We had come to a halt at a tiny clearing, ringed tightly by trunks. In the centre was a little circle of stones, enclosing a heap of wet ash. The group was gathered around, dumping their bags and settling down. There was a general disgruntled murmur and no one raised their hand.

I looked at the fire circle sceptically. ‘Surely it would just be easier to use that magic of yours?’

I looked at Fallon, who smiled amusedly. Cain chuckled, muttering, ‘City girl,’ under his breath.

‘It won’t burn as bright or as warm.’

‘Which is why we need wood,’ Felix put in. ‘I’ll go if anybody nice wants to help?’ Autumn sort of half-smiled and raised her hand. ‘Anyone else?’ he continued.

‘I’ll go,’ I said, taking a step forward. Autumn seemed taken aback and Kaspar looked as though he was about to protest. But Felix was already striding away, heading in the opposite direction to which we had come. She recovered her unreadable expression and turned after him. I hurried behind.

I didn’t know quite why I had volunteered, but something about this Autumn girl fascinated me. The Sage fascinated me. Magic fascinated me.

We approached the brook, a tiny, babbling stream flowing over mossy rocks and perfectly smooth, glinting pebbles. The banks were lined with snowdrops and luscious grass as it flowed down towards the Thames estuary.

Felix jumped the stream and disappeared into the trees, shouting for us to hurry up. Autumn followed, crossing in one graceful step. I edged downstream a little, strategically picking a spot with stepping-stones. There was certainly no firewood here. The branches were high up and what little wood did litter the ground was covered in moss or rotting leaves. However, it wasn’t long before we were back within the confines of the great oaks. The night darkened and here there was plenty of dry, dead wood. I began picking up handfuls.

‘Cold night,’ I began, directing it at Autumn, hoping to strike a conversation. I received no answer, but persevered. ‘So, how old are you?’

I bent down and picked up a few twigs. Her back was to me when she answered.

‘Sixteen.’

‘You look older,’ I lied.

She turned, examined me for a moment and then curtly nodded, in gratitude I assumed. She continued on in silence, her arms already bundled high with sticks.

‘So where do you come from? All the places are the same in the dimensions, right?’

She nodded. ‘I grew up in London, but I come from Devon.’

Encouraged by her longer reply, I carried on. ‘I grew up in London too.’

This time she took longer to reply and she averted her gaze again, eventually turning away and heading deeper into the forest.

‘I know. You were born in Chelsea.’

I stopped, slightly dumbstruck. ‘How do you know that?’

She paused, turning back to me. ‘Everybody knows.’

She shifted her pile of wood into one arm, reaching into her cloak and pulling out a glossy magazine. She handed it to me.

I looked down at the cover. It was titled Quaintrelle and dated for the first week of November. Subheadings were splashed across the page: HOW WILL YOU SPEND YOUR AD INFINITUM?, OCTOBER’S TOP SOCIALITES and WHAT’S HOT, WHAT’S NEW AND ON THE RISE all featured around the edge of the page. Beneath that was a picture montage – the smiling faces of young Sage, vampires and other, unrecognizable creatures stared up at me, all dressed in suits and dresses.

But what really caught my attention was the heading at the bottom, written in red:

THE LATEST ON VIOLET LEE – TURN TO PAGE 5.

I yanked the magazine open, almost tearing the pages as I searched for the right page. I found it and began reading.

‘Violet Lee – kidnapped and held hostage for months: her story has reached millions of dark beings and humans alike and touched many hearts. We discuss what it means for the second dimension and whether this tale will have a happily ever after – namely in the form of HRH Kaspar Varn.’

I could hardly bring myself to read on, feeling my cheeks glow red. Below the text was a picture of me at the Autumnal Equinox ball, surrounded by vampires. Inwardly, I cringed, closing the magazine and handing it back.

‘No, keep it. It might be interesting for you,’ she said, expression still perfectly unreadable. With that she carried on, occasionally stooping to pick up a handful of twigs. I followed, unsure of how I should feel.

A small part of me was flattered. A magazine – and one that was circulated around all the dimensions – was following me, along with a lot of the population by the look of it. But another, much larger part was humiliated. I didn’t have to keep reading to know what it would go on to talk about.

