It felt strange to be back in London, driving down familiar streets, after so much had happened. The streets looked just the same, and no doubt the people went about their everyday lives as though nothing had changed; but everything had. The whole world was up for grabs with the family out of the picture, even if no one knew it yet. My family didn’t run the world anymore, and the only reason the world wasn’t tearing itself apart trying to fill the new power vacuum . . . was that all the other powers that be were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Why are we going back to your old flat?” said Molly.

“I already told you. And if you ask Are we there yet? one more time, I’ll hit the ejector button.”

“This car doesn’t have an ejector seat.”

“It might have. You don’t know.”

“Talk to me, Eddie. You never tell me what you’re thinking.”

“Hey, I’m not used to this whole being in a relationship bit, okay? When you work as a field agent, you learn pretty fast you can’t trust anyone.”

“Not even those close to you?” said Molly, studying me solemnly with her huge dark eyes.

“Especially those. You always know where you are with an enemy; it’s only friends and loved ones who can betray you.” I took a deep breath and stared out through the windshield. “If I’m going to lead the family, and it looks like I’m going to have to, because no one else is up to the job . . . I have to live at the Hall. If only because there are still far too many members of the family I can’t turn my back on safely. The truth might set you free, but there’s nothing that says you have to be grateful. I need to be on top of things . . . But if I do have to live in that draughty old pile again, I want some of my favourite things with me. Just a few little things that matter, to make the place at least feel like home.”

“Never get attached to possessions,” Molly said briskly. “They’re just things, and you can always get more things.”

“You don’t have a sentimental bone in your body, do you?”

“If I did, I’d have it surgically removed. I’m always moving on, and I never look back.”

“Well, yes,” I said. “But you live in a forest. What would you take back to the Hall? Your favourite tree?”

“You forget, Eddie, I’m a witch. I might decide to bring the whole forest with me.”

I decided to change the subject, before she set her heart on the idea. You never can tell with witches.