‘How long have you known this?’ Ellie’s voice was distorted, grating against Lottie’s ears like sandpaper. ‘When did you agree to this?’

There was electricity in her words that jolted an answer out of Lottie. ‘Since Monday, but Binah only found out the other day.’

‘OK, what I think we all need to do is –’ Anastacia stepped forward, but, before she could continue, Ellie pushed her aside, coming right up to Lottie where she blocked the light completely.

‘Hey, don’t –’ Saskia snarled, but Ellie wasn’t listening.

‘You told Binah about this? Before me?’

‘No, I … It wasn’t like that. I couldn’t. It was an accident – those were the rules. I –’

For a second Lottie thought Ellie was going to shout at her, but instead she pulled back, her hands clawing at her face.

‘This is all my fault,’ she gasped, eyes darting from side to side. ‘I did this. If I’d just let you tell my parents about Haru … If I hadn’t been so stubborn and thought that I could fix everything myself … And now …’

She burst out into a string of expletives in Maravish that made Lottie wince. The way Ellie looked, coiled in on herself in anguish, felt wrong.

Lottie stepped forward. ‘Ellie, it’s not your fault. I just want to help you. I’m sorry –’

Ellie held up her hand. ‘Briktah, Lottie, I know,’ she snapped, but it felt more like a scared dog than an angry bark. ‘Please just stop apologizing. I’m the one who should be apologizing. We always do this to you.’ She righted herself, glancing around the room, a twisted hint of a grin spreading over her lips, as if she’d finally understood some terrible joke, and, just like that, she pushed back her hair and the mask was on again. ‘I’m gonna go and cool down,’ she said with a great sigh. ‘I’ll see you back at the dorm tonight. Everyone just forget this stupid meeting, forget Haru and Leviathan, and go back to your lives. I’ll deal with this.’

‘Ellie –’ said Lottie.

She was stopped by a roguish half-smile, an echo of the one her princess used to wear with such ease.

‘It’s fine, Lottie. I said I’d deal with it. See you later.’

The door thudded shut behind her, hardly a slam, yet Lottie felt it reverberate through her like an earthquake.

‘What about Jamie?’ Saskia’s voice was gentle, a fragile plea for a fellow Partizan.

‘All I know is that we have to keep him in the dark about Haru,’ Lottie admitted, clutching the wolf pendant at her chest. Some unspoken decision had been made by Ellie just now, and she could tell by the way her heart thudded painfully that this was different from her usual outbursts.

11

‘Where do you disappear to?’

‘Excuse me?’