‘Everyone shut up!’ Serena shouts as she finds the right station and the radio crackles to life.
She turns the volume up and music fills the room. I close my eyes, playing the horror of Sophie’s story over and over in my mind. If we don’t crack this code and win the war, Sophie will live at Granger’s Prison forever. A lifetime as a class evader. There’s no way I can let that happen, no way I can let what I did to Sophie hurt her any more than it already has—
‘Dance with me?’
Marquis slips through the door, grinning, and holds out his hand. I shake my head, but he insists, pulling me out of my seat and spinning me into the centre of the room as Dodie claps. The music is a jazz song, one we used to play at home, and Serena twirls Katherine towards us. Gideon and Karim laugh and, when Atlas and Sophie prance across the rug with the setting sunlight in their hair, I forget about who we are, forget about the dark secrets that shroud each of our lives.
And for a moment, just a moment, we are golden.
‘This is London. You will now hear a statement from the Prime Minister.’
I look up as Wyvernmire’s voice replaces the music.
‘I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room of Ten Downing Street. After a week of war, and courageous battle onthe part of our army and volunteering countrymen, theHuman-Dragon Coalition launched, this afternoon, a brutal attack on the innocent people of Central London.’
I drop back into the armchair as everyone breaks apart. Atlas pulls the blackout curtains closed.
‘We, as a nation, have a clear conscience. We have done all that any country could do to establish peace between humans and dragons. And yet the rebels insist on betraying the Peace Agreement, on betraying Parliament, on betraying democracy. Reports have so far confirmed that this attack has taken the lives of over two thousand First, Second and Third Class citizens since midday in the quarters of Soho, Camden, Mayfair, Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury and Marylebone.’
I jump to my feet.
‘We are a country whose soul has known the iron of adversity and defeat. But we shall know it no more! The assurance of support we have received from Queen Ignacia, as well as from the independent wyvern community of the Mendip Hills, has been reiterated …’
A deep, sickening horror rises in my stomach. I stare back at the shocked faces around me and my eyes land on Sophie.
‘You, the British people, must report for duty in accordance with the instructions you receive …’
Marylebone.
Wyvernmire said Marylebone, the one place I thought Ursa might be safe. I grasp the arm of the chair as my legs go weak.
‘… together we will put an end to the unjust persecution of our countrymen and countrydragons …’
I stumble from the room and grip the bannister tightly as I half walk, half trip down the stairs. Two thousand people dead. I moan. Why did I leave her?Howcould I? The front doors are locked. I try the doors of the passages that lead out of the entrance hall. One of them opens into a corridor and through to the kitchen. I stumble through the dark, beneath the rows of pots and pans hanging from the ceiling, as Ursa’s crying face flashes before my eyes. I turn the key to the back door of the kitchen and stumble out into the dark walled garden, taking deep gasps of cold air.
If Ursa is dead, then I have nothing left to live for.
I sink to my knees.
Please not her. Anyone but her.
My chest tightens and I double over.
‘Recruit? Do you need a doctor?’
Guardian boots crunch across the gravel and someone pulls me to my feet. Ralph takes one look at my tear-stained face.
‘Featherswallow. You’ve heard the news, then.’
I stare at him.
‘Fitzrovia, that’s where you lived, wasn’t it?’ He lets go of me and lights a cigarette. ‘Lose someone, did you?’
‘I shouldn’t be here,’ I say. ‘I’ll go back inside.’
‘No, you won’t.’ He taps the end of his cigarette and looks at me. ‘But Ishouldreport you for being out after hours.’ He nods towards the kitchen door. ‘You could have let some light out.’
I don’t answer. I imagine Abel and Alice trying to shield Ursa as the ceiling comes down around them.
