Tripping over the hem of her long skirt, she ran across the empty kitchen to the lobby to check that the main door had been bolted shut as she’d been instructed to do. A flash of lightning lit up the main staircase, and all at once the lights went out. She climbed to the first floor. The wind had shattered one of the windows to pieces, and rain was falling sideways into the corridor. Another fierce gust slammed into the window frame, and Agnes screamed as it exploded in front of her. She felt she was losing control of herself, of her life, of the school itself. The ground that had felt so solid beneath her feet was crumbling now, exposing an ever-growing chasm that could not be filled. The School was sinking, and it was taking Agnes with it.

She crept forward along the wall and craned her neck to look down at the courtyard. The wall behind her was bathed in the blue of flashing police lights. Someone was shouting through a megaphone to open the door. Among the unfamiliar faces dripping with rainwater, Agnes recognized Magdalena.

There’s the traitor, she thought bitterly. She should have known that the submissiveness the girl had recently displayed was nothing but a ruse; she must have been waiting for the right moment to turn on those who had trusted her. Agnes wanted to scream and rail at the girl’s ingratitude, but the storm would have smothered the sound anyway.

They exchanged a long, hate-filled look, until Agnes pulled herself together.

There was one last command to follow.

Now thoroughly drenched, she opened the door of the Hive only to realize that someone else had got there first. She ran her hand across her eyes to wipe away the drops of water that were blurring her vision. In the darkness, lit intermittently by frightful bolts of lightning, a familiar figure crouched over one of the subjects. As the man lifted the child into the air high above his head, she saw something in his bearing reminiscent of a pagan ritual. Another flash of fearsome lightning illuminated the whole room, exposing for a split second the rapturous expression on the man’s face. The windows shook with the thunder that followed.

Agnes shuddered and crossed herself. For the first time since she had been entrusted with the secrets of the School, she was scared.

She closed the door behind her, her soul shaken to the core. The banging on the front door grew louder. They were trying to knock it down. She could feel now that all was lost, but perhaps there was still hope for her. She gripped the set of keys in her pocket and hurried down the steps. She would try to get to the basement and from there, take the tunnel that led to the old stables.