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your case, you’ve been given only three weeks to train your Apprentice for the first stage of her initiation. She’ll be accompanying you to England, to the year 1377, to aid the future King Richard II. But as an observer only. This mission will break the ice for Isabel, prepare her mentally to tackle her own mission in the weeks following. So she must observe carefully.’
    ‘I understand.’
    ‘Good. There are some dangers, though.’
    ‘Isabel won’t be in any danger, will she?’
    His pause is lengthy; his words, when they come, are carefully selected. ‘Not if you train her well.’

Chapter Six
    Ethan
    I have to see Isabel. We have to get started on the training programme. Quickly! But first she has to understand all that’s happening around her and to herself. Arkarian advised me not to explain everything in one hit. The Prophecy, for example, is probably the hardest to absorb and can wait. Sure, it’s to be an observation-only mission, but mentally she’ll have a lot to do, mostly in accepting this complete other world that works within our mortal one, the only one she understands right now.
    It’s not going to be easy.
    Especially since Isabel is Matt’s sister, and he’s as protective as a father. More so, I think. How am I going to get around him to even speak to Isabel? It’s not as if he trusts me any more, not after what happened with Rochelle, which is why I haven’t hung around his place for the last eighteen months at least.
    My mind drifts back to when Rochelle first came to Angel Falls. Both Matt and I were attracted to her on first sight. Who wouldn’t be? She was so … exciting and, well, just beautiful, with long, shiny black hair,startling green eyes, skin like molten gold. She had the most amazing laugh, and when she threw you a smile you thought it was just for you. At first I thought – I could’ve sworn – she was interested in me. I felt something between us, some deep, inexplicable connection. It hit me like a bulldozer, deep in my stomach. But her signals quickly became confusing. Was she playing on both our feelings? To this day I really don’t know. But she knew right from the start that Matt and I were close friends. The strain between the three of us grew heavy, and as Matt became more serious about Rochelle, I decided to back away, sensing that our friendship was being jeopardised. I guess I thought if Rochelle wanted me, my pulling out of the race would force her into choosing. But she let me walk away. And my friendship with Matt never recovered.
    Eventually it became easier not to see Matt at all. My presence was like a thorn in his side, and then one day he went off at me, telling me how he couldn’t trust me any more, that I had to stop coming on to his girlfriend. I didn’t know what he was on about. I never tried to win Rochelle away from him, even though sometimes, even today, when we meet accidentally, I sense something … I don’t know, probably just my bruised ego thinking I could still have her if I tried hard enough. Not that I would. No way. Rochelle played with my mind once already, ruining my friendship with Matt. I’m not an idiot.
    And now I have to spend time with Matt’s sister. A lot of time.
    I get to the Beckets’ front door and notice the fine cracks in the timber boards and the peeling paint around the edges. Otherwise the house looks much thesame as I remember – a quiet two-storey white house at the very end of a lonely unlit country lane that borders national forest land.
    Taking a deep breath, I pull on the slightly rusted brass door knocker twice.
    After a minute Matt opens the door. He sees me and raises his eyebrows. He’s grown; I have to look up to meet his eyes. Well, it’s been a while since we stood this close to each other. But other than by a few centimetres, he’s not changed much at all. It’s his intense brown eyes I remember mostly, windows to his feelings. And now he’s staring at me with an expression that makes