The train’s passage across the great continent of Europe was far smoother and faster than Meredith’s previous travels. She was seated in comfort next to a window, watching the world whip past at a remarkable rate. The magic window in her hand showed exactly where she was and had told her how to get there and where to go when the train went as far as it could on its metal rails. She felt bad about taking it from Chaz without permission but the alternative, a life that was empty of love, was worse. She had to make her own happiness. She had to regain some kind of power and she hoped, where she was going, she would finally be whole.

She hugged the tablet to her chest, her body trembling at what lay before her and what lay behind her…

“But if you think that I love her and not you, you’re wrong! What I feel for her pales in comparison to the love I have for you!”

Meredith closed her eyes, the stabbing pain of the words striking hard and true. She had run from everyone who knew her but she couldn’t run from the words that were seared into her mind, present every time she closed her eyes…screaming at her.

“And in one moment, one foolish, desperate moment when I thought there was no other alternative I kissed Meredith. But I would spend a lifetime creating wonderful memories of us together to blot out that one moment.”

A solitary tear rolled down her cheek and she gritted her teeth to keep her chin from quivering, her blue eyes the brightest when they were at the brink of crying.

“Just because she is in love with me does not mean I am in love with her.”

She knew that. She knew it well before Evander had ever spoken it out loud. But until he declared the truth, she had hoped in vain that she could somehow win his love. She had made her dress with him in mind. She could have enticed every man to dance with her at the masquerade ball but she only had eyes for him.

Why had she fallen in love with him and not he with her?

Why was life so cruel?

“Jé Kinah, it was never Meredith.”

“No,” she whispered, “it never was. Not now…and not then…”

Meredith had almost ten hours lead on the five that followed her but while she was relying on public transport and working with an outdated idea of the world, they were in a people carrier, flying along roads they never dreamed they’d be on.

Mak was driving. The eldest son of a fairly traditional family established in a western culture was feeling the bite of doing exactly that which he had promised his parents he would not do. He would not deviate from the tour he and his three friends had booked as their month long gap year. Yet here he was…hundreds of kilometres from where the tour was going, having crossed the French Alps and was now driving across Germany, following a blip on the screen of his friend’s smart phone that was tracking a tablet stolen by a woman who claimed to be from the past that they had rescued from Mount Olympus.

Mak shook his head. Could it possibly get any weirder than this?”

Chaz was sitting in the seat next to him, his leg bouncing up and down as they attempted to follow Meredith’s train trail. So far the train had been followed by well maintained roads so they hadn’t run into any problems. Chaz’s red hair stuck out at odd angles from his khaki hoodie which was about three sizes too big over his gangly frame. His skin was freckled and his eyes searched the horizon as if he could spot his beloved missing tablet a mile away.

Dozing behind them, slumped against the window, was Penelope Kirk. Her pigtails had fallen a little flat after hours in the car and she mumbled incoherently, tired after their very early start to the day. She wasn’t very tall and she, too, wore an oversized jumped. But while Chaz’s made him look like an op shop expert, Penny’s accentuated her cuteness…especially as it was in blue and orange over her pink leggings that were tucked into her fluffy yellow calf high ugg boots.

Next to her was Jé Kinah, still dressed in what she had answered the door of the apartment which she, Meredith and Evander had shared in the chateau De St Croix. It was what she had planned to run away in. She itched to fiddle with the fringe of her green coat that was as pale as her eyes but kept her hands tightly clasped in her lap, her back straight and her eyes facing forward. She didn’t dare look behind her. She couldn’t bear Evander’s furious gaze.

Evander was angry but he felt so many other emotions as well that he had taken to staring out of the window, attempting to sort through them all internally. His shoulder length blond hair framed his strong jaw line and his blue eyes reflected the scenery that was flying past them at speeds he would never have thought possible a week ago.

Well…except for the jinni that is. Evander wondered if the lesser jinni of the ring had been happy with the person he had wished him to. He had chosen Prince Philip to entrust the power of the jinni to, trusting in the wisdom of his years and the always firm countenance he had exhibited around Evander, even in battle. Evander shook his head. His wish had been over two hundred years ago. Everyone was dead and dust by now. Philip, Freya, De St Croix and his lovely wife…even their children…and their children’s children…Jack the giant slayer…Jerome and Maja had passed before Evander had left them. He wondered if they were at peace now. He wondered if he would ever come to terms with this age.

“She’s through Austria and gone into the Czech Republic.” Chaz announced from the front seat.

Penny lifted her head wearily then sank back down.

“Where the hell is she going?” Mak demanded. “All this over a stolen tablet?”

“The tablet is worthless to her.” Evander said from the back seat. “The information inside of it, that will get her wherever she seems to need to go, is why she took it.”

“Could’ve gone to an internet café.” Chaz muttered.

“We would actually gain ground if we knew where she was going.” Mak said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Hey Penny Kirk, any chance of a driving switch?”

“Five more minutes mum…” Penny mumbled.

“I’ll drive.” Chaz offered. “You navigate.”

“I’ve been driving for hours. I need sleep.”

“I could navigate.” Jé Kinah offered weakly.

“Are you sure you trust the magic window?” Mak asked lightly as he pulled over. “I don’t care who navigates. I need to sleep.”

Jé Kinah climbed into the passenger seat and Chaz jumped behind the wheel. He looked around, familiarising himself with the European vehicle peculiarities and turned the key. “Everyone buckled in? Here we go!”

While Mak’s driving inspired confidence, Chaz’s driving caused Jé Kinah to grip onto the front seat tightly.

“Your white knuckles are making me nervous.”

“Your driving is making me nervous.” She countered.

“Where are we going?”

“Are we the red dot or the green one?”

“We should be blue.”

“There is not a blue dot on here.” Jé Kinah despaired of technology. She could fire an arrow through a target in the blustery mountain air but she could not seem to grasp these magic windows that Chaz insisted were everywhere in the world.

“Scroll out.”

“I am sorry?”

“Use your fingers…”

“Chaz watch the road!” Mak barked with his eyes closed. He had taken Evander’s place on the backseat so he could lie down.

“My eyes are on the road. I can operate technology with them shut if I have to.” Chaz used his fingers to spread across the screen and the perspective changed. Jé Kinah watched it, amazed anew at how the world had changed in just a few hundred years.

“Do you see the blue dot?”

“Yes.”

“Are we catching up to the green dot?”

“I believe so.” Jé Kinah felt oddly uncomfortable about stroking the unnaturally smooth surface. As she did so the land skipped past wildly. She gasped and tried to go back, zooming in and out several times until her eye caught sight of a lake. The shape of it triggered something in her memories and she tried to get closer on the screen but everything blurred. “It is not working.”

“Give it a minute.” Chaz rolled his eyes. “Star Trek never talked about impatient time travellers and their clumsy fingers.”

Jé Kinah was so engrossed in her study she hadn’t noticed Evander leaning forward and looking over her shoulder.

“She would not…would she?”

“What is it?” He asked and she felt his breath on her neck.

Her skin immediately broke out into goose bumps and she resisted the urge to rub at her arms. “I thought something looked familiar.” She said hurriedly.

“A landmark?”

“A lake,” she shook her head, “but it is impossible…” A terrible shiver shook her and she looked at Chaz in alarm. “What did you say you were watching last night?”

“Huh?”

“Eyes on the road!” Mak yelled from the back.

“They are!”

“Then why are we swerving?”

“Chaz, please, it is important.” Jé Kinah insisted.

“Ah…it was…er…’Reign of Fire’.”

Evander saw Jé Kinah’s eyes as they unfocussed, seeing something he was not aware of. He couldn’t tell if he was angry or upset or a dozen other emotions after their internal ordeal last night but now was clearly not the time to be discussing it.

“Jé…what is it?” He reached out to touch her shoulder when she jolted upright and swore.

“Whoa!” Chaz laughed and Penny and Mak both sat bolt upright in their seats. “She didn’t learn that one from me!”

Jé Kinah twisted and looked Evander in the eyes for the first time in over eighteen hours. “I know where Meredith is going!”

“Where?”

“Back to where it began.”

Evander frowned. “The Far East? Jé Kinah, Meredith doesn’t have a hope in finding the lamp anymore and I’ve hidden the ring so well that by now I have no idea where it is.”

“That is only where Meredith gained her powers.” Jé Kinah explained. “She is not going back to the Far East. She is going back to where it, everything, began. Where the original offence occurred.”

“Your home? Jé Kinah, I hate to say this but the home you grew up in has undoubtedly fallen apart or been pushed over or…”

“No, not the house. The tree.” Jé Kinah held out the phone but all Evander could see were some green shapes against a pale grey background with writing lined up with dots. “The tree Evander! Meredith has gone back to where it all began, to where the internal war was birthed externally and nearly destroyed everything.”

He opened his mouth and gaped. “Are you sure?”

“Without a doubt. Look, it is in a forest. The Białowieża National Park.”

