Eye of the Storm

window. Maybe she could break it? She grabbed the silver bowl and banged it against the glass, but it was like hitting a sheet of metal. She could feel the cold in the room stealing over her, feel it sinking into her blood, chilling her, freezing her…
    She looked at the window and screamed as she suddenly saw a face on the other side. The scream changed to a shriek as she realized who it was. ‘Chloe!’ she gasped.
    ‘Erin!’ shouted Chloe from outside. ‘What are you doing in there? What’s going on?’
    ‘I’m trapped! There’s a spell on the room. It’s getting colder and colder. I can’t get out!’ Erin wondered what Chloe was doing out there, but there was no time to ask.
    Chloe looked horrified. ‘I’ll come and help you. I’ll get in through the window.’
    ‘No, don’t!’ Erin was shivering violently. ‘There might be other traps! Go and get Tor!’
    ‘There isn’t time,’ said Chloe. ‘I know! My summer magic – I can use that!’ She lifted her hands. ‘Fire be with me!’ She pointed at the window and concentrated hard. Where she pointed, the ice started to melt and turn to water. Chloe slowly moved her hand across the window frame, her fingers spreading open.
    ‘It’s working!’ Erin cried through numb lips, as the thick sheet of ice on the window began to melt, running away as rivulets of water.
    Her teeth were chattering uncontrollably. Her fingers were so cold she could barely lift the window catch. She fumbled with it, pushing it as hard as she could. The window banged open and she felt the warm air of the summer night outside stream in. The next moment, Chloe was grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the freezing, snowy room.
    ‘Oh, Erin!’ Chloe flung her arms round her and hugged her as Erin collapsed in a heap on the ground, unable to do anything but shiver and rub her arms with her hands.
    ‘Fire be with me,’ Chloe murmured.
    Erin felt a wave of warmth flow over her as Chloe moved her hand in front of her face and then down her body.
    ‘Oh.’ She breathed out in relief as her shivers faded. ‘Thank you!’
    Chloe clenched her hand and the magic was gone. ‘What happened?’ she demanded. ‘Hang on. Is it safe for us to be here? Is Marianne somewhere around?’

    ‘No, she’s not here. I’m sure she’s still in the clouds. I think it was a trap. It started when I picked up this!’ Erin pulled the grey feather out of her bag.
    ‘The grey feather!’ Chloe’s eyes widened. ‘What’s going on?’
    ‘I saw a vision. Two actually.’ Erin told Chloe about the vision that had shown her the feather and the vision of her great-grandmother. ‘I got the hair from the attic.’ She took the envelope out of her bag. ‘And then I went to get the feather, but as I picked it up the magic started.’ She frowned. ‘But what were you doing here?’
    Chloe hesitated. ‘I followed you. I was on my way to the woods when I saw you flying over the cliff top in this direction. I was camouflaged – as you should have been.’
    ‘I forgot!’ Erin admitted. ‘But I’m very glad I did now. So you were the person following me.’
    Chloe nodded. ‘Yes. It was me. I wanted to see where you were going and what you were doing. I should just have said hello and let you see me.’
    ‘It’s lucky you didn’t,’ said Erin. ‘Because then you would probably have been in there with me. Thank you so much for saving me.’
    ‘I’m glad I could. Oh, Erin, I’m sorry we argued!’ The words burst out of Chloe. ‘I know I upset you a bit by spending time with Fran and Katie this afternoon. It’s just that you’ve been in such a weird mood the last few days and haven’t seemed to want me around and, well, I guess I have been feeling a bit left out because you’ve been doing so much magic and I haven’t really been able to do anything. But I shouldn’t have got mad yesterday. I’ve been wanting to say sorry all day. I should have done.’
    ‘It’s OK,’ Erin said. ‘It was a stupid argument. I should never have said that the prophecy doesn’t mean you – no one knows what it means, so maybe it does. I should have realized you were feeling left out. It’s just I’ve been so worried about Kestrel and… well, I have been in a bit of a bad mood with you,’ she admitted. She saw Chloe’s frown and hesitated. But she knew what she had to do. It was going to be horrible, but she had to tell Chloe the truth about what she’d seen and sort it out.
    ‘It was