Heloise: There’s something wrong with her, everybody knows it! She’s done something to him, I know she has. She’s some sort of…I don’t know what she is, but she can control people. I’ve seen her do it. She made him leave! What if she’s hurt him, what if she made him hurt himself?! She’s got it in for us because of what we—because of…oh, ALFIE!
She trailed off into sobs.
Miss Cheery: Heloise. I know how upset you must feel, but—
Heloise: What’s her knack? Nobody knows. Know why the Elders won’t tell anyone? Cos it’s something dangerous. How come all these disappearances only started happening when SHE joined the Society?
A sea of faces turned Morrigan’s way. A familiar creeping sensation climbed the back of her neck, and in that instant, she realised she’d been waiting for this. Since her first day at Wunsoc, since the disappearance of Paximus Luck, the cursed girl who still lived somewhere inside Morrigan had been waiting for this. The accusation.
Miss Cheery took Heloise’s arm again, just as the whispers began.
Miss Cheery: Why don’t you come with me, Heloise? Come on. Let’s get you up to Proudfoot House and we’ll sort this all out. I think you need a nice cup of tea.
But Heloise was yowling like an angry cat, and wrenched her arm out of Miss Cheery’s grip. Heloise: Shut UP! Don’t you TOUCH ME!
Heloise drew her arm back and Morrigan barely had time to register the flash of silver in her hand before the girl had lashed out. Miss Cheery cried out in pain as Heloise sliced her right across the face with one of her throwing stars, drawing a thin, shallow line of blood.
There were gasps and shouts of dismay all around them on the platform.
Morrigan opened her mouth, a strangled noise of shock and fury rising up in her, but no sound came out. Instead, she felt a wave of anger such as she’d never felt before. It crashed over her not like water but lava, molten fire burning her from the inside. The taste of ash sprang to the back of her throat, just like it had when the first blackmail note had appeared. Her sudden rage was a monster, clawing its way up from deep within her chest, from her lungs, searing the flesh of her throat and bursting out of her mouth, igniting the very air around her.
She felt the wrath of a hundred dragons.
She would set the whole world aflame.
A fireball sprang from Morrigan’s lips.
It burned through the air, uncontrolled and without a target, singeing Heloise’s skin as it whooshed past her and shot straight into the domed canopy of trees overhead, setting the station roof ablaze.
Morrigan heaved in deep, gasping breaths, watching the horror unfold while her fury burned itself out.
(Chapter Thirteen: Fire and Ice-page 225)
