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‘Every word Nathaneal tells you is the truth.’

He gives a small smile of thanks before returning his full attention to Ebony. ‘I was sent by your family to find you.’

‘My
family?
’ She’s still sceptical, but the beginning of a hopeful spark appears in her eyes. It’s hard to doubt Thane when he’s staring straight at you.

‘Your mother is very much alive,’ he tells her with a small smile breaking through. ‘You have a sister who can’t wait to meet you.’

‘A sister?’

‘Her name is Shaephira.’

Ebony frowns. Now that he’s found her, he wants to tell her everything, but the more info he gives the more sceptical she’s becoming.

‘And your father is –’

Slow down, Thane. Not so much so quickly. She thinks like a human
.

‘Are you a private detective?’ she asks.

He’s not expecting this question and it catches him off guard. This has me wondering if he can read
her
mind. He gives a slight shake of his head and I stamp down my surprise.

Before he answers her, she’s rattling off more questions. Ebony Hawkins is thinking fast. ‘What sort of name is Shaephira?’ And then, ‘What is their family name? Are they from around here? How do you fit into all of this?’

‘I know these things about your family, and about
you
,’ he adds softly, ‘because I was present at your birth. I was there when the attack occurred. You were abducted, Ebony, within moments of entering the world. And I’ve been searching for you for the last sixteen years.’

‘I beg your pardon?’ Ebony’s voice borders on disbelief. Something Thane said isn’t making sense. She glances at Amber and starts moving out of the seat. ‘Now I know you’re lying.’ Finding Thane inadvertently blocking her exit, she says, ‘Do you mind?’

Thane’s mouth falls open; he looks dazed and confused. Her abject rejection is something he never considered, but this girl has her mind made up. Thane is a fraud, and that’s that.

‘She wants you to move,’ I whisper.

He jumps up. ‘Ebony, please don’t go yet. I’d like to explain.’

Almost past him, she pauses, and I can tell when she gets the full impact of Thane’s eyes. She sucks in her breath and her pupils dilate. ‘What’s to explain?’ she asks carefully. ‘You’re too young to have been searching for sixteen years. That would have made you, what, six?’

‘Seven. And I wasn’t alone. I was with an experienced Sensor who taught me everything I needed to find you.’

Uh-oh!

‘“
Sensor
”? What’s that? Some kind of sniffer dog?’

‘Ebrielle, I mean Ebony, I didn’t mean that. We weren’t
hunting
; we were searching for your light, trying to pick up your glow above the clouds.’

She blinks hard and fast. ‘That’s the problem, Mr … ?’

‘Just Nathaneal. If you prefer, you can call me Thane.’

Crap, he’s rambling!

She sighs. ‘I just want to know your surname. Is that so hard?’

He flicks me a glance that tells me he’s uncomfortable answering this. But he’s not going to lie; I know that much.

‘Well?’ she persists.

‘We’re not allowed to disclose our family name … here. It can create false idolatry, cult worship …’

She starts to look freaked out. I gotta do something before she decides to never speak with him again.

‘He’s famous. He’s my famous cousin.’

‘Really?’ Amber calls out half sceptical, half not.

‘I’m not famous,’ Thane says. ‘It’s just … the explanation is complex.’

Ebony starts walking towards Mrs Lang’s car. Thane calls out, ‘Ebrielle.’ She stops, turns, and he says, ‘I apologise for alarming you in any way. I would never keep information from you deliberately. If we could go somewhere private, I’ll explain everything.’

‘Well, Nathaneal Whoever-you-are, I don’t believe you’re telling me the truth because, firstly, my name is not Ebrielle.
You seem to have trouble remembering that. You won’t tell me your name, and the things you say are creepy.’

The two stare at each other.

Ebony breaks the connection, but really slowly, as if pulling away is causing her physical pain. I lean my head over and whisper, ‘I told you it wouldn’t be easy.’

Frustration and anxiety pulse out of him in such powerful waves it takes an effort to keep from falling over. He’s finally found his kidnapped angel and can do nothing but watch her walk away. The energy, or whatever it is he’s inadvertently emitting, starts making the hairs on my arms stand on end. Clouds, big white puffy ones are swirling around in a circle above us at speeds too fast for clouds to move. I cough the word ‘clouds’ behind my hand. Thane quickly looks up, and the swirling clouds scatter.

