Dark Heart Rising Read Online Free Page A

with her tray, picking up the debris. As she passed our table she gave me a small secretive smile and disappeared back into the kitchen.
    That left the two of us to be serenaded by the music – Ella Fitzgerald … something like that. For the first time in a long time I stopped thinking about before. About him. I closed my eyes, letting that deep lilting voice wash over me.
    ‘I’m drunk,’ I said with my eyes still shut. ‘On a glass of champagne.’ I tasted something a little bitter in my mouth and decided that alcohol was over-rated. Now I knew how my dad felt when he’d been out for the evening with his drinking buddies.
    ‘See.’ Soren’s voice cut through my thoughts. ‘It makes everything go away, doesn’t it?’
    My eyes snapped open. ‘Why would anyone want that?’
    Soren was smiling at me. ‘Well, you did,’ he said, in a sing-song voice. ‘Little Miss No-sad-stuff.’
    ‘I know … I know I said that.’ I sat forward and put my head in my hands. ‘But I didn’t exactly mean it.’
    ‘You didn’t?’ Soren was alert now. He looked like a fox. Angular, keen.
    ‘No. Because it’s not real, is it … ?’ I felt my thoughts blurring. ‘It’s just a trick.’
    Then Soren started saying something. I lifted my eyes and saw his mouth opening and closing, but I couldn’t make out any of the words. I put my palms on the table and pushed my chair back – the sound of the chair-legs scraping against the wooden floor was piercing. My head thumped. With an enormous effort, I rose from my seat.
    ‘I’m just going to the ladies’ room …’ I murmured. ‘Don’t go away …’
    As if in slow motion I turned, saw the waitress looking bemused, her hands on her hips, and then the floor moved and my feet struggled to follow it.
    ‘Jane?’ I heard someone say. ‘Jane, are you OK?’
    I nodded, and my head seemed to weigh a tonne. It felt horrible. My limbs started to feel disconnected. How could I possibly be so drunk on just one glass of champagne?
    And then the lights dimmed. The last thing I saw before darkness fell was long legs in dark jeans standing in front of me. And nothing there when I put my hands out for help.

CHAPTER THREE
     
    T he sun was scorching as I ran through the corn field. The heads rasping against my hands, stinging. But a rush of adrenaline kept away any stinging, any pain. I saw it in the distance. Pretty rose bowers framing the gate. I saw people inside. Familiar faces.
    As I came closer, I saw long dark hair in a loose braid, and a grey tunic. She was playing ball up against the garden wall, but she heard me breathing and turned as I reached her.
    ‘You?’ Her eyes were wide with shock, but a smile caught her mouth.
    ‘Dalya!’ I knew I sounded weird. Hysterical, maybe. I was just so happy to see her.
    She took a step towards me, her face brightening, her hands outstretched, but as I reached out to take them a shadow fell across her face.
    ‘You shouldn’t have come here,’ she said sadly. ‘There are people—’
    ‘Shhh.’ I put my finger to my lips.
    Dalya picked up her ball, turning it over in her hands. ‘Let’s go to the Water Path,’ she said. ‘It’s nice there. Peaceful. Remember?’
    ‘Dalya,’ I said quietly, ‘it’s all right. You don’t have to protect me.’
    ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘There is nothing I can do.’
    I shook my head. ‘It will be fine. Luca would never leave me. Not after everything. He wouldn’t do that.’
    ‘You don’t understand. You mortals never really do.’ Dalya sank on to the grass, plucking an ear of corn and stroking the rough spiky hub with her fingertip. ‘Luca is promised to her. Once the decision has been made. He will abide by it. He will make the best of it.’
    ‘Oh.’ I dropped to my knees, feeling a wave of pain come over me. ‘He is so honourable.’
    ‘I wish it wasn’t so,’ she whispered.
    ‘Dalya!’ Henora’s voice rang through the hubbub the other side of the garden wall.