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for her pocketknife, but instead her hand closed on her phone and she pulled it out. The display blinked into life, and three bars appeared on the left hand side, indicating connectivity. It made the hairs on Alex’s arm stand up straight.
    “What?” She sat up. Matthew pushed her back down with an angry frown. Alex looked at the display, and yes, the three bars were still there. But how? Ignoring Matthew’s glaring eyes she dialled John’s number, jerking back at the static that coursed into her ear. Of course not, she snorted to herself, how could that possibly work? Matthew studied the mobile, his brows raised in an inverted ‘v’.
    “What’s this?” He extended a finger to poke at it.
    “It’s a phone, you use it to talk to people that are far away.”
    He stared at her, flickers of fear and incomprehension darting through his eyes. Light hazel, she noted, much more green than brown, with small golden flecks in them. He widened them under her open inspection and covered her hand, giving it a little squeeze.
    “You have to tell me the truth, lass, because there’s more to this than meets the eye.”
    “I don’t think I know the truth, but I’ll tell you what I know. And you’ll tell me.”
    “About what?” he hedged, and his eyes went an even lighter shade of green.
    “About why you’re a runaway.”
    “Aye.” His hand tightened on hers in warning and they watched as a swarm of men appeared on the road below.
    They did have dogs, a whole pack of dogs that bayed loudly, all of them scrabbling in the direction of the little grove of alders.
    “Sanderson!” she raised herself on her arms, only to be brutally pushed back down. “They’ll find him.” They already had, and she watched him being pulled from his hiding place, his voice loud as he protested at their rough handling.
    “Let me go.” She twisted under Matthew’s hard grasp. “I have to help him. Look! They’re hitting him.” Alex filled her lungs with air to call out, surprised into gasping by the pain in her side. Matthew clamped his hand over her mouth and pushed her flat against the ground.
    “If they find me they’ll drag me back in chains. I’m never going back, you hear? Never!” His voice was tinged with desperation. Alex struggled, but he easily held her still. “If I let go, will you promise to be quiet?” he whispered in her ear.
    The bloody hell she would. She had to help Sanderson, however much a potential lowlife he might be. He was one like her, flung down unaware into a new and frightening existence, and maybe they could help each other find some way back, even if he didn’t seem to think so. Back to normality and a life where the road in front of her was paved instead of being a dirt track. She tried to heave against him, attempting to buck him off. He was hurting her, his hand pinching tight around her mouth. Alex tried to bite him, wanting to open her mouth and yell until the soldiers found them. They could cart this huge oaf away into captivity for all she cared.
    “Like that, is it?” Matthew rolled on top of her. Alex could barely breathe, protesting squeaks escaping from under his hard hand.
    *
    She refused to speak to him once he let her go, shrugging off his helping hand when they made their way back down to the cave. Her ribs hurt like hell after his ungentle treatment, and she was still clutching her phone, the other hand stuffed into her pocket. He’d let her raise her head enough to see when they took Sanderson away, his agonised screams as he was dragged across the ground echoing in the wind.
    Alex brushed a hand across her face, blinking back on tears that made her vision blur. She didn’t want to be here, please let her wake up, please let this be a dream! She frowned down at her phone and texted a message to John. “ In the cave ,” she wrote. Maybe he could somehow push himself through time to find her. When Alex pressed the send button, the phone surged with pulsating energy, red-hot