Page 8 of Those That Are Lost

“You’re not working under any orders?”

“No, Red. My escape wasn’t easy, but I did escape. I’m sure they’re hunting me just like they’re hunting you. These weeks, especially when I realised you weren’t with Henry, have been agonising. I thought being locked back in that dungeon was hell but that pales in comparison to knowing you were somewhere out here all alone.”

I can see it. Hear it. Feel it. The pain of being separated hasbeen as visceral and all-consuming to him as it has been to me. At least that’s what it felt like before I managed to lock it all away and feel nothing. I can feel it surfacing now though, as my breathing becomes shallow and rapid. Heat builds behind my eyes.

He’s here and he’s alive.

Stop feeling it. I can’t let those emotions out.

They’ll crush me.

“Ty… I…” I go to speak but the world comes crashing back in as a group loudly exits the tavern, joking and revelling in whatever their conversation is.

Henry shoots further down into the alley with us just as Ty’s shadows deepen the darkness around us, hiding us from view.

“We should probably get off the street,” Henry says.

“I have an apartment a few minutes away,” I volunteer before I allow myself to think it through.

“Lead the way, Red.” Ty steps closer and gestures for me to start walking.

My apartment isn’t far but it gives me a few minutes to pull my emotions back and get them under control once more.

CHAPTER 7

TY

Idon’t take in a single detail between the alley and the wooden stairs we’re now climbing. I hope Henry has his wits about him because if we’ve been followed I don’t have a clue.

No, all I see is Red.

She’d put her glamour back in place before we’d exited that alley, and with it the invisible barriers too. So now I’m watching a taller, willowed framed expressionless Red saunter up the staircase ahead of me.

She’d ducked back into the tavern to quit her shift early and grab her stuff so her body is now hidden in a padded waterproof coat.

But it's her.

Her scent in my nostrils hits like a drug with each inhale. Only, I’ve been there, I’ve used drugs and alcohol before when my parents and my pack were slaughtered. The narcotics never gave me this feeling. Those drugs numbed me, hid my pain. She makes me feel. Now that I’ve found her, I don’t plan on letting her go again.

She lets us into a tiny apartment on the fourth floor. It's anattic conversion so the roof is pitched, the only standing room for Henry or me is down the centre of the space.

Her bed is pushed up against one corner of the room, it's a low mattress with a tangle of blankets and pillows. Her walls are covered with further tapestries and rugs. Did she choose these or were they already in place when she moved in?

With a single window and several lamps, it’s warm, cosy. I don’t think she’s been here long, however, as I spot the rucksack still stuffed with clothes at the bottom of the open wardrobe. Either that or she stays prepared to run at a moment's notice.

After managing to speak to her in the alley, words now fail me. I stand awkwardly in the doorway. After all the times I’ve snuck into her previous room, or stalked her without her knowing, I feel like I’m intruding.

“How long have you been working at the bar?” Henry asks completely casually as he shrugs out of his thick coat, hanging it on a wooden rack at the end of bed. He crosses the room and drops down onto a giant green beanbag, the only seat in the space except for the bed.

Red strips out her own coat and gives Henry a suspicious look. She doesn’t know what to make of him.

“A while,” she replies.

“Have you been here since you left Froan?”

How is he doing this? Chatting to her like they’re old friends.

“No.”