I pulled my t-shirt over my head and wriggled back into my jeans. It was cold enough in the tent that there were Goosebumps pricking my skin, and I spent a good few seconds hunched over, hugging myself to try and trap some heat in my clothes.

Finn rolled onto his stomach. He was in the process of lighting a cigarette, and there was a little part of me that wanted to knock it out of his hand. "Where are you rushing off to? It's past midnight. Everyone's asleep."

Not everyone.

"My own bed," I said cheerfully. "I don't ... y'know ... stay."

He looked at me sidelong. "Suit yourself."

I tried and failed to pull my shoes on and had to go through the demeaning process of untying the laces. By the time I'd finished, Finn had finally finished wrestling with his lighter. He took a long draught of the cigarette before offering it to me. I shook my head. The smoke had reached my nose by then, and it was an effort not to sneeze.

"Those things will kill you," I told him.

Finn just smiled. "Not if the flockies kill me first."

"You're an idiot," I told him. There was a fondness to the words that took all the sting out of them.

"Yeah, I am," he agreed, grinning now. I'd finished tying my laces, and he knew it was time to rap it up. "Well, this has been fun. Try not to die in Silver Lake, and I guess I'll see you around."

I couldn't help my snort. "Goodnight, Finn."

Ducking out of the tent, I took a deep lungful of the nice cool outdoors air and smiled to myself. The camp had gone quiet in the last hour, and now I was standing in a town of tents and trees. The shadows danced every time the wind blew. It might have been alarming for most people, but I'd grown up in camps like these, and I loved to watch the moonlight rippling in the breeze.

Showers first. Then bed.

***

My hair was damp. I could feel it dripping water down the back of my neck, but there wasn't much I could do about that. I'd already attacked it with a towel until it had felt like my scalp was rubbed raw. But when I ducked into the tent, I found it was so nice and warm inside that it didn't really matter. Forget the flockies' central heating — I had two human furnaces.

Carefully, I eased my way between Rhodri and Liam. They'd left my sleeping bag out for me, and there was space on the pillow to lay my head. It was only when I was comfortable that I risked a glance to my left. Sure enough — awake. He was watching me with a half-smile on his lips.

I was too drowsy to start a conversation, but I did bump fists with him before I closed my eyes and began the long, gruelling process of turning my brain off. It was doing that thing where it decided to install updates without ever asking permission. My thoughts ticked along at about a mile an hour. There was a lot to process from today, not least the brand new tooth-marks on my neck.

An hour later, and I was still tossing and turning. The pain from my elbow had faded over the course of the day, but the problem with being in bed was that there was absolutely nothing to distract me from it. I knew Liam was awake because he had been in and out several times. I didn't blame him, really. Lying awake all night was boring.

"Hey," he said after I kicked the sleeping bag off altogether.

"Hey," I replied in a whisper. If we woke my cousin, someone was going to die in this tent.

A moment's pause. "This isn't like you."

I rolled over to face him and gestured towards my elbow. I could now move it, after a fashion, so the damage wouldn't be permanent, but it would be a while longer before it was back to normal.

"I see," he said. "Would it help if I went and clouted the flockie for you?"

"I don't think so," I laughed. "But ... it's not like you to pick a fight, Liam."

He shrugged at me. "We started fighting and didn't finish. It's ... difficult."

"You and Rhodri started fighting seven years ago and never finished."

"Yeah, but I—" Liam cut himself off, but it was already too late. I knew what he'd been about to say. 'I like Rhodri.' It was an effort not to start grinning at him, but I didn't want to discourage him. They already seemed to think it was shameful to admit that they were friends underneath all the bullshit.

"I know," I said quietly.

He reached out to trace the mark on my collarbone with a fingertip. It didn't throb as it would have done earlier. No, instead there was a very faint tingling sensation in the wake of his touch, and I couldn't help shivering.

"Does it tickle?" he asked me.

"A little."

His finger lingered there for heartbeat longer. "That's a dangerous thing to admit. I might have to take advantage."

I caught his hand and returned it to him with a roll of my eyes, "Mm, well, can you take advantage at a more reasonable hour? I'm trying to sleep here."

"Are you, Eva?"

I groaned. I had a feeling tomorrow would be a busy day, so a wise person might have put their head down and kept trying, but I was not that person.

"You know what? Let's get this over with," I said, sitting up very abruptly and stretching my cramped muscles. "We'll find somewhere nice and quiet, and we'll just ... y'know ... bite the bullet."

