’t be naïve. The strong decide right and wrong. If you’d remembered that you never would have run.”

Elsa took a step back, her feet shifting unsteadily on the rocks. “How did you know?”

Had Sunny betrayed her? Or Sienna?

“You think I was just going to let you run loose? I have every tip-rat in the Darkzone working for me. They informed me the moment you left Junker Lane. I was very disappointed at your choice.”

“This isn’t personal, Melker,” Elsa said. “I must find my uncle. Just let me go.”

“Let you go? Impossible. You’re mine. You’ve always been mine. I thought you understood your circumstances, but I see I was mistaken.” Melker nudged the wheelbarrow with his boot. “It’s been amusing to watch you flounder in the dark, slowed to a crawl by your kindness. Perhaps you would have escaped if you’d been your own. I guess we’ll never know.”

“I hate you,” Elsa spat.

Melker laughed, his face cut with light and shadow. “No, you don’t, Elsa. You need me.”

She shook her head.

“Yes, you do,” Melker said. “Don’t you see that we are the same?”

“Stop saying that! We’re nothing alike.”

“No?” Melker turned to his guards. “Leave us.”

“What are you doing?” She asked, as the two men retreated further up the river path, to linger on the edge of the light.

“Now it’s just you and me, Elsa,” he said. “Now we can talk.”

“I’ve got nothing to say to you!”

He unbuttoned his cuff and pulled at the fingers of his left glove. “Fine, but you can listen. I’ve heard of your fondness for stories.”

“I’m not interested.”

He continued regardless.

“Like you, I understand how cruel Haven can be. I was six when my mother died. No one came for me. I fended for myself.” Melker removed the glove. “I lived off the food I could steal, sneaking around the Light Well into people’s apartments while they worked.”

He placed the glove under one arm and rolled back his coat sleeve.

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“No one cared that I existed, until one day I was caught stealing lake mussels from a market stall. I was sent before the council and in punishment they gave me this.”

He held up his wrist to the lantern light and showed her the tattoo there, a rotten tree with the number eighteen beneath it. A rush of horror surged through her at the sight.

“No, you can’t be.”

He turned his wrist over and inspected the tattoo, almost as if it was a foreign thing on his body.

“The Smokers called us orphans the ‘Roaches of the Darkzone’. We were lower even than they were, and they hated us because we pilfered from their pathetic belongings.”

Dizziness engulfed her. “But you’re the captain of the Black Guardsmen! You despise Bad Seeds.”

“It was necessary,” Melker said, “to be harsh. So, the people of Haven would never suspect.”

“I don’t believe you. The council keeps careful record of every Bad Seed. They would never allow you to become captain.”

“True,” Melker said. “If the council knew. But I told you, I’ve gone to great lengths to keep my origins secret. And it was easier than you think to fool them. It was all a matter of waiting for the right moment.”

Melker replaced his gloves.

“When I was ten, the Keeper sent guards into the Darkzone to maintain order over an increasingly unruly population and protect the power supply. These men were pathetic. So afraid. So unused to the darkness. I made myself useful to them, running errands and spying on Smokers and Bad Seeds in exchange for food. I did not fear the Darkzone. I knew every tunnel and passage. I knew the best way to the surface.”

“Over time, I became invaluable to the old captain. So invaluable, he made me his assistant. He trained me to act and think like a guard. I excelled in everything I attempted. I took to wearing gloves and soon, even he forgot what I was. By the time my mentor met with death, I was firmly entrenched in the Guardhouse and no one questioned when I became his successor. There are, of course, a few men who know. Men in my personal guard who I trust above all others and now you know as well.”

“Why share this secret with me?”

“Because I’ve made a life out here and so have you, Elsa. I admire that…tenacity. You have the skills to flourish in the darkness, but now your uncle is gone, so you also need someone to protect you and guide you. Let me be that person. If we were united, you would have nothing left to fear.”

“That’s not true. I’d just be exchanging one prison for another.”

Elsa took another step backward. There was no time to grab her pack. Melker’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t do it, Elsa. Take the life I’m offering. If you run from me this time, you’ll seal your fate.”

She heard a scrape on the stone behind her and realised her mistake. Melker’s personal guards were no longer waiting up the path, they had flanked her during his confession. She was so stupid! Of course he wasn’t truly interest in sharing with her.

Run! Her uncle’s voice shouted.

Elsa turned in a flash to sprint towards the river. A guard lunged at her from the nearest column. She evaded his grasp and left the light behind.

Elsa followed the river, the shotgun strap slung over one shoulder, heading deeper into the darkness. She could hear the guards behind her. Her one hope was to reach the surface, somewhere they would not be able to find her.

Lungs burning, she scrambled over the wet rocks. She tried to keep her hand on the wall. She crawled when she fell and ignored the pain. The sound of crashing, rushing water signalled a waterfall in the distance and she ran towards a hazy light. The ground dropped from beneath her feet.

Elsa slid down a steep slope. The world exploded. She threw up her hands against the glare and came to a halt with the shotgun pressed into her back. She tried opening her eyes, but the light was too much. She peaked through her fingers. Mist coated her face and her clothes.

The waterfall dominated what little vision she had of the world. She inched forwards until her feet felt the cliff’s edge. Loosened rocks tumbled into the mist.

“Captain, we’ve got her at the falls,” a voice shouted.

She heard sliding rocks and grunts as the guards followed her.

Elsa had no time to search for a safe path down the side of the waterfall. She thought she could jump, but she couldn’t gauge the distance.

“Step away from the edge,” Melker boomed over the tumble of water. “Enough of this foolishness!”

Peering through her hands, she tried to see the deep pool Sunny had described. Elsa hesitated on the precipice.

“You make the decision to jump and not even I can save you,” Melker called. “If you survive the fall, there’ll be no place for you here, no place for your mother or your uncle. You’ll be an outcast. You’ll be a wretched creature, too despicable even for the Darkzone.” His voice came closer, his words spinning a web of fear to entrap her. “No one will help you. No one will care about you. You’ll die in the darkness, you hear me!”

Melker always did that, Elsa thought, as sudden clarity pierced her terror. That’s how he controlled her. Elsa was sick of living that way.

“No. I won’t let you scare me anymore, Melker. I won’t let you win.”

“Stop her!” Melker shouted.

Elsa leapt into the white abyss. She was weightless.