Primrose’s expression was glacial. “You really do have the most irregular ideas,” she said severely. “You may find this hard to believe, Mika, but I was not alive four hundred years ago. I know the story because I heard it from an older witch, who heard it from an older witch, and so on. It’s how we preserve our histories, you know.”

“I don’t know, actually,” said Mika, goaded. “How do you expect all this to survive your death when you don’t tell anyone anything?”

“I’m telling you now, aren’t I?”

Mika prayed for patience. “What did the witches do after the spell went wrong?”

“It took a generation or two for the reality of what they’d actually done to sink in,” said Primrose. “Once it did, it was decided that witches would stay apart. It was inevitable, between the deaths of so many parents, the orphaning of new witches, and the ill will that followed the spell. I can’t speak for elsewhere, but here in Britain, the witches chose to continue the tradition of meeting every few months. Careful consideration was given to the risks, and rules were imposed to reduce them, and, so far, our existence has remained safe and secret.”

“And we have no contact with witches anywhere else.”

“I wouldn’t say no contact,” said Primrose. “I have been known to correspond with other witches on occasion. Your grandmother, for example.”

Mika hastily swallowed a mouthful of scone, startled. “You actually knew my grandmother? I mean, I knew you had to have known of her if you knew she and my mother had been witches, but I didn’t realise you knew her.”

“She was the head of her—”

“Society?” Mika couldn’t resist asking.

“I would prefer to use the term group of witches sharing a similar geography,” said Primrose coldly.

Mika rolled her eyes. “Yes, that sounds much better.”

“Your grandmother, Sita, occupied the same position I do. So we corresponded.”

“She was the leader of all the witches in India?”

“Just the south of India,” said Primrose. “It’s a big country. It has at least six groups of witches. Your grandmother was the leader of one. She died shortly after your mother was born, of course, and I took it upon myself to look in on your mother every now and then.” She paused, and then added almost kindly: “Neither your mother nor your grandmother ever planned to have children. I think they would have liked to if it hadn’t been for the spell, but they did not have the luxury of choosing in the end.”

Mika felt absolutely no resentment at the likelihood that she wouldn’t have existed if her mother had had a choice in the matter. She was very glad she was alive, of course, but she also wished her mother had had a choice. Everyone deserved a choice.