Below her was the folded paper, and somehow he knew, from the way the edges fluttered in an impossible breeze, and the way his mother beckoned up at him, that once he opened it, he’d understand all this clutter around him.

‘OK.’ He spoke into the empty room. ‘Tell me everything.’

He picked up the photograph and the folded paper that lay beneath, letting the pages fall open, a family tree unravelling in front of him. And there it was, screaming in his face, and the truth didn’t feel like a slap as he expected; it was a caressing, delicate touch. It was Haru’s hand on his shoulder, it was the way the king and queen shared a look he could never understand, and it was the shadow of Claude in the palace hallway. Jamie finally knew who he was.

The calm that took over him now was nothing to do with shock. It was thoughtful and decisive. He turned to the desk and wrote a brief note, then he tucked it into the dressing table mirror. Next, he pulled the velvet box from his pocket, opening it to see the chain he’d worn for so long snarling up at him. Laying it on the table with care, he grabbed the knife that was strapped to his ankle. The blade glinted in the light. He brought it down as hard as he could upon the silver wolf, severing it down the middle.

His link to the Wolfsons was torn asunder.

Making his way out, he paused where he lingered over the switch for the fairy lights with which Lottie had adorned the room. On a whim, he turned back to the room, looking around. Then he grabbed a blanket – one he’d seen Lottie curl up in so many times. He draped it over his arm, holding it up to his nose to inhale the scent, and took it with him up the stairs.

He didn’t need to find his princess. He didn’t need to ask her what she was keeping from him. She wasn’t his princess at all; she never had been. He understood that now. As he stepped back out into the rain, he began to walk down to the cast-iron school gates. He laughed to himself. All this time he’d been looking for his enemy, looking for where they were hiding, determined to stop them from getting to Lottie. It turned out he’d been their prisoner all along.

Haru was waiting for him at the main gate, a bag over his shoulder and an umbrella held aloft for Jamie. He ducked beneath it and finally found shelter from the rain.

They didn’t smile. Instead Haru waited for Jamie to speak.

‘Haru,’ he began, his voice hard and strange to his ears. He didn’t bother to look back at Rosewood. There was nothing there for him any more. ‘Take me to my father.’

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