His eyes widened in alarm. "When you say this, you mean...?"

I nodded.

"Shit. Okay. We'll ... yeah."

That made me giggle. I had to turn my face into my pillow to keep myself from waking Rhodri.

"What?" he demanded indignantly. "What did I do?"

"Oh, nothing," I said, biting down on my lip to keep the snickering at bay. "I've just never seen you blush before."

He let out an indignant noise. "I'm not—"

"Sure you aren't."

It helped that I hadn't bothered undressing. All I had to do was find my trainers and pull them over my socks. Liam hadn't even bothered taking his boots off, so he went out ahead of me. He was wearing sweatpants and an old t-shirt. It was so bitterly cold in the hills at night that I threw one of his hoodies at him and stole another for myself.

We trudged out of the camp boundaries. One of Nia's raiders was on watch, and she nodded at us as we passed her. Unfortunately, that meant our cousin would know about our little night-time excursion before the sun came up.

For ten minutes, we walked deeper into the woods until we found a place where the moonlight pierced the canopy. We could see each other ... sort of. His face was half shadow and half that eerie, otherworldly white glow, and even the slightest movement set the light to wavering.

"Here's good?" he asked me.

I looked around and got an eyeful of tree trunks. "It'll do."

We didn't really know what to do with each other. I took a grudging step closer, and he tilted his head down, and then we just ... sort of ... hovered there. Too close to be doing anything platonic. Not close enough to actually kiss.

"You know, it would help if you weren't so damn tall," I muttered.

He laughed at me even as he turned us around. Now, I was standing at the higher end of a slope. We still weren't level, of course, but I could have reached his lips on my tiptoes. I wasn't really sure what to do with my eyes. Staring at him felt like a challenge, but it was hard to look anywhere else when we were barely an inch apart.

"If you haven't done this before, you have to tell me," I told him. "And I mean you have to, because I'm not letting someone's first kiss go down like this."

He put a finger over my lips.

"No, seriously, I don't give a shit what Rhodri says. It's not something you should be ashamed about..."

"It's okay, Eva," he insisted.

And still we just stared at each other, neither of us willing to be the one who closed the distance. I probably could've spent an entire day looking at his eyes without getting bored. They were a very dark shade of brown, but they looked almost black in the gloom, and it was difficult to tell where the pupil ended and the iris began.

"Have I ever told you that your eyes are really cool?" I asked him.

That quickly, he averted his gaze, I saw his throat bob. The wariness came instantly, as always, like someone had just flipped a switch, like it was always lurking right beneath the surface. "They're my father's eyes."

"Did you pluck them from his corpse?" I demanded. "No? Then they're your eyes, and I happen to like them."

The way he was looking at me... Shit — that was all I had to say. I could hear his heart beating a little too fast. I could hear mine going even faster. That would have been the time to kiss him if I was going to. Mam had ordered it, and I did see her point — we couldn't be awkward with each other when we pretended to be mates, but—

Yeah. Just ... but.

I remembered when I'd first realised I had a crush on him. I'd been fourteen or thereabouts, and he'd worn himself out rough-housing with the little kids and fallen asleep with his head on my lap.

I also remembered the day when I'd first realised my feelings might be reciprocated. Sure, there had been lots of little clues — the way I could get his full and undivided attention just by opening my mouth, the way he went easy on me in training and the long, openly adoring looks.

So I had no idea why I'd decided to realise on some random stormy evening when he'd first offered me a sip of his coke. I hadn't asked. I hadn't even particularly wanted a drink. But that had done the trick, for some reason. The lightbulb had sparked. I'd spent nearly a whole week skipping around, happy in the assumption that we could start dating whenever we liked.

And then came the doubts. What if we tried it and broke up? What if we couldn't go back to just being friends? It hadn't felt worth the risk for a few stolen kisses — not when my best friend was at stake. I was terrified that something would change between us.

So I'd buried it somewhere very deep down, and I'd thrown away the shovel and decided to just wait. In a few years, one of us would turn eighteen, and then we'd know for sure. No risk, that way. We just had to be patient.

Except that Mam had decided to turn us into sleepers, and suddenly, we had a chance to kiss without it having to mean something. Or so I'd thought, anyway. Looking at him now, I realised that it was always going to mean something.

I stepped back and huffed out a shaky breath. "This is stupid. We don't have to swap spit. It's not like they're going to notice. As long as we act like a couple, we'll be fine, and this is all just ... unnecessary."

