“We’re coming with you,” her mum said. She’d been quiet since Valkyrie had stumbled back into the house. Now Valkyrie knew why.

“No,” Valkyrie said, limping out of the room. “This is dangerous. You have to stay here.”

“Alice is our daughter and we’re coming with you,” her mum said.

Valkyrie got to the bathroom, grabbed a wet cloth and cleaned the blood from her face. Wiped her eyes, too. “Dai will kill you.”

“I thought Dai was one of the good guys,” said her dad.

“He is,” said Valkyrie. “He’s got a Remnant inside him. He isn’t himself.” She dropped the cloth, turned to them. “Dad, please say you understand why neither of you can come. I’m going after Alice. I know this world and I know these people and I’m used to things like this.”

“We’re wasting time,” said her mum.

Valkyrie looked at her parents, realised there was no way she was going to win this argument, and her mother was right. Dai already had a five-minute head start on them.

“Fine,” she said. “I’m driving.”

“I’m driving,” her dad corrected, already heading downstairs. “You’re injured and your car is slow and you’re not a very good driver.”

Valkyrie limped quickly after him. “I’m a very good driver.”

He grabbed his keys from the hall table and stood at the door impatiently. “Not at the speed we’re going to be travelling at.”

There were two roads out of Haggard – one going south, one going north. They took the one going south, and the old familiar countryside whipped by at a worrying rate. Going over the slight hills, the car actually left the road a few times, sending a wave of weightlessness churning through Valkyrie’s belly. Melissa Edgley, in the passenger seat, held on tight, but didn’t caution her husband to slow down.

Valkyrie’s dad swerved round a tractor on a tight bend. Not even that elicited a complaint. Valkyrie realised her parents had become missiles, locked on to their target, unmindful of anything else.

For a curious moment she felt like she was a kid again, strapped into the back seat of the car while she took a drive with her folks. Maybe they were going to the cinema, or the zoo, or maybe to her uncle’s house. Wherever they were going she was safe, because she was with her mum and dad, and nothing bad ever happened when she was with her mum and dad.