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‘You contemptible—’ Maria fumed. ‘You could have killed the man!’

‘This is the only way. Again, Nina, I am sorry.’

‘You’re terrible at being a traitor, Harald. At least commit to villainy and stop apologising.’

‘I am doing this so I won’t have to betray Domino any more than I already have. It will be over now,’ he said, more to himself than us. ‘When I deliver Paige.’

Of course. I was nothing but a parcel, to be passed around and traded. First Cordier and now this.

In that moment, I saw my life as a path drawn by others, from the day my father had put me on a plane to England. For twelveyears, I had tried to claw back some control, only to end up here, on this cold mountain, at the mercy of strangers.

I refused to be taken back to Scion against my will. When I returned, it would be on my terms.

The group escorted us towards the bridge. It might be our one and only chance to tip the scales in our favour. I searched for anything I could exploit, my eyes straining against the dark.

Harald stopped, keeping a firm grip on my shoulder. One of his people approached the bridge first. As they put their weight on it, the cables gave a tortured creak that carried right the way across the valley.

‘Harald, this is madness,’ Verca said, staring at the decayed structure. ‘You’re going to kill us all.’

‘We’ll be fine. One at a time.’

Verca huffed. ‘One death at a time?’

We waited for the bruiser to cross. Maria was shivering. Once the chirps and shudders had subsided, her captor jabbed her between the shoulders with his rifle.

‘Touch me again,’ she said, ‘and I promise you, I will burn you alive.’

The next shove almost knocked her over. ‘Enough,’ Harald said, with a note of genuine anger in his voice. ‘We agreed there would be no violence. No bloodshed.’ He blotted sweat from his upper lip, pupils down to pinpricks. ‘Nina, please. These people do not work for me.’

Maria ignored him. She hooked a thumb into her back pocket, where I could just see the lid of a lighter.

Harald had been so concerned with bridling my gift, he had forgotten to do the same to the others. Maria could use that lighter to ignite the few spirits in the area, but couldn’t risk it yet, with rifles pointing at us. From the way Verca had described her clairvoyance, she wouldn’t be able to help in a fight, but if I could get her away from the guns, Maria would be free to act.

I took stock of the bridge again, noting the ice and snowmelt. The stabilising cables looked weak, corroded. A few safety railings had rusted away.

Maria strode out in defiant silence. Once she had made it over, her guard went after her. As we waited for the bridge to stop trembling, I spied a glimmer of torchlight in the distance, on the far side of the lake.

‘That was a real patrol we ran into earlier, then,’ I said to Harald.

‘Yes.’ He let go of me. ‘Go across, please, Paige. We don’t want any more company.’

‘The present companyisscintillating.’

‘Don’t try anything, Underqueen,’ came a muffled voice from under a ski mask. ‘It can get much worse.’

I shook my head and stepped on to the bridge, conscious of the guns at my back. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Harald standing behind Verca, big and muscular, almost a head and shoulders taller.

Steel and wood squeaked as I walked. An idea was coming together. By the time I was halfway across the bridge, the darkness had thickened, and my heart was hammering. This needed to look authentic. I was going to have to commit to the bit. As soon as I saw a gap in the railings, I fell hard beside it, hoping my scream was convincing.

Torchlight gleamed towards me from both sides of the bridge. I had already swung half my body over the edge, holding on tight to the railings.

‘Someone help me up,’ I called out, my voice laced with true fear. The bridge quaked as Harald started on to it. ‘Not you, you hulking great idiot – you’ll take us all down!’

He froze.

‘Harald, I’m lightest,’ Verca said, catching on. ‘Let me go.’

‘This had better not be a trick, Paige,’ Harald barked at me.