Morrigan could feel her energy seeping away with it. What happened when there was no barrier between her and Sofia? Would Sofia fight to kill? Would Morrigan have to hurt her friend in order to stop her?
And then what? The Hollowpox would take everything with it, emptying Sofia out until there was nothing left of her. Morrigan would never forget the haunted look on Jupiter’s face when he’d said, I’d rather be dead than hollow.
What would Sofia be when she wasn’t Sofia any more?
As if in response to this unasked question, the foxwun let loose an unnimalistic scream, trying one last time to leap through the flames … and succeeded at last, landing on Morrigan’s chest – paws outstretched, jaws ready to close on her white throat – just as the light in her eyes extinguished and the Hollowpox left her.
With a soft oof, Morrigan caught the small, limp body in her arms.
The fire died, and the curious green light swarmed around the pair of them for just a moment, before it dispersed and disappeared altogether, scattering like dandelion seeds on the wind.
The ends of Sofia’s fur were singed and smoking. The sight of it was too much to bear. Morrigan knelt down, took off her cloak, and gently wrapped it around the feather-light foxwun, hands shaking. She felt a slightly hysterical sob bubble up in her chest, and pressed her lips tightly together so it wouldn’t escape.
There was a choice to be made, Morrigan thought. She could sit here in the cold, dark hallway on Sub-Nine and sob. She could wait for Rook or Conall to arrive. They would take care of Sofia and send Morrigan home and tell her everything was going to be all right. Jupiter would promise her that any day now this nightmare would be over and Sofia would be okay and she would never, ever turn into an unnimal … and Morrigan could pretend his gentle, well-meaning optimism was rooted in truth.
It would have been so easy. It would have felt so good to let herself be comforted, to indulge in the lazy hope that someone else would fix everything, to feel it envelop her like a warm bath.
But Morrigan didn’t have that luxury. Because she knew it was a lie. And because Sofia was her friend. How could she leave her friend to a fate worse than death, when she knew there was another option? She had to make the other choice instead. The hard choice.
As Morrigan bundled Sofia up and fled Sub-Nine with her, heading for the teaching hospital, she heard a quiet voice inside her head saying the same words, over and over.
Things are ever so much worse than you know.
You’ll find that out for yourself soon enough, and when you do, you will come looking for me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Call Me Mog
Not half an hour later, Morrigan stepped from a single brass railpod onto the platform for the forbidden Gossamer Line, clutching her umbrella tight with both hands to stop them shaking.
She hadn’t been certain it would work. The bank of railpods in Proudfoot House could take her to most stations, but she’d hardly dared to hope that one of them would agree to take her to a locked, abandoned platform somewhere deep in the labyrinth of Nevermoor’s Wunderground network. Not when she couldn’t even remember where it was, or how she’d managed to get there with Jupiter the first time she’d (illegally) travelled on it. Yet, here she was. All she’d had to do was ask.
Morrigan thought, perhaps, it was her two secret weapons that had sealed the deal: the new fiery-warm imprint tingling on her fingertip, and the words of Ezra Squall ringing in her head.
‘One day, you may realise how formidably you could run this city, if only you’d put in a little effort.’
The abandoned station was just as she remembered it. It had been shut down years ago, when the Gossamer Line was declared unfit for public use. The posters on the walls were faded and old-fashioned, advertising products that probably didn’t exist any more, but other than that the place was immaculate. The green tiles looked shiny and new. The wooden benches had barely been used.
She remembered what Jupiter had said on her first Christmas night in Nevermoor, when they’d travelled together on the Gossamer Line to visit Crow Manor. If anyone can ride the Gossamer Line, it’s you. He’d said it was because she was with him, but he’d lied. That was before Morrigan knew she