DAWN HAD ALREADY SET out its colours over the sea. The light was thick. Nefyn had been awake all night, having slept too much the day before. She hadn’t eaten either but came down to the cove to watch the morning colours unfold. The sky was red. Not crimson or scarlet, but a dark blood red. The indigo clouds gathering. She had known, deep down, that she was right.

Its birth would have been hundreds and thousands of miles away. A ripple. A disturbance on the sea that didn’t settle. Something that couldn’t be let go, and the warmth of the sun would magnify it into wind. And the wind would worry it until the waves and the swell would make the whole world feel as if it were moving. And its approach would be imperceptible at first. The tone of the breeze would change. A sound under a sound. A strange insistence. The rattle of the glass cabinets in the cottage. The disappearance of the birds. The deadening of the sea as the weight of the storm rolled in, a deep, disconcerting inhalation of the sky …

Nefyn hadn’t taken her tablet this morning, and seemed somehow unable to catch her breath. She had lain, her pupils wide, feeling the prickling all over her skin. Then, she had risen, started pacing, unable to eat or drink, stopping every now and again to hold her breath and listen. She could hear it. She was sure she could hear it. It was in the echo of the sky.

When she arrived down at the cove, the strandline was subdued, quiet. The headlands reaching. The tide receding. The rocks dark and damp. She had stood, a tremor inside her, her cold skin mottled in the morning chill. Every sense alive. The only movement was a lone cormorant left behind, drying its wings on the rocks near by. She smiled, knew there wouldn’t be much longer to wait.

The Doctor inverted the vial, drew down the painkiller and pinched the skin on Hamza’s bicep before injecting it. Hamza looked at him, his eyes heavy.

‘It’ll help with the pain when you’re moved.’

Hamza nodded. The Doctor rubbed his skin to take away the sting. The army truck had been parked outside the nearest doorway, but it was still a long walk and there was no wheelchair.

‘I don’t know why they didn’t get a proper ambulance.’ The Doctor’s voice reverberated with anger. Hamza smiled.

‘Don’t you?’

The Doctor packed his bottles away. Snapped his case shut in irritation. Hamza watched him.

‘I can’t believe they did this to you.’ His voice was tight in his throat. Hamza studied him. ‘It’s barbaric.’ Hamza watched him seethe. Let him settle.