That was private. It was between Kaspar and me. It was bad enough that the entire court knew.

I sighed. A different, more rational part was telling me I should have expected it. It was not as though vampires kidnapped humans every day.

We carried on in silence and I began to wonder when we were going to return. My arms felt like lead and my feet were beginning to ache. The path was leading us into a thorny thicket and the ground underfoot was mossy and damp. I gazed around and shivered, but not from the cold. A sudden sense of déjà vu had passed through me and with a sickening thump I realized where we were. Where we were heading.

We broke from the thorns and sure enough, ahead there was a stone building, ivy creeping up the walls and invading the huge cracks. Steps, broken in the centre, led up to a plinth, two stone pillars guarding the entrance to a huge, open door. From inside came the stomach-churning smell of decomposing flesh and the dust hung in great clouds, coating my arms in seconds.

I stopped. That was where the cloaked figure had feasted upon a young girl. Killed her. Sarah. She was called Sarah. It was here I was sure the Queen was buried, deep beneath my feet. Carmen. It was not far from here that he had attacked me. Ilta.

I swayed a little on the spot, feeling sick and quite light-headed.

‘Can we go b-back?’ I stuttered, eyes struggling to focus. ‘I’m kind of cold,’ I lied.

Felix, oblivious to my plight carried on. ‘But it’s only a little further and there’s a whole load of dead trees.’

I swayed, dropping a few sticks. As they fell, Autumn abruptly whirled around, her eyes following them until they hit the ground before her gaze bounced back up to mine. Something warm and alien brushed against my mind, before I vaguely heard another voice.

‘I’m cold too.’

I heard Felix sigh exasperatedly. ‘Okay, okay … I get it … we’ll go back …’

I closed my eyes for a few moments, taking a few deep breaths. When I opened them, the other two were already heading back up the path, the sticks that I had dropped at my feet gone.

The moment I stepped back into the clearing, Kaspar’s eyes shot up from where he was silently whittling a piece of wood with a penknife. Questioning, they swept across me before they returned to his carving.

I dumped the wood beside the fire and dropped beside him, leaning against the trunk of a great tree.

‘What’s the time?’

‘Mr Wolf.’ He smiled at his lame joke, but his flat tone told me his heart wasn’t in it. This Dark He**ine business had wiped the smile clean off his face. ‘Almost midnight,’ he added, not glancing up from his work. He stared at it, intent, tiny curls of wood floating to the ground at our feet until eventually all that was left was a shard of useless bark. He dropped it to the ground and folded the knife back up, watching as Felix and Cain arranged the sticks into a rough pyramid in the stone circle. Fallon knelt beside them, whispering words into the cradle of tinder.

Autumn gravitated around her companion, seeming reluctant to get too close to anyone else. Eventually she settled against a nearby tree, a little way out of the circle. Her eyes feasted on the smouldering beginnings of the fire, never leaving it, even as Fallon’s face shone with a child’s glee as flames sprung from the damp wood, or when the boys let out a satisfied shriek of surprise.

Yet again I found my gaze could not be torn away from her and I watched, even more fascinated now after her sudden act of insight and kindness towards me, a virtual stranger. The flames were reflected in her amber eyes and they were taking on an even greater depth – too deep for a shy girl of sixteen. They were the flickering eyes of an adult who had endured pain and torment; who understood the world and what she had to do.

I had seen those eyes before. They were the eyes of the King, of my father, of Eaglen, yet here they were, encapsulated in a young Sagean girl.

The clearing settled as the fire grew higher and higher; warmth spread outwards, creeping slowly across the ground until it reached my toes, then my legs and as I leaned forwards towards it, my face, which glowed and began to burn.

Fallon, content with his handiwork, held his hands out to the fire, warming them. Autumn shifted closer and joined him. Immediately, the fire quite literally bent towards them both, becoming brilliantly orange and distorted. She pursed her lips as though about to whistle and blew gently, forcing the reluctant fire back like a chastized child. Fallon just chuckled as the fire sprung back, trying its luck again. His serious companion did nothing this time, but continued to stare into the depths of the fire, even as the falling leaves landed in a little ring around them.

