‘How do you know?’
‘It’s excruciating.’ She flipped a page in her book and wrote something in her notebook. ‘You have to practically peel your eyeballs off your brain every morning.’
‘Gross.’ Allie returned to her own work. ‘I’m glad I haven’t got that. How would I look in a fancy frock with peeled eyeballs?’
Rachel’s brows arched. ‘Like an alien. Actually, an obsessed alien. You’re obsessed with the ball, Allie. Get help.’
Before the biscuit-bearing student had appeared, they’d been talking about the winter ball. Or rather, Allie had been. Because she was, in fact, obsessed. It was only two weeks away. Aside from Allie’s lineage, the buzz in the hallways, the dining hall and class was about nothing else. Everybody talked about the ball, the ball, the ball. What to wear. Who to go with. But all Allie thought was …
Lucinda will be there.
At the very thought of meeting her grandmother – of asking her the questions that had tormented her for months now – Allie’s heart sped up. She would do anything to make that meeting happen. Including putting on a posh gown and twirling on a sodding dance floor while a string bloody orchestra played.
But the awful night of the summer ball was very fresh in her memory. And with Lucinda, Allie and Isabelle all in the same place at the same time, why wouldn’t Nathaniel do something horrible?
Lucinda will be there, she thought again. And something bad will happen.
That night, Allie stretched out on the floor of Training Room One, extending her hamstrings until they ached. Beside her, Zoe bounced on the balls of her feet.
‘I hope we go running.’ Her voice vibrated as she hopped. ‘I feel like running.’
‘Me too,’ Allie said, lowering her head to her knees.
At that moment Zelazny’s sharp voice rose above the din. ‘Tonight we’ll start with a four-mile run.’
‘Yay,’ Zoe whispered and dashed for the door.
Allie hurried to follow but Zelazny called her name and, turning back, she saw him motioning for her to come over.
Zoe stopped by the door to wait for her.
‘Can I have a word?’ His voice was calm and unthreatening. ‘Zoe, you can go on ahead. Allie will only be a minute.’
As she left, Zoe raised her eyebrows; Allie responded with a helpless shrug.
Zelazny waited to speak until the students had all gone. As they stood in awkward silence she could see the perspiration glistening on his forehead. He tugged at the collar of his exercise shirt as if it constrained him.
Crossing her arms across her chest, she looked down at the floor.
‘I’ve been meaning to speak with you, Allie, for a week or so.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Just to clear the air between us.’
She glanced up at him suspiciously.
‘We’ve had our difficulties over the months you’ve been here, and I … Well, I feel I haven’t been entirely fair with you.’ He coughed. ‘So I wanted to … to apologise if I was too stern with you at times. And to say I hope you’ll work with me going forward. I believe we can have a good working relationship. You’ve got a great deal of promise and, at times, I think I haven’t made that clear.’
If he’d said he’d just seen a green Martian eating chocolate in the common room, she couldn’t have been more stunned.
He gazed at her expectantly, his expression pure humility. She had to say something.
‘Uh … Sure, Ze— Mr Zelazny,’ she said. ‘That would be great. And thank you, I … I guess.’ Watching him as if he might bite her, she took a step towards the door. ‘I should probably …’
‘Oh yes,’ he said. She thought she could see a glimmer of resentment in his small blue eyes but his voice held nothing except beneficence. ‘Go and join the class. If you need extra time, do take it. No hurry.’
Allie fled the room so quickly she nearly stumbled over Zoe, who was outside with her ear pressed to the door.
As they jogged away into the freezing darkness, Zoe said, ‘He is so unbelievably lame.’
The whole thing made Allie’s skin crawl. ‘He … grovelled.’
Zoe stopped running to pogo with malicious joy – it was a clear night, and in the moonlight she looked like a manic forest imp. ‘It was awesome. He thinks you’ll tell your grandmother bad things about him.’ Pausing to think, she added, ‘Blimey, considering how he treated you he must be terrified.’
‘I need to take a shower.’ Allie increased her pace. ‘Right now.’
But there was no time to wash away the memory of that meeting. Instead, after their run, Raj Patel put them through a particularly brutal series of martial-arts style manoeuvres. No matter how painful it was, Allie didn’t mind the work; his training had helped her escape from Gabe.
Stopping to rest, she watched as Sylvain and his training partner practised a complex escape move. Sylvain’s partner attacked with a flying leap, but Sylvain parried him as easily as if he were a child, flinging him on to the mat. Afterward, he leaned over to help him up with an apologetic grin.
As if he’d felt her gaze, his eyes darted up to meet hers. For a long second she froze. He studied her curiously, as if he wondered what she was thinking. Colour flooding her cheeks, she dropped her eyes and crouched down to tighten her shoelace.
‘Your attention, please.’ They all turned to look as Zelazny walked to the centre of the room. ‘Raj Patel would like to say a few words to you about some things that will be happening over the next few weeks.’