‘I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings before or to take advantage of you. I won’t do it again. I promise.’

When he still refused to look at me, I reached out with my little finger and gave him the gentlest poke. ‘You know how you were impressed with the luxury of the last place? Wait until you see where we are now.’

His body jerked. I was getting somewhere.

‘It’s not as opulent,’ I continued, ‘but it’s certainly exciting. You must be bored being stuck in that knife all the time. Now you can do something more interesting.’

He muttered a few words under his breath. I leaned forward, not quite catching them. ‘What was that?’

‘Dagger. It’s not a knife. It’s not for buttering bread. It’s a dagger. In fact,’ he said, ‘from now on you will only refer to it as a sword. Or a scimitar. Yes. Call it a scimitar.’

I pressed my lips together, forcing myself not to laugh. The letter opener was about as far removed from a scimitar as I was from a troll. If that was all it took to appease him, though, I could manage it.

‘Scimitar, then. It must be boring inside the scimitar.’

‘It’s not so bad. I have Deep Space Nine to keep me company.’

I whistled. ‘The boxset?’

‘The entire boxset. Frankly, you’re interrupting my viewing.’

Sitting down with a slab of chocolate and some classic sci-fi sounded incredibly appealing and I was genuinely envious. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to see if it was within his powers to lend it to me. How did he even get it inside the knife? Distracting questions swirled around my head before I tamped them down and got back to business.

‘You’ve still not asked where we are,’ I said, dangling the carrot in front of him again.

He sniffed. ‘I don’t need you to tell me. I’m perfectly capable of working it out for myself. I’m a vastly powerful magical being, remember? I…’ He halted in mid-flow. Then he stood up and slowly spun round, his expression full of awe. ‘The Cruaich? We’re at the Cruaich? Girlfriend!’

I grinned. ‘See? I knew you wouldn’t be disappointed.’

He bounced up and down. ‘I thought you were some crappy minor Sidhe with no powers. But you’ve brought me to the Sidhe Court. I’ve never been to the Sidhe Court before. Are the hallways really paved in gold?’

‘Er, not exactly.’

‘Oh.’ He seemed disappointed. ‘But I bet all the plates are encrusted with diamonds, right? I like diamonds.’

‘I have a fondness for shiny, sparkly things myself,’ I confided. ‘But I’ve not been given anything to eat so I can’t tell you what the kitchenware is like.’

His expression was eager. ‘Find out. You must find out.’

‘I will do my best.’