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As was usually the way at the inn, though, the scream suggested a much greater degree of drama than was actually warranted. Yes, Posy was halfway up the ivy on the back wall of the house, and yes, she was technically floating rather than climbing , but that wasn’t why Matilda screamed.

Matilda screamed because Jasmine, a woman of good sense who had strong views on young children and heights, lurched forward to make sure Posy would have a soft landing if she fell, but Jasmine, who was also not a woman who could lurch without consequences, tumbled headfirst instead.

Matilda, on account of being secretly in love with Jasmine and also not wishing a broken hip on anyone, screamed.

Then Nicholas launched himself heroically into the space between Jasmine and the stone slabs of the patio, Matilda promptly stopped screaming, and by the time Sera and Luke rushed downstairs, everything was fine.

Of course, Posy was still floating above them, unperturbed by the kerfuffle, so Sera thought it only fair to offer an explanation.

“I don’t see why anyone needs to explain anything,” Matilda said reproachfully.

“If I’ve gone two full years not seeing wildflowers bursting to life in teacups and not hearing foxes speak English and not noticing implausible skeletal chickens running around the place, I have no idea why anyone thinks a floating child will shake me out of my equilibrium. ”

Sera hugged her.

Matilda hugged her back. “Don’t fret, dearest.”

“The fox thing is a bit weird,” Nicholas conceded, “but you’re wrong about the skeletal chicken, Matilda. That’s one of Theo’s toys.”

Everyone wisely let this slide. “Nicholas, are you saying you’ve heard the fox speak too?” Sera asked.

“Well, see,” Nicholas hedged, turning pink, “I tickled her chin one time and she told me to do something I simply couldn’t bear to repeat.”

Luke looked genuinely fascinated. “And you just went with it? You didn’t want to ask any questions?”

“It’s not a knight’s place to question the workings of his lady’s household,” Nicholas said earnestly.

Sera hugged him too.

Matilda was less impressed with him. “The fox could have been an evil witch in disguise.”

“Could have been?” Luke muttered, which was too much for Sera, who needed a full minute to recover from the giggles.

At this point, the only thing to be done was make a pot of tea, stick a tray of gooey chocolate brownies sprinkled with sea salt into the oven, and give Matilda and Nicholas some proper answers.

Sera covered all the highlights, from the Guild to the resurrection spell to the restoration spell (“If I could give you my own heart, I would gladly tear it from my chest,” Nicholas declared), and Matilda shared all the theories she’d been storing up for two years (“Is the house a TARDIS? Is that why it’s so much bigger on the inside?

”), and by the time Theo got home from school, everybody knew more or less everything.

The inevitable side effect of this was that both Matilda and Nicholas seemed to think Sera needed to hear all their ideas about the restoration spell and its mysterious ingredients, but while absolutely none of their ideas were of any help at all, hearing Nicholas say things like “What about the High Sorcerer who works in the market at the Medieval Fair?” and “He can’t be a charlatan, he guessed my card correctly eight separate times! ” gave Sera an idea of her own.

She went looking for her coat, which was inevitably buried beneath Theo’s because that boy never seemed to hang anything up properly, and was briefly waylaid by the sight of Matilda accosting Luke at the bottom of the stairs.

“Now that this whole magic thing is out in the open, this seems like the perfect time to have a word with you,” Matilda was saying. “Because, dearest, I do strive to be tactful—”

“I see,” said Luke, who had plainly not yet seen anything to suggest such a thing.

“—and I want to be very clear that I’m not blaming you,” she’d continued. “You have to work, not to mention you have to simply exist , and you can’t be with your sister every minute of every day. That’s not good for you or for her.”

“Matilda—” Sera tried to intervene.

“You’ve been with us a week, and as far as I know, you don’t yet have new lodgings in Edinburgh,” Matilda went on.

“Posy needs an education, however, and structure. I do recognise that that’s easier said than done, and I also recognise I can’t help with the magic, but I can help with everything else.

I used to be a dance teacher, you know, and one of the classes I taught for almost twenty years was therapeutic dance for children and young people with high needs.

So maybe, while you’re here, I could homeschool Posy? ”

Luke stared at Matilda, and then at Sera, and then at Matilda again. He looked like a man who couldn’t decide whether to be alarmed or grateful. Knowing Matilda as well as she did, Sera felt he ought to be both. Finally, he said, “Matilda, I couldn’t ask you to—”

“You didn’t. I’m asking you . Jasmine will help too.” Matilda smiled. “Posy’s a lovely child, you know. It would be a pleasure to spend more time with her.”

