“You came to get me,” Mika said. “No one’s ever done that. Thank you.”

He looked at her for a long moment, then nodded without replying and unlocked the front door. They got rid of their shoes and went straight to the kitchen, Mika still huddled in a coat she had no intention of getting out of anytime soon, where Ian was busy removing trays of oatmeal-raisin cookies from the oven.

“Stress-baking,” he explained, beaming at them. “Cookie?”

“I could definitely do with more sugar today,” Mika said gravely. Jamie’s mouth quirked. They each accepted a cookie from Ian. “Is the kettle on?”

“Popped it on the moment I heard the car outside,” said Ian proudly. “A nice, hot cup of tea before bed is just what you need, my dear. Jamie? Tea?”

He nodded, dropping into a chair at the table.

“You could probably do with some warming up, too,” Ian remarked, his eyes bright with unholy mischief. “What with you losing your coat and all that.”

“Were you cold the whole way?” Mika asked Jamie, feeling guilty and horrified.

Jamie cut Ian a glare before answering her. “Don’t be ridiculous. You had the heating up all the way. I was fine.”

Ian hummed merrily to himself as he busied himself with the tea. He had way more energy than any man in his eighties had any right to have this late in the day. In minutes, he had three cups brewed and brought them over to the table, along with a plate of the cookies. “So?” he prompted. “Should we expect the Bogeywoman at our door any day now?”

Mika choked on her cookie, immensely tickled by the idea of Primrose as a bogeywoman. “Nope. She did figure out I was to blame for the surge in power, but I gave her a pretty good excuse for my presence in these parts.”

“Really? What did you tell her?”

“A class reunion at UEA.”

“Of course! You were a student there, weren’t you? What a clever excuse!”

Jamie gave her a wry look. “Are class reunions often the cause of massive surges in magic?”

Mika could have dodged that or simply lied, but she didn’t. “No, but reunions with horrible ex-boyfriends can be.”

His eyes narrowed, his expression darkening. Ian, on the other hand, perked up. “Well, now you have to tell us all about this fiend!”

“No, you don’t,” said Jamie.

“Hush, you.”

Mika laughed. “It’s really not that exciting. It’s just that Primrose knows about him, so he was a convenient scapegoat.” She clutched her teacup between her hands, unburying a memory she had tried very hard not to think of for the best part of a decade. “We met while I was at UEA, and we were together for about four months.”

“Was he your first dalliance?” Ian asked.