I'm lying in my bed beneath the covers.My grandmother tucks me in. As she leans over me, she blocks out the light from my bedside lamp, and her wild tangle of flame red curls threaded with silver is lit up from behind. A halo fit for an angel. I must be about four years old. By the time I was seven, gran's hair had turned completely white.The memories that flicker through my dreams are soft and shimmering. Everything glows brighter than its real life counterpart, bursting with radiance, swimming in muted light."So, what will it be tonight my bairn?" She asks, tucking a stray hair behind my ear. "Sleeping Beauty? Rapunzel? Or maybe The Little Mermaid? It's been ages since you last heard that one."Most nights I'm perfectly happy to hear any of the countless fairy tales my gran tells. I've heard the same stories a million times over, and they never get old. But tonight is different.

By the time I get to the part of the forest where the two trails meet, the midmorning sun is filtering down through the leafy canopy.I passed by only one hiker on my way here, and I'm grateful for that – I must look really silly, and totally unprepared for a hike. I'm dressed in the outfit I was going to wear to Zee's house – a white babydoll dress with a print of tiny green flowers, and totally impractical white keds. Or at least they were white before I set out. Now they're brown, with a green stain on the left one's side.These shoes cost $70. Dammit.I stand at the crossroads, looking up and down the trails in case there's anyone coming, before I leave the path and slip into the forest.I walk in the direction of the tree with the silver fox pendant.The pendant is still hanging there, twinkling high up in the branches like a fallen star as it catch

There's no light at the bottom on the ocean.I'm swaying on the currents in silence, giving no resistance as I twist gently on the tide.It's so cold here.There's no up or down, no before or after, no here or there. Nothing outside of myself. Nothing to separate me from the endless black depths.I'm stuck in an endless oceanic slumber, lulled by the gentle rocking motion of distant waves.I could stay this way forever.Something's nagging at the edges of my mind, pulling at my consciousness, demanding attention.Somewhere, there is more than this.I haven't always been here. I know there was something before.Something happened. Something so terrible that I've sealed it away, safe in the deepest recesses of my nightmares.It's here with me now.I made this darkness myself, so

The shadows are lengthening and the sunlight has softened into afternoon's honey gold by the time I'm finished telling Kitty all about that day.She's sitting still as a statue in the armchair opposite me, bathed in patches of multicolored light streaming in through the huge stained glass window behind us. It's like she's in an impressionist painting, streaked with red and green and blue light, and I imagine I'm spilling out my story to a brightly jewel-encrusted portrait of some noblewoman from a bygone era.It makes it easier to talk.The words rush out of me, a flood of grief that I didn't even realize I'd been damming up.Kitty doesn't interrupt me, not even once – only nodding her head from time to time, listening in absolute silence. Even as I tell her about how I watched everyone die, how Mia lay at the bottom of the bus with her head cracked open in a pool of blood, or how Evan sacrifice

"I guess you won't be staying the night then?"Felix is in the tree above me, stretched out languidly on his back along a wide branch. There's a book in his hand.He jumps down and lands right in front of me in one swift graceful movement, and I stumble backwards, until my back is pressed up against the huge tree trunk. He leans forward, placing the palm of his hand against the wood right next to me, leaning down until his hazel eyes are just inches away from my own."How much do they know?" He says.He must be talking about the phone call. Does he know it was Jamie?"Nothing," I say.He leans closer in, as if to lock me down, maybe trying to intimidate me. Scare the truth out of me. But the thing is, I'm already telling the truth. I haven't told anyone where Fable is or what they're doing.If there's one thing I'm good at, it's k