ROUND AND ROUND WE WENT with the occasional stumble from me, thanks to my heels. My hair had tumbled down from its pins and bounced around my shoulders in long ringlets. I could feel trickles of sweat running down between my shoulder blades. All I heard was our ragged breathing and my heart pounding. I had no idea if the others were okay and the fear felt awful.
We burst through the doorway at the top, into the solar. Before I could even draw a breath, something lifted us off our feet, smashing us into the wall opposite the windows. Yelping in pain when my head connected with the wall, I lay for a moment, dazed. Then I scrabbled onto my hands and knees looking for Alek. My heart made a horrible tight sensation when I spotted him just down from me, unconscious, with blood in his hair. Not
