Suddenly, Teacake is standing in front of me. I hold her tight, pressing my face into her shoulder, my hands against the waxy feathers of her wings. She wipes the tears from my cheeks. Her own eyes are glistening: the whites are pale pink against her deep garnet irises.
‘And the moon shines bright, as I rove at night,’ she says, nodding seriously. ‘Terms and conditions apply, Jaya.’
‘Exactly,’ I say, half laughing and half crying. ‘Go. Go fly.’
This time, there’s no dramatic take-off: she simply pushes off from the ground and rises above the waterfall, slow and serene. A few curious blackbirds loop around her legs, like ribbons trailing from a kite. Her wings make powerful sweeps back and forth, creating gusts of wind that ripple across the water. I close my eyes, feel the breeze on my face and in my hair.
When I look up again, Teacake has floated far past the treetops. Then, quite suddenly, she stops. She glides downwards, picking up speed as she tumbles towards the water. I leap to my feet, my heart in my mouth – but then she makes a wide curve across the pool, splashing me with the edge of her wings, and flies back into the air. She hovers above us for a moment, a peaceful smile on her face, and flicks her wings goodbye.
‘Go!’ I laugh, though my heart is still pounding. ‘Get home. Be safe.’
I walk back to Allie, who’s sitting below a beech tree at the edge of the path. She kisses the tears off my right cheek, runs one hand through my hair. Above us, Teacake rises higher and higher, her wings sketching pinkish curves against the sky. Allie leans against my shoulder, her hair tickling my ear. ‘It’s still hard to believe, isn’t it?’
The sun’s glare starts to makes our eyes water, but we keep watching as Teacake shrinks into the sky. Soon, she’s just a shimmer of movement against the sunrise. Another few beats, and she disappears from view. But not completely.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are so many people who have contributed to or supported this book in one way or another, and I’m so grateful to all of them! A huge thank you to –
My brilliant agent Hellie Ogden, for seeing the potential in this book and for all the help and hard work getting it there, and everyone at Janklow & Nesbit UK.
My editors, Rachel Petty and Katherine Jacobs, for their excellent insights into this story and its characters and for making it at least a thousand times better than it was before, Kat McKenna and Nina Douglas for the brilliant PR and marketing, and everyone at Macmillan for all their enthusiasm and for doing such a wonderful job turning it into an actual real-life book! I still can’t quite believe it.
Caroline Ambrose and everyone involved in the Bath Children’s Novel Award, Wendy Bough at the Caledonia Novel Award, and the entire Undiscovered Voices team at SCBWI British Isles for the encouragement and huge confidence boosts through their competitions, and for all their brilliant work supporting new and upcoming writers.
All the staff at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre for their support via the Bridge Award, and for helping to create such an inspiring place.
The many writing teachers and tutors I’ve had over the years – a special mention to Juno Dawson, who listened to me very nervously read the opening of this book in a masterclass several years ago and gave me such nice feedback that it pushed me to actually finish!
The BackachYA critique group and my sensitivity readers for their helpful feedback, and the UKYA community, SCBWI Southeast Scotland and the Electric Eighteens debut group for creating such warm and welcoming spaces for writers.
My family, especially my parents, Julia and Alastair Cameron, for keeping me very well supplied with books over the years and for all their support in writing this one. It’s no Dogger, but I hope you like it!
My friends, especially Grace Kavanagh for being one of my first readers and Ash Rayne for basically being my hype man – even if that mostly includes asking if I get to be on This Morning now (no) and if she can come too (also no).
Finally, thanks to Na?a Lebrun for being a constant sounding board for ideas, for all the feedback and the plot-untangling walks, and more generally for making life amazing. I could write something about you being an angel here, but that’d be really gross so I won’t.