But she included him in her smile because she had no good reason to object to his presence. She was in her two-week trial period, after all, and she had known this first lesson at least would be supervised. It was perfectly reasonable. You didn’t hire someone to look after and teach children without at least making sure they were safe, responsible, and capable of doing their job. And truthfully, Mika was fine with that.

She just wished it were someone else doing the supervising. Couldn’t it have been Lucie or Ian or Ken, any of whom she suspected would have been kind and understanding if she messed up?

But no, she’d gotten Jamie, who loomed and scowled and who, truce or no truce, reminded her of nothing so much as a grim spectre waiting for Satan to summon him home.

She waited for the girls to get settled on the grass with her. Jamie took the comic book from Rosetta and found himself a spot beneath the nearest tree, his back against the trunk and his hands tucked deep into the pockets of his coat.

Mika tried to pretend he wasn’t there. “There’s a couple of things I want to talk about today,” she said to the children, hoping her voice didn’t sound as unsure and awkward as she felt, “but first, I wanted to find out if any of you have any questions about me or magic or anything else. I gather Lillian hasn’t had the time to teach you, so I’m guessing there’s a lot of stuff you’ve wondered about and—”

“How many other witches do you know?” Rosetta asked shyly, her eyes bright and eager.

“Are there any boy witches?” Altamira asked, sounding rather disgusted.

And Terracotta, her tone downright belligerent, asked, “Do you really think you can teach us how to control our magic by Christmas?”

Mika knew she had to tackle that first. “Absolutely not,” she said. “I’ve already told your grown-ups that there’s no way any of you will be able to completely control your magic in just a few weeks. That’s not why I’m here. I’m here to help you start. I’ll teach you how to use your power, show you how to begin controlling it, and protect you from any magical blowback.”

Terracotta scoffed. “We don’t need you to protect us.”

Mika considered her. “Big magical outbursts can be extremely unsafe. Especially for people like Ian, Ken, Lucie, and Jamie, who don’t have the power we do.”

Terracotta blinked, taken aback. She’d never considered that before, Mika realised, watching the little girl dart a surreptitious and worried look at Jamie. Maybe Terracotta’s hostility wasn’t coming from a place of unkindness. Maybe it was, in fact, just the opposite. Maybe it was coming from a place of love.

“This is because of Edward, too, isn’t it?” Rosetta asked Mika.