‘Our work is done for today,’ Jack said, pulling their gloves back on. ‘Time to go home and welcome our new brothers and sisters to Winterton.’

Winterton? Where is that? Bianca wondered.

Quilo pushed his shoulders back, sucked in the longest, most enormous breath and yelled, ‘WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!’ His breath hit the ground with such force that his body lifted high into the air.

Pitter and Patter linked hands, taking it in turns to whirl the other up and forward, their feet tapping as they danced. Bianca saw hail and sleet bouncing off the floor like rice thrown at a wedding. Remembering the hailstones she’d found at the foot of Finn’s pedestal of ice, and under the bookseller’s table, she craned her neck, trying to see where it was coming from.

As Quilo landed, he tipped his head back and let out a terrifying roar. It was an ancient, primal sound that shook Bianca’s bones. She hugged her knees in terror as all the ice-glass windows in the factory exploded.

‘Quilo!’ Jack scolded, walking to the bottom of the iron staircase. ‘Not the windows again! Someone could’ve heard that!’

‘Whoops!’ Quilo’s face flushed. ‘I couldn’t help myself.’

‘The North Wind howls and roars,’ Pitter said.

‘He’s not meant to be indoors,’ Patter pointed out.

‘I give up!’ Jack said with a shake of the head. ‘I’ll fix the windows when we come back tonight. Gather up the books and bring them.’

‘Sorry.’ Quilo followed Jack to the bottom of the stairs. ‘It was an accident.’

‘I’ve got two,’ Pitter said, picking up a pair of books.

‘I’ve two too,’ Patter echoed, stuffing two of the silver books into her grey bag.

Bianca pushed the door shut as the four of them came up the stairs. She shrank back into the shadows of the store cupboard and held her breath. She heard the strange children passing and felt the cold intensify. Her skin was burning with it. There was a click and a clunk and then silence. She waited, straining her ears, but heard nothing. Eventually she cautiously opened the storage cupboard door and peeped out. There was no one on the walkway. Guessing they had gone into the middle room – the one they had come out of earlier – she tiptoed to the stairs as quietly as she could.

Stiff with the cold, Bianca could no longer feel her fingers or toes. She wondered how you knew if you had frostbite. I need to get out of here and get warm, she thought. She glanced about nervously. The factory was still. The window frames were empty. The machine lay glowing beneath her, and she gasped as her eyes caught a twinkle of silver. Inside the mouth of the machine, lying on the black conveyor belt was one of the silver books, sparkling like a star newly fallen from the night sky.

What was it doing there? Jack had instructed the others to bring the books with them. She remembered Quilo’s apology for breaking the windows. Had he forgotten to pick up the last book? He might realize his mistake and return any second! This was her chance!

She was suddenly overcome with a tremendous desire to hold the book. It sang to her.

Bianca clattered clumsily down the staircase, unable to coordinate her frozen limbs. She ran to the conveyor belt, opening her arms as the book drew her towards it like a magnet. She saw a title: The Vanishing World.

‘Wait!’ she whispered to herself, her hand a centimetre from the enchanting cover. ‘Don’t touch it! Think of Finn. The book is trying to control you. Don’t let it!’

But how could such a beautiful thing be bad? her mind replied. You must have it! You deserve it. You’ve worked so hard to get it.

‘I will have it, but I won’t touch it.’ Bianca muttered as she pulled the plastic bag from her coat pocket and picked up the book between her gloved thumb and forefinger. A pleasant electric tingle raced up her arm, making her gasp. She dropped the book into the bag, holding it away from her. Her body cried out for her to touch it again. It felt wonderful.

‘No,’ she said firmly.

Hurrying away from Downy Falls with her stolen treasure, Bianca remembered what Jack had said: ‘Whatever happens, we cannot let Bianca Albedo get her hands on one of our special books.’ She grinned. Well, she had one now and she was going to read it.

She stopped. No! That was the book talking. She mustn’t read it. Her plan had been to take it to the police and that was what she must do. The book was evidence.

It was mid-morning by the time she reached the police station. She stood outside for a long time, an argument raging in her head. If she gave the book to the police, she’d never know what was inside it. And she really wanted to know. Curiosity was devouring her reason. She was becoming confused and indecisive. Before she’d got the book, she had decided that the right thing to do was give it to the police. Her thoughts had made sense to her then. Now she’d had to tell herself repeatedly not to listen to the call of the book, and so she decided she must trust herself.

Taking a deep breath, she shut the bag, which she’d opened without intending to, and marched up the steps before she could change her mind. She pushed through the swinging doors, going over to the desk where two police officers were on duty. ‘My name is Bianca Albedo.’ She put the bag on the counter. ‘I’m here about the ice children in the park.’

‘Good morning, Miss Albedo,’ said one of the officers. ‘Shouldn’t you be at school?’

‘Yes, I should,’ Bianca agreed. ‘But I must give you this book. It’s evidence. The ice children all read this book the day before they got frozen. The book is what froze them.’

‘Aren’t you the girl from the meeting last night?’ the other officer asked kindly. ‘Your brother is Finn Albedo?’

‘Er, yes.’ Bianca faltered in the face of their understanding expressions.

‘And this is the spell book you were telling everyone about, is it?’ The first officer’s voice had taken on a patronizing tone. He exchanged a glance with the other officer as he opened the carrier bag and looked inside. ‘Oh, yes, that looks very . . . er . . . magical.’

Bianca was dismayed that they weren’t taking her seriously.

She looked at the bag and felt a keen longing to take out the book and hold it. She leaned towards it, and wondered why it didn’t seem to be having any effect on the police officers.

‘Well, if this book is responsible for what happened to those children, perhaps we should arrest it.’ The first officer chuckled, raising an eyebrow as he exchanged an amused look with his colleague.

