In a daze, she patted the shelf beside her. The skin around his left eye was swollen and black. “What happened to your face?”

“Wrestling match with an angry bear.” He shrugged off his rucksack and took his boots from around his neck. A wash of seawater surged in and slapped at the cave walls.

“Why did you come down here?” Alicia demanded. “Don’t you know how dangerous it is?” She wiped the tears furiously away. As if there isn’t enough salt water in here already. “My dad made me promise never to come here when the tide’s turned.”

“Yes, I know. I promised Ava too. Now we’re both oath-breakers and we’ll be excommunicated when we get back. Pull your feet up, the waves are getting bigger.”

Just having Finn here made the terror a little more bearable. She wedged her knees awkwardly under her chin and felt a treacherous squirm of hope. “This is pointless, though, isn’t it? I mean, we’re going to – we’re not going to make it, are we?”

“Well, you never know, do you? We’re not dead yet.”

“I’m scared.”

“Don’t be. Come here.” He held out an arm so she could lean against him. She hesitated. “It’s all right, it’s a full moon so I’m quite clean today. Why don’t you tell me why you’re down here?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Are the police looking for you because of that old lady you poisoned the other week? Because I told you to switch to slug pellets.”

“What?”

“Or are you on the run from the Girl Guides? They’re terrible when they’re angry.”

“I don’t know, I can’t make stuff up like you can. Oh God, the water’s coming.”

“Course you can, it’s easy. I’m here because of the Queen. I broke into Windsor Castle a few months ago and caught her in her alternate form of a giant lizard. Now she’s hunting me down because she’s afraid I’ll go to the papers.”

“Why would the Queen be a giant lizard?”

“You need to waste more time on conspiracy-theory forums. Oh, damn it… ”

The first wave trickled over the lip of the shelf. Finn stood up hastily. Alicia scrabbled to her feet, slipped and nearly fell into the water. Finn caught her.

“So that’s no fun, then.” The retreating wave sucked at their feet. “I suppose that proves you shouldn’t rely on the word of a smuggler. They never know what they’re talking about.”

“Oh God. Oh God.”

“It’s okay. Stand here next to me a minute. And don’t panic.”

“Don’t panic?”

“Okay, so here’s a story for you, and this one’s absolutely true.” Finn shone the torch up into the glistening blackness above their heads. “When I was about seven, I was completely obsessed with keys.”

“Stop it, stop it, stop trying to make me calm down, we’re both going to die, okay, we’re going to drown!”

Finn’s hand reached up into the dark. “And one day I was exploring in the caves here, and I had the back door key to our house in my pocket. Alicia, are you listening? Shut your eyes and hold onto me, and then ask me a question so I know you’re listening and not panicking.”