Oaklynn lingered in the doorway, her eyes shining with unspent tears and the beginnings of an icy blue shimmering beneath her skin. He stepped out past her into the dark with Kasper and Mercy flanking him, feeling like someone had gutted him. The Karkadda out in the grounds carried on as before, some of them clashing violently, others practising their woodland craft. Patches of torn up grass regrew under their touch. Greenery shone even in the dark, the strange glow rising and falling like gentle waves.

Luke stopped. He couldn't gather a thought into his head.

Unfair.

It was the only word that battered against his skull, screaming to get out. When he'd seen her that first day things had seemed so simple. Now, just when they'd finally made the decision to let their feelings run the course, the rug had been ripped out from under them. What had they done to deserve any of this?

"C'mon, Luke," Mercy said quietly. "Time to go."

He shook his head, turning back and looking at Oaklynn. She leaned against the doorway, arms folded tight against her body, her whole body tight and compressed, as though at any minute she might implode in on herself from the weight of it all. She gulped down the lump in her throat and gave a fatalistic shrug.

"I'm sorry." Her voice was a hollow shell of itself, devoid of the spark he associated with her. An expression of bitterness stamped itself on her face, twisting her beautiful features.

"I don't want you to be sorry," he answered. "None of this is your fault."

"I knew the rules and I knew the risks. It is my fault."

"Oaklynn, come on-,"

"No, Luke!" Her shrill voice cut sharply out into the night, echoing away into the woodland. "We can't do this. It was stupid. We tried being 'together' for less than a week and you almost died."

"But I didn't."

"It's too dangerous and I should have known. I can't... if something happened to you because of this I couldn't take it." She took a shaky breath, trying to steady her voice. "You can't ask me to risk that. You need to stay away from me before someone else tries to hurt you."

"Don't you think that ship's sailed?" he replied, spreading his hands helplessly. "Those assholes already know who I am. They knew enough to grab me and use me to draw you out. Why is that going to change now? What difference does this make?"

"Someone will be keeping an eye on you now," Kasper interjected, edging closer to him. "They'll keep the poachers away from you. And if you steer clear of us they'll have no reason to drag you back into this."

God, he wanted to punch this kid. Luke felt his fists clenching tight by his sides with anger as he shot a sidelong glare at the other Karkadda. The notion of being spied on for the rest of his college life didn't exactly fill him with enthusiasm either.

Restraining his violent urges, he looked back to Oaklynn. "So that's it then? That's what you want?"

"Of course it's not what I want, but what I want isn't enough. This is bigger than us."

"We didn't do anything wrong."

She couldn't hold the tears in any longer. Two of them spilled out, running down her cheeks and the sight made him ache all over. Her skin shimmered with tendrils of blue and she cleared her throat, straightening up and smiling sadly.

"Maybe not to you and me," she said, her voice wavering violently. Rubbing a sleeve across her eyes she sniffed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Luke. It was a dream, and it's over now. I think we both better get used to that."

The words ripped the breath from his lungs. He stood transfixed, and watched with growing disbelief as she turned and walked away. The door to the house closed behind her with finality of a guillotine and he closed his eyes, feeling tears of his own threatening to burst forth. In the end it was anger at the injustice of it all that kept them at bay. He felt pain radiating along his jaw as he clenched his teeth, his shoulders trembling.

"Luke?" Mercy said, her voice soft.

He tipped his head back, blinking several times before he summoned the willpower to look at her. She didn't say anything, but put a gentle hand on his shoulder, turning him away from house of the Mahar. Luke didn't have any resistance left in him. Like an inert husk he allowed himself to be guided away from Oaklynn; away from whatever life they might have led.

The three of them walked in silence to the edge of the grove, whereupon he was told to put his blindfold back on again. Lacking the conviction to argue, Luke did as they asked, and so began another blind, stumbling hike through the woods. Exhaustion washed over them, both emotional and physical, and he felt at any moment like he might melt into the forest floor. He managed to keep his footing, helped by the firm grip Kasper kept on the back of his jacket, and they wound their way downhill.

He lost all track of time. All he knew was that it was middle of the night, and pitch black outside. Through the crack of the blindfold he caught small glimpses of the glow of the Karkadda – his chaperones must have been using their abilities to light a small trail through Lasquette's sprawling woodland.

Eventually, though, he stepped off the base of a slope and his feet struck something very firm. Something concrete.

"You can look now," Kasper grunted.

Luke peeled the blindfold wearily from his face to find a road waiting for him. Parked just inside the treeline opposite them was a rickety looking truck and his shoulders sagged with a measure of relief. At least he wouldn't have to walk all the way back to Lasquette Bay.

"Get him home safe," Mercy said, thumping a gentle fist down on Kasper's shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"I will," the other Karkadda answered. "You be careful."

"Always." She turned to Luke and sighed regretfully. "I know it's tough, but in long run this is better for you both. You'll see." Then she was gone, vanishing back into the woods. Her footsteps receded into the night.

"C'mon, let's get you back," Kasper told him, and Luke followed him over to the truck on leaden limbs. It was an old, rust-red thing, its paintwork scraped and cracked, but he didn't much care right now, so long as it could get him home.

The passenger door creaked in protest as he heaved it open, and he clambered inside, slumping down into the worn down seat, trying not to think. He wanted to sleep; wanted to think he would wake up tomorrow and everything would be back to normal. Oddly, he also felt hungry, his stomach twisting in discomfort.

He tried to ignore the feeling as the truck's engine grumbled into life. Kasper gave the steering wheel a gentle turn, swinging them out of the muddy hideaway and onto the main road into Lasquette Bay. Night rolled out before them, pines climbing on either side, shepherding them homeward towards the light and life of the town. Mist coiled through the trunks.

