Chapter 9
It was difficult to focus in school the next week, as Esme waited for Friday with a mixture of fear and anticipation. Only in art, PC, and biology did she pay full attention. Her large, airy biology classroom was lined with tanks housing fish of every shade and stripe, collected by her sandy-haired teacher, Mr Donnelly.
Esme had always been fond of biology. Back home, she’d relished any opportunity to learn about the animals that shared Picton Island with her. Her father would often bring injured creatures to the cottage and nurse them back to health: seagulls, fruit bats, stray cats, and turtles amongst them.
At Pierpont, however, Esme was learning about creatures she’d thought confined to legend: sylphs, undines, water-sprites, and shapeshifters.
‘I once saw a team of range
