By the time Jem came into the study, Lily was gazing at her handiwork, flushed with pride. He looked like a nervous puppy as he observed her from across the room. He was covered in splatterings of paint and his hair was messy – and Lily thought she’d never seen anyone lovelier in her whole life.

‘I just wanted to apologise, first and foremost, Lil. I’m such an arsehole sometimes. I didn’t mean—’

‘Oh, shush yourself, Rafferty. We’re both idiots, but we’re idiots with a job to do, so come over here and help me, will you?’ She grinned.

Jem expelled a sigh of relief. ‘What on earth have you done to our research?’

‘I’ve organised it. Wipe that concern off your face; it’s much easier to navigate now, see…?’ She pointed at the piles in turn. ‘We have three sections of information, and in each of them we have documents ordered by importance. This way we will be able to gather all the information we need to track them down, and all the information we need to stop them. By organising everything like this, we also reduce the risk of missing vital pieces of information. Also, I have removed every map except the one with our most recent annotations and routes written on it. Another way to reduce any issues or confusion.’

‘You are a wonder, Lily Knight.’

‘Well, I do try.’ She tried to sound nonchalant, but she felt colour rise into her cheeks. ‘Is there anything you think I’ve missed? Or anything that still needs solidifying? I want to make sure we have everything we need by dinner time, so tonight can be spent concocting the potions and tomorrow can be spent organising ourselves so we can be ready to set out first thing in the morning the day after.’

‘Where’s the list of supplies we need?’

‘Here.’ She rummaged through one of the piles and found the list. ‘I’ve added a few more things I thought we might need, but it’s all on there.’

‘So, all we need to do now is work out how we’re going to get to them without exhausting ourselves, because we need to be at full strength when we arrive. There’s no point conducting a rescue mission when we’re half asleep and exhausted.’

‘Well, I think I’ve come up with a solution that I wanted to run by you.’ Jem nodded for Lily to continue. She leaned over the map and pointed at a section of their route that ran through a patch of thick woodland, relatively close to where they hoped the Shadow Sect were hiding. ‘I propose we make our way here before nightfall. According to this map, the area is large and wooded, which means it will be easy to hide in there. We can make a small camp, far enough away from the Sect that we won’t accidentally draw their attention to us, and stay the night there. Then we get up at daybreak and make our way to their lair first thing in the morning. It also means that if … when we escape with Alice and Grace, we still have half a day’s worth of light to begin the journey homeward.’