‘Ten minutes only, please,’ the nurse warns.
Marquis kneels at my bedside and takes my hand, his eyes full of concern.
‘That bastard!’ he spits.
‘Watch your language, recruit, or I’ll have you removed!’ the nurse snaps.
Marquis pulls up a chair and Sophie lingers behind him. I do my best to smile.
‘What happened?’ I say. ‘I don’t remember my arm breaking, or fainting, or—
‘Ralph told Ravensloe that it was an accident, that you were running away, but—’
‘Wesawhim break your arm,’ Sophie says. ‘And he enjoyed it.’
I remember Ralph talking about Germany, his hand searching for the key, a hot pain … I feel a sudden burst of horror. The radio report. Two thousand people. Ursa.
‘Have you heard anything about home—’
Marquis is already shaking his head and a tear runs downhis nose. The despair floods through me again, twisting in my chest like an aching knot. I let out a shaky breath.
I’d rather suffer a hundred broken arms than this.
Sophie lays a hand on Marquis’s shoulder, but her face betrays no emotion at the fact that her parents might be dead. Perhaps she’s suffered so much pain that it no longer has an effect on her.
‘Therearesurvivors,’ she says. ‘The hospitals are full and the dragons are lifting the rubble.’
I nod. ‘Who found me?’
‘Atlas, Marquis and I followed you downstairs,’ Sophie says. ‘We saw Ralph snap your arm up against that wall—’
‘I carried you inside,’ Marquis says, ‘but you were unconscious—’
‘And Atlas?’ I say.
Why hasn’t he come to visit?
Marquis and Sophie glance at each other.
‘Atlas … hit Ralph,’ Sophie says. ‘More than once.’
‘A lot more than once, actually,’ Marquis says weakly.
‘Luckily, Gideon and Serena appeared and stopped him from doing any real damage.’
I wait as an awkward silence creeps over the room.
‘He’s been in isolation since last night,’ Marquis says and I close my eyes.
‘Dr Seymour said we should prepare ourselves for his demotion,’ says Sophie.
The words hang in the air as we all wonder what Atlas, a Third Classmisfit, could possibly be demoted to.
‘But apparently Lumens is negotiating with Ravensloe,’Marquis says. ‘He says he and Dodie can’t run the Zoology Department without Atlas.’
‘Five minutes left,’ the nurse calls, and Marquis glares at her. He takes my hand.
‘Don’t worry about Ursa,’ he says. ‘Wyvernmire knows that, without her, she has less of a hold over you. She’ll have protected her.’
