The Phil/Julian breakup might not have been about me, but it certainly has an excellent side effect: everyone is so busy talking about that drama that all the Pearl/Finn salacious hook-up gossip dies down to a dull murmur.

Well, a bit louder than that. Generally speaking, sex scandals don’t tend to dissipate before first period. But at least the attention is split. Divide and conquer: it totally works.

I still want to punch him in the throat, Finn texts me during third period, when we’re both in modern history.

Don’t, I text back. We don’t know what his deal is. Someone’s in his head at least some of the time. We need to play this one safe.

He looks at me across the room. He doesn’t reply to the text, but I can practically see the words you’re not my mother on his face.

He refrains from punching Julian in the throat, though: even when the three of us get hauled in front of the principal, several teachers, and a cop for a lecture.

Most of it is targeted at Julian, thankfully. ‘You know this borders on revenge porn, Julian?’ Ms Rao demands.

The cop folds her arms and nods in agreement. ‘You’re extremely lucky that this photo isn’t more explicit,’ she says. ‘You could be charged.’

‘Me? Charged?’ Julian exclaims. ‘They’re murderers, and you’re talking about charging me?’

‘Julian, that’s enough,’ the principal Mr Day says. ‘This is disgusting behaviour. You know the school policy on cyberbullying. This is completely inappropriate. I’ll be speaking at length to your parents. Consider yourself suspended.’

‘Suspended?’ Finn explodes. ‘That’s all you’re going to do to him?’

‘I would keep my mouth shut if I were you, Mr Blacklin,’ Mr Day says. ‘I haven’t started on you and Miss Linford yet.’

‘What do you mean, started on us?’ I exclaim. ‘We aren’t the ones who did anything wrong.’

‘Except try to murder Phil,’ Julian mutters.

‘Julian, shut your mouth, or –‘

‘Or what? You’ll murder me too?’

I want to stand up and slap him across the face with my ringed hand. If he’s possessed at this particular moment, it’ll un-possess him, and either way, it’ll hurt. But probably assaulting another student inside the principal’s office wouldn’t be the smartest move in the entire world, especially when there’s a cop present and murder accusations are being thrown about.

But I have to do something, and so that evening – after basically running away from Disey when she tries to sit me down and talk about the whole ugly incident – I gird my loins to march into the fight I’ve been avoiding for too long now.

‘Tam,’ I say, knocking on his bedroom door, ‘can I talk to you?’

He doesn’t reply, but he does put down the heavy thing he was lifting and look at me with what I think is expectation, so I guess that’s a yes.

‘Weights, huh?’ I say, nodding at the pile in the corner of his room. They’re not a matched set – they’re all different colours and different shapes – but they look incredibly heavy.

He folds his arms, and the ripple of his muscles is really, really, extremely intimidating. ‘If you wish to speak, speak.’

‘It’s about Julian.’

Silence.

‘You know, Julian? You threw him out of my room, remember? Punched him in the face and broke his nose? When you ran into him in the surf shop you stared at him so hard I thought you’d fallen in love with him?’

‘The boy.’

‘Is that seriously the name you call him? The boy?’

‘Is it inaccurate?’

‘No, but doesn’t it get confusing? What if there was another boy?’

‘Is this the question you came here to ask me?’

I exhale. ‘No. Look . . . I know Emily’s down and out for the count for a while – don’t look at me like that, you know perfectly well why I did it – but is there any way she could still be reaching out to control Julian with her mind?’

‘No.’ He turns away, picks up another weight, starts lifting.

‘Okay, then who else could be controlling him?’

‘There’s no one.’

‘No one?’

He stops lifting for a second and fixes me with his steely glare. ‘No. One.’ He enunciates each word slowly and clearly, like I’m a small kid he’s teaching to speak.

‘That can’t be right,’ I say. ‘Before – before Miller’s Creek, Finn and I saw the Seelie dancing. There were tons of them.’

He shrugs.

‘I know what I saw,’ I insist. ‘They were making Holly dance on hot coals. And then they were there that night at the creek as well. They helped Finn save me. He made a bargain with them. The year and a day bargain.’

