From beyond Armstrong and his little group, I thought I saw Winter sprinting towards us through the gloom and the graves like a demon on speed. Hallucination or otherwise, I still managed to smile. That man really ought to learn the pleasures of a slow stroll.

‘I love you,’ I whispered.

‘Goodness,’ said the disembodied head of Benjamin Alberts’ floating next to me. ‘And we’ve only just met.’

For a very long time after that, I was aware of nothing else at all.

Epilogue

Bellows was shaking. It might have been with anger or it might have been with fear. Either way, Winter didn’t really care. ‘You abused your position to take advantage of several younger women. You assaulted them.’

‘Nobody said no!’

‘Oh, I think we’ll find they did.’ Winter leaned forward. ‘You tout yourself as a magical consultant. You pass yourself off as a witch. That means we can try you under Order jurisdiction, rather than the normal courts.’ He allowed himself a small smile. ‘Our methods and punishments are somewhat … harsher.’

Bellows blinked and paled. ‘I’m not in the Order! I’m not even a witch! I barely have any magic at all!’

‘That’s not what you tell everyone.’

‘I’m lying!’

Winter knitted his fingers together in satisfaction. ‘Indeed you are.’ He eyed Bellows. ‘Why are you using necromancy?’

‘What?’

‘You’re raising the dead, Trevor. You’re responsible for at least one death.’

Bellows bolted to his feet. ‘I bloody well am not! Okay, I blackmailed Belinda. Okay, I might have seduced some of the crew members. But I have never tried to raise a corpse!’

Winter’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Seduced? Is that what you’re calling sexual assault?’

Bellows began to bluster and babble. Winter would have stayed to listen but frankly he’d had more than enough. Trevor Bellows was a bastard and he deserved to be locked up for a very long time but Winter knew that when he’d denied the necromancy, he’d been telling the truth. Bellows’ alarm was genuine.

Winter wasn’t surprised. Regardless of what Ivy had suggested, the sleazy supposed witch simply didn’t have the magic to pull off those kinds of spells. He stood up and walked out while Bellows continued to talk. Plonker, as Ivy would say.

Out in the corridor, a familiar floppy-haired witch pushed himself off the wall and bounded forward. ‘Adeptus Exemptus Winter! How’s the interrogation going?’

Winter glared at Tarquin Villeneuve. ‘Fine.’ He pushed past him. Dawn wasn’t far off and he could do with a few hours’ sleep before he went to check on Ivy. The last thing he needed was this idiot getting in his way.

‘Wait! There’s something I have to tell you!’

Winter rolled his eyes and halted, reluctantly turning round. ‘What?’

‘I made that vial. The one Belinda Battenapple had round her neck.’

‘I know. So what?’

Villeneuve was nonplussed. ‘Well, my talent is obvious. I think I would be an excellent candidate for Arcane Branch. In fact, I have a few ideas for questions you should ask Mr Bellows.’