The vampires, on the other hand, scuttled away from the flames. Kaspar hesitated for a few minutes, staying close by my side but it wasn’t long before he too succumbed to the burning heat and withdrew into the shadows.

It was mostly quiet for a long while, other than the occasional giggle from Lyla from the shadows – it did not take much imagination to know what her and Fabian were up to. Felix and Charlie occasionally whispered a few words to each other but their conversations were short. Alex eventually took out his guitar and retreated even further away from the fire and began strumming half-heartedly, competing with the crackling of the fire, Cain interjecting every now and then.

I sensed that everyone was lost in their own thoughts, just like I was: it was odd to think that the people sat around me were at the centre of everything that was happening to the dimensions, as things started to breakdown.

As are you, my voice said.

I scoffed in my head. Hardly. I don’t even understand the Prophecy.

Then maybe you should ask.

I contemplated its suggestion for a moment but decided I didn’t have the courage to ask – I felt such a fool with the Sage around. I turned around, wondering if I could quietly question Kaspar but as soon as I met his eyes he stood up.

He walked around the fire, grabbed one of the bags and reached into it, pulling out a handful of chocolate bars. He chucked a couple of them my way and gave the rest to the two Sage. Autumn ripped hers open and devoured it hungrily, making her seem more human than her vampire counterparts; seeing that, Fallon handed her the rest and with a wave of his hand, conjured an apple from midair.

Kaspar handed the beers around which Autumn politely refused and settled back down behind me. I moved back a bit and joined him, tired of the burning heat, taking a few sips of the beer.

‘How do you do that?’

‘Do what?’ Fallon asked, taking a second bite out of his apple.

‘Produce food from thin air.’

He took a third bite. ‘Magic.’

‘But how is that possible?’

‘Just is,’ he said, shrugging his shoulders.

There was a pause. ‘Then nobody starves.’

Fallon frowned ruefully. ‘We feed our own.’

‘What do you mean?’ I asked, knowing full well what he was implying.

‘We can only conjure what nature provides, and nature cannot provide enough to feed the expanding population of the world; of each dimension.’

My face cleared with comprehension but my mouth fell slightly open, aghast. ‘So millions of humans – innocent children – die whilst the dark beings wallow in wealth?’

‘I wouldn’t say wealth,’ Fallon argued, but I turned to Kaspar for back-up.

‘You said yourself that there’s no such thing as poverty for dark beings.’

He nodded solemnly. ‘But it’s more than that. There’s too much politics involved between dark beings and humans.’

I straightened up. ‘Clearly,’ I retorted, knowing that my situation reflected that perfectly.

‘Kaspar’s right,’ Cain said. ‘Co-operating is basically impossible. Mother’s proof of that. There’s no trust.’

My eyes guiltily slid to the ground and the box rattled. ‘Well maybe that is what needs to change,’ I ended, defeated.

‘I agree with Violet,’ a quiet voice suddenly said.

All eyes turned to Autumn as her gaze briefly met mine. Quickly, she hastened to explain herself. ‘The wealth could be more evenly distributed.’

‘But Miss Lee,’ Fallon begun. ‘Who do you suggest could implement such a change?’

I flushed. ‘The Dark He**ines? Isn’t that what the Prophecy said they would do?’

The clearing went silent and Fallon cleared his throat, glancing sideways at Autumn.

‘We’ll tell you the first and second verse of the Prophecy, but no more. You don’t know enough about the other dimensions to understand it.’

That stung but Fallon’s mouth was set in a line and I knew not to argue.

‘I’ve heard the first verse before,’ I said, still hearing the hallowing penultimate line in my head.

‘From Kaspar, I presume?’

Kaspar nodded and rested his head back against the trunk of the tree, looking resigned. His hands rested on the ground beside him and his nails dug into the earth, his arms tensed. My heart dropped, longing to know why he had become so withdrawn all of a sudden and almost instinctively I moved my hand as close as I dared to his, our little fingers almost touching. Perhaps he felt my warmth because his arm relaxed.