‘Yes.’ The second officer put a hand on the bag and looked down at Bianca as if she were six years old. ‘You mustn’t worry, Miss Albedo. We will put the naughty book in a prison cell where it can’t freeze any more children.’

‘No!’ Bianca shouted, grabbing the bag back, spinning round and dashing out of the police station.

Snow was falling heavily, erasing the hard lines of the city, and Bianca found herself heading towards the park. There was a police officer at the main gate. She lowered her head and hurried past, making her way to the boating lake.

‘Casper,’ Bianca said, standing before her frozen friend. ‘I don’t know what to do. I have a silver book –’ she waved the bag at him – ‘but no one believes that it froze you.’ Irritated by the hint of a smile on the left side of his mouth, she snapped at him. ‘I don’t know what you’re looking so pleased about. Everyone is going out of their minds with worry.’ She huffed. ‘I thought you were the cleverest person I knew, until you got yourself frozen. Who am I supposed to talk to now? No one will listen to me!’

Fluffy flakes caught on her eyelashes, and she blinked them away.

Casper was still wearing his maddening smile, and it occurred to Bianca that Sophie had been beaming, and her brother looked serene. They were all happy to be frozen!

Her heart throbbed as she felt the sparkling book in the bag yearn for her to hold it, like a kitten wanting a cuddle.

What if being frozen wasn’t bad? What if being frozen made you happy?

‘I’m going to read it!’ she said, willing Casper to defy her.

But Casper didn’t move.

‘Fine, then. I will!’

When Bianca got home, the house was empty. The afternoon was slipping away, school was finished now, and darkness was falling. She guessed her parents were in the park, with Finn, and felt disappointed that they’d believed her note and not realized she’d skipped school.

She went into the kitchen, putting the bag on the table with the book still inside it. She kept glancing at it, surprised by how much she wanted to hug it to her. Should she read the book? If she read it, she might learn what had happened to Finn. She watched the clock tick and tock, waiting. One of her parents would surely be back soon. She would show them the book. Then they would realize that she was right.

Time passed. The book called to her, again and again, until Bianca thought her heart would burst if she didn’t pick it up.

Taking out her diary, Bianca wrote:

Dear Mum and Dad,

I have the silver book. I’m going to read it.

Tonight, I think I will be frozen, and you will find me in the park.

Don’t be sad. I’m doing this to find out what happened to Finn.

If you get this note before midnight, please come and sit by my bed and hold my hand. I am scared.

I love you,

Bianca

She tore the page out of her diary, then put the diary back in her coat pocket, leaving the note on the kitchen table. Entering her bedroom, Bianca performed the habitual stroke of her favourite reindeer in the winter woodland wallpaper, then took the bag over to her bed. She clambered in, fully clothed, keeping her coat on. Taking a deep breath, she pulled off her gloves and removed the book from the bag.

As she touched it, the delightful tingling sensation she’d felt before spread up her arms, to her shoulders and throughout her body. She felt her cramped muscles relax and the anxious coil in her chest melt away. She smiled at the shimmering crystalline cover, which reflected and refracted light, splitting it into tiny rainbows. It reminded Bianca of the frost fractals on her window. The Vanishing World was the most beautiful book she’d ever seen.

Opening the front cover, she saw a sparkling illustration of dancing snowflakes and a single sentence: ‘There was once a time of harmony . . .’

A deep thud, like a muffled bass drum, beat like a second heart inside her chest.

Somewhere in her head was the thought that she should shut the book, but she chased it away, greedily eating up every delicate detail on the page, the feather-like flourishes and snowflake swirls.

‘There was once a time of harmony . . .’

The muffled drum boomed again inside her.

Illustrated snowflakes fell in graceful, scattered patterns around the deeply resonant words, and she fancied they were moving, creating a tinkling sound, like the notes on a distant piano.

A picture formed in Bianca’s imagination, of a beautiful young queen with skin as translucent as ice and blood as pure as mountain streams. The queen longed to return to the world and blanket it in snow.

Delicate crystal chimes joined the tinkling piano in her head and the bass drum of her heart. The mischievous melody lifted Bianca’s spirit, until she felt like a falcon soaring through the sky. Her skin prickled and her thoughts became as scattered as the snowflakes on the page. Her throat was dry, her forehead burning. She must open a window. She needed fresh air. How nice it would be to feel the cooling night breeze brushing against her wrists. Her blood was boiling. Her feet were walking. Down the stairs. Towards the front door. She saw her hand turn the latch.

It’s happening. The thought flickered across her consciousness like a dragonfly in springtime, followed by the delicious sensation of being outside, like stepping into a pool on a hot summer’s day.

She heard a familiar low voice speaking, but she couldn’t focus on the words. The stars in the sky were winking at her. Outside was better than indoors, but still she was too hot. Her skin was on fire. She wanted to run, to feel the wind through her hair.

If only it would snow, she thought.

A voice spoke, close to her ear. ‘I’m here, Bianca. I’ve got your hand.’

I’m so hot, she thought, and looked down.

As if she’d commanded it, a block of ice was rising beneath her feet. Ah, yes. That’s better.

She felt a cold wind and tried to reach her arms up to embrace it, but only one lifted. The other dragged at her side, but she didn’t care. She smiled as the cooling breeze swirled around her. This is heavenly. I could stay like this forever.

A crackling, like the fizzle of electricity, incinerated all sound around her. The music had stopped, and silence spread like a pool of calm within her.

I wish the Snow Queen would come. She closed her eyes. The world is too hot. How perfect it would be to have a snowy winter! She smiled at this thought and wished hard. Please come, Snow Queen. My heart longs for you. It’s yours. Take it. Make it snow. Make it snow. Make it snow.