He pulled her up and she realized that her hands were smeared with dead bugs squashed into her palms. She rubbed them on her jacket.

‘Yep.’

‘Which is why the nightmares.’

‘Yep.’

‘And that explains how you tracked me so easily!’

‘Uh, no, not really. You stuck out like a sore thumb. I didn’t need training for that.’

‘Oh.’

He took pity on her. ‘There’s something at that lighthouse though – you’re right. It was at the monastery before and that search was just a big charade to put us off. It’s at the lighthouse now. I don’t know what it is, but they really don’t want us to find out.’

‘Dreams,’ she said, gazing out over the cliff edge.

‘What?’

‘Dreams – it was something Rory said. He grabbed me before we left, told me they’re not really interested in fixing sleep at all … that—’

‘Yeah, well, it’s not some stupid dream I’m worried about,’ he said. ‘Dreams can’t hurt you.’

The wind picked up, lashing the first stinging tails of sleet in their faces.

‘You don’t have to come with me though.’ Thea raised her voice against the wind, trying to keep it steady. ‘To the lighthouse. You could go back. I don’t want to drag you into this.’

She didn’t want to drag herself into this. What she wanted was to go back to the Centre, where it was warm and dry and she could check on Rosie and then get them both out of there as soon as she could. She didn’t want to pick this scab of a secret, because she feared that underneath was only blood and infection.

‘I’m used to trouble,’ he said. ‘And after what just happened? I’d rather be at the lighthouse than back in that bloody golf ball. Why do you need guns for a sleep trial – on a bloody island? No, let’s go.’

Rosie in her bed with her beeping machine.

Beep.

Thea didn’t want to go to the lighthouse. Who would? It was crazy. She should be sensible and go back to the Centre.

Beep.

But she’d been “a good girl”, “a diligent employee”, “a dutiful daughter” for a very long time. She thought of the pale blob of a face with its mouth stretched wide and the blood that had matted Rosie’s hair.

Beep, beep, beep.

Thea made her choice. She started walking.

Chapter 26

‘Is this going to work?’ Thea hissed at Ethan, smiling manically.

‘Shut up and keep smiling!’ He hissed back. ‘I just need to get closer to him.’

As they had climbed higher and the lighthouse came into view, they had seen that outside the lighthouse there was a guard. With a gun.