Chapter TwelveMiss Venture found me on the stairs, still staring helplessly at the whitewashed wall, empty of both tears and ideas.
‘We failed,’ I said.
She hurried past me, casting aside her gloves and laying both bare palms on the thick surface of the quicksilver. Then she screamed and tore her hands away.
I remained seated, searching her face for hope. She stared at me, speechless.
‘We failed,’ I said again.
‘No,’ she said wearily, exhausted from a long day surrounded by people when she was usually surrounded only by iron and the sea. ‘The mercury showed us these visions for a reason. There must be a way to save Melbourne. Another way.’
‘How?’ I whispered.
‘I don’t know,’ she admitted. ‘But you’ll think of something. I know you will.’
Her confidence, no matter how weak, shook me
