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Chapters (86)
  1. Title Page
  2. CONTENTS
  3. Love
  4. Before
  5. One
  6. ONE
  7. Two
  8. TWO
  9. Three
  10. THREE
  11. Four
  12. FOUR
  13. Five
  14. FIVE
  15. Six
  16. SIX
  17. Seven
  18. SEVEN
  19. Eight
  20. EIGHT
  21. Nine
  22. NINE
  23. Ten
  24. TEN
  25. Eleven
  26. ELEVEN
  27. After
  28. One
  29. ONE
  30. Two
  31. TWO
  32. Three
  33. THREE
  34. Four
  35. FOUR
  36. Five
  37. FIVE
  38. Six
  39. SIX
  40. Seven
  41. SEVEN
  42. Eight
  43. EIGHT
  44. Nine
  45. NINE
  46. Ten
  47. TEN
  48. Eleven
  49. ELEVEN
  50. Twelve
  51. TWELVE
  52. Thirteen
  53. THIRTEEN
  54. Fourteen
  55. FOURTEEN
  56. Fifteen
  57. FIFTEEN
  58. Sixteen
  59. SIXTEEN
  60. Seventeen
  61. SEVENTEEN
  62. Eighteen
  63. EIGHTEEN
  64. Nineteen
  65. NINETEEN
  66. Twenty
  67. TWENTY
  68. Twenty-One
  69. TWENTY-ONE
  70. Twenty-Two
  71. TWENTY-TWO
  72. Twenty-Three
  73. TWENTY-THREE
  74. Twenty-Four
  75. TWENTY-FOUR
  76. Twenty-Five
  77. TWENTY-FIVE
  78. Twenty-Six
  79. TWENTY-SIX
  80. Twenty-Seven
  81. TWENTY-SEVEN
  82. Twenty-Eight
  83. TWENTY-EIGHT
  84. Eleven Months Later
  85. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  86. Copyright

I turn back to see the shadow of a man standing on the shoreline ahead of us. He’s tall and thin and dressed completely in black, just a smudge against the sky. He wasn’t there a moment ago and I’m about to turn and ask Dev who it is when I see the wooden boat next to him, bobbing gently on the sea.

Dev stops so I do as well, glad to be keeping my distance from whoever it is.

Kitty does the same, standing between us, looking confused for the first time. ‘Aren’t you coming?’

Dev shakes her head. ‘That’s Charon. He’s going to take you where you’re going.’

‘Where am I going?’

‘Where do you want to go, Kitty?’

She thinks about it for a moment then says, ‘Home.’

‘Well, then you’re going home.’

She turns to me, then. ‘Can you tell my mum something, Ash? Can you tell her that I’m sorry,’ she says with a deep frown, her eyes suddenly wet. ‘I wanted to come home before now, but I couldn’t.’

I don’t know what to say, so I just nod as I watch her walk towards Charon. For a moment I don’t think that she’s going to look back, but then she stops and turns back to face us with a smile.

‘I’m not cold any more.’

Nine

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NINE

I spend the next week with Dev, watching as she does her reaps, making sure I keep a comfortable distance, like a junior doctor learning how to attach an IV. The first thing I learn is that not many teenagers die every day in Brighton. That’s no bad thing, don’t get me wrong, but it means that between Dev, Esen and I, we only have to do one – maybe two – reaps a day. Dev says it’s busier at Christmas and over the summer – when people are taking exams or getting their results – so, for now, it’s quiet.

Not that I’m complaining, it just leaves yawning stretches of time with nothing to do. So the three of us spend most of our days skulking around the bookshop, sprawled on the sofa, bickering with each other like curmudgeonly cats.