I breathed out. Speck, visibly shaking, let a large grin spread across his face. ‘Did you see me?’ he whispered in delight, punching the air. ‘I was awesome!’

Lexie shifted her weight and stretched up on her tiptoes to plant a sloppy kiss on his lips. When she pulled away, they both looked flustered. Speck pulled off his glasses and began hastily to rub them.

‘Steaming up?’ I asked with an arched eyebrow.

Brochan choked. Bob, now back to normal, looked unimpressed. ‘Don’t I get a kiss?’ he complained. ‘I’m the one who had to get up close and personal with those guys.’ He licked his finger, an expression of utter pleasure crossing his face.

‘What are you eating?’ Taylor asked.

Bob blinked. ‘Mm? Oh, ear wax.’ He held his finger out. ‘Want some?’

Taylor looked almost as ill as the Sidhe had. ‘I’ll pass.’

The genie shrugged and licked it again. ‘Your loss.’

Rolling his eyes, Brochan turned to me. ‘What did you steal?’ he asked. ‘What was his Gift?’

I reached down inside myself, feeling for the magic. It was definitely there – and it was definitely unfamiliar. ‘I have no idea,’ I admitted. ‘And we’re still too close to those guards for me to experiment and find out.’ I glanced up at the night sky. ‘We’ve got a good four hours before dawn. Let’s make the most of it and see what we can learn from my old friend the Bull.’ I pointed upwards. ‘This way will take us round to the back of his castle. We can enter through the kitchens but we’ll have to hurry. When I lived here there was always someone up early baking bread. We need to get inside before they start work.’

‘Are you alright, Tegs?’ Taylor asked.

I smiled. Now that we’d overcome the first hurdle, I could concentrate on the matter in hand. The rattling memories inside my head were just ghosts from another life; I wasn’t that scared little kid any more. ‘I’m good,’ I told him. I meant it. ‘Now let’s move.’

We were lucky that it was a cloudy night because the moon was almost obscured, making it easy to slip unnoticed to the main buildings. I spotted a couple of others wandering about the grounds, no doubt under orders to keep the Bull safe, but they didn’t glance in our direction.

Buoyed up by our success so far, I sped up, knowing that the others would keep pace. Before long, I was standing in front of the old oak door leading into the Scrymgeour kitchens. Taylor was breathing heavily – it was a long time since he’d participated physically in any heists – but there was no denying the gleam in his eyes. He’d missed this. Perhaps we all had.

The door was locked and bolted from the other side. Opening it wasn’t impossible but there were easier ways to gain entry than to waste time fiddling around and trying to pick the lock. I spotted a grimy window high up in the right corner of the wall. If the Bull had been re-modelling, he hadn’t done anything to change the exterior. Not that the comfort of his servants had ever been his concern; he’d always demanded that the kitchen door be kept closed so the grounds staff couldn’t wander in to nab some food whenever they wanted. It could get mightily hot when the kitchen was in full swing, however, so back in my day that little window was always left open to provide ventilation. It appeared that nothing had changed.