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nothing to give myself away. I’ve been sitting here well back, well hidden, though not invisible. I need to stay put. Any movement will alert her. Even going invisible now may change a shadow or a shape.
    My breathing seems loud and I force it to calm.
    Wait.
    And she looks away. She’s continuing to scan the area slowly and carefully but she hasn’t seen me. It was chance that she looked my way.
    I need to work out what to do. There’s four guards. Four guards means at least six Hunters in total but probably more. They know someone killed their two friends. From my tracks they’ll know the killer was alone, that he killed with a knife. Will they know it’s me? I’m sure Celia would be smacking her forehead at this point, telling me, Of course th ey know it was you!
    And that means they’ll be hoping I will come back. So this is a trap. And again in my head I can see Celia saying, Are you stupid?! Tw o visible, two invis ible. They wantyou to think they’re a smaller party than t hey are.
    It’s a pretty basic trap, but it’s a trap for sure. The one thing I think they haven’t realized about me is that I can sense their mobile phones.
    What do they know about me? They know I’ve eaten my father’s heart; they have his body so they’ll have worked that out. So they know I’ve got his Gifts. They know what his Gifts were but they won’t know which ones I’ve mastered yet. They probably know I won’t have mastered them all. They probably think I will, given time, so catching me sooner is better than later. Obviously they’d rather kill than catch me. This is definitely a trap.
    And the other person in there? Could it be Annalise? They might know I want her. They might think I’ll want to rescue her. They might have caught her after the battle.
    If it’s a trap, I should leave. But if that is Annalise . . .
    I’ve searched for her for months. I can’t miss this chance.
    So my options . . .
    Option one: leave. Go back and tell Greatorex and get her little team out here to put their training to good use for once. They’d take two days to get here if we went at it hard. It’s a possibility. But then there’s also a possibility that the Hunters will have left and Annalise, if it’s her, will have gone too. And Greatorex might not agree to come at all. She’ll probably say it’s not worth the risk and move camp instead.
    Option two: scout out the camp but don’t attack. Check if it’s Annalise in there. This is a good option. I can stayinvisible long enough to get past the guards and into the camp and out again if I have to. If it’s not Annalise I can go and get Greatorex. Or just go. If it is Annalise . . .
    Option three: attack. I’ve never attacked more than four Hunters in a group. They’ll be able to go invisible but they don’t like to do that in close fighting, in case they shoot each other. I can always kill a few and escape. If there are too many I can run, let them hunt me and pick them off one by one. There was only ever that one fast girl who could keep up with me. But if this is a trap then these Hunters will probably have been chosen because they have powerful Gifts that can be used against me, and I’ve no way of knowing what they are. The Gift I fear most is the one Celia has: the deafening, high-pitched noise. It incapacitates me, makes me vulnerable, and I’m not sure I could stay invisible if I got hit by something like that.
    So: attacking is madness; scouting is risky; leaving is the sensible option.
    That’s that then. Decision made. I attack.

Option Three

    I may be mad but I’m not suicidal: my attack has to be in the darkest, coldest part of the night, guerrilla style rather than all-out battle mode. I wait a few hours, but my hands are stiff, almost numb, which isn’t good, and I move back through the trees and run for