His future was a slammed door, leaving him bewildered.

He couldn’t bear to see Conor and Amina sitting there, their lives secure for ever now. And they didn’t even need this! They had other plans, working with their families, all laid out. And most of all, he couldn’t look at Noah.

‘Sit down, Jowan!’ Isak ordered.

No one ever used Joe’s full name.

‘We’re not finished.’ Isak looked stonily at him.

Joe hardly heard him. He stood there, legs trembling.

Noah sniggered in the silence, and whispered, ‘Happy birthday, Joe,’ just loud enough for him to hear.

From that spark, Joe’s fury and disappointment swelled, then exploded. It burned like wildfire, out of control. He felt rage, fiery and vengeful, boiling up like lava and poisoning all his thoughts. 36

‘I’m going!’ The words were out before Joe knew it. He heard all the other Potentials gasp, heard it echo round the wider crowd.

‘You must sit down, Joe. Right now,’ Isak said tightly.

‘I’m FINISHED!’ he shouted. ‘I’ve had enough!’ Joe saw his parents’ faces in a blur: aghast, humiliated, the opposite of proud. Well, they didn’t need to worry about him any more: he was leaving.

He started blundering away, blinded by tears of anger.

‘No!’ a voice squeaked by his feet. It was Flavia, the little Sartolan girl, huddling away from him, clutching the cream-coloured dragon to her chest.

For one awful moment, he imagined stamping on the girl and her dragon, pictured his feet crushing the hatchling’s tender limbs. He wanted to make someone hurt the way he was hurting, lost in the white-heat of his rage.

The little girl whimpered in fright, and the tiny dragon tumbled from her arms, right into Joe’s path.

Joe snarled in response, standing over the baby dragon. He drew back his right leg.

He heard a deep growl behind him and felt the air grow warm as Ravenna kindled flame in her chest. No! How did she know? He hadn’t done it. He hadn’t done anything. The heat built up, but Joe couldn’t move.

‘No!’ a new voice shrieked. ‘Stop her kindling, Lanys! Do it now. Stop her!’

From the corner of his eye, he saw his cousin Milla rush­ing forwards, putting herself between him and a potential blast of flame from this protective mother dragon. 37

‘Hold, Ravenna!’ Lanys cried to her dragon. ‘Stop it.’

But it was too late: the black dragon had already kindled and her chest was blushing with flame. She opened her mouth and the fire burst out.

Joe was glued to the spot. The flames rushed towards him. At the last moment, he flinched away, bending low, hands over head. He felt the heat bite his skin, smelled the sharp acrid stink of burning hair. He rolled and slapped the flames out before real damage was done.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Milla leaning in and pushing the black dragon’s head upwards, so that the jet of flame shot straight up into the air.