Anyway, maybe he didn’t know what the attack on the Council would bring – but at least now that the team was trained he could leave them on their own without worrying too much. And so, for just one night, he and Willow were going to have some real privacy, like he’d promised. Alex’s blood quickened at the thought. She didn’t even know yet; he wanted to surprise her.

No Seb, no other people. Just the two of them in each other’s arms, being truly together in the way they both longed for.

I nudged gently at my pale-blue aura, watching it shimmer and change to a vibrant rose. It wavered before me for a few minutes, the colour of sunrise. Okay, how about green now; green would be nice...and though I’d thought I was totally immersed in my aura, somehow my thoughts drifted then to the Council attack. Alex. How important it was that I got this. And the playful mood was gone, slipped away like mist in the wind.

I opened my eyes and stared at my silver aura. The house was silent around us.

“Willow, stop – you’re doing so well,” said Seb, responding to the silent berating that was going on in my head.

He had on the same long-sleeved grey T-shirt he’d worn when I first met him, with the sleeves pushed up slightly. The hair on his tanned arms was lighter than on his head; almost golden – from years spent on the road in the sun, maybe. Pushing the thought away, I slumped back against the sofa. “It doesn’t feel like it.”

Seb shrugged. “You must keep your aura separate from everything now, that’s all. Like, you can walk and talk at the same time, yes? You don’t think about walking. It’s like that.”

He was always so patient – he’d told me all this about a hundred times now. But as he stretched across to rustle another cookie out of the bag, I could sense again the conflict that had been with him since almost that first day: he wanted me to be safe around the angels, yet as far from the Torre Mayor as possible when the team attacked.

I sighed. I hadn’t really meant to discuss this with him, but I heard the words come out anyway. “Seb, I’ve got to be there when it happens. For so many reasons. I can’t just sit here at home.”

His eyes met mine. He didn’t ask what I was talking about. “If you learn how to hide your aura in time, then I’ll be there too,” he said.

I bit my lip. I hated the idea of anything happening to Seb, almost as much as I did anything happening to Alex. “You’re part of the team now, though,” I said. “Wouldn’t you go anyway? Whether I did or not?”