“If you mean when I drove you to Brightspring—”

“And when you lay in wait for us at Monks Cross. You saw everything we did and raised no objection.”

“That’s just where you collect your dirt. It’s what you do afterwards, with my aunt and now my son.”

“You know quite well that’s not the case.”

Her surge of righteousness took me aback. “What are you claiming I know?”

“Thelma kept the relics in her studio and communed with them, but you’ve good cause to know they’re nowhere near him.”

The thought of the unlit hotel drained this of much of the reassurance it might have conveyed. “So why do you need him at all?”

“It’s how I was made. My summoner couldn’t perform all his rites without calling upon one of us, and I need a companion to live as I should. I trust you appreciate how wrong he was to write of parasites and fancy he was my maker. He couldn’t bear to depend so much on me.”

I felt as if the swarm of words might be a spell – a means to confuse me, at any rate – but a phrase nagged at my mind. “One of us, you said. One of what?”

“Some fell from the stars, and some rose like fire from the earth.”

With a revival of the sense that I hadn’t managed to wake up I said wildly “Which are you?”

“We are all one in the state we attain in your world.”

“You’re talking like the book you hid. Are they even your own words? You sound as though you’re quoting someone else.”

“Don’t you believe I exist in myself? Do you want to inhibit me as well?”

“How am I inhibiting you?” As I spoke the word it took on an ominous significance. “Tell me the truth,” I said and stared into her eyes, though I might as well have been gazing into the depths of the night. “Are you having sex with my son?”

“What a small mind you do have, Patrick. There’s so much more to life.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Why, he isn’t even of the age. You surely wouldn’t think I’d risk being separated from him.”

I wasn’t sure this was the reply I needed either. “What about my aunt?” I said, though I scarcely grasped how much I was implying. “I’m sure my uncle thought you were mixed up together.”

“Another small mind, Patrick. Do try to understand I bring Roy wisdom.”

“His mother and I can do that perfectly well. That’s what we’re for.”

“Not my kind.” Bella turned towards the waves, which appeared to be helping the night to advance. “Don’t be too concerned,” she said. “I’m not here to replace you. He’ll still have a use for you both.”