“We can ask, can’t we?” said Mika. “I reckon Ian would go for it, especially if he gets to come along! And, you know, part of the reason I’m here is to help the three of you open up your world a little, so this seems like a good way to give it a go.”

“Okay,” said Rosetta. Her excitement was tentative, but it was there.

There was no way Mika was going to dash her hopes now. She would get Rosetta to that bookshop if it killed her.

“No.”

Everyone looked at Jamie, unsurprised. Well, they shouldn’t be surprised. No one who knew him could possibly have expected him to agree to this particular piece of reckless, irresponsible lunacy.

“You’ll have to forgive him,” Ian said to Mika. “Jamie doesn’t mean to be rude, but he can’t help picturing the apocalypse round every corner.”

“I do mean to be rude,” Jamie snapped. “I always mean to be rude when someone suggests putting one of those kids in a stressful, unprecedented situation and expecting fuck all to go wrong. It’s not safe to take them past the wards.”

“It wasn’t safe,” Mika countered. “There’s still a risk, I admit that, but it’s a much, much smaller risk now that I’m here. I can keep a lid on the magic. That’s my job.”

“What if you can’t? Lillian never even tried.”

“Lillian never tried because she was never here,” Ken said mildly.

Jamie scowled at him. Had they all lost their minds?

“Jamie—”

“Let’s say, hypothetically, that Mika can’t keep the magic in check,” Jamie said flatly. “Let’s say the worst happens. Then what? Are we supposed to assume Mika will be able to protect Rosetta from the pitchforks and police?”

“You would have been a natural on the stage, dear,” said Ian, patting him affectionately on the arm. “In the real world, however—”

To Jamie’s surprise, it was Mika who interrupted. “Jamie’s not wrong. I don’t know about pitchforks, but it’s always possible that someone will call the police. But,” she went on, and the tension in his shoulders ratcheted right back up, “in my experience, most people who witness an unintended burst of magic tend to think it’s a cool trick. They ooh and ahh a bit and then move on.”

Okay, that was a good point. He tried not to scowl. “What if someone records it on their phone?”

“A video is even easier to dismiss as fake,” said Mika. “And all of this assumes something will go wrong, which is very unlikely.”

“It’s a risk—”

“You asked me to come here to help prepare the girls for the world outside Nowhere House,” Mika reminded him.

“I didn’t ask you to come here,” Jamie reminded her.