“I’ll look that up for those of us who aren’t following the conversation.” Mak remarked testily, resenting his rudely interrupted nap.

“Jé Kinah I still do not understand.”

“How do I spell it?”

“Bialow…”

“Got it. Thank you auto spell.” Mak tapped his phone. “So, Wikipedia says that…that forest with the name I can’t pronounce, is in Poland and buts up against Belarus and it is Europe’s last temperate primeval forest. Often called the ‘last untouched wilderness of Europe’…blah, blah, blah…inner zone…old growth forest…eight hundred years…”

“The forest is old, possibly the oldest left on earth and that tree is its core.” Jé Kinah insisted.

“How do you know?”

“Because my mother planted it.”

“Uh…eight hundred years…” Mak pointed out tersely.

“She’s an elf Mak.” Penny whispered.

“It was the last sanctuary of elves on earth.” Jé Kinah continued. “It was where they left the earth. That forest was instrumental in the process because it is so old, older than even the wiki…person says.”

“But why would Meredith go back there?” Evander demanded.

Jé Kinah wondered if all the strings that pulled together to make up her absolute reason were too wild for anyone to grasp. Had she made a leap that had nowhere to land?

“After being rejected by love and abandoned she watched ‘Reign of Fire’.”

Mak and Penny just stared at them, not comprehending at all while Chaz dutifully kept his eyes on the road. Evander, however, stared at Jé Kinah in shock and then, in exactly the same tone and with the same word she used, swore.

“She wouldn’t…”

“She would because to her, it is all that is left.” Jé Kinah rushed. “You are sure that the lamp is gone?”

“Impossible to find at the very least.”

“And the ring jinni?”

“Gone. No idea where.”

“Think Evander...”

“Jé Kinah I swear to you, the lamp and ring are beyond her reach.”

“Which means she will never gain her powers of ice and snow again. But the demon…”

“Whoa…what was that now?” Penny blurted. “Demon?”

“A dragon.” Jé Kinah clarified.

Mak’s mouth hardened. “I should have stayed with Lila.” He muttered.

“Mak…” Penny put her hand on his. She was hurt when he pulled it away, shaking his head. She sighed and looked at Jé Kinah and Evander. “So, Meredith is attempting to gain power through this tree?”

“But it’s dead.” Evander interrupted. “I killed it.”

“You killed a tree?” Mak asked testily.

“I killed the dragon.”

“Which is a demon.”

“But I was its heart.” Jé Kinah added.

Chaz put a hand up to his head. “Now even I’m confused.”

“Both hands on the wheel!”

“Hundreds of years ago, when dragons and elves and wonders you can’t even imagine existed, Jé Kinah and Meredith were one and the same person.” Evander explained.

“I hate to rain on this crazy parade, but there are no dragons on earth.” Mak corrected firmly and held up his hand to Penny’s protestations. “No, I have kept silent about the elves and the time travel…”

“Silent?” Chaz exclaimed from the front seat.

“Mak, please,” Penny put her hand firmly on his and didn’t let go, “please just listen.”

“I have listened. I have listened for days on end about these ludicrous claims. I’m fed up with people trying to convince me that the impossible is possible.” His normally controlled tone was wild at the point of hysterical. Mak never let himself get out of control but he was so close that he was desperate for an anchor.

Penny kept one hand on his and put the other on his chest firmly. “Not with your ears Mak. With your heart. Please...”

Mak’s chin trembled and he looked away out the window for a moment, breathing in and out slowly until he regained a small measure of control. Without meeting anyone’s eyes he swallowed and said, “I’m listening.”

Evander looked at Jé Kinah who nodded. “Go ahead Evander.”

“It is your story.”

“I have not the heart to tell it.”

Something in her face, a flicker in her eyes, told him she was close to breaking point as well. He gave her the most reassuring smile he could muster.

“Jé Kinah and Meredith were one person. Half elf, half human...one soul. When their elf mother died because of their father’s betrayal, this broken hearted girl sold her soul to the demon for power to exact vengeance. To this end, the demon ripped the girl in half, separating human from elf until two girls existed. One was the mistress of fire in dragon form. The other went half way across the world to possess the power of winter.”

“Meredith was the Snow Queen.” Penny said quietly. “Jé Kinah?”

Jé Kinah looked into the compassionate face of Penny Kirk and saw tears of sympathy. “I do not deserve your kindness Penny Kirk.” She said in the still silence of the car’s atmosphere. “The one who saved me from that life died from the demon I had unleashed. My life is my penance...my price.”

“What do you mean, price?”

“A silver bullet.” Chaz spoke up. “Creatures of unnatural change can only be killed by a silver bullet.”

“Or a silver arrow.”

“Ah yes. I suppose bullets weren’t invented yet. But anything silver would work.”

Evander looked at Jé Kinah. “That is what I did. I shot a silver arrow through its chest into your heart!”

“You separated the vessel from the infestation. I am not sure if there is anything on earth that can defeat the demon.”

Evander slumped back, his hands running through his hair. “Why would it be there? Of all places…”

“It wanted a long living host and elves were so pure that the corruption it wrought would be ten times that of a human soul. It waited…biding its time, conserving its energy until one such soul came.”

“You.”

“Meredith and I.”

“And it ripped you in two.” Evander closed his eyes.

The air could have been cut with a knife. It was thick with the thoughts, fears, doubts and regrets of everyone in the car. No one knew how to break it.

“Okay, let’s just say, for insanity’s sake, that you might be telling the truth,” it was clear that Mak struggled to admit the faint possibility, “but you cannot convince me that a dragon is alive on earth, a demon dragon at that, that hasn’t been seen or noticed by anyone. If it needed a host like you claim, someone would have let it out by now.”

Penny nodded. “Mak has a point.” She gave a pleased smile when he squeezed her hand in appreciation.

Jé Kinah shook her head. “I used to hear it, black thoughts seeping out of my heart…but perhaps the silver arrow separated us and it died out years and years ago.”

“Regardless of whether or not it is alive, that is almost undoubtedly where Meredith is headed.”

“So we’re going to Poland?” Chaz asked as a series of signs appeared in front of him.

“Poland. To the Białowieża National Park.”

“Awesome.”

“Lady, miss…wake up…”

Meredith snapped into consciousness with a violent jolt, clutching the tablet to her chest. She rubbed her eyes and looked around. She was alone on the train except for a man who looked like a cleaner in his stained overalls and unshaven face.

“Where are we?” She asked blearily.

“Warsaw train station.” He replied. “We arrived about half an hour ago.”

“Oh, thank you.” She stood up, tucking the tablet beneath her arm and scooping her glittering gown around herself. She hadn’t changed since the night before and apart from some delicate ice stitching, her shoes, hair decorations and mask had all melted. The cleaner watched her walked down the aisle of the train.

“You need a jacket miss. It is cold outside.”

Meredith looked at him as she turned to disembark. “I know. It is my home.”

Upon entering Poland, Chaz and Mak swapped places again and Mak took them up into the heart of the country, bypassing Warsaw and heading into the national forest. Białowieża was a village named after the forest deep within its borders so the road was easy enough to find and follow. Dusk was settling in as they began to pass large billboards depicting giant machinery and piles of money and happy faces.

“Jurek something or other…” Penny shook her head. “I went to a fancy private school and they never even offered Polish as a language!”

Chaz immediately began to tap on his phone. Jé Kinah was pressed up against the glass, her body charged as she sensed they were getting closer.

“Okay so…Jurek Oil…it’s an oil and gas company that has recently discovered oil beneath the outskirts of the…that forest…”

“They’re going to drill for oil in the national forest?” Penny exclaimed.

“Abandoned puppies…time travellers…now an endangered forest…” Mak muttered.

“Er…hang on…blah…blah…ok so the company has been in deliberations for months with the Polish government. They have negotiated the release of several hundred hectares of land for the purpose of drilling for oil which will pour money into the country and create hundreds of jobs.”

“They won’t stop at that.” Penny argued. “They will keep pushing while there is still oil to be found.”

“Don’t kill the newsreader!” Chaz exclaimed. “You saw how some of those billboards were defaced? Turns out there are a lot of people who feel the same way as you.”

Jé Kinah looked at Penny. “What would oil drilling mean?”

Penny winced. “They’ll clear a great deal of land in order to put in machinery.”

Jé Kinah’s face went white. “Not this forest.”

“This forest.”

“They cannot!”

“They are.”

Jé Kinah was very quiet in the last half an hour towards the forest. She looked at the billboards which were increasing in number as though trying to overwhelm anyone who disagreed with their claims. Rather than go into town they followed the signs that took them to where the oil drilling plant was located.

“Ok, we’re getting close.” Mak said, flicking on the lights as darkness began to fall. Their rather faint headlights illuminated a large collection of cars, vans and buses parked in a car park. There were so many vehicles that they had spilled out onto the road. Mak joined the long queue and they all climbed out. “Can anyone else hear that?”