Four black birds perched on the top rail of the carpark fence squawk loudly while looking at us. ‘Birds’ I cough next, but he just frowns and I gather the birds are not his doing.

‘Until she believes me, I can’t protect her,’ he says. ‘I have to earn her trust, and I have to do it quickly or she will be lost for ever.’

But convincing Ebony to trust Thane isn’t going to happen today, not here. The Lang women close in around her.

Acting on impulse, and bearing in mind Ebony thinks like a human, I run out and walk backwards in front of them with my hands splayed. ‘OK. OK, I admit, Thane’s a bit full on, but he
is
telling you the truth.’

Mrs Lang gives me a stern,
Get-out-of-the-way
look. But
Ebony stops and, though she doesn’t say a word, her eyes look tempted to hear me out. I go on. ‘I remember you from the dance. We bumped into each other out the front. You were worried I’d broken a rib and my big toe.’ She laughs, melting my heart all over again. ‘So you remember.’

‘I remember that was only the beginning of your bad night.’

I laugh and roll my eyes at the subtle way she puts it. ‘I remember you out the back too. You wanted to help me.’

Her face turns red. ‘I don’t know what got into me that night. I don’t know what I thought
I
could do to help.’

‘
He
does.’

She flicks a micro-look over at Thane, who is standing by the rear of his car frowning at the four black birds perched on the fence. ‘His story doesn’t make sense, and withholding his surname is really weird.’

I lower my voice to a whisper. If she’s an angel, she’ll still hear me. ‘How much of
your
life recently has made sense?’

Her eyes close for a beat and she sighs. ‘What does he want?’

‘A chance to explain.’

‘Explain what exactly?’

‘Who you are, why you’ve been hidden away all your life, and why the truth is still being hidden from you.’

When she doesn’t say anything, I take the chance my words have touched something inside her. ‘Have you still got that piece of paper?’

She pulls it from her skirt pocket and offers it to me.

‘Arghhh …’ I pat my shirt pockets, then my pants, and come up empty.

‘Here.’ Mrs Lang hands me a pen.

‘Thanks,’ I mumble, and scrawl on the note quickly. Ebony takes it and eases into the rear seat of the hatchback. Moments later they drive away.

When I return to the Lambo, Thane is ready to take off. As I fasten my seat belt, his eyes flicker to the four black birds still perched on the fence.

‘Friends of yours?’ I ask.

He scoffs. ‘Hardly.’ He turns darkened eyes on me. ‘Don’t you recognise them, Jordan?’

With the engine idling, I take a good look. Except for bright blue irises in round eyes that are too large for a bird their size, they’re completely black, from their pointed beaks to their long glossy tail feathers. Even their clawed feet are black.

‘They’re Aracals.’

‘Shit! D’you think they recognised you?’

‘I’m not sure. I hope not. I need more time to tell Ebrielle the truth. I’m relying on you, Jordan. You have to reach her on a level she will understand, a human level.’

What just happened? Did I walk out of school and on to a roller coaster? How did I end up sitting inside a luxury car staring into the most amazing pair of eyes I’ve ever seen? Nathaneal, that was his name. We didn’t talk for long, and it’s just as well because the things he said didn’t make any sense, and yet there is something extraordinary about this guy. He was freaky, but at the same time I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

Even now, as we drive home from school, I can’t stop thinking about him, and those weird things he said. I lean forward as much as my seat belt allows and lightly tap Amber’s shoulder. ‘Tell me I didn’t really pass out.’

She swivels around in her seat. ‘Honey, you sure did. But seriously, who wouldn’t? Jordan’s cousin is
soooo
– ’ she sighs dramatically – ‘
intense
.’

‘Is it wrong to call a man … ?’

When I hesitate, she sweeps in with, ‘
Spectacular
.’

‘I wasn’t thinking of that particular word, but it’ll do.’

Even Dawn giggles with us. ‘He was rather beautiful for a young man, wasn’t he?’

Amber gasps. ‘Mum!’

‘Being married doesn’t mean you have to give up your sight!’

We laugh and it feels good to know there can still be lightness in my life. ‘Hey, um, just so you both know, I didn’t faint because of what he looks like. I wouldn’t want you to think I’m that lame.’

