‘I knew you weren’t ready,’ says Sylvie, and tries to take my hand. ‘It’s okay. Step out of the circle.’

Anger swells in me and I bat her hand away. ‘I’m going to get her, and you should know that I won’t ever be coming to get you if you go to a parallel universe.’

‘Oh.’ She steps back, her face shocked.

I concentrate on the earth beneath my feet and take a couple of deep, shaky breaths. I am a fig tree, steady and strong. ‘Swyn. Boed i’r grym fy llenwi, a’m cynnal, a’m cadw’n ddiogel. Cymer fi i fyd arall, cymer fi i fyd lle ...’ My voice wobbles. ‘… bu fy nghyd-ddewin o’r blaen.’

I can tell, by looking at Dad, that he wants to stop me. I speak the final words. ‘Cymer fi ati hi.’ Take me to her.

Nothing happens. Sylvie and Dad are perfectly still, watching me. Everything is quiet. Perhaps I have said the spell wrong. Did I mess up the pronunciation?

I am about to say the spell again when I have the faintest sensation of floating. I look down to see if I am actually lifting off the ground – but the ground is not there. A thick, white mist billows around me. My heart lurches and I call out for Dad, but a ferocious wind whips the words away.

I am in the middle of a cyclone, the wind ripping at my hair and clothes. My eyes are open, but there is nothing to see, only pitch, pitch black all around, and an enormous roaring sound. Fear grips me. It squeezes my chest, as if someone’s tightening a belt around my ribs, until I can barely breathe.

Now I am falling, plummeting fast. I fling out my arms to grab onto something, anything, but I’m still falling, faster and faster, into what feels like nothingness, a black bottomless pit. Dad! I scream in my mind. Help!

But Dad isn’t here. All I have is me. I manage to get a hand into my pocket and take hold of my feather. I remember the moment I received it and how the earth felt under my feet, solid and eternal. Be steady. Have courage.

I concentrate on my breath going in and out. The feather in my pocket. The earth. The trees.

Then, after what feels like hours and hours, the wind and the noise disappear and my feet gently come to rest on something solid.

CHAPTER 16

Lights blaze into my face, blinding me. After a moment, I realise they’re car headlights – and they’re headed straight for me!

A horn blares and the car comes to a juddering stop an arm’s length away. ‘Get off the road, ya berk!’ someone yells, and I stagger through grey slush to the side of the road. I look around. I’ve made it to the parallel universe! I did it!