It was the sound of yelling and chanting. The five of them hurried down a path which was a trampled mess. There were tread marks and footprints all over the once green ground and in its place was mud. As they came up over a rise, enormous spotlights beamed down at them from above a fence that was over twelve feet high. At the entry point, which were gates that were firmly locked, was a large crowd of people. And they were yelling and waving signs at the men inside the fence. Beyond the fence were transportable buildings and large equipment scattered about. Beyond that was the silhouette of the forest.

Jé Kinah shuddered when she saw that a number of trees had already been felled and their beautiful trunks dumped onto the back of a truck.

“Evander…” She gasped and he heard the terror in her voice, taking her hand instinctively. He felt a pang of joy as she clung to him, needing him.

The yell of the crowd was growing in pitch and volume and it suddenly grew in size as three vans drove up, regardless of the parking restrictions and out of them poured even more people, some holding cameras and others holding microphones.

“Reporters.” Mak stepped back. “We’re right in the middle of a protest!”

“There she is!” Chaz cried, pointing.

Everyone looked. Meredith’s pale blue gown and dark curls could be seen pressed up against the gates. She was yelling and pulling on the diamond shaped wire fencing, darting here and there, trying to get in. Jé Kinah gritted her teeth and sprinted down the slope towards the crowd, Evander following. When Penny attempted to do the same, Mak caught her sleeve.

“You’ll only get yourself in trouble!”

“Are you worried about me or yourself?” She retorted, yanking her sleeve free and ran down after them. Mak slapped his forehead and glared at Chaz.

“Do not say, ‘it is a gap year!’” He snapped and went after Penny.

“I was going to say, find my tablet!” Chaz retorted and staggered down the hillside.

The protestors took the sudden arrival of the press and the addition of five more for their cause to be a sign to turn it up a notch and their protesting began to reach a fevered pitch. Stones were thrown, signs were smashed against the fence and on the other side, the guards who were yelling at them to back off, held onto their ferocious Dobermans with a tight grip as they snarled and snapped at the hands that darted through the fence. The craze was infectious and soon the protestors were out of control and the news vans simply sat back and let the chaos unfold.

Jé Kinah pushed her way through the crowd, heading to the splash of blue she could just make out at the very front. She reached forward and grabbed Meredith’s shoulder with a pinching grip. Meredith slapped her hand away and then became wide eyed when she saw her.

“How did you…”

“Get away from there!” Jé Kinah cried.

“Leave me alone!” Meredith wrenched herself free and Jé Kinah went after her.

“Where is Chaz’s tablet?” She demanded, catching up with Meredith who could barely move in the maddened insensible press of the crowd.

“Oh...here!” Meredith shoved it at her.

Jé Kinah turned, spotted Chaz at the back of the crowd and flung it into the air, Chaz leaping forward to catch and cradle it.

“They’re throwing fire bombs!” One of the guards cried and began to spray pepper spray. The protestors screamed, covering their faces but those who hadn’t been hit were even more incensed. They tore at the fence wildly and it began to shake and creak, bending beneath their collective strength. Jé Kinah’s eyes narrowed, ignoring the chaos around her as she spotted Meredith again. She went after her, feeling a snarl rise up in her that Meredith had to be made to see sense!

Suddenly the air filled with sirens and flashing lights.

“Cops!” Mak yelled. “Run!”

The protestors scattered like an ants nest filled with water. They streamed away as fast as they could go, pushing and shoving, falling over their own in their haste to escape as uniformed officers in heavy helmets descended upon them, tackling protestors and forcing them to the ground.

“Jé Kinah!” Evander yelled, being dragged back by the force of the crowd. “Jé Kinah!”

Meredith couldn’t fight the retreat of the people though she did try. She was knocked to the ground for her efforts, slipping in the mud, staining her once pristine dress. Several shoes kicked her as they went running by and she cowered, holding her hands up to protect herself. Suddenly someone gripped her wrist and hauled her to her feet.

“Run!” Jé Kinah yelled at her and practically dragged her from the fence line, making immediately for the shadows and disappearing into the night, leaving the site and the failed protest behind them.

“Jé Kinah!” Evander pulled against Mak and Penny who dragged him away from the fights that had begun to break out. “Jé Kinah!”

“Evander, she’s not there anymore. We have to go!”

“I will not leave her behind!”

“You see those men with guns?” Mak pointed at the security guards who menaced the stubborn protestors that were being dragged away from the fence by the police. “Do you see those men with the uniforms and tasers? They won’t let us stay and they will arrest us if we try anything.”

“I have to save Jé Kinah!” Evander roared and broke free, sprinting back to the fence. He clapped a hand on one of the policeman’s shoulders. “I am looking for…”

The policeman, a young recruit on edge from all the fighting and the tension, spun around and swung his fist. Evander, a prince trained in warfare and a knight, blocked the blow easily and disabled the officer in the blink of an eye. This got the attention of the other policemen who converged on their position.

“Evander!” Penny cried out, dashing towards him. She was grabbed roughly by an officer and nearly thrown to the ground. She looked up in shock at the taser threatening above her.

“Hey!” Mak rammed into the man, throwing him off balance. “Don’t you ever touch her!”

He reached out a hand and Penny took it, her eyes wide at his rescue. Evander backed into them, forming a triangle and looked around as they were surrounded. He put up his fists and stared down the man advancing on him. Without warning he was stung with a taser. Evander shuddered wildly and fell back, his head swimming from the shock.

“Evander!” Penny gasped but before she could go to his aid, Mak, seeing policemen surround them, held her hand tightly.

“Don’t move…” He gasped and drew her close.

Police cars and vans howled up and down the roads in and out of Białowieża, searching for protestors who had escaped their clutches. Their flashing lights and sirens disturbed the usual serene beauty of the forest at night, the blood of the police pumping fiercely to catch the remainder of the rioters.

Jé Kinah ducked down behind a tree that was in a ditch at the side of the road as a police car went flying past. She peered out and listened carefully.

“We can keep moving.” She said coldly, grabbing Meredith’s upper arm hard and pulling her up the embankment.

“Ow! That hurts!” Meredith snapped, trying to yank free but unable to do so. “Let go of me!”

“Not until you are far from this forest.”

“Oh please,” Meredith strained at Jé Kinah’s pinching grip, “at least I found it!”

“And what were you planning on doing when you got here?” Jé Kinah retorted. “Summoning a demon perhaps?”

“Don’t be so high and mighty. You know you’re not the only one who can get its attention!”

“Stupid…foolish…idiotic…” Jé Kinah forced her in front and turned her around. “You went back, knowing the danger, knowing the evil in it and you went back?! Why do you not ever learn? Why do you leap in without thinking?”

“At least I haven’t let one mishap of a leap deter me from leaping for the rest of my life!” Meredith pried at Jé Kinah’s fingers then went to clamp her teeth down. Jé Kinah yanked her hand away and Meredith stepped back, raising her hands and pooling all her power into her fingertips until they glowed blue and then white.

Jé Kinah eyed her sceptically. “You will kill yourself if you use up too much power. You would not dare.” She stepped towards her and Meredith braced herself.

“Do not make me hurt you Jé Kinah.”

“Hurt me?” Jé Kinah exclaimed. “You do little but hurt me! Always when we were a child you managed to get me into all manner of strife and danger. Or have you forgotten climbing the tallest tree, or teasing the bison until it chased us? Or staying out so late it was dark and we became lost for hours!”

Meredith stared at her in astonishment. “That was over four hundred years ago! Time to let go of old grudges Jé Kinah.”

Jé Kinah’s jaw tightened. “What about Evander?”

“Oh what about him…” Meredith stormed past Jé Kinah, dropping her hands the pretence of harming her. Had Meredith attempted to strike Jé Kinah down, she would have undoubtedly fallen in the process.

“You stole his love for me! You and your blue eyes and curls and winning ways…and now I do not know if he loves me with his whole heart or if he has reserved a place for you in it!”

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“Would you stop with the martyr act!” Meredith turned on Jé Kinah, her mask of ambivalence gone, her hurt exposed and her anger having ignited in full. “I am so fed up with it. Woe is me, I fell in love with a human and now I doubt his love. Evander this, Evander that…what does the man have to do to prove that he loves you? He never touched or thought about another woman even though you broke his heart when he was not much more than a boy. He saw your demonic self and still his tears opened the prison I put you in, he committed treason in freeing me just so he could find you, travelled across the earth, even to the ends of it and jumped off a cliff in order to enter a prison of your own making!” Meredith was fired up and she used her hands wildly, pointing at Jé Kinah. “You say you doubt that Evander loves you? I say that Evander couldn’t possibly love anybody BUT you!”

