Henry nodded. He pulled out the map, and Kellan brought his flamed hand to give him light; Henry pushed his fallen spectacles back up the ridge of his nose.

‘If we walk straight out the cave and keep walking through the trees, at the end of it will be where she died.’ His voice cracked at the last part.

‘If you want, I can go alone,’ Kellan stated as they made their exit from the cave. He was about to step out, but Henry grabbed his elbow.

‘I need to see it.’ He gulped. Kellan raised his brow at the man. He squinted his eyes at the bright light that burnt him once they exited the cave.

They walked back in the tree line; the scent of the cedar and fresh pine was a nice contrast to the odorous rotten oranges in the cave. They walked in a different direction to the way they came. Kellan was surprised at how good Henry was at navigating and admired him for it. Bethan had mentioned she and Henry used to hike up in the mountains when she was a child. He wondered if Bethan was as good as her father. She seemed to know her way around Malia well enough. She would lead him through shortcuts in dingy alleyways; she knew every portal station code.

They walked for at least another thirty minutes, and Kellan felt the incline on his calves. Henry’s breath had gotten heavier, and his pace slowed, but they were coming up to a clearing with nothing but a blanket of white snow.

Henry stopped dead in his tracks and stared up from his very crinkled map.

‘This is it,’ he murmured.

No.

This couldn’t be where she—

‘Are you sure?’

Uncertainty crept into his voice. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

‘This was what was marked on her map, and where they said they found her.’

‘Who found her?’

‘Hikers, I-I don’t remember much,’ Henry said.

‘What do you remember? Because someone can’t die from falling off a ledge here.’ Kellan cringed, hoping his words weren’t too harsh for the older man.

‘I can only remember fragments; the days all ran together back then. The only time I felt clarity was after the funeral. That’s when things felt normal.’ Henry clutched his chest and looked as if his head spun. He did not want to distress him but—

‘Tell me what you remember,’ Kellan insisted.

‘The hikers found her and called the healer, who took her to a hospital in Malia. We drove for two hours. Bethan was already there, with Elnora and her parents. Kai pulled me aside and said that the hikers found her dead. I shut down after that. I couldn’t hear anything else except that my baby was gone.’

Kellan cursed internally at the mention of the Rennigans. They had something to do with it. He wondered if Henry caught him grimacing at their names.