‘I can help,’ said Mary. ‘I’ll be able to spot him, if he’s outside, and if you’re right about him being a wolf, I can just fly out of reach. Luiza, go and tell the others what we’re doing. Don’t leave the room until one of us tells you it’s safe.’

‘What if he comes for us?’

‘You throw everything you have at him. Including Bell if you have to.’ Mary moved uncomfortably, her wounds raw.

Luiza left them the lantern and scurried up the last few turns of the stairs, leaving Dalip and Mary not staring at each other.

‘Do you,’ he said, ‘want me to find you a pair of trousers, or something?’

‘Because running around in my pants makes me feel like a fucking superhero, right?’ She blew out a breath, long and heartfelt. ‘If you’re hiding a pair of jeans somewhere, then yes. Otherwise, we’re just wasting time.’

Under normal circumstances, he’d have found it distracting. He was used to women covering up. These weren’t normal circumstances, and she wasn’t a Sikh. ‘I can cope if you can.’

‘This is fucking stupid, you know that? We’re just kids, and we’re hunting an actual werewolf.’

‘It would be even more stupid if you couldn’t turn into a giant bird of prey.’

‘That’s actually a good point. We can do this, can’t we?’

Dalip pulled a face. ‘No one else is up for it, so I’m game if you are.’

‘You really are a posh kid.’ But she smiled as she said it.

‘Doesn’t mean I’m bad or wrong.’

‘You’re all right really. What first?’

‘Let’s find the guards. They don’t deserve this.’

They dismantled the rest of the barricade and checked the whole of the downstairs area. There were more store rooms off the main kitchen, and each one involved a sweaty-palmed grip of the latch and a flinging wide of the door, expecting to be attacked in a flurry of fur and teeth, and gratefully disappointed when it didn’t happen.

‘Outside, then,’ said Dalip. The doorway, with its broken door on the floor was full of wind and noise. ‘This castle was grown? Seriously?’

‘It’s weird, but it’s true.’

‘I should be getting used to that, but I don’t think I ever will.’ He stuck his head out and remembered to look up and behind him at the wall. The sky, black already, was low and heavy and churning with cloud. The invisible moon was no help, and the unattended fire in the courtyard burned low and fitful.

‘You go first,’ said Mary. ‘You’ve got the knife.’

He looked at it, its broad blade and short length. ‘Something longer would be so much better. My grandfather had a sword, a proper sword: he even used it during the war.’