‘The doors are to be closed.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Did you not wonder why?’ Tam says. ‘Why now? Why the Seelie sought out their changeling so desperately? Why the Unseelie wanted him so badly?’

I blink. ‘Well, I –’

‘And why we would not let him stay here, live out his mortal span and then come to us?’ he goes on. ‘The life of a human is a blink of an eye to a fairy. Did you think the Seelie would invite a mortal like you to dwell in the Summerland for all of time unless their need was desperate?’

‘You live there. Clearly there’s some precedent.’

‘You are a toy, a rattle, a shiny bauble that they are holding in front of him to make him come home. And he must, because the Crown Prince has decreed that the doors to the Summerland are to be closed, and they cannot be closed until the Valentine has returned.’ He puts the weight down. ‘This is why the Silver Lady was sent to bring him back.’

You wouldn’t have to be particularly observant to hear the accusatory note in his voice, but I ignore it. ‘Why is the prince closing the doors?’

Tam shakes his head. ‘The Silver Lady tells me much, but even she does not tell me this.’

I have a sudden flashback to the greenhouse, to Emily stroking Tam’s hair and calling him her pet, and something twists in the pit of my stomach.

‘So let me get this straight,’ I say. ‘The Seelie need Finn to come home so they can . . . what, close their borders?’

‘Yes.’

‘And everyone else Seelie is already back in fairyland.’

‘Only the Valentine and the Silver Lady remain outside.’

‘And she can’t go back until he does.’

‘Have I not made this clear?’

‘Didn’t the Seelie promise Finn to protect me? Hell of a job they’re doing if this is the entirety of their force.’

‘They sent the Silver Lady,’ Tam says, an edge in his voice like a snarl. ‘Best and brightest and beautiful, they sent her to protect you, and you repaid her with grievous assault.’

‘For God’s sake, Tam, you just said yourself they sent her to con Finn into going back to fairyland. She wasn’t interested in protecting me.’

‘She did it.’

‘She threatened to kill Disey and Shad.’

‘Have you not wondered why the Unseelie have not come near you?’ he demands. ‘You thwarted them, and they are vengeful. You would have died twenty times over were it not for the Silver Lady. And now she is iron-bound and I am the one who must take up her duty to protect you, ungrateful disappointment.’

‘First of all, screw you,’ I say tightly. ‘And second – I did not know that, but you can feel free to stop protecting me. I can look after myself.’

‘You wouldn’t have the first idea of how to fight an Unseelie fairy.’

‘I managed to take out your precious Silver Lady. I think I’m doing all right.’

I can practically see the steam coming out of his nostrils.

‘Besides, the Unseelie have already found me,’ I say. ‘And they found me while Emily was still rampaging around, so neither of you are doing that good a job.’

‘What do you mean, they’ve found you?’

‘Well, if Julian’s not possessed by the Seelie, it must be the Unseelie.’

‘Or he just doesn’t like you.’

‘Oh, trust me, he does not like me, not at all, but I don’t think that translates into getting burned when I touch him with iron. And plus, there’s Cardy.’

There’s a strange expression on Tam’s face that I’ve never seen before. I’m not sure, but I think it might be surprise. ‘Jenny Greenteeth’s plaything? The other disappointment?’

‘Yes, Cardy who dated Jenny not knowing she was a horrifying river monster, and yes, Cardy who was also born on Valentine’s Day, and yes, Cardy who has achieved a massive amount in his life considering he’s only seventeen, so don’t you dare call him a disappointment,’ I say. ‘The Unseelie still have a hold of him. He – well, they – talked to me. Through him.’

‘What did they tell you?’

‘What you’d expect. That they want to kill Finn. That they’re sending riders to do it. He called me “ironheart”.’

‘Riders? Ironheart?!’

‘Is that bad?’

He sinks down on the edge of his bed, buries his face in his hands. ‘You stupid girl,’ he says. ‘You stupid, stupid girl.’

‘Um, excuse me?’

‘The doors are closing and this is beyond all imagining,’ he says, in a voice that is like a moan.

‘What is beyond all imagining? Spit it the hell out, Tam.’

‘Riders,’ he says. ‘Riders.’

‘What are the Riders?’

