She stared back at him, dazed, still shaking her head desperately but already she could feel the momentum building as he pulled her forward. Onward. ‘No!’ She sank back, trying to keep her weight down, to root herself into the very earth – but nothing grew in this soil. Not strongly.

‘Yes! Now, Effie – jump!’

Her feet left the ground and she felt herself fly – for a moment. They landed again not a second later but in that wink of time, her entire life had changed. She was no longer Effie Gillies. A silence pulsed between them but it contained all the horror, all the fear she now felt as Mathieson grinned back at her in the darkness. ‘You’re mine now.’

She shook her head as the wind howled, making her hair fly and flap like angry birds. ‘No.’ Her voice was just a whisper, unconvincing even to herself, and she felt his hand grip harder on her arm as he took a step closer, holding her in place, his mouth suddenly upon hers in a clash of teeth. She tried to push him away but he was twice her size and pressing her into him with his other hand, as though mashing their bodies together.

She felt his spittle on her lips, his breath in her mouth as he pressed against her harder, pushing her backwards so that her knees began to bend. Desperately she tried to wriggle, to wrench herself free, but it was impossible. She could feel the ground almost rising up to meet her . . .

She was down and another scream tore through the sky – but it was several moments before she realized it hadn’t come from her. Effie looked up from where she lay sprawled in the grass to find Poppit attached to the factor’s calf. Her teeth were sunk deep into his flesh and he howled in agony as she brought him down.

‘Poppit!’ Effie cried, scrambling back, away, trying to stand again on shaking legs. ‘Poppit!’

‘Hai!’ someone called out, panting. ‘What’s going on up there?’

Effie wheeled around to see Mhairi coming around the cleit, her wild flaming hair like a burning halo around her head. If Effie was stunned to find her dear, gentle friend – absent for the past few weeks – suddenly there, it was nothing to Mhairi’s shock.

‘What . . .?’ Mhairi took in Effie’s pale, stunned face, the factor on the ground and clutching his leg, Poppit’s aggressive stance over him, growling with bloodied jowls and her hackles up. Mhairi looked back at the factor again as though she understood it in a glance.

‘What has he done?’ she cried, running towards Effie and holding her, scanning her for injuries or a hurt she could not see.

‘I’m all right, I’m not hurt,’ Effie said shakily. Things were bad – but that didn’t mean they couldn’t still get worse. ‘Really.’