First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2018
Published in this ebook edition in 2018
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Text copyright © Katharine and Elizabeth Corr 2018
Cover thorns © Josef Mohyla & Andrew Unangst
Cover design © blacksheep-uk.com 2018
Katharine and Elizabeth Corr assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Source ISBN: 9780008264789
Ebook Edition © March 2018 ISBN: 9780008264796
Version: 2018-03-23
For Rebecca and Sam, the two brightest stars in my universe
E.C.
For Neill, Georgina and Victoria, with all my love
K.C.
Contents
Books by Katharine and Elizabeth Corr
A man’s voice. Leo could feel the weight of someone’s hand on his shoulder. But he stayed where he was, curled into a ball on his side, trying to remember. The pain in his chest was fading, but he was cold. Cold to the bone. And his mind was full of shadows, as if every minute of his life before this present moment had been walled off by a thick screen of smoked glass.
There was the sound of wood against stone, and sunlight hit his face. He blinked, half-opening his eyes.
‘Ronan?’ Leo reached up to touch his boyfriend’s face. They’d been at Ronan’s campsite together, and then they’d walked to the lake, and Ronan had lit a fire, and then …
And then.
Leo gasped and scrambled backwards, away from Ronan, to the edge of the room. ‘What did you do to me?’ He clawed at the pattern burnt into the skin of his chest, making it bleed.
‘Leo, don’t—’ Ronan took a step nearer.
‘No! Stay away!’ Leo remembered now. The figure of the King of Hearts, emerging from the water. The unbearable, suffocating pain as it