‘Would you go away with that! I’m grand,’ said Granny with a grumpy look on her face. ‘I’d be even better if they’d hurry up and bring me my tea.’

‘I’m sure the nurse will be here soon, Mam,’ said Eileen.

‘Aye, with their bloody health food. Bring me back a bar of chocolate, would you, girls? And one for Caitriona here.’

‘I will not,’ said Cat’s mam. ‘Someone came home from her sleepover empty-handed with the eyes bulging out of her head. I have no doubt herself and her friends were up half the night gorging on sweets, so another chocolate bar is the last thing she needs.’

Cat repressed the urge to moan. It really wasn’t fair. What was the point of being a hero if you didn’t get at least get some sweets out of it?

‘I’ll slip you a piece of mine,’ said Granny with a wink and Cat cheered up again.

She waited until they were alone in the room before throwing herself into her Granny’s arms and breathing in her familiar scent.

‘Well,’ said Granny. ‘Let me look at you.’

She held Cat back at arm’s length and examined her face. ‘Oh, my girl, what’s happened to you? Tell me all of it.’

Cat told her everything right from the start, only leaving out the part where she met Nancy, pretending she had slipped the nail into the goblet herself. Somehow, she thought it would upset Granny more to know that Nancy had been trapped with the fairies for so long. Maybe she would tell her about it one day, when she was better.

Granny snorted when she told her about owing the Clurichaun two bottles of whiskey in exchange for the information he had given them.

‘The cheeky beggar! Bartering with you like that.’

‘Well, he did try to help us,’ Cat said.

‘Hmm,’ said Granny through pursed lips, a sound that meant the matter was not yet closed. Cat almost felt sorry for the Clurichaun.

She finally reached the part where they had tricked the fairies into thinking the sun was rising by playing a video of a rooster crowing.

Granny chuckled. ‘Remind me never to give out about young ones being glued to their phones ever again.’

Then Cat told Granny about how she had turned up at the childminder’s to find a confused Karen wondering why Mikey and Cat were at her house so early.

‘It was like she was under a spell!’ said Cat. ‘She had no idea she was supposed to have had Mikey the night before. I made some excuse about looking for a toy Mikey dropped to check the room for the changeling, but there was no sign of it. It must disappeared at dawn with the rest of the fairies.’

When Cat reached the end of her story, Granny’s face became serious. ‘I’m sorry, Caitriona,’ she said. ‘You should never have had to face the Pooka alone. I should have been there.’

Cat squeezed Granny’s hand. ‘I wasn’t alone,’ she said. ‘I had Shane. And I carried you with me every step of the way.’