“I’ll resist.”

“Is that because you don’t know how?”

That made the corner of his mouth twitch, which she found rather charming. He gestured up to the balcony, his breath foggy and white in the air between them. “So you’re like the kids, then. You’ve got your windows open in the dead of night in November.”

“It’s not that I don’t feel the cold. I just don’t mind it. Within reason.” Mika tucked her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. “What are you doing out here?”

“Altamira left her penguin outside.” He fished a stuffed animal out of his own pocket, its colours so faded and its fabric so chewed that there was no universe in which Mika would have guessed that it was a penguin if he hadn’t said as much. “I convinced her to go to sleep without it, but only by promising that I’d find and restore it to her before she wakes up.”

“Seems fair to me.”

“So”—the shift in his tone took her by surprise, and she watched him warily—“Lucie mentioned she talked to you.”

“I kind of thought I’d be the one to bring it up first,” Mika said ruefully.

“You weren’t getting round to it, and I haven’t got all night,” was the brusque reply.

Mika laughed. She could see what Lucie had meant when she’d said Lillian had found it impossible to put him in his place: this was not a man who had the slightest interest in social niceties. She liked it. She had spent all her life colossally afraid of fucking up those very same social niceties and giving away just how not normal she was, so it was both novel and nice to not have to worry about it for a few minutes.

“I didn’t want anyone coming here,” Jamie explained. “It’s not you. It’s anyone. There’s too much at stake.”

“Which is extremely reasonable,” said Mika, nodding. “That’s the thing. I get it. I understand what it’s like to not trust people. I understand what it’s like to be afraid that one mistake will destroy the life you’ve built. So I don’t resent your mistrust in the slightest.”

He cocked his head at her. “But?”

“But I think this is doomed to fail if you don’t keep that mistrust to yourself. I’m here to teach magic, of all things, and that’s tricky on a good day. It’ll be downright impossible if the girls pick up on the way you feel. They need to trust me, even if you don’t.”

She was only too conscious of his intent, searching gaze. After a moment, he nodded. “Okay.”

Oh. Well, that could have gone worse.

“Okay,” she echoed. “Good. I guess I’ll go back to bed, then . . .”

“Why the videos?”

Mika blinked at the unexpected question. “My videos?”