Something was off. She could feel it in the way Vampy shivered in her arms, and in how her emotions had turned numb, part of her held captive, afraid of something she couldn’t pin down.

As she’d done so many times before, Lottie turned the ‘W’ on the Elwin statue, and with Vampy purring nervously at her ear she made her way into the dark.

‘Hello?’ she called, a weak, naive part of her hoping Jamie might be down there.

Switching the fairy lights on, the room came to life with a rosy glow, only it wasn’t the warm light she was used to. The light filled her with the same nervous dread as the flicker of a predator’s eyes in the dark of the woods.

In spite of their argument, Lottie wondered if she should go and get Ellie. Then she saw the papers strewn across the floor by the desk. Her private sketches laid bare like a bleeding heart.

At her side Vampy began howling again. ‘Shh, shh,’ she cooed, frowning as she tried to make sense of the mess, but the cat kept on.

‘Vampy, please, I –’

She looked up and she was sure her heart stopped.

In the centre of the dressing table was Jamie’s wolf pendant, shattered, just as Claude’s had been.

Laid out on the floor beneath the severed wolf were all her clues from Claude, a conversation that mapped out the terrible truth.

Jamie had got to it first. She’d been too late.

Vampy let out another wail, and it was as if it came from inside her own head.

Tears spilled down Lottie’s cheeks, blurring her vision while her hands reached for the note tucked into the mirror.

Jamie’s writing. The words caught in her mouth, each one like a kiss and a bite.

Lottie,

I have left to find my family. I’ll come back for you and free you from the wolves.

I am your Partizan, and I promise I’ll always keep you safe.

Jamie

She had to tell Ellie.

Part Three

TRUTH COMING OUT OF HER WELL

1896 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme

29

Ellie stormed the Maravish palace hall. Abandoning her coat and scarf on the marble, she moved like a white tornado. ‘How could you keep this from us?’ she screamed at her parents, and Lottie was sure she saw the room rattle.

‘Eleanor –’

‘No!’ Her voice boomed like thunder. ‘You’re going to tell us everything. Now.’

The king and queen shared a look, then they began to lead the way to the lilac quarters where Ellie’s grandmother waited.

Everything had moved so fast once Lottie had found Jamie’s shattered wolf. Within the hour they were flying back to Maradova. Here in the palace all the fear was starting to seep into her bones like the cold in the walls.