‘They cannot be resisted. They cannot be stood against. They are blood and terror and fury.’

‘I get it, they’re really scary. So are all fairies. But –’

‘The Riders are not fairies, Pearl,’ he says. ‘They are human, but they are humans who have been claimed by the darkest of magics, and who are fuelled only by rage. And do you know where this rage comes from?’

‘You know that I don’t.’

‘The ironheart. Their leader. The child that rides before them.’

I blink. ‘Wait, the Unseelie are trying to get me to work for them?’

He laughs, a dark laugh entirely without humour. ‘They want to eat your heart, Pearl.’

You know how on TV when a dude gets told something that makes him mad and he punches a wall to express his man-feelings? I have never understood that. Like, get your act together and find a way to solve your problem, don’t break your hand. How does that help?

I get it now.

They want to eat my heart. Eat my heart. How dare they? How dare they smugly reach into the mind of one of my best friends and make that word ironheart come out of his mouth?

‘Hey Cardy, can I talk to you?’ I say, waylaying him after English. ‘Maybe at lunch?’

‘I can’t at lunch,’ he says. ‘I have to meet with some people about the fundraiser next week. I can do after school, though. Coffee?’

The extra waiting just makes me even more angry, but I agree. ‘I’ll meet you at the same place we went last time,’ I say. ‘I have a double free this afternoon, so I’m going to go into town.’

I do not, in fact, have a double free, but after a convincing coughing fit, the school nurse lets me leave at lunch. ‘Your skin’s a bit of a funny colour,’ she says. ‘And your heart is racing. Go home and take it easy, okay?’

Must have been a good fake coughing fit. What was that thing Ms Rao was telling us about a few weeks ago? Confirmation bias. It’s a thing.

The nurse tries to call Shad but I con her into letting me leave alone, and head straight into town.

‘Pearl!’ Matilda says, surprised. ‘You’re a bit early for your shift. A few days, even.’

‘You know me,’ I say absently, making a beeline for the cabinet where she keeps the iron jewellery. ‘I can’t stay away from my favourite workplace.’

‘Shouldn’t you be at school?’

‘I have a free period, so I thought I’d come and pick up a gift for a friend. Can I get that one?’

She slides the pendant I point to into a paper bag. ‘All your wages are going straight back into my shop,’ she remarks, handing it to me. ‘You’re great for business, but I can’t imagine it’s great for your bank balance.’

‘What’s the point of a staff discount if you don’t use it?’ I say. ‘See you Saturday.’

‘Pearl, wait.’

I turn.

‘Are you all right?’

‘Of course I’m all right.’

‘I was talking to Helena the other day,’ she says. ‘She’s a bit worried about you.’

‘I’m fine,’ I say, and leave before I have to hear any more about it.

I’m too early to meet Cardy, but it doesn’t matter: all the more time for me to stew and drink coffee and plot how I’m going to take down every damn Unseelie fairy in the entire world. And these Riders. And everyone who thinks that they can control me.

My heart. They think they’re going to eat my heart.

I down a couple of iron pills with my second coffee. Let them try. Let them try and eat it. I’ll turn it into a literal iron heart, and it will burn and break and destroy them.

‘Geez, you look buzzed,’ Cardy says, when he finally slides into the seat opposite me. ‘You know your foot is twitching, right? How many coffees have you had?’

‘Not important,’ I say. ‘Ironheart.’

‘What?’

‘Unseelie.’

‘Pearl, what are you talking about?’

‘Valentine.’

‘Are you feeling all right?’

Ugh. Uggggggghhhhhhhh. Goddamn Unseelie. If they have to possess Cardy, can’t they at least do it at the times that are convenient for me? Or at least operate under the rules I’ve learned from television? If someone’s, like, possessed or a sleeper agent or something, you should be able to trigger it with keywords, like in that one Joss Whedon show I can never remember the name of where they all had their memories wiped and put on new personalities all the time that Phil and I watched, like, half the first season of and then got bored.

‘Pearl, I’m worried about you,’ Cardy says. ‘The thing that Julian did to you, and to Finn –’

‘I don’t want to talk about the thing with Finn.’

‘It can’t be easy,’ he says. ‘What Julian did . . . it was awful. And I’m so sorry that happened to you.’

