Sybil smiled at her, clearly understanding what had happened between them. “The power of love and communing with your partner in the flesh can open up a blocked mind to the ancestors.”

Amelia felt heat radiating from her cheeks. Byron crouched down and took her hand.

“You shouldn’t have left without me.”

“It was something I felt I had to do on my own.”

“Your guards are staying in the village?” Sybil said.

“You heard?”

“One of our coven—Catherine, who runs the shop in the village—spotted you,” Sybil said.

Byron slipped into the seat beside Amelia. The panic she had felt when she had wakened to an empty bed was starting to subside.

Byron had met Sybil many years ago, during the War, when she was sent by the Secret Service to liaise with the coven here in the New Forest.

“Bhal is staying in the village, and Captain Villiers is staying in the cabin next door to us with a friend.”

“Captain Villiers? Is she still as serious as she always was?”

“She is mellowing slightly. We think love is working its magic on her,” Byron said.

“There’s no greater magic than love,” Sybil replied.

Amelia turned to Byron and said, “Why didn’t you say you knew Sybil? We could have come to her straight away.”

“I honestly didn’t know she’d still be living here. I’d heard the coven wasn’t as strong in numbers as it had once been.”

“Yes,” Sybil said, “we cunning folk were once the biggest and most powerful coven in Britain, but through one thing and another our numbers have dwindled.”

“You are their leader now?” Byron asked.

Sybil smiled. “Yes, hard to believe that little girl you met then would grow up to be the leader?”

“Please, tell me about my birth mum, my dad, who were they? Do I still have family?” Amelia was sounding frustrated.

Byron put her arm around her. “Give Sybil time.”

“More tea?” Sybil picked up the teapot.

“No, just tell me who I am.” Amelia smacked her hand down on the table.

Sybil sat down again. “I will answer your questions, but first I need you to visit your adoptive mother and father.”

“What? Why?”

“I need you to understand why things were done the way they were before I tell you everything,” Sybil said.

“Why can’t you witches stop talking in riddles and just speak the truth? The ones we met in London said I had to come here to find out the truth, these stupid voices in my head tell me to find you, and now you tell me to go back to my adoptive parents? When will it end? When will anyone give me a straight answer?”

“Amelia—” Byron said.

“No.” Amelia shrugged away from Byron, and a flash of light came from her hands and knocked a chair across the room.