Jé Kinah’s breath stalled in her lungs as Meredith raised her chin. “Your power was broken because you fell in love with a human man. I was astounded when I tracked your carnage to the volcano and discovered what you had done and who you had fallen in love with. Did our parent’s failure teach you nothing? And then I discover that you had not only fallen in love a once, you’d gone and done it again with yet another human! So, yes, I did exactly what you said I did. I flirted, I batted my eyelids and said things to him that would make your pointed ears burn in shame. And I tried, oh I tried. I did everything in my power to prove his flawed love and human heart could not hold true. And there were times when I swear the tension between us was nearly palpable but I never laid a hand on him. I wanted him to make a move, to betray you and prove you wrong and me, right. But in all things, he remained faithful to you. Not even when I fell in love with the man, did he ever waver in his love for you.”

Meredith turned and began to walk away but spun on her heel, unable to let it go. “And yes, if he and I are in a room together and I lay on a bit of charm, he looks at me. But the moment you appear, I am forgotten! Don’t you get it Jé Kinah? He chose you. He didn’t choose me. He chose you.” She dropped her hands. “He rejected me for you. Just like everyone ever has. Evander did, even though I knew I could have made him happy if he would only forget about you. The children in the village hated me and the elves in the forest mocked me. My father turned his back on me and my mother never loved me truly! Even the demon dragon had to tear us apart and discarded me just so it could have a pure elf.”

Her voice cracked but she didn’t relent in her tirade against Jé Kinah who stood in the middle of the road, staring at her.

“Even you rejected me. I was abandoned…in the snow…and you left me…” Meredith’s voice finally wavered and her body began to shake so she tucked her arms around herself. “You left me…” She turned and started to walk away from Jé Kinah. She couldn’t bare the gaze of her pale green eyes any longer. The night sky was heavy and the air was horribly silent, condemning her without a single sound.

“I did not mean to hurt you Merry.”

Her words were whispered but they reached Merry’s ears and caused her to shake her head. “It would have been better if you had,” she said sadly, “then at least I could have hated you.”

“You do hate me.”

“No, Jé, I don’t.” Meredith looked at her. “I really don’t. I never did either. But you’re too damn proud to realise that. I was the failure in you, the flaws…the lack. But I never hated you. I admired you.” She felt her legs wobble but willed them to stand firm. She kept her eyes down, focused on the ground. She hadn’t eaten in twenty four hours and she was becoming precariously faint.

Suddenly two brown boots stepped into view and a hand touched her face gently. Meredith looked up, her eyes brimming with tears but unwilling to let them fall…until she saw Jé Kinah’s eyes were in the same way.

“Forgive me Merry.” She said brokenly but holding her gaze. “Forgive me for all the wrong I did you. If I could take it back I would. Please…forgive me.”

Merry blinked away the tears and gave a smile which reached her eyes. “Of course I do.”

Jé Kinah blinked. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Jé Kinah shivered and breathed out shakily. Then Meredith’s stomach rumbled and they both looked down.

“I’m so hungry. “ Meredith admitted.

“The village is ahead. Perhaps there is somewhere still open.”

There was a service station up the road that was open. There were a number of cars parked at it, several of them police vehicles. Jé Kinah put her coat on Merry, disguising her distinctive blue gown. Inside Jé Kinah let Merry order, still struggling with the concept of menus while Merry was confident in her choices.

They sat at a table by the window and Meredith looked out at the cars that passed until their food arrived. She ate eagerly while Jé Kinah picked at the food. Merry had forgotten she was a vegetarian but Jé Kinah would have been dragged over hot coals before pointing it out. Instead she gazed at Merry with a newfound respect and understanding of her. The service station had a radio playing some kind of news program and there was a soft hum of conversation that lessened any tension they might have felt.

“Are you not hungry?” Merry asked and Jé Kinah started, lost in her thoughts.

“Mother loved you…us…Merry.”

“Wha…” Merry blinked. “Oh, we’re back at that point in the conversation.” She shrugged. “You don’t have to lie to make me feel better. I saw it in her eyes every time she looked at us, every time I handed her a bouquet of flowers or pointed out the shapes in the clouds…or threw my arms around her…” Merry sighed. “We were half human. She didn’t like the me part of us, the human part.”

“It was not that she did not like it,” Jé Kinah argued gently, “but that she could not understand it. She struggled to understand emotional displays of affection…or excessive emotion of any sort. And she could not see shapes in the clouds not matter how hard she looked.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Because I am as she was.” Jé Kinah frowned. “There is an instinctive knowledge passed down from elf parents to their children. I have that instinct now.”

“And her face.” Jé Kinah looked up. Meredith gazed at her sadly. “You are her spitting image Jé.”

“I am?”

“You’ve seen your reflection before. How could you not know this?”

Jé Kinah hesitated. “I…struggled to see anything beyond the corruption of the beast.” She looked into her hazy reflection in the windows of the service station. Try as she might, she could not see anything of her mother in her face.

“Well…just take my word for it,” Meredith sipped her hot drink, “every time I look at you I see our mother.”

Jé Kinah looked at Meredith sadly and couldn’t stop herself from saying. “And every time I look at you…I see our father…”

Meredith froze, her skin prickling at the notion. She managed to look up at Jé Kinah who looked as though she wanted to take back her words that had been laced with deep resentment. Meredith knew instinctively that the anger had nothing to do with her, but at their father and still her heart trembled.

She swallowed. “I suppose every time you look at me…you feel the same emotions as the last time you saw him.” She worried her bottom lip. “Did he suffer?”

Jé Kinah couldn’t believe how tight her heart became at the tender thought. She reached over and put her hand over Meredith’s. “No. He did not.”

Meredith breathed out shakily and nodded. “Good. I’m glad.” She sniffed and rubbed her nose.

Jé Kinah drew back. “I do not think the dragon exists anymore Merry. I think, perhaps, that it died out long ago.”

“I knew that was more than likely.” Meredith shrugged. “I just…didn’t want to be left alone.”

“You are not alone.” Jé Kinah said warmly. “You are surrounded by your own kind and you do so well in this environment, in this day and age. It suits you.”

“But not you?”

Jé Kinah shook her head. “I do not understand it. The unnatural nature of the buildings are like splinters in my eyes. The good earth is covered in hard, lifeless road and humans are consumed with a need for more and more things without ever becoming satisfied. No, I do not understand it.”

Meredith sighed. “Is it not possible for you to join the other elves?”

“It is not possible.” Jé Kinah replied as lightly as possible, hiding the yearning she felt.

“But you would liked to have gone?”

Jé Kinah struggled with the wrestle inside of her. “I…would have liked…to understand my heritage. Instinctive knowledge is one thing. Living and learning with the elder, that would have been extraordinary. And then I would not suffer the impressions of the humans.”

“What impressions?”

Jé Kinah looked up. “You do not recall the impressions left by humans when we were one?” Meredith shook her head. “Perhaps I have only become fully aware of it now that I am pure elf. Humans leave behind memory footprints all over the earth. The stronger the memory, the stronger the emotion felt.”

“And these impressions are left everywhere?”

“Many places.” Jé Kinah said sadly. “Death is a strong memory. Heartache…love…passion…a stolen kiss…”

“Living in a world with so many humans must be a nightmare for you.” Meredith gasped then paled. She looked at Jé Kinah, comprehension filling her eyes. “No…not Evander…” Jé Kinah closed her eyes and shook her head but Meredith already knew the truth. “You mean, every time he touches you…” Jé Kinah finally saw Meredith experience something she had wondered if she was capable of. Guilt. Meredith was stricken with it, realising that she had tainted something permanently and taken away a precious joy from Jé Kinah. “Oh Jé…I didn’t mean…”

Jé Kinah waved her hand lightly. “It is nothing.” Her voice cracked, betraying her.

Meredith pushed her hands through her hair. “No wonder you hate me.”

“I do not hate you.” It surprised Jé Kinah just as much as Meredith to hear her say those words. Yet she knew they were true. She didn’t hate Meredith.

“You hate humans…” Meredith argued. “Go on then, name one thing. Just one thing that you liked about having a human side. Or something that you miss…one thing.” She saw the conflict in Jé Kinah’s face and felt a pang of shame. She couldn’t think of anything that she liked about Meredith. It was a crushing blow and Meredith looked down at the table, her food forgotten, her hair a curly dark brown veil around her face.

And then, ever so gently, she felt Jé Kinah’s long, slender fingers touch one of the ringlets, caressing the curve of it.

“I miss,” she said quietly, “my curls.”

Meredith looked up and saw Jé Kinah gazing at her dark curly mane with a soft light in her eyes. “You hated them.”

“I know.”

“I remember burning my head because you insisted on trying to iron them flat.”

Jé Kinah gave a quiet laugh and nodded. “I know. But I realise now that…I miss them…” She smiled at Merry who beamed at her. It was a strange place for a reconciliation, a service station with ripped and faded chairs, fingerprints on the glass and scuff marks on the floor but at that moment in time, it could not have been more beautiful.

