Free Defy the Stars by Sophie McKenzie Page B

you’re given.’
    It was good to get back to the commune the next morning. The fresh coat of paint we had given the main building earlier that spring gleamed bright white against the blue sky
and the air smelled fresh and clear after London. Leo’s dad and Ros were back from Devon, full of excitement about the cottage they wanted to buy. Dad brought Gemma home from the hospital
that afternoon. Lily was out of intensive care and doing much better than before and Gemma seemed more her old self, charting with everyone in the kitchen. She said she missed the baby desperately,
but knew she was in the best place to fully recover. I agreed to go into the hospital with her the next morning for a visit on my way to sixth form college.
    Mum’s words echoed in my head from time to time. I also thought about Cody taking money to kill someone. Everything I’d seen and heard in the Blue Parrot seemed now to belong to some
long-ago dream.
    Where was Flynn? In all the drama of last night I hadn’t really processed what Cody had told me – that he hadn’t seen Flynn since the party. I wondered what he was doing for
money. His wallet was still stuffed in my pocket. Returning it seemed impossible now.
    I mused over things Flynn had said to Cody about me – how cool, how smart, how beautiful I was. And how he hadn’t lied about leaving his work, even though it was clear he was in
massive trouble with his boss – Bentham – for running away.
    It took me ages to fall asleep that night. The image of Cody examining his gun kept flashing in front my eyes. But at last I did drift into a deep, dreamless sleep.
    Hours passed. And then a creaking noise woke me. My eyes snapped open. It was still dark. I listened out. Had I dreamed the creaking sound? I turned my head.
    A male figure was silhouetted in the doorway. I gasped, horror-struck. For a split second I stared at the man’s outline, my eyes straining to focus properly.
    And then he sped towards me.

10
    I opened my mouth to scream. But before I could make a sound, the dark figure reached me, a shadowy blur in the dim light. His hand clamped over my mouth.
    ‘Sssh, River.’ His voice was low and as familiar as breathing.
    ‘Flynn?’ My squeak came out muffled – half relief that he wasn’t a burglar who’d just broken into the commune, half shock that it was him, here, after all this
time.
    Flynn took his hand away. My still-sleep-filled eyes took him in. His face was pale in the dim light. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked.
    ‘I think so.’ I reached for my bedside lamp.
    ‘Don’t,’ Flynn whispered. He sat down beside me on the bed. ‘I don’t want your dad to know I’m here.’
    ‘What is it?’ As I spoke, the image of Cody, gun in hand, agreeing to kill someone, forced its way into my mind’s eye again. I shivered. ‘What are you doing
here?’
    Flynn took the cardigan that hung on the chair by the bed and draped it gently over my shoulders. His hand lingered on my arm. ‘I had to speak to you,’ he said, taking his hand away
at last and laying it on the quilt.
    I touched his fingertips with mine. ‘Speak to me about what?’
    We stared at each other. Flynn moved nearer. ‘I wish . . .’
    ‘What?’ I was locked into his eyes, pale gold in the dim light. I could feel the longing come off him in waves.
    ‘I came to warn you,’ Flynn whispered. He sat back.
    My stomach clenched into a knot. ‘Warn me about what?’
    ‘Cody,’ Flynn said. ‘He knows that you saw him at the Blue Parrot taking money to do a job, that you called the police about it.’
    The knot in my stomach tightened. ‘How did he know I was there?’
    ‘The police came round asking questions that showed they knew what had happened, though they couldn’t prove it. After they’d gone, Cody checked the CCTV of the backyard. It
shows the doorway of the room you were in. Cody saw you’d hidden there and he called me straightaway.’ Flynn grimaced. ‘To be honest, he’d been