Mika shook her head. “You’re hoping I can teach the girls how to control their magic before Edward’s visit, but that’s a big ask.”

“Big, but essential.”

“When exactly is he coming?”

“The twenty-sixth of December,” said Lucie. “We gave him a number of excuses and insisted we couldn’t make it any sooner, but he refused to put it off any later than that.”

“Trust him not to have anything better to do on a holiday,” Ian grumbled.

The twenty-sixth was five days after the Winter Solstice. “I don’t know if that’s possible,” Mika said bluntly. “That’s, what? Six or seven weeks away? They could make a decent start in six weeks, but most of the important stuff will take years to master. Altamira’s only seven. I was fifteen before I could trust myself not to lose control.”

“But if you were here,” said Ken, “couldn’t you help them stay in control while Edward’s in the house? Or keep their power in check if they do lose control?”

Mika grimaced. “I’ve never been in a situation like this before. I don’t know anyone who has. I can’t make you any promises. I might be able to keep all the power in Nowhere House on a leash, but if I can’t, the magical outburst will be worse than anything you’ve seen before. It’s a risk to all of us.”

There was a moment of quiet. Mika heard a shriek of laughter from a child outside.

Her tea had gone cold.

“I need to think about it,” she said, standing up. The whole afternoon had been an enormous shock and she couldn’t quite think straight.

“Do you want to meet the girls before you go?” Ken asked gently.

“No,” Mika said at once. “It wouldn’t be fair to meet them if I decide not to come back.”

But when she got back into the Broomstick, she didn’t drive away immediately. Hands gripping the wheel very tightly, she found herself thinking not of Primrose’s wrath (which would be mighty) or how very dangerous it was to put herself in a position where exposure was so probable (and it was far too probable), but of a little girl in a safe, comfortable house with a string of safe, comfortable nannies.

Sometimes, when she looked back on her childhood, Mika had trouble remembering all her nannies and tutors. There had been so very many of them that she would sometimes catch herself forgetting names or struggling to conjure up a face or attaching a memory to the wrong person.