They passed a crash site where a helicopter had come down. It had blasted a hole in the forest, splintering trees and gouging a furrow in the soil. Shards and burning fragments were scattered around. Half of one rotor had slammed into a tree and hung metres above the ground like a giant axe. The whole area smelled of fuel and cooked flesh.

When they heard a group of soldiers approaching, Sammi came close and told them to huddle around. Vince saw the pain and tiredness in her eyes, and the frustration as she tried to cast the same sleek spell she’d used to hide them from Mallian down in the valley. She snorted in frustration. She was glancing at Bone and, as her shoulders slumped in defeat, she outright stared at him.

“Try,” she said.

“What?”

“We don’t have long. They’re coming through the trees, up from the valley, driving Kin before them. They’re scared and they’ll shoot us on sight. Try!”

“I don’t know...” he said, but when he looked at Vince, Vince saw that he did know very well. Bone knew what he was. He probably always had.

Sammi reached out and held his hand, a surprisingly gentle gesture from the girl who had become so distant. “I’ll help if I can,” she said.

Vince felt the distance growing around him, a vagueness, and even though they were huddled so close they could all touch, the others became ambiguous shapes in the dawning day. Soon after, a dozen soldiers hurried past. He could not make them out properly, but they were running instead of walking, and their manner seemed more panicked than organised. He wasn’t even sure they were all carrying weapons.

After they had passed, he heard a long, slow sigh from Bone, and the world closed in around them again. Bone smiled, looking into the middle distance. Sammi squeezed his hand once and then let go. No one said anything as they continued across the hillside, aiming upwards but avoiding the route the soldiers had taken.

In a couple of places they saw soldiers through the trees and in clearings, huddled around bodies on the ground. None seemed eager to approach the Kin they had killed or wounded. Perhaps each of them was reliving childhood dreams and nightmares, and forming new ones to haunt their adult imaginations.

When they were close enough to see, Vince made out something common in all of their expressions—fear. He thought that was a good thing. If they were afraid, perhaps they would not feel so inclined to go after the Kin.