Emily Feather and the Secret Mirror Read Online Free PDF Page A

her family and her home to armour her, Emily couldn’t fight.
    â€œShe’s crying!” Ellie-Mae squeaked – she sounded excited, shocked, a little frightened. They’d never managed to make Emily Feather cry before.
    â€œOhhhh, poor little weird smelly Emily,” Katie purred, her dark eyes glittering and her fingers clenched into claws. Suddenly she reminded Emily of those fairy Ladies, the way they’d been so eager for their prey.
    Emily stumbled as Rachel caught her arm and tried to pull her away. “Come on,” Rachel whispered. “Emily, come on.” She could hear Katie and Lara and Ellie-Mae crowing with laughter and triumph as Rachel hurried her across the playground.
    â€œWhat happened to you?” Rachel demanded, as thankfully the bell went and everyone began to wave goodbye to their parents and stream into the school. She was still holding Emily’s arm, and Emily felt as though Rachel might be the only thing holding her up. She didn’t say anything, and once they’d got to their classroom Rachel pushed her into a chair and stared at her.
    â€œWhat is it? What’s the matter with you? You’ve never let her get to you like that before. She’s said stuff that was loads worse.”
    Emily just shrugged helplessly. How could she explain?
    â€œWas it her saying you smelled? Honestly, Emily, that’s the kind of thing Robin says to you all the time!”
    Emily’s eyes filled with tears again, and they began to spill over on to her cheeks. Rachel still thought Robin was her real brother, and it was so hard not to be able to tell her the truth. Emily wanted to, so much. She wanted to talk to someone else. Someone who was human .
    The way that Rachel was staring at her, the hurt look in her eyes, was even worse than Katie’s meanness. Rachel knew that Emily was hiding something from her. Which was awful because Rachel had told Emily everything about what happened with her parents last year when they were splitting up. The arguments. The silences. The way she hid under her bed so they couldn’t find her when she knew they wanted to tell her they were getting a divorce. If she could tell Emily things like that, she wanted to know that her best friend could tell her everything in return.
    Emily rested her head on her arms and peered up at Rachel sideways. “Sorry…” she whispered.

Emily woke the next morning feeling as though she couldn’t actually have been to sleep. Her eyes felt sore and scratchy, and her head ached. She inched herself up in bed, and reached down for the duvet that she’d kicked off during the night. It was another hot day already, but her hands and feet were freezing, and her shoulders were shivery, as though she was coming down with a bug.
    Maybe she could stay off school? Emily sighed, imagining staying in bed. There would be toast, and dry cereal, and piles of books. She wouldn’t have to creep into school with her shoulders hunched as she waited for Katie and the others to say something.
    And she was going to have to talk to Rachel, as well. They’d have to walk to school together again, and the thought of it made Emily feel even more ill. Rachel had been miserable and silent all the way home yesterday. Even Robin, who always walked as far away from the girls as he possibly could while still claiming to be with them, had noticed that something was wrong.
    â€œDid you have a fight?” he whispered to Emily as they came out of school together in complete silence.
    Emily shrugged. “Sort of.”
    Robin glared at Rachel, but she was staring at her feet as she plodded along a few metres behind them, and didn’t even notice.
    â€œIt wasn’t her fault,” Emily added quickly. Robin could be surprisingly protective sometimes, and she didn’t trust him not to do something awful to Rachel if he thought she’d started it. He wasn’t supposed to use magic, of