‘I think you’re off the hook,’ said Ashes, rolling onto his back and batting playfully at nothing. ‘Blaming you would be like admitting that the great and powerful Master Geryon needs a little apprentice girl to defend his domain, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how he would feel about that.’

Alice fell silent, leaning against a bookshelf and watching the dust dance and sparkle in the light of the hurricane lamp. They were in the relatively well-ordered part of the library, out of sight of Mr Wurms’s table. Alice was supposed to be retrieving a particular volume for the scholar, but she’d found her mind wandering.

It had been a week since the break-in. Alice had awoken back in her bed in the house, and had stayed there for twenty-four hours, bruised and exhausted. During that time, according to Ashes, Geryon had shut everyone up in their rooms and ransacked the entire estate with a pack of vicious creatures at his heel. He’d discovered the rogue book that had given Isaac a way in and had a long talk with Ending, then stomped back into the house as unsatisfied as ever.

Alice, on waking, had given him an abbreviated version of her story. She’d left out any mention of friendship or cooperation with Isaac – not that he deserved any protection, she thought, cheeks burning – and said only that she’d woken up to find everyone under the Siren’s spell, had chased the thief, and ended up inside the Dragon’s book. This last had given Geryon pause, and he’d spent a long time examining her afterwards.

After that there had been no more talk of erasing her memory. Life had gone back to normal, or what passed for normal under the circumstances.

‘It’s not here,’ Alice said to Ashes, dragging her finger along the spines of a shelf’s worth of books. It came away grey with dust. ‘I’ll go and check the other side.’

Ashes was still sprawled on a shelf, all four legs in the air. His tail twitched aimlessly, and he directed a lengthy yawn at Alice.

‘Go ahead,’ he said. ‘I’ll be right here.’

There was a gap in the shelves a little further on, and Alice slipped through into the next aisle, then counted bookcases until she found the one opposite where she’d been looking. It was stacked full of dusty volumes, and she sighed and knelt down to start looking at the bottom.

A moment later, she felt the odd twisting sensation of the library shifting around her. Alice straightened up slowly, keeping her eyes on the shelf.

‘I was wondering when you’d turn up,’ she said.

The sound from behind her was halfway between a chuckle and a purr.

‘Oh, Alice, Alice,’ Ending said. ‘I hope you’re not angry with me.’