The words seemed to float away from me, and a cloud of confusion filled my brain as the ground wobbled beneath my feet. Will’s steadying hands were on me at once, but the strength drained out of my legs and I pulled him down with me as I crumpled to the floor.

That’s when I realized that the wetness around my ribs wasn’t just from the rain. It was warm and sticky, and there was a large shard of glass sticking out of my T-shirt. As soon as I saw it, I dimly registered the pain for the first time too, a dull throbbing that started in my side and then ran all the way up my spine to my brain.

“It’s all right,” Will said. “It’s going to be all right.”

He sounded really far away, and when I looked up, I saw my own panic reflected in his face.

“Jess?” His hands tightened round my arms. “Don’t close your eyes. Listen. You’ve got to…”

But I didn’t hear any more of what he said 329because a heavy wave swept in, wrapping me up in it like a dark blanket.

When I woke up a short while later, we were back at the guga hunters’ camp. Cailean had carefully wrapped bandages around my wound, although the glass was still lodged there. He said it would be dangerous to remove it on Bird Rock, and that it would have to wait until we were on the mainland.

The rescue boat would be here in an hour or so, and it couldn’t come soon enough for me. I wanted to get off Bird Rock and never look back. It didn’t help that Dad and Kate were furious with us for going back to the lighthouse. It was almost a good thing I’d hurt myself, because at least it meant their anger was tempered with worry.

As for Rosie, she just seemed to slip straight back in with everyone as if she’d never been gone. Everybody knew who she was, and no one seemed to realize there had been a time when she was forgotten at all. Charlie seemed oddly upset for some reason, and rushed over to me, mumbling something incoherent that I couldn’t make sense of. 330In the end, he burst into tears and Kate took him away to a quiet corner.

While the others all helped pack up the camp around us, Rosie whispered to me about how she’d gone up to the Strangers’ Room that night only to find herself face to face with Conall. When she reacted to him with fear, he’d pushed her through to the other side of the mirror, where she became lost in the fog.