‘It’s just a bat, you guys,’ she said.
‘Just a bat?’ Charlie hissed with such disbelief, Allie might as well have said it was just a triceratops.
For some reason this struck Allie as hilarious, and she found herself shaking with silent laughter.
The two junior students stared at her.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, regaining control. ‘We’re safe. I promise.’
Retrieving the torch from the ground, she pulled the door shut behind them. In a straight line, with Allie in the lead, they headed down the path towards the gate, which they’d left open.
There’s something about the aftermath of a frightening moment that makes you let your guard down. That exhilarating sense of survival takes away all fear, just for an instant.
Maybe that was why she didn’t see him until they reached the gate.
He stood just on the other side, in the shadows. The moonlight caught his hair and turned it blond.
‘Allie,’ he said. ‘I can’t believe it’s you.’
Charlie squeaked and scrambled backwards, running hard into Alec who caught her before she could fall.
But Allie didn’t run. She just stared at the man in the gateway.
‘Christopher?’
20
Allie felt dazed. Like she’d stepped into a dream. He looked good – his hair was a little shaggy, but he looked strong. He was casually dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt, Converse trainers on his feet.
The suit he’d worn when he was working with Nathaniel was gone.
‘What… What are you doing here?’ She stumbled over her words.
She’d forgotten about Charlie and Alec. Forgotten what her role was here. All she saw was her brother. Standing where he should not be.
His nervous smile disappeared as quickly as it arrived. ‘Looking for you, Allie-cat,’ he said.
‘How did you get in?’ Allie looked around, as if the dark woods around them might hold the answers. ‘How did you get over the fence?’
‘Um… yeah.’ He stuffed his hands in his pockets, and rocked back on his heels. ‘We should probably talk about that. For now, let’s just say I got in.’
Something about his stance reminded her so strikingly of Nathaniel, it acted like a slap in the face. Allie suddenly realised where she was. What she had to do.
‘You shouldn’t have,’ she said.
She pressed the button on the radio mic connected to the neckline of her top.
‘This is Allie. I’m at the chapel.’
‘Allie, don’t.’ Christopher looked at her pleadingly.
But she couldn’t protect him. Not this time.
‘There’s an intruder.’
Christopher took a nervous step back, glancing around furtively as if he thought SWAT teams might spring from the forest.
‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘I’ve left Nathaniel. I saved you in London. I sold everything I had to get here without going on the grid.’ He held out his hands – his wrists bare. ‘The watch dad gave me. It’s gone.’
He seemed genuinely upset, but Allie could no longer say for certain if she knew her brother well enough to know when he was faking an emotion. He’d run away a long time ago. She’d been a child the last time they’d had a real conversation.
She wasn’t a child anymore.
‘If you’re really not working for Nathaniel, we’ll figure that out, and you won’t have any trouble.’
Her voice was cool and dispassionate. Like she was talking to a stranger.
Christopher shot her a look of pure disbelief. ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this to me. I’m your brother. They’ll tear me apart, Allie. They think I’m on Nathaniel’s side.’
In the distance, footsteps pounded towards them out of the darkness. Dozens of them. Allie could see torch beams bobbing and dancing firefly-like through the trees.
Everyone was coming.
She turned back to her brother, who was backing towards the fence as if he might, foolishly, decide to run.
She couldn’t blame him. It sounded like an army was coming for him.
Too late, Allie questioned her decision.
‘I’m sorry, Chris,’ she said, panic fluttering inside her chest. ‘I had to.’
At that moment, the first guards sprang into the courtyard.
‘Get back.’ A muscular, dark-skinned man clad all in black leaped in between Allie and Christopher, pushing her away from her brother.
Around her, voices shouted rapid-fire commands.
‘Down on your knees. Now.’
‘Hands behind your head.’
‘Move.’
As the guards surrounded her brother, Allie backed slowly away.
Holding her gaze with desperate eyes, he did as he was told, lowering himself to the ground and bracing his hands behind his head.
The guard slipped plastic handcuffs on his wrists; another guard searched his pockets, finding only a phone, which he confiscated.
Straightening, one spoke into his radio. ‘Intruder in custody.’
The guards pulled Christopher roughly to his feet. He wasn’t looking at Allie now. He kept his gaze on some indefinable point in the distance.