Outcast (The Darkeningstone Series Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

canopy as I went along, enjoying the mottled kaleidoscope of daylight as the leaves met and parted. I listened to the songs and calls of unseen birds. I let my hands hang at my side to feel the gentle caress of the ferns as I passed them by. And despite my thirst and my growing pangs of hunger, my headache finally faded away. I couldn’t help but smile.
    ***
    “Oh bloody hell!” I moaned. I stopped walking and turned full circle. Every tree looked sickeningly familiar. How long had I been walking? When had I last been able to get my bearings? I ran my hand across my forehead and my palm came away wet with cold sweat. I closed my eyes for a moment and a rush of dizziness spun through my mind. I took a breath and opened my eyes. Just keep calm , I told myself. But it didn’t help. A sudden surge of panic rose from the pit of my stomach. I was lost. But that tree—the one wrapped in ivy—I’d passed it ages ago, hadn’t I?
    “Oh no,” I groaned. “I’ve been walking in circles.” But I couldn’t even be sure of that. I turned around again, looking in every direction for some clue, some small thing to latch on to. But there was nothing. Nothing except a dense mass of featureless ferns and a thick throng of almost identical trees pressing in on me from every direction. “What have I done?” I whispered. But I knew the answer. I’d let myself get lost.

Chapter 3

    2018
    CALLY BREEZED IN THROUGH THE SWING DOORS that led to Exeter University’s History Department and marched along the corridor. She paused at the door to her tutor’s office. Doctor Seaton’s note to her had been unusually abrupt: See me today, 5:30 p.m. – my office, without fail. It was out of character. Usually, the old man was all charm and flattery, especially to the female students. Cally wrinkled her nose. There’s charm , she thought, and then there’s sexual harassment . And now, here she was, meeting him alone in his room. And for some unexplained reason, this appointment was much later than usual. Normally, she’d have put good money on the doctor being at the bar in the pub over the road by this time on a Friday. She raised her hand to knock then hesitated. What was Seaton up to? What did he want? Cally shuddered. Not that , she thought. Please don’t let it be that .
    She sighed. Seaton was supervising her final dissertation, and she needed his support. She wanted that first class honours degree. She wanted to go on to postgraduate work and get her Ph.D. She wanted to be published; a respected authority in her field. This was right for her. It was what she was meant to do with her life. And things had all been going so well, hadn’t they? She was already making great progress with her dissertation. She’d done all the preliminary research, she’d combed through all the available literature. Dr Seaton had seen her ideas and he seemed to approve. It was all going according to plan. And then, suddenly, out of the blue, there was this enigmatic note.
    “Come on, let’s get it over with,” she whispered. She took a deep breath and rapped on the door.
    She waited, expecting Seaton’s usual cry of “Advance and be recognised.” But there was nothing. Silence. Cally checked her watch. She wasn’t late. Perhaps he’d forgotten all about her and cleared off to the pub after all. Cally lifted her hand and rubbed the stiff muscles in the back of her neck. She’d just finished a long stint in the library and she still had a mound of work to get through when she got home. I’ve got better things to do than stand around here . She looked up and down the empty corridor. The doors to all the other offices were closed. The corridor was completely silent. The whole department felt deserted. And she’d waited long enough. She turned on her heel, but as she stepped away, there was a sudden sound from Doctor Seaton’s room; perhaps the creaking of a floorboard. She stopped and turned to face the door. There it was again. And again. The