“Did he?” Ian looked taken aback, and more than a little inquisitive. “Maybe he went to say hello to that friend of his who works in the pub. Stephen? Sam? Something with an S. No, I’m quite sure Stephen-or-Sam doesn’t work on Thursdays. Hmm . . .”

He continued in this vein for a moment, pondering the mystery of Jamie’s whereabouts to an audience who paid absolutely no attention to him. Then he abruptly switched gears and chuckled.

“How interesting.” His voice brimmed with humour. “I mentioned a handsome someone and you immediately assumed I was referring to Jamie.”

Mika gave him a frosty look, incredibly irked by the fact that her cheeks were reddening. “We all know what he looks like, so there’s no need to act like something momentous just happened.”

“Someone’s tes-ty,” Ian commented, raising his eyebrows at Rosetta, who giggled.

Mika stomped off, but only to a pile of beanbags by the comic books, where two boys about Rosetta’s age, in navy blue jumpers with school crests, were examining the cover of one book in particular.

“Rosetta?” she called back. “Isn’t this the sequel to the comic you were reading earlier this week?”

One of the boys looked up. “Did you finish it already?” he asked Rosetta. “We haven’t yet, so don’t give us any spoilers, but is the ending as good as everyone says?”

Rosetta’s eyes widened in abject terror, and Ian nudged her gently in the boys’ direction. “Um, yes,” she said, in little more than a mumble. “It’s really good. You’ll want to have the sequel right there so you can start it as soon as you finish the first one.”

“I just want to know if Captain Chaos got the Spear of Fate,” the other boy said. “Did she?”

“Zaf! No spoilers!”

Zaf made a face at his friend and waved Rosetta over. “Say it really quietly so Billy can’t hear you.”

“Zaf!”

Rosetta was smiling now, and her voice was louder and clearer as she said, “You have to read it yourself. It’s honestly so worth it!”

And that was it. In seconds, Rosetta was on the pile of beanbags with the two boys, arguing passionately about whether someone called Juniper Joy (a name that, improbably, was somehow even more twee than Mika Moon) deserved to win the Tournament of Fifteen Crowns.

“Is this what it feels like to be incredibly, absurdly proud of someone?” Mika said to Ian in an undertone.

He patted her fondly on the arm. “It does indeed, my dear. You should go get Jamie. He’ll want to see this.”

“Can’t you text him?”

“He never checks his texts,” said Ian blithely, which sounded to Mika like an outright lie.

“Okay, but if someone has to go fetch him, shouldn’t it be you? I have to keep an eye on, you know, the magic.”