James Cardigan, Nicest Person In The World, reporting for duty. ‘Thanks.’

‘I hope you know that there are people in your corner,’ he says. ‘You’ve cut yourself off so effectively you might not know this, but Julian is not exactly Captain Popular at the moment.’

I fiddle with the edge of my serviette. ‘That’s nice, I guess.’

‘I mean, the fact that Finn basically threatened him within an inch of his life –’

I groan. ‘He didn’t go and get all macho-man threaten-y, did he?’

‘Would you prefer he left it alone? Because I have to tell you, Pearl, if he let people talk smack about you while they were high-fiving him and calling him a stud, that would have been one of the Top Five Most Dickish Moments of Haylesford High.’

‘I know,’ I say, ‘but . . . ugh. I hate the idea that he has to defend my honour, like some kind of white knight riding in on a horse being all “It’s okay, Pearl is actually all right, I will smite you with my mighty sword if you dare suggest otherwise”.’

‘They will ride,’ Cardy says.

‘Who will ride?’

‘They will ride on the summer solstice, and they will kill the Valentine.’

Ha. Ha. Jackpot.

‘The Riders,’ I say carefully. ‘That’s who you mean, right? That’s who’s riding?’

He leans back indolently in his chair. ‘You’ve been doing your homework like a good little student.’

‘Don’t patronise me.’

‘Darling child, soon no one will patronise you ever again,’ he says, smiling that horrible smile that is not Cardy’s, not even close. ‘Ironheart.’

‘I know what that means now,’ I say through my teeth. ‘I’m not stupid.’

‘Then you know that the Riders cannot be resisted,’ he says. ‘They cannot be stood against. They are blood and terror and fury and they will ride against the Valentine on the summer solstice, and he will die.’

‘You can’t have him,’ I say. ‘I won’t let you kill Finn.’

‘I will not kill him,’ not-Cardy says. ‘His heart belongs to you.’

It takes me a moment to work out what he’s saying. ‘You think I’m going to kill him?’

He winks.

‘Let me spell this out for you, in little words so you understand, because you don’t seem very bright,’ I say. ‘No.’

He shrugs. ‘It is not a thing to be refused, but there are many hearts we could take. Perhaps this boy here. He smiles and simpers on the surface but there is a fury in him which burns. The Riders would devour it, devour him, and –’

The sound when I press my hand into his is the sound of a sizzling steak on a barbecue.

‘Ow!’ Cardy exclaims, grabbing for a glass of water and pouring it over his hand. ‘Jesus Christ, Pearl, what did you do?’

‘Cardy, I need you to do something for me.’

‘In a minute. I have to go to the bathroom, run some water over this.’

‘No, now.’

‘Give me –’

‘Now!’

His eyes are full of nothing but concern, nothing but kindness, but I can practically see the Unseelie fairy lurking behind them, hear him laughing at me. ‘Pearl, you’re not all right,’ he says. ‘I’m really worried –’

‘I need you to wear this.’

I hand him the paper bag. He shakes it, and the iron necklace falls onto his hand – easily, innocently, without any horrible barbecue sounds. ‘Pearl –’

‘I need you to trust me,’ I say. ‘I know I sound crazy. Trust me, I know. But I need you to wear that necklace. Always. Shower in it. Sleep in it. Never, ever take it off.’

‘Why?’

‘Just –’ I take a deep breath. ‘I promise I’ll tell you. Later. When I’ve – when I’ve worked some stuff out. But please, just trust me. Wear it.’

‘Does this have anything to do with what happened at Miller’s Creek?’

I nod.

‘With what happened to Marie?

I nod again.

‘What do you know? The police –’

‘No,’ I say. ‘No police. They couldn’t help. No one can help. The only thing that can help is iron.’

‘Pearl, you’re shaking.’

‘I need you to do this for me.’

‘Hey – hey, don’t cry. I’ll do it, okay, I’ll wear it. Whatever you say.’

I wipe the hot tears away from my eyes. ‘Okay. Thank you. And –’

I think he catches me before I hit the floor, but I don’t really know, because it feels like the world hits me with a brick as I slide out of my chair.