Of course I had to broach the subject of Henry with Shafeen too. I sought him out after I’d talked to Ty, and found him at the Paulinus well. He didn’t turn around at my approach, so I folded my arms around him from behind and rested my cheek on his back.
‘I feel like he’s here,’ he said. ‘I feel like he’s watching us.’
‘Welcome to my world,’ I mumbled into his shoulder. ‘I’ve been feeling like that for the last year.’
Shafeen put his hands on mine, clasping them to his heart, but didn’t turn. ‘How the hell did he manage it?’ he said bitterly. ‘Why didn’t he die?’
This should have been quite shocking, but I couldn’t blame Shafeen. ‘In the fire?’
‘No. At the waterfall.’
I spoke into the cloth of his coat. ‘In The Final Problem – the Sherlock Holmes story, I mean – Sherlock twists out of Moriarty’s grasp at the last minute by using a Japanese wrestling move. Moriarty goes over the falls, but Sherlock saves himself.’
I felt, rather than heard, Shafeen breathe out a bitter laugh. ‘I can’t see Henry in the WWA.’
I squeezed him a bit tighter. We must have looked weird, clasped together like that over the well.
‘And where is he now? He can’t be at Longcross.’
‘No.’ Now I turned him around. ‘But wherever he is, he’s not here. Not at this school.’ I put both my hands on his cheeks tenderly. ‘He can’t affect us.’
He held my hands at the wrists and gave me a piercing look. ‘Can’t he?’