‘I’ll do it,’ he says. ‘I think I’ve had enough magic for one evening.’ He looks up at me and says, ‘Bedtime.’

We have a bunk-bed arrangement, with my bed on the bottom and their wider one above. I get into bed and look out at Mum sitting on the grass, reading her Book by lantern light. Right now, I hate her a bit. She’s keeping me on the sidelines when our circus needs all the help it can get. I’m allowed to be her assistant for one trick, plus I’m in the human pyramid and I help Li Lin in the food van. Oh, and now I also get to hand Claudie her hula hoops. Whoopee.

When I close my eyes, I can’t stop seeing those blue plates waterfalling off the shelf. Now, there’s absolutely no chance that she’ll teach me big magic before I’m sixteen. And by then, there may not even be a circus for me to perform in. Hot tears squeeze out between my eyelids.

Dad sits on the edge of my bed and strokes my hair. I pretend to be asleep. At least he can’t tell that I’m faking it.

I don’t know how much later it is that I suddenly wake, but the van is dark and Dad is quietly snoring in the bed above me. Outside, wind is rushing through the trees and flapping the van’s canvas awning.

I sit up and, through the open door, see Mum standing on the grass, utterly still, the lantern beside her. Her long hair is blowing across her face, but I can tell she’s saying something. A spell.

I swing out of bed to sneak closer to her, but an unfamiliar feeling blooms in my chest and my breathing is suddenly tight. When I try to call to Dad, I can’t make a sound.

The awful constriction in my chest grows worse as the wind skates a few big leaves across the ground and under the caravan. My fingertips are sizzling like never before, and I want to tell Mum to stop whatever it is she’s doing, but all I manage is a tiny squeak.

I make it to the doorway, where I’m hit by a wall of wind. Mum is on her knees, and all I can do is watch as a thick swirling mist appears from nowhere and engulfs her. I want to dive into the mist and grab hold of her, but I’m frozen to the spot.

When the wind subsides and the mist clears, my mum is gone.

CHAPTER 5

I stagger down the caravan steps and peer into the night, my fingers sizzling like they’re on fire.