Read Online Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis - Free Book Online Page A

my business anyway.’
They both crunched without speaking further for a moment.
‘How come you’re not at work now?’ As school finished at three, Sky knew both her parents would be working for at least a couple more hours. ‘Sorry, that’s really none of my business.’
Jared laughed. ‘Your dad sent me home early since the garage was quiet. Figured I’d come down here and whale-watch while it’s still light enough to see them.’
‘Me too.’ Sky didn’t add that she’d come down to the pier so she could spend some time on her own, trying to work out what the hell had happened to her. But that was probably obvious.
‘It’s a good place to come to think.’
Sky wandered back to the railing, but opted not to lean against it this time. And it only took almost dying twice to learn that lesson.
Jared grabbed hold of the nearest section and gave it a firm yank. ‘It seems solid enough over here. That section must just have been rotten.’
But Sky wasn’t really listening. She was staring at the water, seeing the sparks of light reflect from its surface, trying to remember the sensation of ice engulfing her, filling her lungs…
‘…should call someone to come down and fix it. Hey, are you all right?’
Jared touched her shoulder, and it was like being pulled back from the edge again. Sky gasped.
‘Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry, spaced out for a second there. And it’s Old Moley we need to call to look at the rail. The town council keeps him on retainer for this kind of thing.’
She went to head back along the pier to the promenade, but Jared stopped her with a hand on her arm.
‘You can’t remember what happened to you down here that night, can you?’
Sky laughed nervously, her body tensing. ‘I thought you weren’t going to ask me about that.’
Jared let go of her and took a step back, hands up. ‘I’m sorry. I just thought maybe you wanted to talk about it. I didn’t mean to pry.’
He looked sincere. And even though he may have stood out in any normal town, with his lip ring and an electric blue streak in his dyed black hair, in Blackfin, Jared was cookie-cutter normal. Or actually very good-looking, now that Sky thought about it. But most of all, he didn’t look like he was just digging for ammunition to use against her like those dorks in her class.
‘I remember coming here. I just can’t remember anything that happened between then and when I woke up at home. And it’s all gotten mixed up because everyone kept telling me over and over that it didn’t happen, and after a while I just accepted that I’d dreamt it, you know?’ Jared said nothing, just listened. ‘But leaning against the rail a moment ago, I can’t see how I could accidentally fall over it. It’s too high, and someone would have noticed if part of it had broken away like that rotten section just now.’
‘From what I’ve heard,’ Jared spoke softly, like he was worried about spooking her, ‘it was a boy called Sean Vega who found you. He followed you down here and pulled you from the water.’
‘He what ? ’ Sean hadn’t mentioned anything about this to her in the caretaker’s storeroom that morning, although he had said he’d followed her.
He actually saw me dead? How the hell am I supposed to bring that up in conversation?
And Sean was smart, so he would know how to check if a person was still breathing, still had a pulse. How could he have mistakenly thought she was dead? And there must have been hospital workers, morticians, a coroner…
‘You look like you’re going to throw up.’
Sky felt like it, too.
‘Look, I don’t know whether this will help or not, but if you really want to find out what happened that night, you might want to talk to the old gypsy.’ Jared nodded towards the fortune-teller’s hut at the foot of the pier. ‘That policewoman couldn’t find her to question her when it happened, but I found out where she went after leaving the hut. And I’m thinking if she left in such a hurry, it was