Sylvie lays her hands on my shoulders and I feel a whooshing sensation. ‘I’m giving you energy,’ she says. I can actually feel myself filling up, while – before my eyes – Sylvie looks more tired and drained. Is this the reverse of what she’s been doing to me?

‘Guard your energy as you transition between the worlds,’ she says. ‘You really don’t want to land with low energy.’ Her expression is tender and loving – which I’ve never seen before. It’s not comforting, though, because I can’t help wondering why she’s suddenly like this. Is it because I’m heading into danger?

She tucks two things into my jacket pocket: the Welsh dictionary and a piece of paper with two spells written on it. ‘The second one is the spell to return home. And here’s my watch.’ She buckles it around my wrist. ‘Remember, you can only spend twenty-four hours there or you’ll be stuck, too. You must return to the place you landed – with or without your mother – by four in the morning on my watch. You might land in another version of Millimba. If you do, the time will be the same there as it is here. But if you land in another country in the parallel universe, the time will be different.’

I step into the circle of twigs. ‘But Mum will be right there, won’t she?’ I ask.

‘Well … she will have landed near the other version of her, but only if there’s another version of her in that universe. The thing is … it’s been three weeks since your mum landed. She won’t know you are coming, so – to be honest – she may not still be there. But keep an eye out for the other Merry. If there’s one.’

I feel a prickling dread. ‘What?! So Mum won’t be there when I land?’

She shrugs. ‘I doubt it.’

Panic – that I’ve only just been holding at bay – swarms through me. For a moment I think I might vomit. I’m about to go to a parallel universe by myself and my mother may not be waiting like I thought she would.

‘Is there a spell to help me find her when I get there?’

‘No.’

I look up at the sweep of stars that have been gazing down on humans since time began, and I feel very young, very small, very inexperienced. I’m just a girl in an oversized jacket, no matter the three weeks of magic lessons, no matter the ragged feather and spell on a scrap of paper in my pocket.

‘You okay, Tuls?’ Dad calls.

I can’t reply. Fear has seized hold of me. The parallel universe is a bottomless black pit. Darkness like you have never known. The fear I felt in the darkness test was nothing compared to this.