“You thought what?” she said, calmer suddenly than she’d been throughout the whole conversation. “That we were going to be together for ever? This isn’t a love story, Kasper. You were a bit of fun. A means to an end.”
Kasper’s face crumpled. He took one step back, eyes begging her to take it back, to say it was all a mistake. He pressed the base of his palms against his eyes, hard enough that Felix saw his skin turning white. He inhaled, quick and devastated, and then dragged his hands down his face. When he opened his eyes again, they were glistening but resigned. “Right. Sorry. My mistake.”
“What happens now?” Rima asked, when nobody spoke. Harriet and Kasper were staring at each other. It was like picking at a scab – Felix couldn’t look away from them, even when it hurt.
Leah had her lips pressed to the side of Claudia’s cheek, rocking her back and forth reassuringly. She was glaring at Harriet with murderous intent.
“Look, there are obviously a lot of problems here that we need to address,” Harriet said.
“Problems that you created!” Felix yelled.
“Not just me!”
“YOU ALONE!” he repeated. “YOU.”
Before anyone could respond, someone walked through the door. Adrenaline made Felix jump in self-defence. To his surprise, it was Greg. He spent most of his time hunting rats while he waited for orders from the Tricksters.
“What do you want, Gregory?”
Greg smirked at him, wandering into the room. Felix took a step back, keeping carefully out of touching distance. You could never be too careful with Greg. He was a slimy person, always searching for the most profitable deals.
Harriet clearly didn’t know to avoid him, because she let him touch her wrist. “Harriet. It’s Rufus and Vini. They want to see you. They have something you need to hear.”
Chapter 13
HARRIET
As they walked down to the basement, Harriet listened to Greg’s chatter in a dreamy kind of calm. All of the fight had gone out of her as soon as he’d touched her. She was relieved to be leaving Rima and the others behind. She needed time to collect her thoughts before she carried on talking to them. Otherwise, she was likely to do something rash.
It was getting harder and harder to control her words, or focus on anything but the energy inside her. It was a miracle she could hold a conversation at all, when inside she was screaming.
She wished she’d left before Rima and the others had started asking her questions. She’d messed up. However much she had wanted to stay quiet, these horrible things kept tumbling out of her mouth, one after the other, until she was shouting at them. Their faces had grown more and more horrified the longer she’d talked and she hadn’t been able to find the right thing to say to fix it. They thought she was a monster. Harriet had ruined everything.
They wouldn’t help her any more. That was why she was so upset. It wasn’t because Rima would stop inviting her to sunbathe on the fire escape or celebrate Halloween with them. Harriet wiped a tear away from her cheek. Who cared if they hated her, anyway? They were nothing.
Besides, she’d got this new second power from the Shell. If she could control their feelings, she could force them to like her – or love her, even. They would be her friends whether they liked it or not.
Greg stopped outside the basement. “I’ll, er, catch up with you later,” he muttered. “Things to do, you know.”
“Yeah,” Harriet said, wondering what Rufus and Vini wanted to tell her. Did they have some new information for her? Maybe they’d found more Shells she could use, now she’d run through the supply on the fifth floor.
“See ya.” Greg bolted down the corridor. What was up with him?
Harriet stepped through the door, which lit up in that bright white light again. She was immediately pinned to the wall by Vini.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he spat in Harriet’s face, arm pressed up against her windpipe, so tightly he must be able to feel bone.
Harriet spluttered. What had she done? His lips were drawn back in a snarl, seconds away from ripping her cheek open with his teeth.
Behind him, the ghosts of the basement had stopped their game of pool to watch. Rufus strolled up to Harriet and hooked his finger under her right eyelid, pinching the flesh between his forefinger and thumb.
Her vision blew out, fear sending her blind with panic.
“Let go of her, Vini.” He spoke like mist.
Vini’s arm dropped from her throat. She held her head totally still, very aware of the fingers steadily holding her eyelid in place. The flat of his nail was touching her eyeball.
“What did I do?” she gasped. “I don’t know what this is about!”
Rufus dug his fingernails into her eyelid, squeezing until the skin tore and his fingers met. Harriet screamed. Nothing had ever been so painful. Blood began dripping into her eye.
“Do you think we’re fools? Do you think we haven’t dealt with snakes like you before, time and time again?”
“I didn’t mean to—” She ran over everything they’d talked about, trying desperately to work out what had happened. “I really don’t know what—”
She gasped. Suddenly she did know.
“Oh,” she gasped. “The phone.”
It must have run out of battery. They had realized that the deal she’d made with them for information was worthless.
“The phone,” Rufus confirmed, furiously calm, and dragged his hand backwards. He tore a hole along the length of her eye, pulling the lashes away from the lid.
The pain kept coming in waves, worse and worse, and a scream forced its way from her throat. “St-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Vini had his hand on her elbow, steadily leaching her fear away from her. The familiar pins and needles turned into a white-hot fire, and then disappeared into numbness. Was this what the Shells had
