“We’re going to have to strip her of her powers,” my father said.

  My stomach clenched. I stepped back automatically, clutching my newly unlocked magic to me. It spilled out around me, no forcing it back inside now.

  Stripping away my magic would be like carving away pieces of my skin. How could they do that to Chloe? It didn’t matter what she’d done, that was too cruel a punishment. Something niggled at the back of my mind, and I shook my head, trying to force the memories to solidify.

  “Fight back, little mouse.”

  Why had Chloe said that if she was the one causing all of this?

  “Surely that has to be a last resort,” my mother said. “What about the boy?”

  The boy... did she mean Joe? Would the geminus bond mean his powers would be stripped too?

  “I’m afraid we’re already at the last resort stage.”

  I peeked out from behind the Ficus. Miss Caraway stood with my parents, still in that ridiculous floral dress. She wore a coat over it, and a duffle bag lay at her feet. Was she leaving? I wasn’t sure if that made me feel relieved or more frightened.

  “The boy is an unfortunate casualty,” she said, “but we don’t have a choice.”

  “She’s right, Candace. And if it doesn’t work, then...” Dad trailed off.

  I swallowed. Whatever he was going to say, it couldn’t be worse than what I was imagining. My mother looked from Dad to Miss Caraway.

  Mum looked even smaller than she had a few days ago. She made a sound that was almost a sob. “This could kill them both.”

  I gasped, slapping a hand over my mouth. Mum looked up, alarm firing in her eyes, and Dad turned slowly towards me. “Chloe?” he called. His voice boomed with a power that didn’t quite reach me. I turned and fled.

  “Ursula...”

  I heard Mum race after me, but I didn’t look back.

  “Ursula, wait!” she called again, but her footsteps came to a halt, like always. She had never fought for us. She had always just given up.

  My own feet thudded against the stairs, making a dull, echoing sound in the silence. I didn’t stop running until I reached our floor, even though no one was chasing me. What did it mean that they hadn’t – why wouldn’t they follow? Were they that afraid of Chloe? Had her power become so strong that even my parents cowered away, hiding behind rune lines?

  I passed my sister’s room, glancing in. She wasn’t in there, her empty bed unmade. The mouse cage sat in the middle of it, open and abandoned, no sign of the rodents she had been trying to control.

  I reached Ben’s room and threw open the door. “Ben...” I couldn’t get anything else out. I leaned forward, out of breath.

  He looked up at me, startled. “Little mouse... you’re awake.” His voice didn’t hold the same laughter it usually did when he used my nickname. His eyebrows drew together in a frown. He stood, moving towards me, and placing his hand gently on my shoulder.

  I panted, still trying to get my breath back. “It’s Chloe,” I choked out.

  Ben sat down on the bed, drawing me to sit next to him. “What’s she done now?”

  “They’re going to strip her powers.” I shivered, all the heat from running rushing out of me. “She’s the one behind it. She’s been stealing energy.”

  Ben’s frown deepened. “What do you mean?”

  I shook my head. “Can’t you feel it? She’s draining the whole building. It’s like you do with the plants, but bigger. The workers look dead on their feet. But it’s okay, I sent them away. She won’t be able to steal their power anymore.”

  “You did what?” His voice had an edge to it, and his hand suddenly felt heavy on my shoulder.

  “I sent the workers away – cut her off at the source. But you’re missing the point. I heard Mum and Dad talking about stripping Chloe’s magic. They said they have no other options.”

  Ben’s grip on me tightened. “They can’t do that!” His fingers bit into my skin and I squirmed away. He released me but didn’t apologise. He stood, moving away from the bed.

  “I know,” I said. “It could kill her, and Joe too! I know she’s done some bad things, but—”

  “It doesn’t matter what she’s done!” Ben spun around as if he would strike me.

  I shrank back against the bed. “That’s what I’m saying,” I said quietly. He didn’t seem to hear me.