Liam cocked an eyebrow, that damned grin stealing across his lips. That look didn't quite say coward, but it wasn't far off the mark, I didn't think.

"Look, we'll just hold hands, and do the things that Lily and Nia do, yeah?" I said. And to prove the point, I tangled our fingers together and guided his hand to the small of my back. The skin there was more sensitive than I'd imagined, and it was an effort not to arch away from that too-light touch. "Things like that."

Liam reached up with his other hand to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. "And like that?"

"Yeah," I said, a little breathlessly.

"Now who's blushing?" he asked me.

***

I made the trek to the barn with a mug of lukewarm tea in one hand and a packet of bread in the other. The door was ajar. I slipped inside, sitting myself down on a semi-rotten hay bale so I could sip my drink and look down at the hostages.

They were always awake at this hour of the morning, and I was lonely. Liam had finally fallen asleep sometime in the early hours, so like hell I was going to wake him up at dawn. Rhodri had told me I could go to hell when I'd shaken him. Even the flockies were better than no one.

"Where the hell is your guard?" I demanded.

Both of them shrugged at me. It wasn't a guilty, defensive shrug, but just a why should I know shrug. They were both looking a little the worse for wear after a week with us — hair sticking up in all directions and a thin coat of grime on their skin. The bags under their eyes were a worrying shade of blue-black.

"I need the toilet," Hannah told me.

I snorted into my mug. "You always need the toilet."

She just stared at me.

"Ugh, fine, whatever," I groaned. "I'll take you when I've finished my tea. In the meantime, you can have some bread."

More staring. She couldn't, in fact, just have some bread, but I threw the packet at her anyway. She passed it to Hayden, who began wolfing it down, plain and half-stale, because he was always hungry. I didn't reckon it helped that he had to sit there and stare at Hannah's pile of emergency hypo snacks all night.

"Is there somewhere we can have a shower?" he asked between slices. "I think my skin is growing its own ecosystem."

I regarded him through narrowed eyes. "I can get you a bucket of cold soapy water."

"You know what? I'll take it," Hayden muttered. I was allowed nearly a full minute of peace and quiet while he finished his bread. Yes, the entire damn loaf. Then he started craning his head around to pick at something on his shoulder in a way I just couldn't ignore.

"What are you doing?" I asked, setting my tea down.

Hayden looked up at me and made a face. "There's a bug on me, and it's just ... ew."

I stalked over to him. It was hidden beneath the collar of his shirt, so I had to strangle him to get a look at it. When I finally spotted the black dot on his shoulder blade, I couldn't help snorting. "That's a tick, you jackass."

"See, Hayden?" Hannah sighed. "What did I tell you?"

He ignored her, instead giving me a pleading look. "Can you ... y'know ... get it off? Please?"

It amused me that the man who was going to lead the biggest pack in Snowdonia was petrified of a tiny little insect. I'd pulled three ticks off my legs after my run this morning. They came off the deer and hid in the longer patches of grass. I used my fingernails to pinch the thing and pull it free, and I put an end to its miserable life with the slightest bit of pressure.

"Is there anything else you need? While I'm here?"

It was supposed to be sarcastic. It was supposed to make Hayden shut up. But apparently he didn't catch the dry mockery, because he began listing without even a second's hesitation. "Well, I mean, Hannah needs her insulin, I need the toilet too, if I'm being honest, and ... um, the main thing is really ... that— We're bored. Being a hostage is boring. If you could get us books or something, that would be—"

"Whoa, flockie," I cut across him. "Insulin, toilet, books. Fine. I can do that, and I will, but you're gonna have to promise me you'll shut up for the rest of the day."

Hayden looked almost abashed. He chewed on the inside of his cheek and nodded slightly. "Yeah, I can do that."

Satisfied, I went to fetch the green pen labelled Tresiba which Hannah had to use every morning. We were not taking chances anymore. She couldn't even be trusted with the sharps box, so I had to grab that as well.

"Here we go. Anglesey's finest," I said, handing them over. "It's non-stop for you, isn't it?"

She gave me a wry smile which could easily be described as the friendliest expression she'd made since arriving here. "Pretty much, yeah."

I had to watch her like a hawk up until the very moment she put the pen back down and rolled it over to me. It was awkward, given that she was injecting into her thigh, but taking her to the toilet was going to be awkward on a whole new level.

