She pauses, looks about her as though hoping for support, and as she glances round I know she sees me. A small smile rises on her face and she bends down, picks up the lantern and acts as if cowed, she is ready to leave. At the last moment she lifts the burning lantern and swings it, smashing it into Jack Minnow’s shocked face. He falls to the ground, hitting his head hard. Glass breaks and the lantern almost goes out. Sana hurtles past me, she makes one quick swipe at the bales with the shattered lantern and I hear the whoomph of fresh fire. I can’t let her go.

I skid into the room of the blanks just in time to see Sana stop and plant the lantern on the glass tank. She grins as she places both hands on the edge of the tank and starts to push. Her face, ghoulish in the lantern light, stretches in horrible glee, and I realize what she is trying to do. I rush forward and brace myself against the other side. I can’t let her win.

But Sana is strong, and her eyes are wild. She changes her grip to the bottom edge of the glass tank – I can see the liquid inside moving, hear the unearthly groan and creak of skin against wet glass as the man sways. And she heaves – her legs, her back, her arms, her desperation all too powerful for me to hold back. The tank breaks free from its base and I shout out, “Sana, no – the lantern!”

But this was her plan all along.

The tank – the box – hits the ground edge first and the crack sounds like stone on skull. Time slows and each shatter and fracture that spreads across the glass grows like a frost, until, all of a sudden, comes the flood.

The man’s body hits the floor with a sickening thud and the fluid gushes like a tsunami across the floor towards me, pushing Sana towards the open door and forcing me back, deeper into the museum. The smell is chemical, and when the lantern falls the flame does not need to touch liquid – the fumes are enough. With an explosive punch, a ball of fire is launched.

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-six