Soul Fire

aren’t working properly. Lewis takes my hand and helps me into the cabin.
    ‘Almost home,’ he says.
    The killer has been following me .
    The plane’s almost full. Lewis is directed into the first free seat by an impatient flight attendant. Ade’s in the aisle near the front. Cara’s right behind him. I keep walking
along the aisle, hanging on to the tops of the seats because I feel unsteady.
    ‘Alice! I’ve saved you a place!’
    Sahara is waving from the centre emergency exit row. She pats the aisle seat. ‘I’ll buy you a Danish pastry, too. I’ve saved just enough euros for a treat on the way
home.’
    I stare at her. It has to be her. Where did she take that picture of me? And why?
    She’s reaching out for me, her long fingers grasping at the already stale cabin air.
    There’s something about the shape of her hand.
    I blink, and I see the image I saw when I hugged my sister. Those gloves again. Leather. Driving gloves. Or the kind you’d wear on a motorbike .
    And I realise the flash of light wasn’t light at all. It was pale, white fabric. A pillowcase.
    ‘Alice. You’re holding up the flight now. Come on, sit down. We’ll soon be home. It’ll all be over.’
    I stumble into the seat, bashing my leg against the arm rest. I can’t seem to do up my seatbelt and Sahara leans over to do it for me, like a mother helping her child.
    The flash was the pillow coming down onto my sister’s face . Probably the last thing she ever saw.
    ‘That’s better,’ Sahara trills. ‘The captain said earlier there might be a few bumps on the way back, due to turbulence. But now you’re all safely strapped
in.’
    Meggie.
    Tim.
    Zoe.
    When will it stop? Am I the end of the line?
    I turn to face Sahara, and she’s smiling – and so close in these budget airline seats. She’s been desperate to get close to me ever since we lost Meggie, and now she’s
managed it. Even if it does seem to be by eliminating everyone else close to me. ‘Thanks, Sahara. I don’t know what I’d do without you.’
    She beams back at me and I try not to shudder. I know this is more dangerous than anything I’ve done before, but it’s the only way.
    To catch the predator, I must become the prey.

When I first heard Meggie sing, it almost made me believe in heaven.
    ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
    And grace my fears reliev’d;
    How precious did that grace appear
    The hour I first believ’d!’
    She made the words of that old hymn so convincing, yet now, somehow, the lyric only works if I substitute Alice for grace . . . I believe in Alice, and the idea of a world
without her terrifies me.
    As time passes, I realise being unmasked is not the most frightening outcome. What scares me most is anonymity. A time when no one cares about the things I’ve done, when
even Alice has moments when she forgets.
    The pace is increasing. I know what I have to do to make Alice believe, and I know the time cannot come too soon. She seems almost as impatient as I am.

Acknowledgements
    Soul Fire has been edge-of-the-seat stuff – not just for Alice, but for me too.
    First and foremost, I have to thank Jenny and especially Amber for helping me to navigate through a challenging maze of deadly secrets, red-hot fire runs and dark gothic alleyways. You’re
so much better at seeing the (flaming torch) light at the end of the tunnel. I am in awe.
    Thanks so much to Nina – top girl and top Twitter guru too – for organising such brilliant publicity for the first book – and to Louise for coming with me to the fab Eternal
Twilight.
    The team at Orion make up a constellation of superstars. It’s been amazing to have Lisa and Fiona championing the book so strongly from the start, Pandora making the audio version so
terrific, and Jen, Kate, Louise and Mark doing such a great job to raise awareness online and in the ‘real’ world.
    I’d like to say a special thank-you to the amazing bloggers who work so hard to get books talked about: Amanda from Floor to Ceiling Books, Carly at Writing from the Tub, Emma at Book
Angel’s Booktopia, Jenny at Wondrous Reads, Karen at Reading Teenage Fiction, Liz, Mark and Sarah at My Favourite Books, Rhiana at Heaven, Hell (now Cosy Books), SJH at A Dream of Books and
Viv at Serendipity Reviews. Apologies if I’ve left anyone off, and tell me for next time!
    Hello to so many people who’ve let me know via Twitter who they think killed Meggie. Some of you might just be right . .