Once that was done, I cuffed her to me. Hayden's hands had to be fastened in front of him so he could actually pee, and I would just have to trust him to behave himself. It wasn't a brilliant idea to escort both of them on my own. In fact, it was so far from a brilliant idea that I knew Mam would probably skin me alive if she found out, but it was six in the morning and I really couldn't be arsed making two trips.

We only got about ten metres in the woods. In the end, it wasn't the flockies misbehaving. It wasn't me screwing up. It was the smell of raiders approaching on the morning breeze which stopped me in my tracks and got my heart racing. This explained where the guard had gone, at least. It was always all-hands-on-deck when Syd Jacob's raiders turned up.

"Back we go," I whispered. "These guys are all shitheads, and they're not going to like you."

They didn't like me either. A lot of them were Joel's friends, apparently, and that alone would earn me a thrashing if they caught me out here. The flockies obeyed without a fight, if only because they could smell it, too. We trudged back towards the tents, glancing over our shoulders every so often.

"Oi," someone yelled from behind us. "Hold up."

Shit. I tried to walk even faster. We were close to the part of the camp where Nia's raiders pitched their tents, but we weren't quite close enough. When I heard running footsteps at my back, I finally stopped. It took a few tugs on the mind-link to get everyone's attention — and when I said everyone, I meant everyone — because they were all asleep.

Syd's raiders were in a gang of nearly fifteen, all of them full-grown and grumpy-looking. They spread out to surround us. Their boss wasn't actually with them, which was unfortunate because he was the only person alive who could control them. To make matters worse, I knew about half a dozen of them had just been released from the New Dawn prison, so their feelings towards Hayden and Hannah weren't exactly warm and fuzzy.

"Told you!" one of the boys shouted. "That's the bitch who jumped Joel."

An auburn-haired woman spat on the ground at my feet. "That true?"

I rolled my eyes and kept my mouth firmly closed. There was literally no point answering back. Back-up was on the way, and anything I said was only going to increase their desire to knock my teeth out.

Someone was emerging from a tent nearby. And no, it wasn't any of my cousins. It wasn't a parent coming to rescue us. It was Joel himself, tousled and red-eyed like he'd just woken up. The raiders all turned to look at him, no doubt worried that the scuffling sounds might have been reinforcements for me.

The first boy rubbed his hands together. "Just in time! You want to help?"

"No, and you should leave her alone," Joel said firmly. Huh. Not what I'd been expecting, I'd admit. "She got beat already — it's over."

"Like hell it's over. Go back to bed if you're going to be a pansy about it."

So much for Joel's help. He swore at the boy and pushed his way out of the circle without another word.

Hayden was trying to mind-link me. I knew it would have been stupid to accept, but I reckoned I knew what he was going to ask anyway. I turned towards him, and I unlocked his cuffs very slowly and deliberately. He held my gaze the whole time, giving me the smallest of nods when they came loose.

He stared them down. He was bigger than any of them, and those piercing blue eyes seemed to cut right through the lot of them, but the raiders only spat and jeered louder. I had been hoping that they would think twice now that he was free, but there were so many of them that they didn't seem to care.

"Stay out of this," Hannah told him roughly. "It's none of our business."

"Oh, sweetheart, I think you've misread the situation," another man laughed. "Eva being here is just a bonus. I've wanted to lynch an Alpha for as long as I can remember."

"We need them alive," I warned them in a low voice.

The guy grinned at me. "I ain't planning on killing him. Get out of my way, Eva, and I'll make sure they go easier on you. Not too easy, mind ... but easy enough that you might be able to walk afterwards."

Like hell. Without even looking down, I reached over and turned the key in the handcuff that linked me to Hannah. She could try and run if she liked — it would be easier hunting her down in the woods than trying to ladle her blood back into her body.

"You've got about five seconds before Nia comes and snaps your pretty neck, so you'd better make it quick," I told the raider.

And he did. Two blades flicked out before I'd even finished speaking, and they began to close in on us. The ring of bodies was soon sealed tight, without even an inch of space to exploit. Hayden didn't waste any time in lunging for the tallest of the men. His Beta stood her ground and made them come to her, and that was probably smarter because it made them more cautious.

I palmed my own knife. The first man to make a grab for me got the pointy end buried between his thumb and forefinger. He retreated with a strangled scream, but someone managed to seize my forearm as I was turning. I was wrestled with him for control of the knife, trying my absolute best to turn it towards his stomach.

