Pah. I ignored his pathetic attempt to bring me into the fold. ‘What I don’t understand is why, after you’d already failed, you sent Bell End and Alice after Eve. What was the big plan there? Follow her and hope she screws up so you can still take her place after I’m gone?’

Tarquin frowned. ‘Eh?’

‘Matthew Bellham and Alice Fairclough,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘Haven’t you been wondering where they’ve got to? Weren’t you worried that they’d vanished?’

Tarquin looked at me. ‘Isn’t Fairclough Second Level? An Adeptus Minor?’

Something about his tone rang true. ‘You don’t know her.’

‘I know she’s Second Level. Why has she disappeared? And who’s the other guy?’

I shook my head. ‘You idiot. You absolute sodding plonker. You sent Eve away and then you kept it quiet, didn’t you? You didn’t want anyone to know that she’d gone. Even the Ipsissimus has been trying to keep it under wraps so people don’t realise how messed up the Order can be. Eve is up in the middle of nowhere, on her own, dealing with goodness knows what.’ And the news that she was gone and I’d taken her place hadn’t reached the bad guys in time. They thought her partnership with Winter had gone ahead.

Winter had told me that he had magical guards in place to avoid being tracked – and that every Second Level witch did the same. Eve wasn’t Second Level yet; Bell End and Alice wanted to use those herbs to cast a spell to follow her, so that they could also follow Winter. The only reason I could think of why someone would do that was related to the sceptre and the fact that Winter had almost just died. As had I. But surely the sceptre’s value wasn’t worth all this trouble – was it?

The door opened and Winter appeared, filling the entire doorway with his muscular figure. Compared to him, Tarquin looked small and weedy. I wondered how things would have gone down between them if Tarquin’s plan had worked. Somehow I didn’t think Tarquin would fool Winter for long.

Winter’s blue eyes flicked from Tarquin to me and back again. ‘Have you finished shouting?’ he enquired.

I tilted my head and considered. My desire to vent loudly had dissipated in the face of certain truths but there were still some hard questions that needed answering. For now, I nodded.

I could almost feel Tarquin about to burst with nerves as to whether I’d dob him in or not. It was very tempting; I’d have loved to wipe that smug smile off his face once and for all. Despite what he might believe, however, I wasn’t that vengeful. I’d worked through my issues with him a long time ago and decided he didn’t deserve any sleepless nights. I hoped that Eve felt the same because, in the end, she was the one who’d been genuinely wronged by Tarquin’s actions. I was just the bystander who’d been drawn in by accident. I’d let Eve decide how to deal with him when she got back. It was only fair.