Meredith looked down at the table and drummed her fingers on the plastic cloth. Immediately she wondered what Jé Kinah would feel if she sat where she was sitting now. How difficult it would be for her to sense the volatile emotions of the impressions of humans. There would be no where to escape from the constant heartaches. Even overwhelming joy would be excruciating to an elf.

“Jé,” she said slowly, not quite sure how to broach the subject, “elves sense human emotional impressions?”

“Yes.”

Meredith raised her eyes to look at Jé Kinah directly. “When Evan held your hands...”

“Merry...”

“It is important Jé.”

Jé Kinah sighed. “When Evander’s hands touch me I can sense the...connection between you.”

“Can you sense the kiss?”

She winced. “I can sense the guilt from the kiss.”

“But you know there was physical, emotional contact.”

“Merry...”

“Then why did our mother not sense that on our father?”

Jé Kinah froze. Meredith watched her, waiting for an explanation but for once, Jé Kinah had no answer to give. Her pale green eyes were wide and her lips parted but her voice was silent.

“If you are as our mother was and you can sense a stolen kiss and overwhelming guilt in a man’s hands who loves you unfailingly, why did our mother not sense the repeated acts of adultery by our father?” Meredith snapped her fingers in front of Jé Kinah’s face. “Jé...”

“I do not...know...” She rasped out. “I never thought...but she must have...”

“Is it possible that our mother knew all along?”

“Why? How?”

“How did she not die?” Meredith shrugged. “Why are you not dead? You’ve had enough emotional upheaval of your own, let alone those inflicted by humans, to have died several times over.”

“I...I deny the emotion. I do not accept it. It is still there, buried deep inside and if released it could kill me but if I lock it in my heart...” She shook her head. “But why would our mother do that? Why would she stay when the elves left? Why would she keep living out a life with our father knowing deep down the truth about him?”

“Because she loved you.” Meredith said simply.

Jé Kinah’s gaze became firm. “She loved us. There was no you and I. There was us, one child and she loved us wholly.”

Meredith smiled. “She knew, Jé. She knew but she stayed.”

“She still died after I...”

“We.”

“We, told her.”

“We didn’t tell her. We didn’t say a word. We knew but we said nothing. The only thing that changed was that we knew. Father was the one who broke her heart.”

Jé Kinah’s breath released in a shuddering gasp, hundreds of years of guilt suddenly lifting from her like heavy clouds after a storm. And for the first time in as long as she could remember, she could see the unblemished sky.

Meredith watched her carefully, seeing tears trickle down her cheeks that she let fall. As the guilt lifted from her, Jé Kinah’s skin glowed. In fact, she glowed. Imperceptible in the chaos of the human world but from its absence to its presence, it was undeniable...and it was beautiful.

Jé Kinah closed her eyes, cutting off the flow of tears. She accepted the scratchy napkin and dabbed the salty trickles away. “I think it is late enough. We should return to the oil drilling site.” Meredith didn’t comment on the change in topic. It was clear she knew that Jé Kinah had pushed the boundaries of what she could handle that night without being provoked further. “I believe that is where Evander would look for us,” they stood up and headed for the door, “and, if we are able, I would very much like to see if the tree is still standing.”

“Really? Why?”

Jé Kinah breathed out. “Hope that if it can survive in this world, so can I.” She looked at Merry. “Will you come with me?”

Meredith’s heart swelled at the invitation. “Of course.”

Apart from some empty drink cans and a few broken signs, there was no hint of the out of control protestors. Jé Kinah and Meredith slipped around into the overhang of some trees, avoiding the spotlights that were still blasting the ground with their unnatural white light. Meredith used her power to cut through the fence and Jé Kinah pried it back so that they could both slip inside. As they crept past the enormous machines and the transportable buildings, two snarling dogs approached them, wild with pent up energy. Jé Kinah put her hand out and made gentle shushing noises.

The dogs gave little whimpers, sat down and then laid down. Jé Kinah put her hands on their fur and stroked them gently. Meredith watched as she put them into a trance and stood up.

“Instinctual knowledge huh?” Meredith asked. Even though she had spoken softly Jé Kinah put her finger to her lips and nodded behind them. Walking the perimeter of the inside of the fence was a security guard. He hadn’t seen them so they slipped into the shadows and headed for the edge of the forest.

“I thought the tree was in the heart of the forest.” Meredith mouthed. Somehow Jé Kinah could still understand her. They passed a pile of chopped down tree trunks, still green. Jé Kinah stroked them sadly and Meredith wondered if she could feel their deaths. “This doesn’t seem far enough in.”

“The forest’s edge has been cut into for many years.” Jé Kinah explained. “It used to be at least twice the size.”

“But you know where you’re going?”

“The trees know,” she said, closing her eyes, “but there is such sorrow and emptiness.” Her eyes opened. “Merry…I fear we are too late…”

She darted away from Meredith who sprinted after her. But elves move quickly and Jé Kinah disappeared into the haze ahead. Meredith ran past machinery with cutting blades and giant claws to the land that had just been cleared. She finally caught up with Jé Kinah who had stopped, her hands shaking.

“No…” She gasped.

Meredith came up beside her and saw the giant tree…or at least the remains of it. It had been hacked down to the stump, the enormous bulk of the tree discarded onto its side. The smooth, unnatural finish of the stump was pale and vulnerable. Even Merry felt shock and despair at such a terrible outrage.

“They’ve cut it down.” She gasped. “They’ve killed it.”

Jé Kinah staggered forward and knelt at its roots. Her shaking hands reached out and touched the flat surface, pulling away as if it burned her skin.

“How could they?” Jé Kinah whimpered then screamed. “How could they!” She threw her head back and howled at the top of her lungs. Meredith recoiled from the emotion Jé Kinah projected as if it were a physical wave, an overwhelming rage and sorrow that drowned out every other sense in her body. Jé Kinah’s voice broke and she threw herself across the stump, clinging to it tightly. There were no words, only violent sobbing as she pressed herself against the remains of the tree. Meredith was stunned, unable to move until she felt eyes all around her and looked up to see many animals of the forest converging on their position. It was as though they had all come to pay their respects to the fallen king of the forest, called by the last elf that lived on the earth.

Meredith didn’t know what to do. All this time she had poked and prodded Jé Kinah, wondering if she hid all her emotion inside waiting for someone to release it. Now that it had burst its dams and was erupting out of Jé Kinah, Meredith realised that elves dying of emotion was not a dramatic exaggeration. It only required a betrayed, broken heart for it to happen. It was happening in front of her. She could see the soft glow of Jé Kinah’s skin, which had only just been awakened, start to pale.

“Jé Kinah… Jé Kinah bury it deep inside. Don’t feel!” Meredith reached out and grabbed her shoulders but Jé Kinah wouldn’t let go of the tree. “Jé please! You have to stop this!” She twisted Jé Kinah and made her look at her, horrified to see that her face had aged and her features were pale.

“What hope is there?” The elf whimpered. “Why…” She flopped forward onto Meredith’s shoulder, as light as a feather.

Meredith pushed her away and shook her. “Snap out of it Jé Kinah! Don’t let these humans kill you with their foolishness!”

“I cannot live this life...” Her voice was so weak Meredith strained to hear her next words. “Find Evander. Tell him...”

Suddenly a bright light burst into existence and the force of it sent the animals scattering from the scene of the crime and threw Meredith and Jé Kinah to the ground. Meredith looked up, wincing at the brightness, half expecting to see a security guard looming over them with a spotlight. Someone did stand there and he was tall and commanding, his straight hair in long, pale gold strands down his back, dressed in cream robes with a loose belt around his waist. Meredith flinched from his piercing gaze and looked at Jé Kinah…who stared at the man in astonishment, youth returned to her features as though the light was life itself.

“Peace Jé Kinah, daughter of the she-elf Jé Maja. Let the light restore you and bring you home.”

“Home?” Meredith whispered.

“He is an elf…” Jé Kinah gasped, standing up, shadows cast out straight behind her as the light streamed out of a doorway that had appeared from nowhere.

Meredith looked at the man who terrified her with his imposing presence. “But…they left the earth! How could they come back?”

The elf looked at her with flint hard eyes and she flinched away, cowering against the stump of the tree. “Foolish humans know nothing about the truth of our existence. We have watched this earth for many years from our heaven and when we saw our sister in peril, we had to act.”

“Sister?” Jé Kinah asked.

“You are one of us Jé Kinah. You belong with the elves.”

“But I was born half human.”

“That tainted blood has been removed from your body. You are one of us, worthy to enter paradise.” He gestured to the doorway of light behind him and poured endless, warm light onto the cold, hard earth. “There is no sorrow there, no humans to stain the ground or to destroy that which was mean to last forever. You would be free.”

Jé Kinah’s face was aglow as she looked at the doorway, the embodiment of everything she had ever dreamed of rippling before her in shades of colours humans could not even begin to imagine.

“No more pain. No more sorrow.” He held out his hand and she put hers in it without hesitation. “Come, sister, while the door is still open for we can only maintain it for a short time.”

