‘But would they have?’ I demand. ‘Would my father really let the shadows kill me?’

‘Your father! It is his fault all this is happening! He is blind to it, Stella, hidden away in that palace. He sends his shadow out in search of you, but he sees nothing. Nothing but his own despair.’

‘His shadow?’

‘He could always do it.’ She sighs. ‘And I named him Ellos, which means stag, so that is the shape his shadow takes.’

I sit down with a thump on to the bench, my stomach hollow.

‘Stella?’

‘I saw it.’

‘You saw the Stag?’

The room is utterly quiet, save for the ticking of the clock. The air grows thick with it.

‘How close did he get? Did he speak to you, Stella?’

‘He . . . might have said something about a bright thing,’ I say.

She rises from her chair in outrage. ‘Oh, STELLA! What have you done?’ She puts her hands up to her mouth, staring at me.

‘You never told me his shadow was out there! That it was looking for me!’

‘I was trying to protect you – I promised your mother I’d keep you safe, and that stag, that creature who was your father, he is long gone, Stella. He died the day your mother died; he caught the Plaga himself, and it weakened him, and then the grief . . . he is not my Ellos. He is not a creature who can care for you, and so I kept you away, as much as I could, to keep you safe. You’re not thirteen yet, you are not in your full power, Estelle. You’re still a child!’

My mind is a fog of too many things whirring. I sit on the bench and wrap my fingers around the warm, solid edge of it.

‘How is it safe to keep secrets? Why were you trying to keep me imprisoned here? Did you really think I wouldn’t ever find the company of humans, or fae? Did you want me to be alone here forever?’

‘You are not alone!’

She’s shouting now, and it’s the first time I’ve ever heard her do it. Peg covers his ears, as the fire starts popping, and Teacake curls up into a ball on the rug.

‘I am here. And Peg. And this little cat of yours!’

‘But no friends, Nan. No people!’

‘Mrs Mandrake is people,’ she mutters, but the heat has gone, as quick as it came, and now she just looks tired, and I feel bad.

‘Speaking of secrets,’ she says after a moment. ‘Peg tells me this Yanny is one of your school friends.’

‘Ah . . . yes. He is.’

‘Then there is magic at the school?’

I wince. ‘Some of the kids are from Winterspell. I didn’t know that when I started.’

‘But you found out. And you lied to me.’

‘I just didn’t tell you. I didn’t want to worry you.’

‘Didn’t want to worry me!’ She snorts. ‘You’ve worried me since the day I brought you here. All of my care, and you just waltz in and put yourself right in the middle of it all. This is why I warned you against going, Stella – it’s too soon. I knew it would be trouble.’