Efa opens her eyes. ‘You just want your mam back, eh? But you’re strong and you’re well.’

Phew. ‘So did Mum just knock on your door one day?’ I ask through a mouthful of cake.

‘Pretty much.’ Carys smiles. ‘Lucky she remembered my address. She busked in London for money and caught a train here. We tried so hard to figure out if there was any way to get her back to you. But no.’

As Carys puts the jars of herbs back on the shelves, I glimpse a curve of rough gemstones at her neck. I’m pretty sure it’s her talisman. Why do some magicians get gemstones and others get feathers?

‘Do you go to parallel universes?’ I ask Carys.

‘Occasionally. I do it to learn from my other self. Once I ended up in India,’ says Carys. ‘That other version of me had learnt about their plants and oils, and I brought some back with me.’

Efa strains the potion and passes me a mug of brown liquid. It’s bitter and almost undrinkable but I swallow it down.

‘It will enhance your flying,’ says Efa.

‘Thank you,’ I say.

Carys hands me a heavy coat and scarf, and tosses aside the woollen hat Meredith gave me. ‘Useless. That’s a city hat.’ She pulls a thick knitted cap down over my ears. ‘Flying is much colder than walking. When she was a girl, my mother knitted herself a special flying hat, but I don’t know where it is. She hasn’t used it in years.’

‘Where does your mother live?’

‘Here. We all live here. But she’s away, up north, at a meeting of the Circle.’

‘The Circle?’

‘The Circle of Magicians. You haven’t heard of it? I was surprised when your mother told me that you don’t have one. They oversee things for the

hundreds of magicians in this part of the world. There’s some kind of trouble afoot at the moment that they’re trying to sort out.’

Carys hands me gloves and in my mind, I hear her again. What if she’s it?

I’m about to ask her what it is, when there’s a hammering on the front door.

Efa lets in a man, along with great gust of cold air. He pulls his scarf down. His voice is shaky. ‘The baban is coming early. Milly needs you, Carys. I couldn’t call because the phone’s not working, and our power’s just gone out too.’

Carys takes his gloved hands in hers. ‘How far apart are her contractions, Aiden? Did you time them?’

‘About two minutes. Her waters broke.’

‘Well, let’s be going, then.’ Carys pulls on her coat and boots. ‘Efa, you’ll need to look after Tulsi.’ She widens her eyes meaningfully.

‘Right,’ says Efa. ‘You mean …’