“I burnt it for your sakes and for mine,” Lizzy told her with genuine fear in her voice. “That you have been travelling abroad with such an abomination in your pocket is very concerning indeed and deeply dangerous. What you had in your palm was the worst kind of ill-used witchery, stitching together your God and the rituals of men, along with a summoning spell and a trap. It’s an abomination. You are very fortunate as it is that you have not had the worst kind of evil turn up at your doorstep and invite itself in. Spells like that made out of anger and desperation are a beacon—an invitation to darkness and danger to gather round.”

“Oh dear,” Anne said, looking at Emily. “It looks as though we might need some more salt.”

“The one saving grace is that whoever made that foul charm is not a witch, nor have they held counsel with any real witch or anyone who truly knows the old ways, and as such I believe it is not as powerful as it could have been. What they have done is to make a monstrosity—a sacrilege—out of ancient practices long since buried in the ground and forgotten, and tangled it up with such hate and ill will that it can only have been made by the worst kind of soul.”

“You called it a summoning spell?” Emily asked her. “To summon forth the devil?”

“No.” Lizzy shook her head. “No, though it might be hidden under that false promise. The person who made that spell believes themself to be the devil already. What you discovered is a trap—a trap set to capture innocent souls and in doing so make them captive forever.”

“Souls?” Anne asked her. “You use the plural, and yet only one set of remains has been discovered.”

“Only one set that you have discovered,” Lizzy added. “This madman believes himself to be under the influence of the dark moon—the new moon, you might call it, when the moon is cloaked fully by the night, unseen and invisible, but still there, wielding its power over all who walk the earth. It’s on the nights of the dark moon, when his hunger demands to be fed, that this creature seeks satisfaction.”

“But then . . . there could be scores of hidden bones?” Anne asked, sceptical. “One child might go missing unnoticed, but surely not hundreds?”

“Not hundreds, no,” Lizzy said. “The dark moon is only one of the conditions they seek to carry out their ritual. There is another circumstance that must be aligned in order for him to act.”

“What is it?” Emily asked her. “Could you tell it from the drawing?”

“I cannot, but I can tell you what I feel if you will stand it.”

Emily and Anne exchanged a worried look.

“Tell us,” Anne said.

“That somehow it is you who have awakened the monster—you who have set him to kill again.”