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The bird ruffled her feathers and shook her tail. Some human speech sounds are easier than others with a beak. Especially a bruised one.

‘Well, I’m glad you’ve found your voice now. I’m Ophelia, and this is Aiden.’

Lunar. Thank you for helping me.

3

Amrita couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing: she’d followed her satnav app until she’d hit fog that seemed to have rolled out of a perfectly blue sky, and the flipping thing had conked out right when she needed it most. Without any better options, she kept following the road she’d been on and was grateful when road signs appeared.

Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the fog was gone, and she was driving through the cutesiest place she’d ever seen. It looked like it could have been pulled from a postcard – or lifted straight out of a Hallmark movie – and was almost certainly the type of place where everyone would know everyone else.

She came to a crossroads and leaned forward to tap her phone a couple of times, but the map was confused – convinced she was driving through a river rather than down a road nestled between old stone buildings perched on top of actual real cobblestones. She tried to remember the instructions Jamie had insisted on giving her: there was something about a church and the library. She sighed, wishing she’d paid better attention.

She wasn’t holding anyone up behind her, so she swiped the useless map from her screen, thinking she’d try to call Jamie. She jumped at the tap on her window and quickly rolled it down.

‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t phoning while driving…’ she started guiltily.

‘Did not think you were.’ A woman with blonde hair so bright it was almost silver and grey eyes leaned in. ‘But I did think you might be looking for something?’

‘Yeah, I am… I’m sorry, is that a bird?’ Amrita stared in amazement at the ghostly creature perched on the woman’s shoulder.

‘Bird, bird!’

‘Yes. My colleagues rescued her, fed her, and now she seems to want to stay with us, even though we have released her more than once in the last week. It’s not the first time such a thing has happened.’ She shrugged, making the bird dance. ‘Her name’s Lunar. And I’m Rayenne.’

‘Right.’ Amrita was distracted by the intensity of the bird’s bright pinky-red gaze.

‘So, what are you looking for?’

‘Umm…’ She read off the address.

‘Oh, the office with Jamie’s place.’ The woman nodded. ‘You want to turn right here, drive past the church, and turn left after the library. It’s on… oh, one of the tree places… Oak?’ She paused, looked at the bird and nodded. ‘If course, it’s Rowan Drive. Creamy-coloured building with a slate roof and lots of light. And height. Good roosting. If you get to the river, you’ve gone too far.’

‘OK. Thank you so much!’

‘Not to worry. You would have found what you were looking for when the time was right. Most people do round here. Whether they realise it or not.’ She smiled and headed back the way she’d come, apparently deep in conversation with the bird.

Amrita was still puzzling over the interaction when she pulled up outside the building: the tallest on the block, and glowing with light. Jamie met her at the door.

‘Hi.’ He hesitated. Not for long, but just long enough for her to notice and hope that he wasn’t going to be weird or rude again. ‘Please, come on up.’

‘Thanks.’ She followed him through the small office building. There wasn’t anything special about it – just typical nondescript carpets, glass and not-quite-wood finishes that seemed to be generic office attire – certainly nothing to hint at an award-winning design firm.

‘I just rent office space here,’ he explained, as if he’d heard her thoughts. ‘It’s not very pretty or inspiring, but it’s well-located and has flexible space for when I need a bit more. And there’s an excellent administration team who are the real miracle workers: they manage to make me look almost professional and organised – which is a lot of work.’

‘I can believe it.’ Amrita bit her lips together – too late.

‘Ouch! Straight for the character assassination!’ He laughed, making her relax.

‘You did start it.’ She pulled a face.

‘Did I? Was that during our perfectly professional and amicable design discussion?’

‘The one where you ignored everything I said?’

‘Ignored is such a strong phrase.’ He held a door open for her. ‘Maybe I just needed a bit of time to let my brain percolate the wisdom being offered.’

She shot him a sceptical look. ‘That’s a very creative interpretation of how I remember things.’