Gabriella Poole - Divided Souls (Darke Academy)

stairs and out through the courtyard. At the top of the great flight of entrance stairs Cassie halted and flung out an arm. Jake collided with

it.

‘Oof! What?’

‘Give me the Knife.’ She turned to face him.

‘No.’

‘It’s mine. It’s ours,’ she corrected herself.

‘See, you talk like that and you scare me. Forget it, I’m not giving it to you.’

‘You’ll regret it. You’ve no idea how to use it. None.’

‘I know better than you think. And I told you, it works just fine without your supernatural little paws on it.’

In the moonlight they stood for seconds more, facing one another, livid. It was Cassie, looking at her watch, who turned away first.

‘No time,’ she snapped. ‘Not now. You can hotwire an engine?’

‘Course.’ There was a distinct grin in his voice – partly, she thought sourly, from his small victory.

‘Good. So you can actually make yourself useful.’ She sprinted for the jetty. ‘We’re going to liberate a speedboat.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Jake was still close behind Cassie as she bolted through the city streets. The buildings of Sultanahmet were tall, the streets and alleyways

tortuously winding, but Hagia Sophia dominated everything, floodlit like a gigantic golden jewel, its dome and minarets towering above the

city streets. They couldn’t miss it. Cassie leaped a railing and raced across parkland towards it. Constantly she was aware of the Knife in

Jake’s possession, alive and calling out to her, but she didn’t let it distract her.

She’d get it later.

Both of them slowed as they approached the massive steps, careful now, senses alert. Cassie could hear Jake breathing hard. He’d kept

up with her, certainly, but despite all the workouts he still couldn’t run so far or so fast. That was worth knowing.

No, stop it, Cassie!

‘Where do we start?’ muttered Jake, stopping beside her to catch his breath.

Cassie rested a hand on a gilded pillar, reaching out with her senses, trying to think every part of herself into this place. Yes, where? She

should know. She could know, if she could only feel it …

Where would HE go, Cassandra? Think as he does, my darling! We must learn to out-think him!

All very well, she thought dryly, but Ranjit might not exactly be thinking like his usual self. She was sorely tempted to call Richard’s

name, but she knew that was a temptation she had to resist. She knew by instinct that he wouldn’t reply, not now. But Ranjit might.

The mosque was huge. As they walked silently through its massive arched doors, even now Cassie was dazzled by its splendid beauty.

Just for seconds, though. Splendour she was used to, now. She was impressed, but not intimidated. Jake, though: he was different. She

could sense his awe. He positively reeked of it. She let a little smile flicker across her face.

‘Do you hear anything?’ he whispered.

She went still, reaching out with her senses. ‘Yes. Not in here.’ She turned sharply to the south-west. ‘Follow me.’

Mausoleums stood to the side of the mosque, and Cassie kept to the shadows, but she was in a hurry now. She didn’t so much hear

something as feel it. The central tomb was the one she wanted: a squat, domed building with a vaulted portico. Silently and swiftly, she ran

up the stone steps and inside the mausoleum.

It was breathtaking. Eight huge arches, elaborately tiled, covered in mosaics and inscriptions, towered above the silent sarcophagi. The

stone and the space smelled of centuries, and the silence echoed with ghosts. Shadows and ghosts. Cassie realised she wasn’t breathing

as she listened intently. Carefully, she stepped inside. She stared, but not at the majesty of the architecture.

He was there, standing before the largest sarcophagus.

Ranjit.

He was looking straight at her but he didn’t seem to see her. His eyes were red from corner to corner and he was entirely motionless.

The sight of him, after so long, brought Cassie to a standstill as well. His fists were clenched tightly, and she could see the hairs standing

up on his arms, as if he was electrified. At his feet, prone and barely conscious, lay Richard.

Cassie froze, riveted with horrified fascination, as Jake stopped dead at her side. Ranjit looked ferociously, vibrantly alive. He turned to

them finally with a twitch in his mad face, a hint of recognition, and he smiled, but it was not a nice one.

‘Ah! This is wonderful. My friends!’

‘Ranjit, listen to me—’

He cut her off as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘Jake has brought me the Knife after all! I’m so very sorry I missed our original rendezvous; I got

a bit, uh, caught up!’ He laughed wildly. ‘Yes, Cassie, we had an appointment, Jake and I. He wanted to know all about Jess; I wanted the