I might just love you.

The words sustained Luke through her absence. He felt giddy, almost child-like. Despite everything, despite the warnings, despite the dangers, despite DeVergne and his poachers, there was finally a gleaming blaze of light cutting through it all. The rational part of his brain told him that they would still have plenty of hurdles to overcome, but right now he simply didn't care. Oaklynn had chosen him. Over tradition, herd, clan and law she had picked Luke Arbor.

He would make sure she didn't regret that choice.

The only thing that kept a tremor of worry inside him right now was the knowledge that she had to confront Gallie Parwood, to make the break with Karkadda. The Mahar's threats had seemed pretty clear to him at the time, but he hadn't been anywhere near the woman in the intervening weeks. He just needed to trust Oaklynn now.

That left Luke with a lot of waiting to do. He used the time to help Gabi and Kenny get to grips with just what they'd been thrown into less than a day ago. They gathered in their dorm, with a crate of smuggled beer that Kenny had liberated from his dad's stocks, and sprawled themselves around the room, the arcade machine humming away obliviously in the background.

Slumped on a beanbag with his back against the wall, Luke sipped at a beer, feeling the curious gazes of his friends. It was funny to think that, as far as they were concerned, he was a veritable expert in the Karkadda field. He thought to the anthropology and archaeology classes that he'd been so fixated on before arriving at ELU. Did they even make sense any more? They focused on human beings alone. How much was missing? What else was out there beyond the Karkadda?

"So, how long exactly did you know Oaklynn was..." Gabi hesitated as she tried to pick out the right word. "Different?" She perched on Luke's bed, legs crossed. Kenny stood leaning his elbows on the kitchen counter, his beer gently skating back and forth from hand to hand between sips.

"I mean, I didn't know for sure until she showed me that night," he replied with a shrug. "Before that, I guess I was the same as you guys. Something didn't add up; just didn't make sense."

"So that's my Burning-Eyed Man?" Kenny shook his head with a smirk. "And I was so damn sure it was just a story."

"They don't suck people's brains out," Gabi pointed out.

"Well, every good campfire story gets a bit of colour down the years, doesn't it?"

Luke grinned. "And you tell it so well."

"Must be weird, living like that," Gabi continued, fingers drumming against the side of her beer bottle in thought. "Like, keeping that big a secret every hour, every day? I don't think I could do that."

"I think Oaklynn would agree with you." He took another glug of beer, feeling the cold fizz its way down his throat. "It's like any kid with parents who tell them what to do; how to live. Eventually something's got to give. She's just... had enough."

"Because of you."

"Hey, I didn't-,"

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that," she said quickly. "I just mean, she's got to really want to be with you to risk all of that." Gabi rolled her lip piercing from side to side awkwardly. "I just didn't understand at the time what was going on with you guys."

"I didn't exactly explain myself."

"Yeah, leave it in the rear-view, Gabi," Kenny said. "I guess what matters now is we're all on the same page. Though we'd better sort out our stories if Nalen calls us back in again." He bit his lip, hunching his shoulders in discomfort. "I mean, we went in there and told him you guys had nothing to do with what happened, but...
"But we did." Luke nodded. "I know. They had our DNA from the scene."

"Shit."

"Yeah."

"But you think DeVergne dumped you guys in it?"

"I know he did," Luke replied bitterly. "Oaklynn killed one of his poacher friends before they could cut me to ribbons, and royally screwed whatever plans he had. I think he wants us both out of the way so he can get back to what he came here to do."

"And this whole poaching thing-," Kenny looked at him pointedly. "It's all bullshit, what he said right? About the horns and the freakin' miracle cures?"

"I honestly don't know." He threw up his free hand resignedly. "Even if it was, would that make it even remotely okay?"

"No! I just... I can see how he's selling it to himself. If it's real."

"Let's not find out," Gabi muttered. "The whole thing's messed up."

They fell quiet for a moment after that, none of them quite sure what to say. Music burbled faintly from speakers on the desk. At length, Kenny cracked open three fresh beers and handed them out, before slumping down on his bed.

"What are we going to do about Kyan and Aliyah?" he asked, staring at the ceiling with his beer balanced precariously on his chest. "We can't exactly keep them in the dark about it. They've seen too much of your Karkadda buddies for us to lie it off."

"Yeah, I know, I just..." Luke shifted in the beanbag, sitting. "Where do you start, you know? If you guys hadn't seen if with your own eyes would you believe it?"

"Probably not," Kenny admitted. "Think Oaklynn would do us a little demonstration?"

"I don't know."

"Well, we better tell them something sooner or later. It's only a matter of time before Nalen brings them in for a talk as well to figure out what really happened that night."

"When Oaklynn gets back, I'll ask her," Luke said. "Without her none of this'll make any sense to them. And we need to be careful. If DeVergne's people could still be watching."

