Mackenzie’s grip on him tightened, pressing Ahab between them. Forest clung to his family as another wave set them tumbling, the force as heavy as a whale, the rope twisting and twisting around his foot, the pain increasing ten-fold, a hundred-fold, and then the resistance was completely gone.

He gasped for air, swallowed water, and everything went black.

When Forest opened his eyes, he found he was at the top of the cliff, sheltered behind a copse of scrub and two dirt bikes.

Agony at the end of his leg. He couldn’t breathe from the pain.

Mackenzie poked at a campfire that was burning hot, setting their wet clothes to steaming. Ahab, pale and half-drowned himself, was crouched over Forest, a damp but burning cigarette between his lips. Pain pushed into the area behind Forest’s eyes, deep into his brain. He smelled burning meat.

Ahab gripped his chin and forced it up, into his eyes. ‘Look at me. Don’t look at it. Look at me.’

Forest looked into his eyes. He trusted him. He wouldn’t look at the end of his leg. His mind felt funny. Delirious?

‘Thanks for coming for us, lad.’

‘Without that rope we’d be dead,’ said Mackenzie. ‘You saved us.’

‘I have one more secret.’ He leaned forward. ‘I’m Forest Dempsey.’

‘Yes, son. It’s okay,’ said Ahab, putting his hand to Forest’s forehead, testing for fever.

‘No, Ahab. Listen.’ He grabbed Ahab’s hand to push it away. If he died today, they’d never know. ‘I was with her when she died. Your mum . . .’

He had to get it out. All of it.

‘Miriam – I knew her as the Witch. She was the one who took me in, after my father tried to kill me. She . . . she hid me, when the police came looking. She saved me, but she also . . . She knew that my dad got me hooked on the bliss salts – the ice – and she was able to . . . I went crazy.’

Ahab’s face filled with confusion. ‘Bliss salts? You’re burning up, lad. You need to stop talking.’

‘No, listen to me! Huck’s skull in that cave – I was there. I was Forest. I am Forest.’ He reached for his shoulder. ‘I knew it all along, it was just . . . hidden. I am Forest Dempsey. Be careful what you wish for . . . what I wished for . . .’

Another burst of fire from the end of his leg.

He was rambling now. ‘She was in a bad way, but she saved my life, Ahab. The way she did it . . . but she was a good person. The best. She took me to Hobart and gave me a new life. She always said that she – she loved you, Ahab. She wished she could have been there for you, but the ice . . . she couldn’t escape the hold it had on her . . .’