Luke folded his arms tight, sagging back against the passenger seat, staring glassy-eyed out the window. For a while neither of them spoke. The truck vibrated and clattered its way down the road, headlights carving a fuzzy trail ahead. He felt Kasper look at him more than once but resisted the urge to say any of the hundred acid words that wanted to come spilling out of his mouth. It wouldn't make any difference. Much as he disliked the Karkadda, Kasper wasn't the one in charge.

"You alright?" his companion asked eventually, guiding the truck down the wind of the road with gentle movements of his wrist.

He shot the other boy a weary glance. "Like you care?"

"I don't think you're a bad guy, Luke. I just think you're just an idiot who doesn't know when to leave well-enough alone. Doesn't mean I want you dead."

"Well then, no, I'm not alright."

The uncomfortable silence descended on them again. Kasper's face pinched in thought as he drove on. Twice he opened his mouth, as though he'd thought of something sensible to say, only to abandon it again. At length he made a stumbling effort to respond.

"Probably a bit of a weird night for you."

Luke nodded. "You've got that right."

"Weird night for me, too." He smirked. "Didn't think I'd be saving your life."

"I said 'thank you' already."

"I know." Kasper blew out his cheeks in a sigh. Slowly the lights of Lasquette Bay swelled beyond the dashboard as they wound their way north. "I thought that all might have showed you what a bad idea this all is."

"You're acting like I knew what would happen and just carried on anyway."

"I tried to warn you. And her."

Luke rolled his eyes. "You're not much of a diplomat."

"I'm aware. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for the trouble you and your friends got roped into. I didn't set out to pick a fight with anybody, but Oaklynn forced our hand."

"Because she wants to live her own life?"

"It's not so simple," Kasper snapped, a flash of anger in his eyes. His hands tightened their grip on the steering wheel. "Gallie has looked after this herd for a long time. She knows best. Karkadda laws are there for a reason." He cast a pitying glance at Luke. "You think you're the first people this has happened to?"

"I don't know."

"Well you're not. It's rare but it happens. We exist side-by-side. Sometimes lines get blurred."

Luke rubbed his eyes with both hands, trying to keep reign on his frustration. Tiredness kept him from lashing out, but he didn't want to listen to another word of this.

"I didn't ask for a history lesson," he said flatly. "And I don't care what happened with other people. We're not them."

"Everybody thinks they're the exception to the rule," Kasper snorted. "But fine. Just as long as you understand how things play going forward. Gallie isn't someone you want to cross."

"Yeah, I got that."

"Good."

Their conversation evaporated after that. They rode in silence down through the snaking forest road towards those lights, the engine growling and something rattling worryingly beneath the hood. The buildings began to grow around them, and Kasper turned left onto the main road that cut through the centre of Lasquette Bay.

Luke watched the people, wondering if any of them knew what lurked just outside their little bubbles. How many of them were Karkadda? From what he'd seen at the house their numbers seemed paltry in a place the size of Lasquette Bay, but they could be anywhere. Anyone. What if people knew about the race of creatures that walked in their midst, peaceful but at the same time awe-inspiring, and certainly not harmless.

His mind flashed back to the cabin, watching Oaklynn kill that poacher in the blink of an eye. When they were angry, they could be lethal. That fact was the only reason he was still alive, but human beings didn't have a great track record of dealing with things that they struggled to understand. Could they really live and let live? Or were DeVergne and his associates a more accurate microcosm of how the human race might respond?

I'm too tired for this. He yawned, squeezed his eyes shut and tried to empty his mind. He needed to sleep. He needed some time alone, somewhere he could get to grips with this chaos in his own time. The signs for the ELU campus came into view and he felt a swell of relief. Beside him, Kasper seemed to relax too, apparently just as eager to put this night behind him.

The Karkadda sighed as he pulled into the drop off at the front of the university admissions office. The truck lurched to a halt and he leaned back, one hand resting on the top of the wheel. The idling engine filled the awkward space between them with its impatient growl.

"Luke, I get that you have feelings for her," Kasper said eventually, his voice calm, almost regretful. "And she might even have feelings for you too, but you don't belong in our world."

He cleared his throat; scrubbed a sleeve across his eyes. A million pithy insults rose up in his throat and he squashed them back down.

"Thanks for the lift," he choked out instead. Then he opened the door and stepped out of the truck. The cold night hair hit him again, bringing with it a fresh rush of anger. Why had everything gotten so complicated? What the hell had he done to deserve this mess? Why did the one girl he couldn't get out of his mind have to be so much more than she seemed?

Did he love her? Luke didn't think he'd ever been in love. Of his handful of high school relationships only two of them had stretched into anything meaningful, and even then, they hadn't exactly stood the test of time. Oaklynn felt different. She was different. Love was a big word, but people always said you knew it when it hit you. Right now he couldn't dig it out of the rest of the insanity he'd crashed headlong into. On some level he wanted it all to be just a wild fever dream; he'd wake up tomorrow, walk into class and find her sitting there, a normal girl. Much deeper down he knew now that the very thing that set her apart was what lured him in.

With his hand resting on the top of the door, he lingered there for a long, silent moment, fighting down tears and steadying his nerves. His own thoughts threatened to crush him to the sidewalk.

"You gonna be okay?" Kasper asked.

He shuddered; turned and leaned down so he could look the Karkadda in the eye.

"We're all stuck in the same world, you know," Luke told him.

Before Kasper could reply he slammed the door shut and trudged off, a forlorn figure in the dark.