By the time she went back outside, armed with a tray laden with cups of sea holly tea for everyone, the sun had dipped below the horizon. Mika put the tray down on a table of knotted vines and sought shelter from the cold beside Jamie, leaning her head into his chest and breathing in the scent of pine needles and the ocean, which never failed to make her feel better. He tightened his arm around her, playing absently with a lock of her hair.

“What will happen when she comes out?” Ken asked quietly.

“We’ll decide where we want Edward to wake from the spell, so to speak, and put him there,” said Mika. “The driver’s seat of his car makes the most sense. Then Primrose will wake him up and he won’t remember a single thing he discovered today. In a way, we do get to turn back time.”

“And start this fiasco all over again,” said Ian gloomily.

But Mika suddenly laughed. “No, because when Edward wakes up, he’ll see Primrose. Who needs a glamour spell when you have an identical twin?”

Some time later, Primrose exited the shed with her usual straight-backed grace, leaving the door open behind her. She looked old and frail, the way she always did after using so much of her power, but she also looked satisfied.

Ian peered into the shed with the liveliest interest, noting that Edward was lying prone on the floor. “Is he dead?”

Primrose gave him a scathing look, like she’d expected better from Minerva Hawthorn’s only offspring. “Of course not. He’ll have a bit of a headache, but he’ll be fine. I have removed all of his memories of today’s events. I cannot do anything about the suspicion with which he seems to view you all.”

“Well, the thing is,” said Mika, “it’s in all of our best interests if we remove Edward from our lives for good. And I think there’s a way.”

Primrose listened to Mika’s idea in silence and, by the end, looked almost amused (if it were in fact possible for Primrose to be amused by anything). She waited, sitting on a stool and daintily sipping from her cup of sea holly tea (“This is very nice, poppet. One of yours?”), while Jamie, Lucie, and Ken moved Edward from the shed to the driver’s seat of his car.

Primrose stood and moved to stand a few feet away from the car, pinning a charming, if chilly, smile to her face as she woke him up.

Everyone watched, breaths held, as Edward yawned, opened his eyes, and glanced around him as if he was slightly confused by how late in the day it was. He opened the car door and clambered out, adjusting his cuffs.

Then he saw Primrose and his face was an absolute picture. “L-Lillian?”