‘Thank you,’ Stella said, buttoning her shirt before embracing her grandmother. As always, there was a warmth to her, and the aroma that clung to her was a welcome blend of cocoa and burning candles. Stella’s heart beat faster as her grandmother squeezed her as hard as she always did whenever they met. 147

‘Do you want me to sing your birthday song, my little one?’ her grandmother asked.

Stella shook her head, pointing at Gréta asleep in the bed.

‘It’s best if we don’t wake her.’

‘Is this something serious?’ her grandmother asked, inspecting a pale leg that extended from under the duvet.

Stella shook her head.

‘I can work a charm so that she’ll be yours for ever,’ she added.

Stella placed a hand lightly on Gréta’s leg, and could feel that last night’s rush of passion between them was still there, even as Gréta slept. Either there were a few too many drugs in her system that were skewing her senses, or this was love. But this couldn’t be love. Gréta wasn’t exactly her type.

‘No, thank you, grandmother,’ she said. ‘This was just a moment’s craziness.’

‘She’s plump and sweet,’ her grandmother said with a sly smile. ‘You must enjoy cuddling up with her.’

‘Grandmother, really! Shh.’

Stella was shocked. This wasn’t how her birthday night was supposed to be. She was meant to be alone at home, wide awake and with a clear mind as she waited for her birthday visit.

Her grandmother held her hand, stroking it with her thumb.

‘Your father will die soon. So you’ll be able to come home again,’ she said. ‘You can come home to me so I can look after you properly.’

Stella felt the tears begin to prick at her eyes. Nothing in the world would be as wonderful as being able to sit on the veranda of her grandmother’s house in the warm shade, just as she had when she had been a girl, sipping sweet coffee with cardamom, scratching the monkey behind the ears while Grandmother prepared to teach her another spell.

‘I look forward to it, Grandmother,’ she said. ‘I look forward to coming home to you, and I’ll bring Mother as well. She sends her best wishes and loves you with all her heart.’ 148

‘Darling soul,’ her grandmother said. ‘Poor, beloved soul.’

She pulled Stella back in to her arms and squeezed her tight.

‘Here’s your birthday gift, baby-bruja, little witch,’ Grandmother said, blowing hard into Stella’s ear so that her head was filled with a hot light.

Then Grandmother opened the balcony door, stepped outside and climbed, agile as any cat, onto the railing. She placed the broom between her legs and stepped off. Stella followed so she could see her fly away, but the old lady had already vanished into the silent night. The Northern Lights were still fluttering in the sky, but were dimmer now, and Stella felt she could hear the echo of a Mexican birthday song fade into the distance somewhere above the roofs.