It didn't work well. While I was distracted, a stocky girl kicked my legs out from under me, and then four or five of Joel's friends closed in, kicking at every body part they could reach. The knife was lost within the first few seconds. At first, I tried to stand up. Every new blow jolted me, so I never got further than my knees.

My next strategy was to curl into a little ball, protecting my head with my poor battered fingers and weathering it. Now and again, I would try and lash out with my legs, hoping to knock at least one of them down. It never worked. Pain thundered across every inch of my body, spiking whenever a boot made contact.

And then Joel was there, dragging me clear by my ankles and pinning me down with a knee across my stomach. His buddies seemed to assume he'd taken over the beating, and they happily streamed towards the main event. But he didn't hit me. He didn't do ... anything except crouch there and hold me still.

The other raiders had formed a tight ring around our hostages, and they were cheering on a few of their own. I could see Hayden through the forest of legs. He was on the ground and trying to fend off three men at once. Across the ring, Hannah was fighting to reach him.

I needed to escape Joel before I could even think about helping. I began by twisting my wrists from his grasp and buffeting him. One of my eyes was swollen shut, so it was hard to judge my blows and they didn't quite land the way they were supposed to. When he next managed to catch my hands, I could feel bones grinding together under the force of his grip.

"Don't be stupid, Eva," he snapped. "You can't help them."

"If you don't get the hell off me—" I snarled back.

The warning went unheeded. I couldn't really breathe properly with his weight on my stomach, and literally every movement hurt, but I did manage to seize a few of his fingers. It was easy enough to begin wrenching them apart until he groaned in pain.

I was released, and then I could get my other hand around his throat and squeeze. Throwing him off took only a second, but I had to take a moment just to gasp for breath. Joel was clambering to his knees to have another go, so I threw an elbow into his neck.

And that was when Rhodri and Liam found me. I knew exactly how it must look from their perspective. Me on my back and Joel crouching over me. My cousin closed the distance and lodged a merciless uppercut to Joel's jaw before I could catch his arm.

"Nah," I told him. "It's not— He didn't—"

The camp was starting to wake up. The raiders who appeared with sleep in their eyes and bare feet didn't bother trying to work out who was fighting whom. They knew that Syd's team was never up to anything good, and so they entered the brawl as allies. The ring disintegrated very quickly to a sprawling mass of chaos.

For all the people who joined in, there were just as many who gathered around the edge to watch the violence. Some of them were halfway through bowls of cereal. I was battered enough to want to join them, but it wouldn't be quite fair to leave Hayden to get pummelled when he'd been ready to defend me.

Rhodri was still eyeing Joel with something very close to hatred. Liam, on the other hand, crouched down to help me to my feet, but his attention was firmly elsewhere.

"Leave him, and let's please just help the flockies before they get murdered," I muttered.

Rhodri's eyes widened. He looked towards the brawl, which was only growing bigger and messier by the second. From within the press came the steady thuds of knuckles hitting flesh.

"Tell me they're not in the middle of that," he said.

"Yep."

"Shit."

And that quickly, he was gone — forging a path to the centre by knocking people onto their arses when they didn't move fast enough. Liam hesitated, and it was easy to see why. Too many people, too close together.

Before he could make a decision either way, Nia came out dragging Hayden by his collar. I hadn't even seen her arrive. Like me, she'd realised there was no point trying to stop it. Once brawls got to a certain size, you just had to let them burn out. As long as nobody shifted, people didn't tend to get seriously hurt, and it was a good way to vent some aggression.

Hayden was tossed in our direction, and then my cousin disappeared back into the press of bodies. If she couldn't stop it, I guessed she'd just side with her raiders and make sure they won. The flockie had landed on his knees. He tried to get up, probably intending to go back for his Beta, but Liam and I moved faster. Within two seconds flat, he found himself in a chokehold.

I would have liked to take credit for it, but it was all Liam. I just stood in front of them and smacked Hayden whenever he tried to wriggle free. If he went back into that mosh-pit, I didn't reckon we'd get him out alive, whatever that bastard had said. No one liked flockies.

Before long, a dark-haired girl pushed her way to freedom and came over to stand beside us. While Hayden was an absolute mess, Hannah looked pretty okay, all things considered. Her nose might have been broken, but that was the extent of the visible damage. My cousin was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Rhodri?" I asked her.

"Who?"

"Rhodri."

"The annoying one?"

"Yes."

"Haven't seen him."

