Leah continued, “Your hair is white, which means you must have got a whole lot of energy from somewhere. What have you been playing at?”
Eyes on the ceiling, Harriet said, “I went to see the Tricksters.”
Rima swore, short and fast. “What did they do? Did they hurt you?”
“Not as such. They explained to me how I could take, um, leftover powers.”
Felix frowned. He’d never heard of any powers being leftover. “What does that mean?”
“You know, where they aren’t being used. Going to waste. Like … with the Shells.”
Rima gasped. “They made you steal a power from a Shell? Oh, Harriet, you poor thing. You should never have gone near the Tricksters. They can’t be trusted.”
Kasper looked wide awake now. Rufus and Vini had been trying to persuade Kasper to possess humans for them for years, ever since they’d found out what his unused power did. They would probably be delighted when they heard that he’d finally used his power. If they’d got to Harriet, too, who knows what terrible things she could have learnt?
“How did you do it?” Felix asked. There was something about the set of her shoulders that made him think she was hiding something.
Harriet froze. She looked between them and swallowed hard. “I… It wasn’t that bad, I promise.” She was pleading with them now. Whatever she’d done, she clearly really wanted them to forgive her for it.
Immediately, Felix understood. If it was possible to take someone’s power, then there was only one way that could be done. “You took their energy, didn’t you?”
Harriet looked trapped. “No!” She paused. “OK. Yes. I did.”
Taking another ghost’s energy was forbidden. It was the absolute most important rule – the unthinkable thing that would get you sent straight down to the basement. Even the thought of doing it made Felix want to throw up. It was cannibalism, pure and simple.
“How much? A little bit of energy, a taste? Or – or all of it?”
She didn’t want to answer. Her denial was clear from her expression.
“Did they disintegrate?” he pressed. “Harriet?”
Every muscle in her neck was tensed when she nodded.
“No,” Rima said, the word cracking down the middle.
“How many?” Leah’s voice was hard as stone.
Felix’s mouth was dry. Too dry to speak. Felix had been a Shell just days ago. It was only luck that meant he’d absorbed some of Harriet’s stray energy when she died. He could easily have been up on the fifth floor instead, still a Shell even now. He could have been the person Harriet had killed.
Harriet couldn’t meet their gazes. “Two. A girl and a boy. The others disintegrated on their own.”
Rima had turned pale. She looked like she was about to faint. Kasper had gone green, wrapping his hands around his knees as he hugged himself.
This was worse than anything Felix had imagined Harriet was capable of. She had done this more than once. She hadn’t just tried it and found it repulsive and sickening. She’d gone back for more.
Now all of the fifth-floorers were gone? For ever? Felix cursed himself for not doing something to help bring them back from being Shells. He’d been too distracted to think about them and now they were gone for ever.
Felix thought vaguely that they would have to send Harriet to the basement now, but he didn’t know how to make that happen. Usually, when someone was sent to the basement, there was shouting and violence and anger. They were marched downstairs by Qi, who would imprison them inside with lightning. But Harriet was still looking at them like she’d made a terrible mistake. Like this was all a trick that the Tricksters had played on her. Was she a victim here?
“You destroyed them,” Rima said. She was clearly struggling to believe it.
“You told me that the Shells are close to disintegrating,” Harriet said. “It was inevitable. I hurried it along a bit, that’s all.” She was staring out of the window, watching a pigeon fluff its feathers on the sill. “It’s euthanasia, more than anything.”
“It’s murder,” Kasper said.
Harriet went very still.
“They only needed a bit of energy and they’d be just like the rest of us.” He had his head in his hands. “I told you that, when we went to find your phone. You can’t pretend you didn’t know.”
Harriet’s face twisted in a conflict of emotions. “It’s irrelevant now, anyway. I put them out of their misery.”
Felix was suddenly furious. Harriet was a liar. Nothing she was saying was true. She had never thought about anyone but herself, not once since she’d arrived.
“You made them disintegrate!” he shouted at Harriet. “That’s far worse than being a Shell. You can’t pretend that you did it for their sake, when all you’ve ever cared about is yourself!”
Harriet lunged at him, teeth bared and pure hatred in her eyes. Kasper was at Felix’s side in an instant, as Felix skittered back on his heels. He pushed Felix behind him as Leah leapt forward to block Harriet’s path.
Felix had a sudden vision of Harriet sending them all into comas. All she would need to do was touch them and she could knock them out, or take all their energy like she had with the Shells. He had to stop this before it got that far.
“Everyone, calm down. This isn’t productive,” he tried to say, but the air was so full of voices it was impossible to distinguish any words. Rima was yelling, and Harriet was hissing out threats, and Leah was muttering something ancient and lethal while Claudia wailed in her arms, and Kasper— Felix focused his attention on him; carefully attuned to his timbre after decades of practice.
“Harriet,” Kasper was pleading, “just stop. This isn’t like you. There’s something wrong. Someone’s—”
Felix brought his fingers to his mouth and let out a single piercing whistle. Immediately, there was silence. Rima sobbed.
Before Felix could speak, Kasper said, “Harriet, why didn’t you come to me if you needed help? Why did you