“We? How many are there?”

“Thousands.”

Jé Kinah breathed in sharply, hope filling up her entire being. “And…I would be accepted?”

The male elf looked at her with kindness in his eyes and his lips warmed into a smile. “I know you have many question Jé Kinah, many of which you do not yet know that you yearn to know the answers for. Come, and you will have everything you desire.”

Meredith watched as he led Jé Kinah towards the doorway, a growing fear in her heart and it began to beat fast. Jé Kinah had forgotten, in the wash of joy, that her life and Meredith’s were permanently entwined. Meredith knew instinctively that if Jé Kinah walked through that door, Meredith would die. She had to say something. She had to stop her!

And then Jé Kinah turned and looked at her...and smiled. Meredith had never seen her smile before, not like this. It was unguarded and bright, full of joy and not a hint of doubt, all sorrow gone, all fears relieved…and Meredith’s words stopped in her throat. She pressed her lips together and nodded, not trusting her voice.

Jé Kinah turned and walked towards the doorway. She could feel the warm rush of light as though she was standing in the breaking waters of a weir, the threshold of what was behind her and what was in front of her. Everything would be blotted out. Everything would begin anew. She would be free of past mistakes, of the poor choices she’d made and finally be accepted and understood.

As her boots touched the threshold, something stopped her from entering. A niggling thought, a drop of blood against the snow, arrested her attention. She could sense an impression, a wild emotion pressing in to her heart. It was fear, rejection and abandonment. The last impression of emotion she would ever sense from a human...and it was from Meredith.

Not the Meredith of now. The Meredith of when it all began...when Jé Kinah heard her call out her name, had seen her brand new body in the snow with eyes so wide and so frightened that it should have melted her heart and made her give up her quest for vengeance. Instead she had walked away...just as she was doing now.

Jé Kinah felt the hand of the elf leading her into the doorway but she put her feet down against the almost impossible to resist desire and he looked back at her, concern on his handsome features.

“Wait…” She said in little more than a whisper. “What happens to Merry if I go?”

The elf looked confused. “She is a human. She exists where humans exist.”

Jé Kinah looked up. “But she is me, the human side of me. She cannot exist without me.” She looked back and saw Merry’s face and the truth that was in her eyes. “Will she still live if I go?”

The elf paused. “Though I do not know about the manner in which you were divided, where you are going is a type of death. I can only exist on this earth because of the light of paradise. See now how it draws back from the earth and into the doorway?” Jé Kinah could see it, the shafts of light dying back as though burnt by the imperfection of the earth. “When the light is fully withdrawn, the door will close and it cannot be easily opened.”

Jé Kinah found herself biting her bottom lip, subconsciously recalling that it was a Meredith trait and not one of her own, and looked up at the elf. “Thank you for the honour and the kindness of calling me to paradise,” she said, removing her fingers from his hand, “but in all things I must count the cost of my choices.”

“You would shun the offer of the elves and the paradise beyond,” he was astonished to say the least, “for this one human?”

“I am not insensible of the offer or of the effort it took to open this door,” Jé Kinah looked at Meredith and smiled, “but I choose her.”

The elf stepped towards her, at the very edge of the disappearing light, and grasped her arms. “Jé Kinah, I beg you to reconsider. Your mother made a similar choice and look how she suffered for it. Do not make the same mistake as she.”

Jé Kinah looked up into his face. “Where you see a mistake, I see a choice made in love. I, too, made a choice to empower my vengeance in this very place and turned away from my own flesh and blood. I will not do so again.” She gently removed his hands and stepped back into the cool dark of the earth. “I choose Meredith.”

The elf swallowed. “Then I have said all I can say and done all I can do.” He drew himself up to full height and nodded. “I bid thee farewell, Jé Kinah, daughter of Jé Maja. I hope that you do not come to regret your decision.”

He turned and without a backward glance, strode into the light, his body immediately becoming a silhouette and the doorway crumbled in around him, the last of the light sucked in and the door closing tight behind him.

In the aftermath of heaven’s light, the moonlight seemed dull and the world bathed in shadow. Jé Kinah swallowed, gazing at the place where the doorway had been then she turned and looked at Meredith who stood to her feet, her legs understandably shaking.

“You knew what my leaving would do,” Jé Kinah stated, “yet you said nothing.”

Meredith bit her lip. “You chose me?”

Jé Kinah nodded and suddenly Meredith launched herself at her, flinging her arms around her body and embracing her so hard Jé Kinah they might return to being a single person at the force of it. She put her arms awkwardly around Meredith and laid her cheek on the top of her head, her fingers tangling themselves in her hair.

“I could not leave you behind.” She said quietly. “I do not understand you and I am frequently frustrated and confounded by your actions. But I could not leave you behind, not again.”

Meredith pulled back a little and beamed through her tear streaked face. “We are more like sisters than you realise.”

Jé Kinah smiled and nodded. Suddenly a bright torch light beamed into her face.

“You there! Stop!”

“Run!” Jé Kinah cried and they sprinted from the security guard, tripping over tangled branches and skidding past machinery.”

“Stop or I’ll shoot!”

The dogs were roused from their trance and began to bark and chase them while the security guard was joined by several others, yelling and pursuing them through the construction site.

“Merry, run!”

“I’m in a dress!” Meredith roared, picking up her skirts and running after her.

They dashed out from under cover, heading to where they had broken through the fence when a security guard stepped in their path. Meredith launched some ice at his feet and he slipped up and fell over backwards. Jé Kinah leapt over him, pushed through the fence and pried it back for Meredith to squeeze through. The guards were right behind them, sprinting across the same ground that they had just crossed.

Meredith looked at Jé Kinah whose face was full of fresh life and burst out laughing as they continued to run across the muddy trampled ground. Jé Kinah gave a chuckle at Meredith’s humour and they ran for the edge of the rise. They were scant metres from cover and safety, the car park in sight.

One of the guards, with his gun foolishly out, stepped on Meredith’s patch of ice, slipping up wildly, his gun going off with an almighty bang.

And off in the distance, one of two figures running from the oil drilling site was hit and fell to the ground.

Penny tucked her knees up under her chin as she sat on a bench in the prison cell. There were several women in the cell with her. Some paced backwards and forwards across the small space while others took up defensive positions against the wall, their arms folded. Penny shared her bench with a pale girl with dark hair, not much older than Penny herself. Penny tried to give her a reassuring smile but the girl rocked, her eyes fixed on a discolouration in the concrete of the cell floor.

Penny had been torn from Mak and Evander as they were loaded up into two separate vans to be taken to the police station. Evander was a shaking, dizzy mess from the taser while Mak kept calling her name. Penny knew he was worried about her and wished she could reassure him somehow…but the fact that he had been so desperate to save her…she was fairly sure she wasn’t as panicked about being arrested as she should have been.

With no understanding about what the officers were saying, her eyes conveying confusion every time they said something to her, she didn’t know what was happening. And in the village of Białowieża, deep in the national forest and over three hours from Warsaw, there were no translators to help move the investigation along.

She could be in here for days...what would Lila say?

Why did she grin when she thought about what Lila would say?

Footsteps echoed down the corridor and an officer jangled keys. All the women looked up expectantly, hoping the open door was for them. To Penny’s overwhelming joy she saw Mak standing behind the officer, his eyes locked on her. The officer pointed at her and gestured for her to step out. Penny did so slowly, scared of being tackled if she moved too fast. When she was on the other side of the bars, however, she nearly threw herself at Mak, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Are you alright?” He asked urgently, pushing her back and studying her. “You aren’t hurt are you?”

“I’m fine. I’m fine.” Penny gasped and returned to hugging him. She could hear wolf whistles from the cell behind until the officer barked something and they fell silent.

“Come on. We’re out of here.” Mak’s arm went around her protectively as they followed the officer through the small police station. Penny wasn’t accustomed to being a damsel in distress but she was quite enjoying Mak’s decisive streak.

“They didn’t hurt you?” Penny asked. “You didn’t get strip searched or anything?”

Mak laughed, which was an odd sound in the bland beige corridor of the station. “No stripping, no searching. I’m fine.”

“What about Evander?”

“He was a little rattled from the taser but I swear that man is made from steel.”

Penny hugged closer to Mak. “I like my men a little squishier.”

Mak gave an embarrassed but pleased chuckle. “Come on. Chaz is waiting.”

“Chaz?”

“Yeah, I’ll let him tell the story. It’s his moment of glory.”

Chaz was waiting at the counter, being handed back a pile of passports and paperwork and slinging his backpack over his shoulder. Evander was edging towards the door, eager to get going.

“Hi guy!” Chaz grinned. “What a gap year huh?”

“I’ll say.”

After signing some documents and getting a firm warning, of which only Evander understood and relayed it to the rest of them, they exited the little police station which seemed to have been built out of the same mould as every rural police station in the world. It was late, or early, and the single lamp of the police station car park illuminated their familiar car. They clambered in, Mak taking the wheel so that Chaz could explain what happened.

