“We didn’t unbury her just for fun,” said Terracotta, offended. Neither Rosetta nor Altamira had said a word so far, both looking a lot more sheepish and a lot less matter-of-fact than their sister. “Edward was horrible. He looked pleased when he got here and there was no sign of Lillian. Pleased. He started asking Ian, Ken, and Lucie all kinds of questions and said he knew they’d done something to her. So Rosetta, Altamira, and I went to Lillian’s room and got some of her clothes. Then we went into the garden and got all her bones out of the ground. Then we assembled the skeleton, dressed it, and animated it.”

“You animated—”

“We worked together, Mika!” Altamira told her proudly. “We cast the spell together! Just like you taught us!”

There was absolutely nothing Mika could say to that except: “You did very well, sweetheart.”

She meant it, too. She was incredibly proud of them.

She was also slightly horrified.

“I think we got the skeleton wrong,” Rosetta admitted. “We put some of the bones in the wrong places. It didn’t look right.”

“It was a dead woman’s skeletal remains wearing her clothes, Rosetta! It was never going to look right!” Jamie pinched the bridge of his nose, his jaw clenched so tightly, Mika was afraid he’d crack his teeth. “What exactly did you think you were going to achieve by parading an animated corpse in front of Edward?”

Terracotta gave him a look like the answer should be obvious. “We thought we might be able to convince him that it was really Lillian.”

Mika could see from the expression on Rosetta’s face that at no point had she thought any such thing was possible, but she was too loyal to say so.

“Terracotta,” Mika said firmly, her heart giving a thump of dread. “Does Edward know those bones are real? Does he know Lillian is dead?”

For the first time, Terracotta’s bravado cracked. She nodded. “Yes. He knows.”

“That’s why we locked him in the shed!” Altamira chimed in. “He went bonkers when he saw the skeleton, so Lucie tried to calm him down by explaining the truth. He wouldn’t listen. He called us freaks, so we made the skeleton chase him into the shed, took his phone, and locked him in.”

“He called you what?” Jamie demanded, furious. “You know, I was going to object to you locking him in a garden shed in the middle of winter, but I’m not sure he doesn’t deserve it.”

“Deserve it or not, we’re not so unkind,” Altamira said reproachfully. “We left the big blanket from the tree house with him, the one Mika enchanted with a heating spell.”

But Mika was unable to spare a thought for cold sheds and enchanted blankets. She kept repeating Terracotta’s words over and over inside her head.

Yes. He knows.