None of them dared broach the topic.

But even if they didn’t put it into words, it clearly weighed on everyone’s minds.

The silence lingered until—

‘Have you finished?’

The Wolf Queen, standing hands on hips at the top of the stairs. How long she’d been watching, no one knew. There were a couple of startled yelps as they turned to look at her.

‘Come on, don’t behave like you’ve just seen a monster.’

It felt like that, though no one said it.

‘So, are you all ready?’ she asked.

Ready?

Did she mean ready to begin their search for the key, and make their wish come true? There was only one key. Only one person’s wish could come true. Kokoro knew they were all thinking the same thing.

As if seeing through them all, the Wolf Queen said, ‘Well, that’s it for today, then. You can do whatever you like now. Stay in the castle, take a stroll around, go home. It’s up to you.’

‘Oh, and one other thing,’ she said. And the words that came next, so softly and gently, calmed Kokoro.

‘You each have your own individual room here in the castle, so feel free to use it. You’ll find your name plate outside, so check it out later.’

June

MAY WAS OVER AND June had arrived. Kokoro woke up to the sound of raindrops striking her window, the sort of weather she didn’t mind at all.

When she was attending school, she’d go by bicycle, and on rainy days she would wear her school-approved raincoat. She liked its damp smell when she spread it out to dry in the evening. Some people might not like that smell – a mixture of water and dust, apparently – but Kokoro was fond of it.

On an afternoon back in April, she had been unlocking her bike at the end of the school day, and as she breathed in the rain, she turned to the students making their way home, and without thinking she said, ‘It smells like rain.’

Later she saw Sanada and her little cohort lifting their raincoats theatrically to their noses and saying with a smirk, ‘Oh – it smells like rain.’ Kokoro froze in horror. They must have been spying on her.

And what was so wrong with liking the rain?

School wasn’t a place where you could speak honestly.

SHE GOT OUT OF BED, and made her way downstairs. Today when Kokoro again told her mother that she didn’t want to go to the new School, she didn’t get frustrated. Outwardly, at least, she kept her voice calm.

‘Another stomach ache, is it?’ she asked. Kokoro’s stomach really did hurt, and she couldn’t understand why her mother had to use that tone of voice, as if she were faking illness.