“Then why isn’t she here instead of you?” Terracotta, of course. “Ian said he found you, but why didn’t you tell him to speak to Primrose instead?”

Mika hesitated. She glanced at Jamie, who was looking back at her with a furrow between his eyebrows. She decided to be honest.

“Primrose isn’t here because she doesn’t know about you,” Mika said to the children. “I don’t know how you’ve escaped her notice, but for now, at least, it would be best to keep it that way.”

“Why?” Rosetta asked, her little face solemn.

“Because Primrose believes keeping all witches safe and secret is more important than anything else,” said Mika. “She’ll think all this magic in one place is too dangerous to you, to your caretakers, and to the safety of all witches, so she’ll want to separate you.”

“But she can’t, can she?” Altamira sounded horrified. Mika noticed the way she tucked her hand into Terracotta’s. “We don’t belong to her!”

“She’ll want to separate you, but that doesn’t mean she can,” Mika clarified. “As far as I know, Lillian is the only one who gets to make those decisions. But Primrose can be very persuasive, and”—She hesitated, glancing once again at Jamie, whose expression had darkened—“Well, the thing is, I don’t know whether Lillian would give in. I don’t know her.”

“Primrose sounds dreadful,” Altamira said emphatically.

“Her heart’s in the right place. She just believes she has to do whatever is necessary to protect us all.”

“Hmm,” Terracotta said, almost admiring.

“In any case, Primrose isn’t going to find out about the three of you, so it’s a moot point,” Mika added.

“You sound like you know Primrose pretty well,” Jamie remarked, his rough voice scraping away the layers of her history.

Mika avoided his steady gaze and kept her eyes on Circe, who had draped herself under the tree beside Jamie and had put her head on his knee. “I grew up in Primrose’s house. One of her houses. She visited quite often, so I’ve known her all my life. I know her as well anyone does.”

“If she wasn’t there all the time, who looked after you?” Rosetta asked.

“I had nannies.”

“They knew you were a witch?”

Mika felt twitchy. Her past felt too raw and exposed, but she didn’t have the heart to shut down the girls’ questions, especially not after specifically telling them they could ask her anything. And not when she knew only too well what it was like to have questions that never got answered.