Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series Two (Book 8)) by Tim O'Rourke Page B

in this world, as she never lived past the age of fourteen in her previous life. The thought of our happy faces staring out of that photograph eased my nerves a little. Didn’t that picture suggest we would be happy in this world together? Where else could it have been taken? While I had been lost in my own thoughts, I had followed Melody out of the woods and started the climb up into the mountains that surrounded the lake. It had begun to snow. Giant flakes, like feathers, seesawed lazily down and covered the narrow path I followed up the mountainside. I looked up into the sky that was now the colour of bruised flesh. The cracks were still there, spreading out like a vast net. It looked as if the snow was drifting out of them. I looked back at the path I was following and could just make out Melody way off in the distance. She was hunched forward, hands thrust into her coat pockets. I quickened my pace, now sensing that I was far away enough from those cops to risk showing out to Melody. I glanced back just once at the black lake stretched out below like a mirror. It looked like a slab of slate. Beyond the lake and the woods, I could see the darkening sky flashing blue and red as the cops continued to search for the body of the baby that had been snatched from its crib.
    The path twisted its way around the mountainside, and several times I lost sight of Melody altogether. With my rucksack hung over my shoulder, I sped up until I had her in sight again. Then, when Melody was no more than a hundred yards or so ahead of me, she suddenly seemed to disappear. I stopped short and rubbed snow out of my eyes. It was coming down fast now, and it swirled all around me like I was trapped in a giant snow globe. I moved forward to the spot where I had last seen Melody. Her boots had left tracks in the snow and I could see that they had veered off to the right and into a small crop of trees. Glancing back once, I looked down at the lake, but it had almost disappeared behind the wall of snow that now fell. I faced front, and with wispy clouds of breath escaping my mouth, I headed into the crop of trees. I hadn’t gone very far, when I saw what looked like a small clearing. Between the trees I could see a cottage. It was something right out of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales Melody had once read to me as we had sat by the lake below. The cottage was made of a rustic coloured stone, with a thatched roof. There was a chimney, but no smoke tumbled from it. The front of the small dwelling was coated down one side in snow-covered ivy. The whole scene looked like something you might see on a card at Candle Mass. I inched forward, then stopped. I could see Melody standing at the front of the cottage, her back to me. The door was made of a dark red wood with two glass panels fixed into it.
    I crept from beneath the crop of trees. Melody stood just feet away now, her back still facing me. My stomach twisted into painful knots. I took a deep breath as I readied myself to call out to her – say her name. But before I’d mustered the courage to say anything, Melody spoke.
    “If you’re going to follow someone, make sure they can’t see your reflection,” she said, staring into one of the glass panels fixed into the front door.
    I looked over her shoulder and could see myself reflected there, standing ankle deep in the snow.
    “Melody…” I stuttered.
    She turned to face me, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, I once more looked into her beautiful blue eyes.
    “Melody Rose,” I breathed out loud.
    She looked at me. “I always knew you would come back someday,” Melody said as if she too had been expecting this moment.
    “You remember me?” I smiled with delight.
    “Sure, I remember you. How could I forget?” she said, staring at me. “Your name is Isidor and you were the kid who got murdered on this mountainside.”         
     

    Chapter El even
     
    Kayla
     
    Potter sat and looked at the letters sealed in