  “I have to find her.” His hand massaged his bottom lip, hard enough to tear it

  Something in my stomach unclenched when he said that. I wanted to help my sister... or maybe I didn’t, maybe I just wanted to stop her. Either way, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted Ben to do it. I wanted him to take over.

  A noise outside the room caught my attention. Ben’s head whipped up, staring out into the corridor. “Chloe...?”

  Footsteps thudded against the floorboards, just as mine had done only moments before. Ben hesitated for only a second, and then he was off down the corridor, chasing after her.

  I stood, taking a few steps after them. “Wait,” I yelled. But they were both gone.

  Chapter Nine

  I sat on the bed for a long time, waiting for them to come back. The unnatural silence of the building settled over me, and I shivered. Eventually, I couldn’t stand it any longer, and I made my way back to my own room.

  Warm cosiness greeted me. I reached out, and echoes of my own magic reached back, welcoming me home. A humming came from the floor. No, not from the floor – from Arthur’s room below mine. He was in there, his magic stretching out to meet mine.

  I’m coming, I whispered back to it.

  My mother had placed some kind of ward on the door to the dormitory floor. I felt it trying to push against me, to turn me away. If my magic had been weaker – if I hadn’t unlocked all of it just an hour earlier – it would have worked.

  More rune lines crossed the floor inside – layers and layers of them, drawn over multiple times. Voices came from Arthur’s room, but I didn’t immediately turn that way. Fingers of ash spread out from the library, almost as if they were reaching for the runes. The lines bent around them, the symbols curving to fit. Had they been drawn that way or had the runes moved to avoid the ash? I stepped towards them, reaching out to feel the hum of both sets of magic competing against each other.

  “We have to get out of here,” Joe hissed.

  I froze. I stepped backwards and the floorboards creaked under my foot. Silence stretched, then feet pounded towards Arthur’s door.

  “Get the hell away from us!” Joe flew through the doorway, his hand raised in front of him, fingers splayed as if he would hurl magic at me.

  I took another step back, raising my own hands in defence. Arthur appeared beside Joe, grabbing his arm. “It’s Ursula. It’s just Ursula.”

  Joe dropped his hands, relief and horror crossing his face. Arthur stepped towards me, pulling me into a hug. “You’re awake.”

  I sank into the embrace, relief filling me. He pulled back to look at me. “And your magic is different.”

  I dropped my gaze, ashamed to admit how much I had been hiding until now. “Is Sammy okay?” I asked.

  Arthur squeezed my arms gently, then released me. “Yeah, she’s in here.”

  Joe stood back to let us into the room, and Arthur drew me inside, shutting the door behind us. Sammy sat propped up in the bed, the tiniest baby I’d ever seen on her chest. A weight lifted inside me at seeing them both healthy.

  Joe’s face softened as he looked at them. “Ursula, meet Calliope – Callie.”

  Sammy held out her hand, beckoning me over. “She’s here because of you. You saved us.”

  I moved forward but didn’t dare touch the child. “She’s beautiful.”

  Magic swirled around her – Sammy’s, Joe’s, Arthur’s, mine and her own. The protection around her was strong; Chloe wouldn’t be able to touch her. But still, she was so tiny. This wasn’t a safe place for her.

  I looked around at my classmates. Dark shadows marked their eyes, and heavy weariness shrouded all of them. “You’re trying to leave,” I said.

  Sammy hesitated and her eyes darted away from mine as if she was afraid of my reaction.

  I frowned. “I think it’s a good idea.”

  Sammy and Joe looked at each other, then he moved closer to the bed and put his arm around her. There was a greyish tinge to his skin that wasn’t there before. “We want out,” he told me. “We all do. The magic is getting to us.”

  Something didn’t seem right about Joe’s words. The way he said we. If they were all in agreement, why didn’t they just go? And why had they been afraid to tell me? Suddenly, it dawned on me. The ward on the door... the rune lines... My parents had trapped them in here.

  I had got those workers across the lines, but it would be different with my classmates. I could already feel there was strong magic around them, keeping them here. Magic I wasn’t sure I knew how to break.