"Shit, what about Coach Gore?" Gabi blurted suddenly. "When she was meeting him! She must know about all of this,"

Luke nodded bitterly. "I'm pretty sure she's the reason I got snatched."

"That bitch."

"Easy, Gabs," Kenny cautioned. "Last thing we need is to lose our cool."

"Oh you're one to talk."

He scowled, sitting up on his bed. "I was surprised."

"Try terrified."

"Alright, alright." Luke raised his hands. "Let's just go about our days like normal, okay? Just until Oaklynn gets back. Then we'll figure out what to tell Kyan and Aliyah."

Gabi scrubbed her hands over her face and sighed heavily. "Thank God it's the weekend." Scooping up her beer, she drained the last of it with a decisive gulp before standing up. "I gotta get going. Keep me in the loop if you hear back from Oaklynn, yeah?"

"We will." Luke smiled and raised his beer slightly in a toast. "You gonna be okay?"

"Oh... I guess." A faint laugh fell out of her mouth and she shrugged. "Ask me again in the morning."

"Hey, if you think you're going nuts, we can go down the rabbit hole together," Kenny chimed in, pushing up out of his chair and walking past her to the door. He opened it with an exaggerated bow. "Milady."

"Easy on the beers, Kenny," Gabi warned as she stepped towards the threshold. She paused for a moment, shoulders tensing as she looked out onto the campus. Back into a world that she no longer fully understood. Luke felt a pang of sympathy and wished there was something he could say to make the transition any easier.

"You can stay if you want," he said quietly. "I know it's a lot."

"No, it's okay. I'll deal." Gabi flashed him a smile with enough brightness in it to back up her words. Then she turned to Kenny and gave him a tight hug. "But keep your phone on. In case I need a sanity check."

"Any time, Gabs." Kenny returned her embrace, his expression softening. "Day by day, eh?"

"That's the plan." She stepped back and straightened up, taking a steadying breath. "See you guys tomorrow."

Then she stepped out into the new world.

*

A full day passed, and his giddiness finally began to fade, replaced by a whole lot of worry. Luke paced the dorm anxiously – damn it, he wished she had a phone – not knowing what to do with himself. Even if he wanted to help her, he didn't even know where the Karkadda compound was. Why hadn't she let him come? What if Gallie made good on her threats? He never should have let her go alone.

"Will you sit down?" Kenny asked from the kitchen area, speaking around a mouthful of donut. "She'll be here. From what you said it wasn't exactly gonna be a 'hello, thank you, bye' situation was it?"

"I know that."

"Well, then have some breakfast and calm down, will you?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Well, I am," Gabi interjected, rolling her eyes and slipping around to join Kenny. She clamped a donut between her teeth and accepted a steaming mug of black coffee before slumping down at the small table in the dorm.

With Aliyah as a room-mate there'd only been so long she'd been able to spend back in her own dorm trying not to slip up before she had to leave. Luke knew that behaviour would soon bring the resentment of their friends; he'd gone through the same process keeping secrets from Gabi and Kenny already. The last thing they needed now was to drive a further wedge into the group.

But to make Kyan and Aliyah understand what was happening, they needed Oaklynn, and right now she was nowhere to be found.

With a frustrated huff, Luke sat down on his bed, clasping his hands together tightly. A sense of impotence settled on him. Wherever Oaklynn was, whatever she was doing, he couldn't do anything to help her, and he hated it.

He tried not the think the worst, resigning himself to waiting. He just had to trust that she knew what she was doing. Eventually Luke relented and availed himself of a donut and coffee. Their conversation circled awkwardly around the unknowns. What did all of this mean for their lives on a day to day basis? What about the archery team and the regional contests? Could he really be a part of that when he knew Coach Gore was hip deep in everything that was happening out in the forests of Lasquette?

Could any of them walk back into a class like nothing had changed. Somehow he didn't think so. The Karkadda were here to stay.

The vibrating of Gabi's phone interrupted Kenny as he tried to formulate a theory on where the Karkadda might have come from. He stopped talking, mid-sweep of an arm as Gabi thumbed the phone screen and placed it to her ear.

"Hello? Kyan? Yeah it's me." She glanced at them; shrugged before continuing down the phone. "No, no I'm over at Luke and Kenny's. Is everything okay?" She paused again, brow furrowing. "No, we're just hanging out. Ally? No she's back at our dorm, why?"

They waited as Gabi listened intently. Nodded. He could just hear Kyan's tinny, tiny voice coming through the phone speaker, but not enough to make out his words. Then Gabi's eyes went wide and she stood up sharply.

She looked at him. "Luke, turn on the TV."

"Huh?"

"The TV," Gabi repeated. "Turn it on. Something's happened out in the forest."

