Cat swallowed. She ran through everything she brought with her – a bottle of cola (no good, full of Merrow), the stone with the hole in the centre (powerful, but it wasn’t exactly of great value), the protective charm Granny had made her (the worst idea of all), and then she remembered. There was something else she had brought with her. Something that meant more to her than almost anything else in the entire world.

Cat swung her backpack around and withdrew the Book of Secrets, holding it up for the queen to see.

At once, the fairy’s eyes lit up.

‘My, my. You offer me a thing of great power, Caitriona,’ she said. ‘You offer me your very identity. You would part with this so easily?’

Cat looked down at the battered old copybook with its ink blotches and dog-eared pages. This book contained everything Granny had told her about the Other World, all of the knowledge that made her special. If anything should happen to Granny, Cat doubted she would ever be able to recreate it. So much information lost forever. But then she looked at Mikey and thought of that thing pretending to be him and how it would probably sicken and die before the year was out. What was the loss of her secrets compared to the life of her brother? Cat swallowed a hard lump in her throat and nodded. The queen grasped the book eagerly and began to flick through the pages, a smile playing on her beautiful lips.

‘And you, young man?’ she said, turning to Shane. ‘What have you to offer the Queen of the Sídhe?’

Shane stepped forward and from his pocket, pulled out what appeared to be a small piece of paper, but when Cat looked again she realised was a photograph. She recognised a younger Shane. He appeared to be at a wedding or some other formal event because he was dressed in a smart shirt and colourful bow tie. Beside him was his dad.

‘It’s a picture of me and my dad. It’s the only one I have, actually. My mam isn’t … she isn’t well. His death was hard on her and afterwards she got rid of everything that reminded her of him. This photo is all I have left to remember him by. It’s the most important thing I own, but if you let my sister go, you can keep it.’

The queen went quiet, turning the deal over in her mind. Time seemed to stretch out into an eternity until, finally, she spoke. ‘Very well, we have a deal, Caitriona and Shane. Your siblings are free to leave.’

Shane let out a whoop of joy and Cat felt like she could have collapsed with relief. Somehow it had gone even better than she had imagined.

Cat ran forward and scooped Mikey up into her arms. For once he didn’t make a fuss, but simply allowed her to hug him. Shane threw his arms around Jenny.