“It’s mostly because there’s so much here that it’s a lot harder for young witches like the three of you to control it,” Mika said. “Ever since I arrived, I’ve been keeping the magic in check. I’m so used to doing it for myself that at first I didn’t even notice I’d started doing it here, too, but I can feel it when I stop to think about it. It’s like I’m keeping one hand on the puppy’s leash at all times.”

“But it can still slip away,” said Rosetta, gesturing to Altamira. “So you have to grab the leash before it goes too far.”

“Exactly.”

Altamira had flopped down on the rug to stroke Circe, like she’d lost interest in Mika’s explanations and dubious metaphors, so Mika decided to cut the unexpected lesson short. Circe, she noticed, had wasted no time in making herself at home; she was stretched out on the rug and looked ready to doze off.

“I figured out a lot of this on my own,” she said to the girls, “but hopefully you won’t have to. You can ask me anything you like, any time.”

“You never did say why it wasn’t safe for me to be floating,” Altamira said, surprising her. So she was paying attention. Her bright eyes looked up to meet Mika’s. “It was fun.”

“I know,” said Mika, “and you would probably have been okay because we’re indoors. But if we’d been outside and you’d started to levitate and couldn’t get yourself back down to the ground, you could have floated too high, past the wards, and someone could have seen you. Or, worse, the wind could have gotten hold of you and tossed you who knows where.”

“Well, shit,” said Altamira.

Mika bit her lip to squash a smile. Why were rude words always so unfailingly funny when they came out of a child’s mouth? It was so terribly hard to look disapproving! Rosetta sighed. “You have to stop saying that,” she said to her sister.

“I’ll stop when Ian and Jamie stop,” Altamira said cheerfully, which seemed fair as far as Mika was concerned. She scrambled to her feet. Like Ian, she seemed to have the inexhaustible energy of a bouncy ball. “Let’s go get the rest of your stuff!”

“Are you sure you don’t mind that this is the attic?” Rosetta asked Mika, a little anxiously. “Jamie and Lucie wanted you to use one of their rooms, but I told them you might actually prefer it up here.” Her eyes dropped shyly to the floor and she added, hesitantly, “Because of balcony. And the view.”

Mika looked at her in surprise. “I do prefer it up here. How did you know?”