Even as she fought against him and his ambitions for Ascent, he was still there, still the focal point of all her thoughts, efforts and life. Now he was a universe away, and whether dead or still alive in Grace’s Fold, he was gone from her life forever. She had felt control slipping as she’d fought against him, and the moment the Fold closed, the world around her had become deeper, darker, and more inimical than ever before. She hoped that what they were doing now might give her an opportunity to establish some sort of direction once again. Mohserran had not been a close friend, but she had known him since she was a young nymph many centuries before. The chance of him having survived whatever had befallen Longford, and then decades buried and submerged behind the dam, was slight. But nothing was impossible with the Kin. It gave her purpose, and the concept of trying to track him and the other two missing Kin had seeded an idea about what her life could be from now on.

She hoped that Angela and Sammi might take some comfort from this journey as well, and would perhaps see that hiding didn’t necessarily mean standing still.

“Wish we could share the driving,” Angela said.

“I’ll give it a go.”

“I want to get there alive.”

“Okay, I’ll be in charge of the radio.”

“So what’s the favoured music of the Kin?” Angela asked.

“Spooky mythological creature rap.” Lilou chuckled and sat back in her seat, watching the world flash by outside. It was the human world, but her world as well, a place where she drifted through shadows and deserted places. It was also somewhere that was starting to feel less and less like home.

* * *

Late that afternoon they stopped for food. The roadside diner might have been out of a movie, with a truck park to one side, cars slewed across the forecourt, and a neon sign proclaiming State’s Best Chili above the entrance. Lilou had enjoyed watching films when she lived in the safe places back in London, because she said it gave her an insight into the world that she could not experience for herself. Mallian had considered them pointless human inanities. It was something else they had disagreed upon.

“Haven’t been somewhere with so many people for quite a while,” she said.

“Put your mask on,” Angela said. “You know.”