She smiled suddenly. ‘You’re right! It’s exactly like that! The snitch. That’s what it reminds me of. If it had wings, it would be a perfect match.’

‘Mm.’ I let my fingers brush against the Foinse’s warmth for another second. Then I threw it up into the air directly into the sunbeam.

They all gasped in horror. Byron lunged for it while Aifric and William sprang forward. Dorienne appeared to be frozen in place.

‘You idiot!’ Malcolm screeched. ‘What have you done?’ He flung himself at me, slamming me down to the ground. Despite the painful crack of my spine on the stone, I kept my eyes on the Foinse.

They say that what goes up must come down – but the Foinse definitely wasn’t coming back down. In fact, it was gathering speed, rising up and up and up. As Malcolm drew back his fist and punched my face, I saw the Foinse reach the hole in the top of the mountain, wink once against the failing sunlight and disappear. Then my nose exploded in pain.

I felt Malcolm’s weight being dragged off me and the smack of more flesh on flesh. Blinking away tears, I struggled to my elbows, just as William Kincaid grabbed me and yanked to my feet.

‘You’ve doomed us all!’ he shouted. I got a strong whiff of garlic from last night’s stew. ‘You’re just like your father after all!’

I pulled back. Malcolm’s nose was streaming with blood, much like my own. Byron had his hand on Malcolm’s shirt as if he were afraid he was going to hit me again. Saved by Golden Boy. I supposed I should be thankful. I wiped away the blood with my sleeve and gazed at the angry faces. Aifric, in particular, appeared to be incandescent with rage.

‘It’s the source of all the magic,’ I said quietly. ‘It doesn’t need to be rescued by us. It can fix itself. When we get far enough away and the Kincaids can use their precognition again, they’ll be able to tell us that everything’s going to be fine. The Foinse’s free and so is the magic. No single Clan has to be in charge of it. You don’t need to worry about putting more safeguards in place to stop someone misusing it. All your problems are solved.’

My calm explanation didn’t appear to dampen the group’s ire. Only Byron looked at me speculatively. Everyone else wanted to murder me. That wasn’t much different to an hour ago; now they were just more open about it.

‘Don’t you know what we could have done with the Foinse? The good we might have achieved?’