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think you’re right, she’s just stringing him along. She’ll get fed up. He’ll get over her.’
    ‘Worry? Why would I worry? Why would I care whether he gets over her, or throws himself into the Seine for love of her? I’m not interested in a boy whose brains are stuck in his—’
    ‘Isa bella !’
    They laughed, and Isabella flung an arm round Cassie’s shoulder. ‘You’re right, I know that. Poor Jake, he has been under her spell since he came to the Academy. Jake pines for Katerina, and Katerina pines for Ranjit Singh, so Jake won’t ever have her. Serve him right.’ She ended on rather a venomous note.
    ‘Is that why Jake can’t stand Ranjit? He looked practically homicidal when you mentioned him.’
    ‘Oh. That.’ Nervously Isabella chewed her knuckles, but after a moment she gathered her composure. ‘Well. Love can do that to stupid boys. It’s all hormones, of course. The relentless primitive drive of the sexual organs.’
    ‘Cut it out!’ giggled Cassie.
    ‘That would be an extreme solution, but—’
    Cassie gave a yelp of laughter. ‘Stop it! So, seriously. Did Jake come on a scholarship too?’
    ‘Yes. I think it saved him.’ Isabella sighed, all softness and sympathy again. ‘After his sister died, he went – what do you say? – off the rails? He went a bit crazy. A lot of trouble: fighting, gangs, drugs. Three high schools threw him out, but Sir Alric took an interest in his future, wanted to help him.’
    Jake’s sister died? So that was why he was so spiky. ‘Nice of Sir Alric, but …’ Cassie shrugged, then bit her lip. ‘Why would he do that? I mean, Jake doesn’t even seem that grateful.’
    ‘Oh, but of course Sir Alric felt a responsibility! Jessica Johnson had a scholarship here before Jake did.’
    ‘Oh, OK. So he kind of knew Jake through his sister?’
    ‘He offered Jake a scholarship in his sister’s memory. Sir Alric was right to do that, I think. It was a fine way to behave, whatever Jake says.’ Isabella squeezed Cassie’s arm, and lowered her voice. ‘The school was where it happened.’
    ‘Where what happened?’ Cassie felt a chill in her spine.
    ‘The accident. Jake’s sister died at the Darke Academy.’

CHAPTER SEVEN
    C assie leaned on the ornate balustrade and stared down the west-wing staircase. This was where Ranjit had stood, watching her, three weeks ago. She tried to remember how afraid she’d been that night, but in daylight the staircase seemed only beautiful, not threatening. Below her, other students were hurrying down to the dining room, chattering and laughing easily. Out of the general chatter she heard Richard’s abrupt, confident bark of laughter, and she smiled.
    Still, she couldn’t shake a niggling sense of wrongness.
    As the noise and gossip faded, Cassie lingered, frowning. The balustrade was all black iron swirls, punctuated with gilt flourishes of feathers and suns. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw herself and the tall south-facing window reflected in an ornate gold mirror. You wouldn’t think the place could seem so dark and sinister. Cassie shook her head.
    She died at the Darke Academy. Jake’s sister died …
    At the Academy, in Cambodia. Isabella had been reluctant to explain, which was most unlike her. Cassie had had to badger her for days.
    ‘I should not talk about it. Honestly, Cassie. A terrible thing. So very sad. Such a young death. And not the firs—’
    Her roommate, uncharacteristically, had blushed and clamped her lips together, and no nagging from Cassie would persuade her to finish that sentence.
    And not the first, either . Was that what she’d been about to say?
    No. Could have been anything. Heck, Isabella could have been about to say, Not the first time somebody had an accident. Or, Not the first tragically young heart-attack victim.
    But somehow Cassie didn’t think it had been either of those.
    ‘I don’t know what happened.’ Isabella had shrugged unhappily. ‘We were never told