“Where are we off to by the way?” Mak asked before Chaz could launch into his tale.

“To where we lost Jé Kinah. If she could, she would have returned there.” Evander ordered firmly.

“Back to trouble here we go.”

“My turn!” Chaz declared. “Once I got my tablet back I noticed it was low on charge so I ran back to the car to plug it in.”

“He’s not a coward. He’s just technologically dependant.” Penny chuckled.

“And if I hadn’t I would have been arrested with the rest of you.” Chaz argued. “Fortunately they didn’t spend any time worrying about parked cars and I saw you three being loaded into the vans like the criminals you are. It was easy enough to follow you back to the station but I had to wait for my tablet to charge,” Penny rolled her eyes and Mak moaned, “so I could use my translator app to talk to the officers.” Chaz retorted. “They kept threatening to charge you with assault and disturbing the peace…”

“What would my parents think?” Mak whispered.

“But then I logged onto YouTube and guess what got thousands of hits in the first hour of it being aired?” Chaz held up his tablet and clicked of a video clip. Evander stared at the screen. “Recognise anyone?”

“That is me?” He said, aghast.

“The news vans kept their cameras rolling the whole time. Everything that was filmed was plastered all over the internet by the people opposed to the oil drilling and the deforestation. It’s huge!” Chaz smiled. “So I pointed out that Prince Evander, guest of the Chateau De St Croix and personal friend of Countess Constance De St Croix, distant relation to the French royalty, had not assaulted the officer but had been trying to help and was brutally attacked and then tasered.”

“You sure you’re not meant to be practicing law rather than going into IT?” Mak asked.

“I watch a lot of crime shows.” Chaz brushed off the compliment. “Anyhow, after seeing all that, the police weren’t really interested in charging you…or anyone probably. I doubt they want to see the forest torn down any more than everyone else who lives here. So I gave them your passports and signed some papers and…ta da!”

“Oh my…” Penny gasped.

“And you, Penny Kirk, there were all kinds of protests about your handling as well,” Chaz chuckled in Mak’s direction, “and very possibly a few girls out there have fallen in love with the man who came to your rescue.”

“What if my parents see the news report?” Mak demanded. “They’ll never trust me again!”

“I don’t think they’re inclined to watch Polish news.” Penny reassured him gently.

Mak made a ‘not so sure’ noise. “We’re coming up on the drilling site. Uh oh…more sirens and flashing lights…whoa!” He jerked the wheel, the car lunging to one side as an ambulance wailed past them. They pulled up in the car park and climbed out, heading to the ridge that sloped down towards the fence. Near the fence were more policemen talking with several security guards.

The blood drained out of Evander’s face and his jog down the slope became a sprint.

Mak swore. “He’s gonna get himself arrested again! Come on!”

They hurried down after Evander. The group at the bottom of the slope saw him coming and the policeman rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“Not you again.” He said.

“I am still looking for my friend.” Evander said in very broken Polish. “She was here before. Is she here now?”

The response was a little mangled in Evander’s ears and he had to concentrate to understand it. Penny tugged on Mak’s sleeve. “What’s he saying?” She whispered.

“My Polish isn’t any better now than it was three hours ago.” Mak replied.

Evander turned to them, white as a sheet. “Two women were here in the site…one of them was shot…”

Penny gasped, her hand flying up to cover her mouth. Chaz pulled out his phone and started tapping away on it. “I know where the hospital is.” He held up his phone. “Come on!”

They dashed back up the hill, hurled themselves into the car and practically flew to the tiny hospital in the village. Evander was out of the car before it had fully stopped and ran to the ambulance which was still cooling down from its heated run. The driver was collecting stuff out of the back of the ambulance, making it ready for the next emergency, when Evander grabbed him.

“The woman…in there…she was shot…” He closed his eyes and grimaced, furiously fighting through his tasered brain to find the right words. “Where is she?”

“She is friend?”

“Yes! She is my true love. Where is she?” Evander caught sight of what was in his hands. A pale green, knee length coat…covered in blood over the back, darkest at the hole that had gone through at heart height. He snatched it away, his hands shaking at the violent evidence.

The driver’s face was pained. “I’m sorry.” He said and pointed in through the doors. Evander pushed away from him and barged through the doors, terrifying a nurse who dropped an armful of towels.

“Jé Kinah. Where is Jé Kinah?” He demanded. “The woman who was shot?”

The nurse babbled something incoherent before a security guard approached and began to talk very firmly to him but Evander was nearly going out of his mind and didn’t pay any attention to the warnings.

“Jé Kinah!”

“Nurse, who is this man?” Asked a doctor emerging from a door at the end of the hallway, pulling gloves off his hands.

“I do not know.”

“Doctor, he is looking for the woman who was shot.” The ambulance driver came through.

The doctor looked at Evander, who still clutched at the bloodied coat, and nodded. “I will take it from here.” He put his arm out and drew Evander aside. “You knew the young woman?”

“Yes. I love her.”

He flinched. “I am sorry…but the woman who was shot…the bullet…her heart…”

Evander heard words like ‘dead on arrival’ and ‘there was nothing they could do’ but they bounced off his head, muffled and confused in his brain. He swayed on his feet, the air sucked from his lungs and his chest so tight he felt like it was caving in on itself. It was the same powerful despair that had come upon him once before, when he had sent a silver arrow through her heart. He could feel sorrow and rage and hopelessness all warring on the inside of him, fighting for dominance. The coat crumpled to the floor at his feet and he began to wheeze, his lungs refusing to open.

The doctor put his hand on his shoulder, probably to push his head down so that he could breathe properly, when the lights in the hospital began to flicker as a powerful surge rocked the village of Białowieża. The ground began to hum as the power built up and paintings and certificates on the walls began to jiggle and clatter. It sent their teeth on edge as the whole building seemed to become electrified. The lights grew brighter and brighter until everything turned on and started blaring alarms and popping light bulbs. The nurse screamed as the computer next to her ruptured its screen and the doctor dashed from Evander to see if she was alright.

And then, just as suddenly, it was quiet and dark…

Evander could feel the world falling out from beneath his feet. Somewhere behind him he knew that Mak, Penny and Chaz had followed him in but he couldn’t concentrate on anything else except a figure that had just walked out of a room at the end of the hallway…the same room the doctor had come from. Now that the lights had all been destroyed by the power surge she was illuminated by the weak light of the moon through a window. A woman…with dark curls…

He staggered down the hallway, his footsteps booming and his breathing sounding like a hurricane in his ears. “What…happened…” He said in a hoarse whisper.

Meredith didn’t say anything, staring down at her hands which were covered in blood. Evander stumbled another two steps towards her and croaked out her name.

She looked up and her eyes became wide and astonished.

“Evan…” She gasped and then nearly screamed. “Evan!”

She flung herself at him, her hands around his neck, her body pressed against his. “I did not know where you were or what was happening.”

“Merry…” His eyes were as dry as his mouth. He licked his lips and tried to pry her fingers out of his neck. “What happened…”

“I do not know. There was shouting and a loud bang and pain. And all I could think about was that you would never know. You would never know what happened. Evan…” She pressed her face into his neck, his hands falling limply by his side as his worst fears were confirmed and his chest emptying of every hope and dream he ever had. “And then there was joy! Oh such joy and light and freedom!” She declared unexpectedly and pulled back to spin around. “The possibilities are endless now! We can go anywhere, do anything!” Her joyful exclamations tore at his heart like deep claw marks and he gasped at the agony they created, watching her almost skip with glee in the shadows. “Nothing can hold us back now. We can be together just like you always wanted!”

She darted forward, her hands reaching for his face and her lips desperate to press against his. Evander clutched at her hands and wrenched them away.

“How can you be so cold!” He broke his silence with the loudest of roars. “How can you just disregard her so lightly when you know what she meant to me!” His heart began to pound harder and harder and he pressed his fist against his chest, trying to stop the pain. “She’s gone… Jé Kinah’s gone…she’s gone…” His body was streaked with more pain than even the taser had laced him with and he collapsed to his knees, sobs breaking out of him with wild emotion and his tears dotted the scuffed floor.

“Evan…Evan please!” Warm hands held his face, stroking against the rough new growth stubble. “Jé Kinah is here. I am here! Evan please look at me!” His eyes were burning and it was painful to open them so he just turned away. “I am here Evan. I am Jé Kinah!”

“Jé Kinah never called me Evan…” He gasped, raising his head and prying his eyes open. And for a glorious moment…he saw Jé Kinah’s pale green eyes gazing back at him. They looked at him with knowledge and love…he knew those eyes…

“Jé…” He reached out a shaking hand and touched her face. A dark curl tumbled forward and got caught in his fingers. He looked at it as though it was a poisonous snake. “No. You are not Jé Kinah…”

“I am!” She declared then paused. “And I am Meredith.” He was weak and confused and tears continued to stream down his cheeks as she brushed her hands through his hair. “I am…the way I was before…the way I was always meant to be…”

Evander shivered, going in to shock. “How…” He stammered.

