Finding Sky by Joss Stirling Page A

that. I want to make sure Sky gets home, OK, Tina?’
    Tina looked as if she did mind, not least because she didn’t trust Zed any more than I. ‘I said I’d take Sky.’
    He held the helmet out to me. ‘Please?’
    Zed Benedict saying ‘please’. Icicles were forming in Hell. And he was offering to fulfil one of my private fantasies: me riding out of school on the back of a hot bike. I knew it was a kind of cliché, but this rocked.
    ‘Sky?’ asked Tina, worried now.
    I suppose such humility should be encouraged. ‘It’s OK. Thanks, Tina. I’ll go with Zed.’ I took the helmet.
    ‘If you’re sure.’ She bunched her dreadlocks back, a gesture that I knew meant she was uncomfortable.
    Not really. ‘See you tomorrow.’
    ‘Yeah.’ Her last look left me in no doubt that I was going to get a grilling on what happened after she left.
    Zed led me over to his bike. We were attracting quite a few astonished stares from the students milling about.
    ‘I’ve never ridden one of these before,’ I admitted as I climbed on behind him.
    ‘The secret is to hold on tight.’
    I couldn’t see his face but I would’ve sworn he was grinning. I slid forward and looped my arms around his waist, my legs brushing his hips. Easing out of the car park, he turned the bike up the hill. As he pushed up the speed, I tightened my grip. I felt a brief caress of his hand on mine—a reassuring touch.
    ‘Doing OK back there?’
    ‘Fine.’
    ‘Want to go a bit further? I can take you up into the mountains. There’s about thirty minutes of light left.’
    ‘Maybe just a little way.’
    He went past the turning to my house and up the road. It became a switchback. There was little beyond here, only a few hunting cabins and a couple of isolated chalets. He pulled up on a promontory with a view back down the valley. The sun was setting ahead of us, bathing everything in a buttery gold light that gave an illusion of warmth despite the cold.
    Parking the bike, he helped me dismount and let me admire the view in peace for a few minutes. The overnight frost still hung on in shady patches, the leaves, edged with white, crunchy underfoot. I could see for miles—the mountains which I had ignored all day thrusting themselves back into my conscious thoughts, reminding me of my insignificance in comparison to them.
    ‘So, Sky, how was your day?’
    Such a regular question from Zed was a surprise: Wolfman turning into puppy-carrying-slippers? I think not. It was kinda hard to trust him when he was acting so normal . ‘Fine. I did a little composing at lunchtime.’
    ‘I saw you at the piano.’
    ‘You didn’t come in?’
    He laughed and held up his hands. ‘I’m being careful. Very, very careful with you. You’re a scary girl.’
    ‘Me?’
    ‘Think about it. You rip me up in the parking lot in front of my friends, save my best penalty kick, chuck me out of your apple tree—yeah, you’re terrifying.’
    I smiled. ‘I like the sound of that.’ SuperSky.
    He grinned. He hadn’t guessed my thoughts, had he?
    ‘But what scares me the most is that there’s so much riding on our relationship and you don’t even know it.’
    I huffed out a sigh. ‘OK, Zed, try and explain it to me again. I’ll listen this time.’
    He nodded. ‘I guess you don’t know anything about savants?’
    ‘I know more about soccer.’
    He laughed at that. ‘I’ll just give you a little information now then, just to get us started. Let’s sit here for a moment.’ He boosted me up so I could perch on a fallen tree trunk, putting my eyes on a level with his as he leaned against it. It was the closest we’d been to each other since the raft and I was suddenly very aware of his eyes drifting over my features. It almost felt as if his fingers, not his gaze, were caressing my skin. ‘Sure you want to hear? ’Cause if I tell you, I’ve got to ask you to keep it a secret for the sake of the rest of my family.’
    ‘Who would I tell?’ I sounded oddly