I smile back at him as Meredith says unsteadily, ‘It’s a bit complicated. Can I fill you in later?’

‘Sure.’ He tosses his coat onto a hook. ‘I’ll leave you to it, then. Ever your humble servant, madame, I’ll finish making the pasta sauce.’ He bows deeply, one hand making an elaborate flourish, then disappears. Percy follows him down the hallway, claws clicking on the tiles.

‘Is he your husband?’ I ask in a low voice. ‘Do you have children?’

‘Oh, goodness no. And no children,’ she says. ‘He’s my friend. We came to London at the same time fifteen years ago and we’ve been sharing this house for the last two years.’ Her eyes widen. ‘Actually, his dad is Mr Potts. That’s Pete Potts.’

CHAPTER 18

‘I can’t believe that’s Peter Potts. He looks so different,’ I say, thinking of Peter Potts’s suit and shaved head and round face. ‘Peter Potts wants to close our circus!’

She frowns. ‘What?’

I tell her everything, including the fact that we need a loan for a new big top.

‘I wonder why Pete turned out like that in your universe?’ she says.

From the kitchen comes a clattering noise and the sound of Pete singing.

‘I have only twenty-two hours left to track Mum down. Please, will you help me?’ I say. ‘You don’t have to do magic. Just help me figure out where she might have gone.’

She turns to me, her eyes narrowed. ‘Stop pushing, Tulsi.’ Her voice is firm. ‘I wouldn’t know where to start looking. And I meant it when I said I don’t want anything more to do with magic. Your mum is magic. You’re magic. It’s ALL about magic. I don’t know what your mother has told you, but magic almost destroyed me.’

‘What happened?’ Finally, I might get some answers.

She won’t meet my eyes. ‘Sylvie used to steal my energy.’ She presses a hand to her mouth for a moment, like she might be sick. ‘She’d make me charge up for hours and then take my energy for her own magic – and so she’d feel good. It made her sparkle and made me exhausted.’

‘I think she did that to me, too.’

‘I have no doubt. And … when I went to get her from other universes, it was often really dangerous. Let me tell you that landing where you did was a breeze – even if it was in the middle of the heaviest snowfall in ten years.’

‘How did magic almost kill you, though?’

Pete calls from the kitchen, ‘Dinnertime, you two.’

‘I don’t need dinner,’ I say. ‘I need your help finding Mum. If I don’t find her, she’ll be stuck here forever!’

She stands up. ‘I can’t help you.’

‘But –’

She holds out her hand. ‘Come and eat. You need food in your belly and you need to get properly warm.’