‘Don’t be an idiot. She’d just give it back to Geryon!’

He braced one arm against the floor and twisted underneath her, managing to get her off balance and toppling sideways. Squirming out from under her, he made a grab for the Dragon, in the process planting a knee in her stomach that knocked the wind out of her in spite of the Swarm’s protection.

Somehow, Alice kept one hand on the book, while the other pushed at Isaac’s face in an extremely undignified manner. He had her by the wrist, and they flopped and wrestled on the floor, raising a billowing cloud of dust that made it hard to breathe. Red-faced and sweating, Isaac refused to let go, until Alice finally got her legs between them and planted both her feet in his chest. That gave her the leverage to push him away, but he squeezed her wrist hard enough that the book slipped free, and in the ensuing scuffle one of them gave the Dragon a kick that sent it skittering across the dusty floor.

Alice and Isaac separated, both sweating and panting, and spent a long moment staring at each other. Then, as though a starting gun had gone off, they both rolled over and scrabbled towards the book on their hands and knees.

Alice got a hand on it at the same moment Isaac did. They both pulled, in opposite directions, and the little book flopped open between them. In her flustered state, it was a second or two before Alice thought to avert her eyes, and that was a second or two too long. The writing curled and shifted under her gaze, and she read:

Alice screwed her eyes shut, but she could tell by the breath of wind on her face that she’d been too late . . .

Chapter Twenty-five: The Dragon

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

THE DRAGON

Alice screwed her eyes shut, but she could tell by the breath of wind on her face that she’d been too late. The air smelled of wet rock and growing things, not the ancient dust of the library. They were inside the Dragon.

‘Oh, no.’ This was Isaac, speaking not inside her head as Geryon had, but from somewhere nearby, which meant that he was inside the book too. ‘No, no, no, no, no. How could you . . . you stupid . . .!’

Alice opened her eyes. Isaac stood beside her, ragged coat flapping in the slight breeze, staring around with a rage that was rapidly transmuting into terror. He rounded on her, fists clenched at his sides. Alice could see a set of parallel scratches on his cheeks, where she’d caught him with her fingernails.

‘Of all the stupid things you could have done, it had to be this!’ he shouted, his voice echoing off the surrounding rocks. ‘I should have – oh, God—’