Her face was Jé Kinah’s, as were her eyes but her lips were rosy and there was a natural blush on her cheeks. Her hair was curly and dark and wildly tumbling over her shoulders.

“I do not know…” She admitted. “One moment I was separated and the next…I became whole again. I remember light…and cool heat…and a sense of…coming home.” She smiled at him, stroking his cheek. “Evan…der…it is me…”

“No.” He shook his head, moving her hand away. “Jé Kinah is dead. She was shot.”

The woman with the combined features of both women that had melded into an extraordinary beauty smiled sadly. “No, Evander, Jé Kinah was not shot. It was Meredith who was struck by the bullet. It pierced her heart.” When Evander began to shake his head she held it in both her hands. “You know it must be true. If Jé Kinah died…Meredith would die. But I am here. Look at me!”

He gazed at her, taking in all the features of her face…unable to separate Jé Kinah from Meredith in the one form. He raised a shaking hand and eased back her dark brown strands to reveal a pointed ear, delicate and the colour of fine porcelain. She smiled at him so sweetly, so like Meredith yet her eyes were sensitive and tender…just like Jé Kinah’s…

“I want… Jé Kinah back…” He whispered.

She wasn’t hurt by the remark, brushing away some of his fair hair. “I am here. I am not two people fighting over you, torn apart by their mutual love of you. I am me and I love you Evander.” She said without reservation.

He shook his head as his jaw quivered and he leaned backwards, putting distance between them.

“I don’t know who you are anymore.” He said brokenly.

Jé Kinah/Meredith gazed at him, his words having wounded her this time. They sat on the cold floor of the tiny hospital in the middle of the forest…divided by so much more than the small amount of space between them.

At the far end of the corridor, three friends had watched the exchange without blinking.

Penny’s face was streaked with tears and even Chaz was dabbing away at his damp cheeks. Mak let out a shuddering breath and swallowed.

“Ok…now I believe.”

Lila paced back and forth in one of the lounge areas in the foyer reception of the chateau. She had been pacing and biting her thumb ever since she got Chaz’s phone call twenty minutes earlier to say they were on the border of Bertrand. She could feel concierge Amaury’s eyes on the back of her head and tried to ignore their piercing gaze…and the pile of luggage that was none too discreet by the cluster of lounges where she paced.

She knew people must be looking at her, laughing at her but she couldn’t stop pacing until four familiar figures walked in through the front doors. With a half sob, half gasp she hurried towards, them, slowing at the last second to compose herself.

“Thank goodness you’re alright.” She said and licked her lips. “I see you recovered Meredith and Chaz’s tablet. Where is Jé Kinah?”

“Hello Lila. It is good to see you.”

Lila looked at Meredith, confused as to how she suddenly knew to speak English. Green eyes, not blue, looked out of her face and she felt a tingle of horror at something she couldn’t begin to comprehend.

“Well…whatever because we’ve got a problem. You see…”

“Ahem…”

She closed her eyes and stepped aside. “However I will allow the concierge to explain it further…”

Amaury gestured for them to take a seat on the lounges near their piled up luggage. However he remained standing. “I am ze bearer of sad news.” He said formerly. “Yesterday evening, ze Countess De St Croix passed away.”

Evander closed his eyes and sighed. “No…”

“I am afraid so.” Amaury allowed a moment of respectful silence to pass before continuing. “Countess De St Croix was ze last surviving direct descendant of ze De St Croix line and, upon her death, ze wishes of ‘er ‘ouse ‘ave fallen void. It is with regret zat we are unable to continue to offer you an apartment in ze chateau or continue to provide you with a line of credit.”

Amaury explained it all in French while Jé Kinah/Meredith relayed it to the others in English.

“So what you’re saying is,” Chaz blurted, “with the Countess gone, you don’t have to indulge the freeloaders?”

Amaury raised his eyebrows. “A crude but accurate summary of ze facts. Should you wish to continue to stay at ze chateau, you will of course be expected to pay. ‘owever I anticipated your immediate departure and ‘ave ‘ad your belongings packed into suitcases charged to ze late De St Croix estate.”

Evander was washed out and weary, unable to respond.

“Thank you for your considerations.” Mak spoke up, realising that someone had to. “We will be leaving shortly.”

“I would not wish for zere to be bad feelings between us and ‘ave ordered a round of champagne for you to raise your glass to ze late Countess for all ‘er generosity.” He waved his hand and a staff member appeared with a gleaming silver tray adorned with sparkling flutes all filled with the barely tinted bubbling libation. They all took one out of politeness as did Amaury who raised his glass. “To ze memory of ze Countess De St Croix, may she rest in peace.”

“Here, here…” Mak said faintly and they raised their glasses and drank.

Amaury only sipped his, a token gesture as it would not do for the concierge of the most illustrious chateau of the French Alps to lose control of his faculties. He placed the glass down and looked at Evander. “My condolences on your loss, Prince Evander. Take as much time as you require before leaving.”

Chaz glared after him as he walked away. “Jerk.”

“He’s been at me ever since the Countess died.” Lila muttered. “Wanting to know where you were, when you were coming back…” She eyeballed them. “Where were you?”

“Poland…protesting oil drilling in an ancient forest.” Mak grinned and she huffed in exasperation.

“Well, now that your little excursion is over, can we please go back to our tour? We’ve only got three days before it’s due to end. We need to rejoin it and leave all of this behind.”

Penny glanced at Evander, who had sagged on the lounge, his champagne abandoned and his head in his hands. The woman that appeared to be a blend between Jé Kinah and Meredith looked up, confusion on her lovely face.

“What about them?” Penny asked. “We can’t just leave them here.”

“Yes we can.” Lila said firmly. “Penny, you have done way more than anyone else would have but now it’s time to let them go…Noel! What are you doing here?”

Everyone but Evander looked up as the former nurse to Countess De St Croix walked over to them. No longer in his uniform, he cut a lanky figure in a much more casual dress of jeans and open hoodie over a tshirt, a velvet rectangle box shape in his hands. Lila blushed as he approached and gave her a warm smile.

“I zought you would ‘ave been ‘appy to see me?” He asked. “I zought our date went well?”

“Yes, of course.” Lila blundered. “But, you know…I’m not staying…”

“I know. I ‘oped to find you ‘ere.” Noel looked at Evander. “Ze Countess…’er last zoughts were of you.”

“I didn’t even get to see her on Monday like I promised.” Evander muttered. “She must have been so unhappy.”

“On ze contrary Prince Evander, I ‘ave nursed ze Countess for over three years and in ze last week, I ‘ave never seen ‘er more lively…more…filled with joy.” Noel assured him. “While I zink ze kind old lady managed to see you as an answer to ‘er delusion, it did give ‘er ‘appiness in ‘er final days.”

Jé Kinah/Meredith put her hand on Evander’s knee. “She danced with her prince. It was all she ever wanted.”

Evander sighed deeply. “I am so confused…” He confessed. “So lost…I had hoped that with her help…I could find my place in this world…but she is gone…”

“She entrusted me with a gift.” Noel put the box covered in velvet on the polished coffee table. “Zis is what was in ‘er safety deposit box. She made me swear in ‘er final ‘our to ensure it reached you.” He stepped back. “Ze Countess was good to me in life and in death. I did not want ‘er last request to go unfulfilled.” He turned to Lila. “You are going?”

“Soon. Today.” She shrugged weakly. “We aren’t even supposed to be here…”

“I do not ‘ave any duties at ze moment. Perhaps I could be your guide if you would like to see more of France?”

“Oh, Noel…I…”

He held up his hand. “Discuss zings first. You ‘ave my number.”

Lila gave him a wave and turned back to see Mak, Chaz and Penny eyeing her, smirks on all their faces.

“Shut up.” She muttered and sat down. “What’s in the box?”

Evander stared at it, all motivation gone from him, his world turned upside down once more.

“Nothing in there can change anything and she already did so much.” He said. “Someone else open it.”

The four friends hesitated so Jé Kinah/Meredith leaned forward and slipped the ornate, carved box out of its black velvet cover. The De St Croix emblem was burnished on the lid, the entire box able to fit into her two cupped hands. She flicked the latch up and lifted the lid, showing a red plush lining and a single object inside.

“Evan,” Jé Kinah/Meredith said quietly, “look.”

Evander huffed and shifted his weight so he could look in. When he spotted the object, he frowned, his rough fingers reaching in and drawing it out, holding it up for them all to see. It was a key. A single, iron key with the De St Croix crest at one end, a simple three pronged edge at the other.

Everyone stared at it, no one comprehending its purpose.

“A key? What for? What does it open?”

Evander’s mouth fell open and he stood up as though he’d been tasered again.

“I know exactly what this opens!”