Excerpt from Smoke by Dan Vyleta, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about the roar of shouts and voices that answers this announcement is that Thomas's heart appears to stop: it gives a loud final rap and then falls silent. "It mustn't be," one of the teachers—Harmon? Winslow?—keeps repeating, high-pitched, squealing, as though giving voice to Thomas's dismay. A moment later the door is thrown open and the small, dishevelled figure of Cruikshank, the porter, stands on its threshold. He pokes his head into the sudden silence of the room.

"Beg pardon. Knocked till knuckles are raw. No answer. Message for Mast'r Foybles. Urjent, like. If yous please."

The person thus named is mortified.

"Not now, you fool!" Foybles cries, running across the room and dragging the porter out by the arm. Their whispered exchange in the antechamber is loud enough to focus all attention on the pair.

"You says, 'At once,' you did," Cruikshank can be heard declaiming. "But to burst in like that," Foybles berates him. "You fool, you fool."

All the same he seems elated when he closes the door on the porter and re-joins the company of his peers.

"The delivery has arrived," he declares, beaming, rubbing his hands in triumph before the room's atmosphere recalls him to the events that have just transpired there. Rather crushed, he withdraws into a corner and buries his face in a handkerchief for the purpose of clearing out his nasal passages. Like a compass needle momentarily distracted by a magnet, everybody's focus returns to Renfrew, who remains standing at the centre of the room. But the outrage at his announcement has spent itself, and Thomas's mind is clear at last.

He is lost.

But he will be going to London.

"There are objections?" Renfrew asks calmly.

Swinburne glares at him, then turns his back and addresses the headmaster.

"Master Trout. That boy is a sickness in our midst. He should be sent down at once."

Swinburne does not even condescend to point a finger at Thomas. But Trout shakes his head.

"Impossible. He has a powerful sponsor. I will hear no more of it."

Swinburne makes to speak again, but Trout has heaved his heavy figure out of his armchair.

"It is for the Master of Smoke and Ethics to determine the punishment. The government guidelines are quite clear. If Master Renfrew thinks these two boys will benefit from tomorrow's outing, so be it. Beyond that—" He glances questioningly at Renfrew.

"I will work with each of them upon our return, Headmaster. An intensive programme of reform." Renfrew's voice sounds notes of reconciliation. "And, if it will set your mind at rest, dear colleagues, I have a list of pages here from the Book of Smoke that I shall ask them to copy. From the third volume." He glances at Swinburne. "Passages whose findings have been confirmed by the latest research. Which is more than we can say for much of the book."

He distributes copies of the list to Thomas and Julius, then lingers at the head boy's side.

"One more thing, Mr. Spencer. These midnight examinations. They will stop. I alone have the authority to examine the pupils at this school."

Swinburne is too outraged to swallow his anger. "The school has its traditions. Only a fool meddles with—"

Renfrew cuts him off. His tone, now, is cold and brutal.

"A new era is dawning, Master Swinburne. You'd better get used to it." He gestures the two boys up and all but pushes them out the door. Outside, in the hallway, Thomas and Julius stop for a moment, dazed. For an instant something like companionship flickers between them, the sense that they have shared a danger, and survived. Then Julius straightens.

"I hate you," he says and walks away. Not the slightest trace of Smoke rises from his skin. It leaves Thomas wondering what it is about Julius's hate that is sanctified, and what is so dirty about his own.

Excerpted from Smoke by Dan Vyleta. Copyright © 2016 by Dan Vyleta. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.