Perfectly on cue, the car turned in at a pair of iron gates. The storm had blown over and the air had that wonderful, earthy scent of wet grass and new possibilities. The low, golden sun gleamed over the gables and chimneys of Nowhere House. A sense of complete rightness filled Mika.

“It’s not always enough to go looking for the place we belong,” Jamie said, his eyes on the house ahead. “Sometimes we need to make that place.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

In the days before the Winter Solstice, while Ian and Lucie made shopping lists and bought enough food to feed the entire county, and Jamie and Ken set about the decidedly perilous task of stringing fairy lights all over the tall peaks of the house, Mika squeezed in a few extra lessons with the girls.

While there was no way to tell what effect the stress and nerves of Edward’s visit would have on the children’s control over their power, Mika knew from experience that the only way to maintain any control at all was to practice so much that it became second nature. So she set the girls the task of animating an enormous metal horse Mika and Ian had made out of wire. The sheer size of it made it a good progression from the little wooden dolls and paper swans that the girls had been working on previously; it was the size of a real horse, jointed in about twenty different places, and she asked the girls to work together to make it gallop up and down the pebbled driveway.

So far, the poor horse had been pulled in three different directions, distorting its frame terribly, and Mika had had to magically restore it.

Altamira, who had been in an unusually morose mood before they’d even begun, now abandoned the horse, flopped down on the grass beside Mika, and looked up at the house, which was half-decorated with fairy lights. “Nothing feels wintry and festive this year,” she admitted. “Ian forgot to post my letter to Santa. There’s no snow. And there are still sunflowers in the back garden!”

“He has posted it now, so Santa should still have time to make you a present,” Mika assured her. “The lack of snow is a pity, I grant you. As for the sunflowers, they do seem very stubborn for a flower that should not be blooming past August.” She tugged affectionately on the end of Altamira’s light brown braid, and added gently, “I think it’s just difficult for us to think about anything but Edward’s visit right now, what with it being so close and all. But I promise we’ll forget all about it for one day and have a perfect Solstice together. If you’re lucky, I may even brew you a cup of very special fairy wine.”

“Fairy wine?” Altamira squeaked, her hands flying to her mouth. “What’s that?”