His lips drew back in a snarl, and his eyes darkened as he glared at us. Then to our dismay, the tower began to shake. Perhaps it was the storm, or the power of Conall’s sudden rage, but either way we could feel the floor trembling beneath our feet and the broken glass in the window rattling free of the panes. The second parabolic mirror was full of hands now too, some of which were beating on the glass. I realized we had made a mistake in coming up here. A second later, the door leading to the staircase slammed closed, and when I hurried over to open it, it was stuck fast.

“I’ll be your friend,” Will suddenly said, raising his voice over the fierce new howl of the wind. “If that’s what you want.”

I spun round. What was he doing?

Conall stared at him with open suspicion. “Why?” He spat the word out like a stone.

“Because I think that the way you are is not entirely your fault. And I think you’ve been alone for longer than any person should have to be. And I don’t want you to hurt anyone else, even if it’s by 317accident.”

“Will you stay forever?” Conall asked.

“Yes.”

“Prove it!”

“How?” Will asked.

He wants me to do something bad…

Charlie’s words echoed inside my head, and I already knew what Conall was going to say.

“You can’t stay with me – you can’t really be friends with me – if you’re alive.” He pointed to the balcony outside. “So jump, and then I’ll know you’re telling the truth.”

I hurried back over to grab Will’s sleeve. “No!”

“And if I do that then Jess can leave?” Will asked, ignoring me and looking at Conall.

“Yes.”

“And you promise you won’t ever hurt anyone again?”

“I promise,” Conall said, eyes gleaming as he reached for Will’s hand and began tugging him over to the door leading outside.

I tried to yank him back, but Will was much stronger than me.

“It’s all right, Jess,” he said. “This is what I came to 318the island to do.”

It wasn’t what I had come here for, though. I was here to save my sister, not lose a friend. So I did the only thing I could think of – I rugby-tackled him to the ground. He was much bigger than me but I had the element of surprise, and he crashed to the floor. He grunted and pushed me off, while Conall looked on, scowling.

“Jess, what the hell?” Will dragged himself back to his feet. “You have to let me do this. Otherwise people will keep on dying and vanishing on Bird Rock.”