  I didn’t know if I could help them – I didn’t know if I could get them out – but I owed them the truth. It was the least I could do after the destruction my family had caused.

  “I got the builders out,” I told them, “but I don’t know if I can do the same for you. I promise I will try.”

  I saw it register on Joe and Sammy’s faces then – they could see the change in my magic, just as Arthur had. Joe shifted, perhaps uncomfortable with my strength.

  “I can’t come with you,” I said, ignoring his unease. “My parents want to strip Chloe’s magic, but it might hurt Joe too. It could even kill both of you.”

  My words seemed to hit Sammy like a physical blow. “No...” she whispered. She shook her head, fiercely. “That can’t... they can’t do that!”

  Joe’s arm tightened around her shoulder. “Shouldn’t I have been able to tell if Chloe’s causing this?” he asked. “Our magic is supposed to be twinned.”

  And she’s my sister, I nearly said. Instead, I shook my head. “I think she’s got really good at hiding things.”

  Should I have known? Should I have been able to tell what she was up to? But I’d never known what Chloe was doing, even before the geminus magic.

  Maybe that was the problem.

  Joe and Sammy looked at each other, then down at Calliope, another silent conversation happening between them. Joe squeezed Sammy’s hand, and she nodded.

  “We’re staying,” she said. “We can’t let them strip Chloe’s power. Not if it could hurt her and Joe.”

  Joe nodded. “Use your magic to fix this; don’t waste it on getting us out.”

  Arthur moved closer to me, offering me his strength too. They all stared at me, determination and belief in their eyes. I felt their trust in me – their faith in my newly unlocked magic. There was just one problem with that. I had no clue how to fix this.

  When had it all gone so wrong? Had Chloe always been dangerous, and I just hadn’t seen it? Had the geminus magic damaged her in some way, warping her powers? No. It had started before that, I was sure of it. It had started...

  Suddenly, it hit me. I opened the door and strode back out into the corridor.

  Arthur followed after me. “Where are you going? This is the only safe place.”

  “Nowhere is safe until we fix this.”

  A flash of Chloe sitting beside the bed holding my hand came into my mind. Fight back, little mouse. There was more to this, I was sure of it.

  I walked towards the library door. Joe and Arthur followed me, and then a moment later Sammy did too, clutching Callie to her chest with one hand and leaning heavily against the wall with the other.

  I sent a wave of healing magic out to her, trying to ease some of her pain. I felt Joe do the same, and Sammy stood up straighter, her body responding and gaining strength.

  “You should stay in bed,” I told her. She shook her head, though she tightened her grip on Callie.

  I traced the lines of ash with my eyes. This was where it had started, where Chloe and Ben first lost control of their magic, where Mum and Dad first realised we were all part of geminus pairs. Would I have eventually lost control if Sammy and I hadn’t found each other? But then why hadn’t Chloe and Joe’s magic stabilised now they were together?

  I turned to Joe. “What did you mean when you said the magic started to get to you?

  His hand went to his wrist, one of Sammy’s silver bracelets circling it. “I don’t know. It’s like Miss Caraway said about the geminus magic – that it can become dangerous. I could feel it exploding inside me, making me change. I couldn’t control it.”

  “But the geminus pair is supposed to stop that.”

  Joe shook his head. “I think maybe Miss Caraway got it wrong. My magic only gets calmer when I’m around you three. It’s way worse around Chloe and Ben.”

  That seemed to fit with what I was thinking. Chloe wasn’t in control of her magic anymore, so how could she possibly help calm someone else’s? There was only one thing for it. I took another step towards the library.

  “Where are you going?” Sammy called after me.

  I didn’t answer. Numb emptiness hit me as I crossed the rune line, the magical vacuum pulling me forward. Sammy gasped, and Joe swore. They felt it too, even without crossing the line.

  “What is that?” Arthur asked.

  “Ursula, come back. Don’t go down there!” Sammy’s voice held a note of panic, but I kept walking.

  “This is where it started. Where Chloe first lost control of her magic.” I opened the door.

