What were they learning? Joe wished he knew. How hard he would’ve worked, if he’d been given this chance.

‘He’s just doing his job, I guess.’ That was Tiago, with the little green hatchling called Lina. ‘Anyway, he’s leaving for Sartola in the morning, and we’ll get one of the other teachers.’

‘Isak blames us for Joe’s death,’ Noah said now. ‘I bet that’s why he’s leaving. It’s nothing to do with us!’ He bent down and cooed to his hatchling. ‘It’s not our fault none of you wanted his brother, is it, Della? Turns out you chose right in the end, eh? You’re mine, aren’t you?’

That stung, like salt in a wound, but Joe couldn’t seem to drag himself away. He pressed his face against the gap between the door and its frame, a little crack of light that he could see through.

‘Noah! That’s not true,’ Conor was saying. ‘Course he doesn’t blame us.’

‘Just cos you’re Isak’s favourite,’ Noah snapped. ‘And I wonder why that is? Only cos you were friends with his brother.’

Without speaking, Amina went to Conor’s side. They both wore pale lilac clothes now to match their hatchlings: trousers, shirts and loose jackets.

Amina shook her head, telling Conor not to react. Their dragons touched noses.

‘Isak is grieving,’ Tiago said. ‘That’s why he’s been dis­tracted lately.’

Tiago seemed to be the peacemaker in this grouping, Joe saw. 108

‘We’re all grieving!’ Amina cried, her voice catching. ‘Or would be, if you even cared.’ Then, catching a frown from the youngest girl, she broke down, near tears. ‘You didn’t know him like we did, Flavia.’

The little girl only looked down and cuddled her dragon.

‘Oh, so now you’ve lost someone, the world has to stop and listen?’ Noah muttered.

Conor and Amina stood side by side. Conor rubbed his eyes with one hand, as if he fought back tears, too.

Joe was about to step out and run to his friends – I’m alive! It’s all right! But he stopped himself just in time. Going to them now would be selfish. They were better off without him. His anger made him a danger to them. Hadn’t he just got frustrated with Winter? So much for his new start.

‘What he did on Hatching Day wasn’t like him at all,’ Conor said. ‘Joe wasn’t like that. He was kind.’

A horrible mixture of guilt and relief rushed through Joe, hearing his friends defend him. He wanted to be the person they thought he was, the person they mourned. Maybe, one distant day, he could be.

‘I only know what I saw.’ Flavia shrugged dismissively. ‘He was about to hurt me and Elias. Ravenna knew, didn’t she? She flamed him.’

Joe stood there, burning with shame. That was true: he’d been so close to hurting Flavia’s hatchling. That was why he had to stay away. So he didn’t endanger anyone. He could do it: he could let them live their new lives without him. They had their dragons to comfort them now.