Luke snatched up the remote and thumbed the power button. "Another body?"

"No." She moved over alongside him, the phone still pressed to her ear as the screen flared into life.

He flicked over to the local news channel and was immediately greeted by a breaking emergency bulletin. Along the bottom of the screen white capital letters screamed: WILDFIRE SWEEPS LASQUETTE FOREST. Luke felt like he'd been hit with an electric shock as the screen changed, showing a helicopter view of the woods south of the town.

It looked like a volcano had erupted. A huge cylinder of roiling smoke rose into the sky, and at its base a rough circle of pine forest had been turned into a raging inferno. The camera crew gave the smoke a wide berth as they panned around. There were no houses nearby that Luke could see, nor any obvious paths. That made him more worried than anything else. There was one place he knew would be hidden that far from the town itself: the Karkadda compound.

He couldn't be sure, of course, but something in his gut told him something very, very bad had happened. A voice over from the reporter outlined the events that they knew of. The fire had started sometime in the night, only being brought to the attention of the morning news when the huge columns of smoke had become visible against the morning sky.

By that time the flames had been raging for several hours. Now every man and woman who could operate a hose was being thrown into the forest to try and contain the wildfire before it could spread any further. Right now no-one knew how it had started. Or if they could stop it.

"Yeah, we see it," Gabi said quietly, still talking on the phone with Kyan. "God, what are they going to do?"

Luke dropped the remote, horrific scenarios rattling back and forth in his brain. He knew Simon DeVergne had not shied away from using fire to save his own skin when confronted with the Karkadda. Could he have done something unthinkable? Could this be some kind of final retribution for his plans being thwarted?

He turned and stepped towards the door.

"And where the hell do you think you're going?" Kenny demanded.

"I've got to get out there. The fire, if Oaklynn's was at the compound-"

"Oh, no you don't." In a single bound his room mate was blocking the door, holding one hand up with the index finger extended. "I get that you're head over heels and all kinds of stupid because of it, but you are not about to go running half-cocked out into a freakin' wildfire, Arbor."

"But-,"

"Luke, he's right!" Gabi yelled. "Don't be an idiot."

"But we've got to do something."

"Like what? What are we going to do that a fireman can't?"

"They don't know what's out there-,"

A sudden, heavy pounding on the door cut him off and they froze. All three of them swivelled to look. A couple of seconds crawled past and another series of sluggish thumps reverberated through the solid timber frame. They looked at each other. Kenny shrugged; spread his hands in bafflement. Gabi lowered the phone and aimed a suspicious stare at the door. Luke shook his head, brow furrowing as he turned back.

"Luke? Luke Arbor?!"

The voice was a wheezing, strangled yell, but he recognised it nonetheless. He blinked in surprise.

"Luke... please... open the door!"

Gabi's eyebrows shot up and she brought the phone back to her ear again. "Hang on, Kyan."

"That is not who I think it is," Kenny murmured, edging over to the kitchen area of the dorm and sweeping up a heavy frying pan from the counter top.

"Are you serious, man? Take it easy!" Luke hissed, flapping a hand at him. With confusion blazing in his mind he edged over to the door and gingerly gripped the handle. He took three quick breaths, then yanked the door open.

A body toppled inside.

The heavy form tumbled into him and he stumbled backwards, trying and failing to catch the newcomer in his arms. Gabi yelped and sprang aside, dropping her phone as he went careering past her. Off balance already, he lost his grip, tripped over a backpack and crashed unceremoniously to the floor. Flat on his back, he blinked and pushed up onto his elbows to look at the person who'd just fallen into his dorm.

On the carpet in front of him lay Kasper. The Karkadda was in his human form, but Luke's eyes were instantly drawn to the ragged wound that tore from his left ribs right down to his hip bone, with blood seeping liberally out over his clothes and the dorm carpet.

"Jesus!" Kenny blurted. There was a clang as he dropped the frying pan and bounded forward, grabbing Kasper under the arms. "Shut the door, shut the door, shut the door!"

The shrill yell galvanised Gabi into action. As his room mate heaved Kasper's stricken form into the room, she lunged toward the door and sent it banging shut. Whirling round, she placed her back against the door, as though expecting someone to come and smash it down in pursuit of the Karkadda.

Luke scrambled to his feet and looked down, his breaths coming quick and sharp as he tried to take in just what was happening. Kenny eased their wounded guest out into the middle of the floor, laying him down flat, but he looked just as panicked. He looked down at the blood; looked sharply away again and gagged, trying not to vomit.

"Kasper?" Luke asked, stepping uncertainly forward, looking down at the Karkadda. Kasper's eyes flickered towards him, bright, desperate and churning with orange-blue lights.

"H-help me," he gasped.