‘Of course we don’t!’ Amber says. ‘So why did you faint?’

‘I’m not sure. I think I held my breath.’

‘I think you felt something, a connection.’

‘Isn’t that what you girls said about the Blake boy?’ Dawn asks.

I shrug because she’s right, but there’s something about Nathaneal that is different to what I sensed when I first met Jordan.

Dawn volunteers a theory. ‘If he knows your biological family so well, perhaps you’re related.’

‘I don’t think so.’ I hope not! His image so easily returns to mind – tall, broad shoulders, obviously made for doing something other than carrying fainting girls, though what I can’t imagine, except perhaps hard physical labour or ocean swimming. I noticed his hair too, thick and yellow-gold. He looked young enough to pass as a teenager, but with the strong, solid body of a man.

The strangest thing happened when I first saw him. Oh, I know I fainted, but just before that there was an instant when I felt as if I knew him. It was a random and bizarre thought and, since I don’t do random or bizarre, I put it out of my mind.

Then he started telling me stuff that was wrong on so many levels it was impossible to believe. I would know
if I had a sister, just as I knew Ben wasn’t really my brother.

And he called me by a different name, a hauntingly beautiful name, but not mine.

Evidently Nathaneal is searching for someone he hasn’t met, a girl about my age with questionable birth details like me, I suppose. It’s just a coincidence he found me first. Obviously his research is flawed.

I kind of wish I
was
this ‘
Ebrielle
’. At least then I would have my questions answered, and a much larger family!

Jordan says Nathaneal can explain things in my life that are not making sense. I doubt that! But how does he even know some of my life doesn’t make sense? Are they watching me? Are they having me investigated? Are the cousins stalking me? This is getting creepier by the second.

I close my eyes tightly. I need sleep.

Resting back in the seat, my shoulder bumps suddenly move in a bizarre little flutter. This hasn’t happened before. It shocks me and I gasp aloud. Dawn flashes me a look in the mirror. ‘Everything all right there?’

Clasping my hands together, I remember Jordan’s note. He’s added a mobile number with the address of a local recreation area. I read it out. ‘Do you know where this is?’

‘Yes. Why?’

‘Would you mind dropping me off there?’

She frowns and starts to offer up a warning, but Amber jumps in and cuts her off. ‘Is that where Nathaneal and Jordan want to meet you?’

‘Apparently, yes.’

‘Now, Ebony, you don’t know these young men,’ Dawn says.

‘I know, but I’ll be careful. I promise.’

Dawn sighs, finding my eyes in the rear-vision mirror. ‘Ebony, I don’t like this. I’m not leaving you there alone.’

‘Dawn, I heard what those two detectives told you about my adoption not being registered. I’d really like to find out who I am before they do. I need answers more than I need protecting right now. And I promise to keep alert to any nonsense.’

‘Do either of you girls think it’s a little strange that someone claiming to know your family turns up just days after you inherit a million-dollar property?’

The sudden silence grows awkward quickly.

Dawn peers at her daughter and whispers, ‘What did I say?’

Amber smiles at me a little sadly before explaining in hushed tones, ‘For Ebony to inherit the farm, the court has to declare John and Heather legally dead.’

‘But, Amber, they –’ She stops and runs her fingers through her hair.

‘Ebony has lodged missing persons reports. She won’t inherit her property unless forensics proves her parents passed away in the fire, or declares them legally dead, which won’t happen for seven years.’

Dawn sighs, capitulating. ‘Phone your father and let him know we’re going to be late home.’

While Dawn finds a place to turn around, I call the
number on the note. After the first ring Jordan answers.

‘Hello.’

‘It’s Ebony. I’m on my way to that park.’

‘Good. You’re doing the right thing.’

‘That depends on what your cousin has to tell me.’

The park is beautiful, cast in early twilight by towering blackbutt trees, distinctive by their trunks, charred black from past bush fires that have painted them for ever. I can’t believe I’ve lived in the valley all my life and never seen this place. A river, low enough to step across on moss-covered rocks, meanders around fallen logs and exposed tree roots. A rickety wooden bridge, weathered grey, joins one grassy bank to the other.

Amber spots the Lamborghini under a shady willow tree by the river’s edge and Dawn parks the Mazda alongside it.

‘We’ll be waiting right here,’ she assures me.