He looked up, and his green eyes widened. “James,” he said, and the word sounded like an exhale of relief. He quickly schooled his face into a frown. “I don’t know whether to embrace you as a brother or strike you down as a foe.”

“I vote the first one,” said James.

“I suppose it isn’t really fair to be angry about last night,” Matthew mused. “I imagine you have little control over what happens when you go into the shadow realm. But—once your father had finished shouting at us all in Welsh for breaking his window and letting you leave—the news came through that they’d tracked you to Chiswick House, and I did wonder.”

“Wonder what?” James perched himself on the arm of a white garden bench.

“Whether you’d used the shadow realm to go and see Grace,” said Matthew. “I mean, what else is there in Chiswick? Nothing interesting.”

“I didn’t go there voluntarily,” said James.

“Then tell me what happened,” said Matthew, tucking his novel into the crook of a tree. “Actually, wait.” He held up a hand just as James had started to speak. “Wait—wait—”

“I shall murder you if this keeps up,” said James.

Matthew grinned, and there was the sound of barking. Boisterous hellos bounced off the garden walls. Thomas and Christopher, having paused to greet a tail-wagging Oscar, were running down the back steps of the house. “James!” Christopher called as they got closer. “What happened last night? Where’d you disappear to?”

“There you go, James,” Matthew said smugly. “Now you don’t have to tell the story more than once.”

“Yes, what happened to you last night?” said Thomas. “You just vanished, you know. Matthew was about to rip the Institute apart brick by brick to see if you’d fallen into the crypt when your father tracked you to Chiswick.”

“Why Chiswick?” Christopher wondered aloud. “Nothing interesting happens there.”

“It has now,” said Matthew cheerfully.

Before the conversation could degenerate further, James explained how he had gone into the world of shadows, how he had followed a light and found himself in the greenhouse. He described the warped Cerberus demon and how he had killed it. When he got to the part about Lucie and Cordelia, Matthew began to look less cheerful.

“What on earth were they doing there?” he said.

“They’d gone to check on Miss Blackthorn and see if she was all right,” said James, who wasn’t sure he believed this particular story himself. Lucie had had her bright-eyed storytelling face on. As for Cordelia—he realized with a slight jolt that he doubted he’d be able to tell if she was lying to him or not. He didn’t know her that well, though he felt as if he ought to.

“Seems dangerous to be out and about at night after those attacks,” said Matthew. “Lucie—the girls shouldn’t be taking such risks.”