For some reason that I couldn’t explain to myself, I took a few steps closer to the mirror. It seemed like a magnet, drawing me in, and I suddenly felt the strongest temptation to stare into the glass as Rosie had done and see if I experienced that same feeling of losing myself… I tore my gaze away with an effort. I wanted to rescue Rosie, not end up trapped and forgotten alongside her. So I went downstairs to where Dad and Kate were having a cup of tea in the kitchen. Or at least Kate was. Dad was emptying one of the cupboards for some reason, pulling all the tins out on to the kitchen worktop.

“Hi, Jess,” Kate said brightly. “Did you have a nice time this afternoon?”

“Sure,” I replied. “Until a whole load of gannets attacked one of the guga hunters on the clifftop.” 232

“Don’t be silly! Gannets don’t attack people,” Dad said, still rapidly emptying the cupboard of tins.

“These ones did,” I said, annoyed that he was immediately dismissing what I’d said. “Didn’t you see anything like that today? Charlie said something about the birds going mad so I thought maybe you’d come across some odd behaviour too?”

Kate shook her head. “Not that I noticed. I mean, a gannet might squawk at you a bit if you got too close to its nest. Sometimes they’ll regurgitate their food too, as a defence mechanism to see off potential threats. Is that the kind of thing you mean?”

“No! This was a proper bird attack. They were swooping out of the air and tearing bits of hair off the hunter. They turned on me when I tried to help too – look.”

I unwound my bandages to show them the cuts on my arm. That got their attention at last – Dad finally stopped rummaging in the cupboard, and they were both horrified.

“Thank goodness you weren’t more badly hurt,” Dad said, his face ashen. “I’ve never known gannets to act like that.”

Kate put her arm round me. “I’m so glad you’re 233OK.”

She helped me reapply the bandages, then said, “We’ll have to make sure Charlie doesn’t go outside by himself from now on. In fact, perhaps both of you should stay in the lighthouse?”

I shook my head. That was definitely not what I wanted. “I can’t stand being cooped up in here,” I said. “I’m sure it’ll be OK. I can always take an umbrella or something to keep the birds away.”

“Nathan, what do you think?”

Dad didn’t reply. He’d gone back to the cupboard and was rooting around in it again.

“Nathan?” Kate said a bit louder. “Are you even listening? What are you looking for in there?”

“What?” Dad sounded distracted.

“What are you looking for in that cupboard? You’ve practically emptied it.”