And yet, despite her determined positivity, Cassie’s heart was hardly brimming with happiness.
‘Are you OK?’ she murmured to her best friend at her side.
Isabella Caruso only nodded, her eyes empty, and stared towards the cockpit. Cassie felt the familiar frisson of unease. Isabella hadn’t so much as glanced out at the landscape since they’d taken off from Nairobi airport. Far from the bouncy, excitable Isabella of previous terms, she seemed glazed, a walking automaton.
‘Hey, ladies,’ Richard Halton-Jones bawled from the cockpit. The flying conditions were tricky, and he was clearly enjoying the challenge of the strong winds against the Cessna jet. ‘Did I tell you about Yuri Tretschnikov and the Siberian gas heiress? Wait till you hear this …’
Cassie was glad of Richard’s banter, even if he did have to yell his gossip over his shoulder above the noise of the plane. He must be used to this awkward form of conversation; after all, this was his very own small twin-engine plane. Presumably his parents had bought it to go with his string of polo ponies.
That, Cassie thought, was an unworthily bitchy thought from her. She didn’t know where she’d have been without Richard last term, after the murders at the Darke Academy and all that had unravelled at the Hagia Sophia. And he’d made it more than clear that if she had to give up on Ranjit Singh, he would be there to catch her as she fell…
Part of her really wished she could love him that way too. How much easier it would be to find solace in Richard’s secure embrace than to go on placing her faith in Ranjit? But even if she tried, she knew it would be a lie. Cassie knew that now better than ever. She’d made her decision last term, and she would stick with it: she would find Ranjit, get him back; it didn’t matter what he’d done under the Pendant’s influence, they could work it out together. She and Ranjit were meant to be together, and they would be.
And that was more than would ever happen for Isabella and her boyfriend Jake Johnson. He was gone now. Cassie shut her eyes, feeling a renewed stab of grief. She’d be strong for her friend, she owed her that much. Isabella had lost so much more than she had.
Opening her eyes again, Cassie placed a hand on Isabella’s arm. ‘Look,’ she said softly. ‘Did you hear Richard? We’re above the Tsavo national park.’
‘Are we?’ Isabella turned obediently to look out, but listlessly.
‘Not a lot of shopping down there, I’m afraid!’ shouted Richard cheerfully. ‘We’ll try Malindi one day.’
‘If you don’t take us on a game drive on day one, we’ll never speak to you again!’ Cassie shouted back. ‘I take it you have some kind of stretch-jeep with a cocktail bar and a chauffeur?’
‘Are you mocking me, Scholarship Girl?’
‘I certainly am.’ Cassie nudged Isabella and gave her a wink, but Isabella didn’t even attempt a laugh, and Cassie felt her mood sink again.
Even Isabella’s usually glossy dark hair looked lifeless, and was pulled back in a rough ponytail. Cassie knew her friend had come back to the Darke Academy only after much persuasion and begging from her parents, and then only because she hadn’t wanted to worry them any further by refusing. The Carusos had hoped – and Cassie still hoped – that a term in Kenya would begin some kind of a healing process in Isabella’s soul. It wasn’t looking good so far.
And yet Cassie was actively looking forward to the new term, despite her sense of guilt. Kenya seemed the ideal choice: wildness and space and open air, after three consecutive terms in cities. It would be good for all the students, she thought, and especially for the Few – Richard, Ayeesha, Cormac and the others – after the calamitous events in Istanbul. They all needed some space to regroup. She wouldn’t have been surprised if Sir Alric Darke had made his choice on that basis. As far as she knew, the school’s changing location each term was his decision alone, however much he had to answer to the Council of Elders for the actions of his students.
Cassie shivered, remembering her own confrontation with the terrifying Elders, two terms ago in New York. When she’d come so close to being sent to the Confine for life…
For the first time, Isabella seemed to notice what was going on around her, and this time she squeezed Cassie’s arm.
‘What about you, Cassie? Are you all right?’ There was concern in her voice that only sharpened Cassie’s sense of responsibility. If it hadn’t been for Ranjit, Jake would still be alive. If it hadn’t been for Cassie, her insane boyfriend and his crazy plan for them to be together backfiring so spectacularly …
‘Don’t worry about me, Isabella, for heaven’s sake!’ Cassie laughed lightly, shaking off the memory. After all, what had she just been thinking? A new location, a chance to breathe and think, plenty of time and space to plan. Council of Elders be damned – indeed, Sir Alric Darke be damned – she would track down Ranjit all by herself. She would find him, bring him back, help put things right. Or as right as they could be after all that had occurred.
‘You’ve been so kind, Cassie. But last term—’ Isabella took a breath. ‘It was hard for you too.’
‘I told you, don’t worry about me,’ Cassie whispered. ‘I’ll be fine. And so will you. We’ll look after you.’
‘I don’t know, Cassie.’ Isabella looked away again, clasping her hands tightly. ‘I don’t know if I will be fine …’