  Books lay strewn across the floor, and a dull, muffled blanket of dust, ash and silence fell over me. Suddenly, I understood why it felt like a vacuum. Chloe had sucked every ounce of energy out of the books – out of the room itself. No wonder she had started a fire. She had overloaded herself.

  Arthur and Joe crept into the room after me, peering around at the destruction. Sammy stayed in the doorway; her hands clasped protectively over Callie.

  “Who’s been in here?” I turned back to the others.

  Arthur shook his head. “None of us. I didn’t know there was anything down here.”

  I looked to Sammy and Joe, and they shook their heads too.

  “No, the closest I got was when I asked you about the rune line,” Sammy said.

  “Honestly, I forgot about it after that.

  So had I – almost. That must have been part of my mother’s spell. I picked up a book that was lying open, face down. The pages were coated in grime. I brushed them off, revealing a spell on removing excess magic. Arthur took it from me, examining the page.

  I picked up another book, and this time it fell open on a page about severing magical connections. The spells in these pages reminded me of something, but it wouldn’t quite come clear. I’d read something in the encyclopaedia of spells, and it floated just at the edge of my memory, almost as if it was trying to signal its own importance.

  Joe picked up a third book from the floor. “Symptoms and side effects of stolen magic,” he read.

  “She’s trying to fix it,” I said. “She knows she’s losing control.”

  “She already has lost control!” Arthur took the book from me, skimming through the pages.

  The others all looked alarmed by the discovery, but I felt a lightness inside my chest for the first time in days. Chloe was trying to fix it. My sister was still in there, trying to regain control of the magic.

  Fight back, little mouse.

  My eyes fell on Sammy. She still stood by the door, rocking slightly as she soothed Callie. Her eyes traced around the room, almost as if she were looking for something in particular.

  “You wrote something about this, didn’t you?” I said.

  Her gaze shot to mine, eyes almost guilty. She hesitated, then nodded. “I’ve written a lot, but most of it’s still jumbled. I can only read a few pages.”

  I touched the bracelets on my wrist. “But it told you we needed to enchant these?”

  “Yeah, my writings told me we would do it. I don’t know why; they don’t seem to help.”

  I ran a finger over the silver bands, letting them clink together. “I do,” I said. The plan was only just starting to form in my mind, but I said it with as much confidence as I could muster. I needed them to follow me. I needed them to trust me, and I needed to trust myself.

  “I read something in one of the textbooks about using objects to control magic.” I slipped one of the bracelets from my wrist, squeezing it tightly, letting the metal cut into my palm. I’d never got further than F in the encyclopaedia, but that didn’t matter. B for bracelet – B for binding spell.

  “We’re going to use these to bind Chloe.”

  Chapter Ten

  I found Ben downstairs, no sign of Chloe. When I saw him, I almost backed away. He sat on the bottom step, his head in his hands, and everything about him screamed broken.

  I could tell from the way he stiffened that he’d heard me approach, but he didn’t turn around. I sat down next to him, bumping my shoulder against his.

  “Did you find Chloe?” I asked. It was a silly question – he wouldn’t be sitting there if he had.

  Ben shook his head. “No.”

  He rubbed at his face. His skin had turned red, where he’d been worrying at his temple. Obviously, my parents hadn’t found Chloe either. She and Joe were safe for a little longer at least.

  “We went into the library,” I told him.

  His head shot up. “I told you not to.”

  “I know, but she’s been in there. We found these books, and...” I didn’t know how to explain everything we’d found. “It’s worse than we thought. I think Chloe’s in over her head.”

  That was the best way to describe it, I decided. I didn’t believe that Chloe had done any of this on purpose, and the fact that she was looking up side effects of siphoning magic made me sure she knew what she’d done was bad. I remembered the way her eyes had glowed when she sat by my bedside – so blank and unfamiliar – the way she’d told me to fight it. She was saying it to herself too.

  “I think that Mum and Dad were right about her power.”

  Ben pulled away from me. “You can’t be serious! Mum and Dad can’t take her magic away.”

 

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