Thyla (21 page)

On the morning after the battle in the clearing, Perrin came to visit me. He was dressed in his school uniform. It made him look younger.

I was in my room. I had been given a day off lessons to recover. The school did not know what I was recovering from, but they saw the bruises and gashes (which were healing quickly, as Isaac promised they would, but were still visible). They knew it was something major.

‘Five minutes,’ said Miss Bloom as she let him in. ‘And leave the door open.’

Then she was gone, and Perrin and I were alone, with the air sparking between us.

‘Have you remembered?’ he asked, without saying hello.

‘Some,’ I said. ‘Most –’

‘Have you remembered
us?
’ he said, walking towards me, his voice urgent now. ‘Little girl, tell me you’ve remembered us.’

I looked at him with wide eyes, trembling, unable to speak.

Because I did remember.

Stolen moments, longing, his eyes staring into mine like he wanted to see my imaginings.

Hungry kisses.

Me. Perrin.

A Sarco and a Thyla.

Forbidden.

It felt like dreams, like the dreams I’d had when I was still forming a picture of my history. The dreams that were concocted of memories buried deep in my consciousness. But how had I buried Perrin? How had I forgotten this?

And how had he acted as if he had forgotten me?

‘Why did you never tell Rhiannah you recognised me?’ I asked. ‘Why did you never tell her you had seen me in my human form before?’

‘I think you know the answer to that, Tess,’ he said. ‘It would destroy her …’ He trailed off, and I knew he was thinking of where Rhiannah might be now; wondering if she was already
destroyed
. He shook his head and went on. ‘It would destroy everything. This has to be our secret.’ He moved closer to me. ‘I remember the first time I saw you in human form. I saw you change. I thought I had never seen anything so beautiful. I still think that.’

Perrin leaned forward.

And then suddenly, as we stole a kiss that felt like our first and our thousandth, I remembered more.

And more.

And my story changed all over again.

Firstly, a huge thanks to the amazing people at Random House – to Zoe for her faith in this project from day one, to Kimberley for her tireless work, vision and wisdom, to Christa for her brilliant cover, and to everyone else there who has helped to make
Thyla
a reality. Thank you to Angelo Loukakis for reading the start of this novel and telling me it had potential. Thank you to my super-agent, Nan Halliday, for her incredible knowledge and faith in me, and for so many other kindnesses she shows me. I would be nowhere without her. Thank you also to my writing group: Tansy, Larissa, Em, Sarah and Tracey, for putting up with me talking about Sarcos and Thylas and Diemens ad nauseum. Thank you to my parents-in-law, Laurel and Craig, for not minding when I disappeared to write (and also for listening to me gabbling about shapeshifters and immortals and such. I promise, your son has not married a nutter). Big thanks to Mephy Danger Gordon for being my muse. Finally, most enormous thanks to my family and my darling Leigh. You are my clan and my everything.