“No,” Amber said, laughing. “Of course not. Well, sort of. I kissed a boy in my class when I was nine.”

“Who is he? I’ll kill him.”

They laughed, and Kelly raised Amber’s chin to look into her eyes. “That was your first kiss,” she said.

“Pretty much,” Amber said. “I didn’t want to disappoint you or do something wrong … I didn’t know what I was doing, as you could probably tell.”

“I couldn’t tell anything of the kind,” said Kelly. “That was a good kiss. It was a wonderful kiss. It made my insides all fluttery.”

“Mine, too.”

“But we could probably do better with a little practice.”

“We should practise more.”

“We should practise a lot more.”

It was a moment, a cute moment, and Amber wondered if she should make a move, lean in and kiss Kelly, maybe, but she wasn’t sure if there was a sign she should give first, something to warn Kelly what was about to happen. On TV, whenever Balthazar and Tempest kissed, it happened so flawlessly, so smoothly, that it made Amber think there might be some system in place for these things to happen, and now she was overthinking it, goddammit, and the moment was passing and she jerked her head forward and then back again, gave an awkward laugh and nearly fell over.

“You are so odd,” said Kelly, apparently amused by the whole thing.

“You’re going to kill me!” Jesper shrieked.

Kelly turned and Amber scowled and did the same, as Jesper staggered away from Milo, into the middle of the road. Ronnie and Linda came out of the bunker, followed by Austin and the dog.

“All of you!” said Jesper. “It might be him handing me over to Naberius, but you’re all responsible. Are you okay with that? Are you? It’s murder. You’re going to murder me.”

“Just like you were going to murder this boy,” said Ronnie.

“That doesn’t excuse it!” Jesper roared. “That doesn’t justify it! That won’t wipe the black stain from your souls! Believe me, I know!”

“You want to be gagged?” Milo asked.

Jesper ignored him. “Look at you. You’re proud of yourselves, aren’t you? You saved the boy. You’re heroes. Only you’re not. Because, in order to win, you’ll have to murder me in cold blood.”

“You kinda deserve it,” said Kelly, leading Amber over by the hand.

Jesper whipped his head round to her. “That is not for you to judge.”

“I’m not the one responsible for the deaths of, what, two hundred kids?” Kelly said, still holding Amber’s hand. “I think I’m in a pretty good position to judge you.”

“If you kill me, you’ll be giving the Shining Demon what he wants.”

“So?”

Tears filled Jesper’s eyes. “Please. Please, when I die I’m going to hell. Please don’t send me there now.”