He looked terrified. Ahab couldn’t blame the poor man, but the reality was he’d have to learn to adapt, and fast.

‘Mack, you need to think way bigger picture. With Davey dead, you’re next in line for the throne.’ He made Mackenzie meet his eyes. ‘All of Dempsey Abalone will be passed down to you.’

‘No, it won’t,’ said Mackenzie desperately. ‘It all goes to someone else.’

A great wave of weariness rolled over Ahab. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘It falls to Forest.’

CHAPTER 15

FOREST

It was dinnertime in the Royal Hobart Hospital, and Forest was sweating.

He sat at the cramped bedside table, across from Frankie, who was observing him closely with those cat-like eyes. She’d brought dinner up to his room, roast chicken and gravy potatoes, and insisted on eating together. She’d done the same thing at breakfast, when Ivy had planned to visit but had instead ‘returned to Shacktown for an emergency’.

An emergency . . . Forest hoped that Huck hadn’t done something stupid.

Eating dinner under the harsh lights of the hospital room, he wondered how Frankie knew that mealtime was such a weak point for him. After so many days of starving and countless missed meals, he could never bring himself to turn down food – and that made it hard for him to keep his defences up while he ate.

So he ate as fast as he could, hating the knowing look that came into her eyes as he did so. What was she reading into it? He was rambling about something – he checked back into himself, the words rolling off his lips like a script. Ah, he was talking about primary school.

The only consolation he had was that, whatever it was she thought of his responses to her questions, whatever analysis she was forming, it was wrong.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t complicate things for him.

‘How was that?’ said Frankie, the instant he took the final bite of potato. She had left half her meal uneaten.

‘Good,’ he said around that last mouthful. ‘Thank you.’

‘Well, Forest . . . I have some news you need to hear . . .’

He put his fork down. ‘What is it?’

‘I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this . . . but your uncle, Davey, was found dead this morning.’

What . . .?

The lights grew brighter. A ringing began in his ears.

‘Forest?’

‘How did he die?’

‘Drowned. A scuba-diving accident.’

A weird sensation went through his body. He felt like all his limbs belonged to someone else.

He avoided Frankie’s eyes. He couldn’t deal with her being here, not right now. X-raying him, peppering him with questions.

‘I’d like to be alone now,’ he said.

Zeus sensed his unease and climbed off the bed to put his head in Forest’s lap.