We’re silent. Then finally Roxy says, ‘Come with me. All of you,’ and leaves the cabin through the open back door, and Ellis and Booker and I all exchange glances. Observing Booker, I realize, firstly, that he has his gun on him for the first time since I met him, and secondly, that his hand has been hovering just above it.

We’re unsure what to do next.

‘Stay near me,’ Booker mumbles to us.

We follow. Outside is a disaster. Fallen trees, debris, leaves everywhere. I realize the cabin might once have had a deck but it’s been smashed to pieces. A large section of roof is destroyed. Stray splinters of wood stick out in all directions. To my right, there’s a levelled plot of land absolutely decimated by the storm, which might have been separated into even rows – what were once her farm plots, I assume.

We say nothing for the whole five minutes the walk takes, and I look up at the sky, and the clouds are finally moving further north.

Eventually, the trees part and the whole thing opens up and it’s just ocean, cerulean and lapping, the jagged grey peaks of rock near the conclusion of the land bursting forth like fingers.

There’s a relatively flat slope to the left, where a railing has been screwed into the ground; at the bottom of the slope, a dinghy, tied to a small dock.

‘Why would I ever wanna leave?’ Roxy says, a new, tranquil flatness to her tone. ‘When I’ve found everything. No betrayal. No masking. No mistakes. I can go and find my mind on the mainland when I’m stir-crazy, then come straight back here. And I can watch the fires I set burning. All the way down to fucking embers.’

Roxy Raines turns, regards the three of us.

I lock eyes with her, and I think maybe we’re sharing a moment of understanding – because I do understand. I understand because I thought the same thing. I understand because I’ve spent my whole life running from what I’ve done, and because of that I’ve never been able to connect with anyone; because of that I’ve hated everyone; and I thought that same thing, once. Hell, maybe that’s why I came here – a desire to distance myself from everyone, pretending it was a way to connect, to help.

I can relate to the thought of keeping yourself from hurt. I understand that.

‘And you’re here to take it all away.’

And that is when Roxy moves towards the edge of the cliff like a bolt of lightning.