Oh well. He could look after himself, and he loved fights like these because you could literally hit anyone without consequences. We settled to watch from a safe distance. Hayden was freed then, and the first thing he did was shove Liam's chest hard in his frustration.

And that was not wise. Liam pushed him back even harder. I had to throw myself between them to stop Hayden throwing a punch. Hannah decided that going for Liam would be a better idea than pulling Hayden away, and so I ended up in the middle, getting shoved from two separate directions as they tried to get past me.

It was Joel, funnily enough, who got a handful of the back of Hayden's shirt and dragged him backwards. It didn't stop the two of them staring at each other with dark eyes and curled lips, but it did put an end to the shoving.

"Chill out, flockie," Joel muttered. "Ain't you had enough yet?"

"Why don't you just piss off?" Hayden shot back. It seemed he was holding a grudge.

Liam eyed my bruised, swollen face and looked Joel over, probably wondering what the hell had happened before he'd arrived. "Yeah, I'll second that."

"Whatever, guys. I was just trying to help," Joel said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. He turned and stalked back towards his tent.

It was while we were still enjoying the tense aftermath of the almost-scuffle when my mother, Uncle Rhys and Syd Jacobs turned up together. They didn't seem particularly concerned. In fact, they just watched the violence with a sort of weary resignation.

"Is everyone alright?" Mam asked us.

We nodded sullenly.

"Good. Rhys, would you mind...?"

He didn't need her to finish. He rarely did. Without a word, he took Hayden by the arm and led him back towards the barn. Hannah trudged along behind them. She would have to eat something sooner or later, because nothing burned through blood sugar like a fist fight. I could feel my own muscles starting to shake as the adrenaline faded.

I wondered if they still needed to pee.

While I stared blankly after them, Syd had disappeared off to ... well, probably join in the fight. Mam was scowling at me like this was all my fault. And it was, I supposed, but not entirely. I was beginning to wonder why we'd ever thought beating up Joel would be a good idea.

"This, Eva, is why we have the rules. Syd and Nia will be feuding for months, and I'm the one who has to mediate that bullshit," she said, gesturing at the brawl in exasperation. "I was going to give you the rest of the morning, but instead you'll have to leave before one of you gets their head bashed in. The car is parked on the lane. Go and get in."

"Rhodri's still in there somewhere," I protested. "We need to say goodbye, at least—"

"You've lost that privilege."

She couldn't do that. I hadn't even done anything wrong this morning. Well, nothing life-alteringly wrong, anyway. It felt serious enough when she started staring me down, and my wolf was so easily cowed that I had to obey. Liam and I dragged our feet all the way to the car.

I drank in the sight of the tents, last night's campfires, the food store and even the latrine pits. I knew I was being melodramatic, but I also knew that I wouldn't see another rogue camp for months, and it was the only kind of home I'd ever known. Silver Lake Pack suddenly felt that much more real.

We couldn't have walked any slower. When we reached the car, we found that my dad was already waiting there. All of our belongings smelt rogue, so there was no luggage except the clothes on our back. I got into the car with a sourness about my mouth and big, reproachful eyes.

"What happened, kiddo?" Dad asked when he saw my face. It must have been bad to inspire this kind of reaction wherever it went. It certainly felt bad. Everything was hot and swollen and tender.

I let my skull thump against the headrest. "I was assaulted. That's what happened, and now Mam's decided we can't even say bye to Rhodri."

He glanced out of the window. "Link him. I can wait five minutes."

And that was why he was my favourite parent. I barely touched the link because I was scared Rhodri was still fighting and I'd distract him, but he didn't take long to answer, and he took even less time to jog over to the car. It looked like someone had broken his eye socket, but he didn't seem to care much.

Rhodri leaned through the open window and hugged me fiercely. It surprised me because he wasn't really the hugging type, but I certainly wasn't arguing. I got my arms around his shoulders and squeezed back.

"I'm gonna come and see you in a few days, alright?" he murmured. "Don't give a shit what your mother says about it."

"Alright," I whispered back.

He released me with a half-hearted grin. It was then that he remembered Liam, and I watched the indecision tear his face apart. Eventually, he just leaned over and thumped his shoulder with uncharacteristic gentleness. "Take care of her, flockie."

"I always do," Liam said with only a hint of teasing.

And then Rhodri had to duck out of the car again, and we could only stare at each other while Dad started the engine. It felt horribly final when we pulled off, leaving him standing on the curb with his hands in his pockets. He was going to raid Lowland with Nia, and we were going to be flockies.