“That’s—” Luke swallowed, cleared his throat, and tried again. “It wouldn’t be for long. We won’t outstay our welcome.”

Matilda’s eyes softened. “Yes, you’ve said.”

“I don’t know what to tell you about her reading level, or what her maths is like, because she doesn’t learn the way most other kids do or show how much she’s learned the way they do, but a lot of people have made the mistake of underestimating how bright she is, and she can think her way out of pretty much any—”

“Luke.” Matilda stopped him, kindly. “You let me worry about finding out what Posy does or doesn’t know. Sera, what are you still doing here? Don’t you have better things to do than wait around to see if Luke needs to be rescued? I’m not a gorgon , you know!”

Accepting with good grace that she’d been well and truly dismissed, Sera popped into the kitchen to see Jasmine. “I’m going out. I probably won’t be home in time for dinner, so don’t wait for me.”

“Out?” Jasmine, peeling potatoes at the table, perked up. “Are you meeting someone? For a romantic interlude? Is it Luke?”

“No, Jasmine, it is not Luke. It is not anybody at all. Fuck’s sake.”

“It was just a question,” Jasmine said innocently, apparently tickled by Sera’s reply.

Sera did not believe her. Obviously. Jasmine would never dream of anything so unsubtle and interfering as matchmaking , but she nurtured a great and not at all secret fear that she would die (again) and Sera would be alone.

“How come we never talk about your romantic interludes?” Sera wanted to know.

Jasmine laughed and bent to scoop Roo-Roo off the floor. As she held him, stroking his beak to give him the attention he felt he had been sorely lacking, there was a quiet and heartbreakingly wistful note in her voice. “I’m afraid I’m past the age for that, my love.”

“Not if Matilda has anything to say about it.”

“I beg your pardon?”

It truly boggled the brain that Jasmine noticed just about everything that went on around here, but had, somehow, failed to notice Matilda’s lovestruck goo-goo eyes. Tactfully, Sera said, “Matilda’s what, three years older than you are? She’s still determined to find love.”

Jasmine smiled tenderly. “Matilda is not me, dearest. She’s beautiful and vibrant.”

“So are you,” Sera said at once. “You are . No matter what our family told you.”

Roo-Roo propped his head on Jasmine’s shoulder.

She stroked the top of his bare skull and looked down at him with such unabashed adoration that Sera was reminded, painfully, of Jasmine once telling her that when she’d acquired Roo-Roo as a chick, she’d been forty-eight and he had been the first pet she’d ever had.

As a child with a disability her family had considered ugly, Jasmine had often been alone. She’d longed for a dog but had never been allowed to have one. As far as her family was concerned, pets left messes, and messes, like clubfooted daughters, were unsightly.

The worst part was how unnecessary Jasmine’s unhappiness had been.

She had been born into an affluent, highly educated family.

Jasmine’s father and brother had been surgeons .

They could have helped her. At the very least, they could have gotten her a pair of shoes that actually fit.

Instead, she had grown up believing her foot was hideous, that pain was normal, and that that was simply how life was .

So convinced had she been of her own unlovability that when her parents had died and she had moved into her brother’s house, she hadn’t blinked twice at being turned into a household drudge.

She had believed him when he’d told her she ought to be grateful he was looking after her at all.

The brother in question also happened to be Sera’s grandfather. He was still alive, but Sera had never met him and never wanted to.

“You know,” Jasmine said now, shifting that look of absolute love from the undead rooster in her arms to Sera across the table, “you were the first person I met who didn’t flinch at the sight of my foot. You were so little, and I thought it would frighten you, but you didn’t care.”

“Dad and I thought us being witches would frighten you , but you didn’t care,” Sera returned. “Your foot’s not ugly. It’s never been ugly. It’s held you up all your life, even when it hurt. Maybe it’s just me, but I think there’s so much strength and beauty in that.”

Jasmine reached out to take Sera’s hand. Her eyes gleamed with unshed tears. “Why do you find it so easy to be kind to me and so difficult to be kind to yourself?”

“I am kind to myself,” Sera said, sharper than she’d intended.

“This quest to get your magic back—”

“Don’t.”

“I know you think you need your magic—”

“I do need it. I was better when I had it. You of all people know that.”

“Oh, my love.” Jasmine shook her head. “The only thing I know is you are much, much too hard on yourself.”

Sera gently pulled her hand away. “I want to get to the Fair before it shuts for the night.”

Jasmine blinked. “The Medieval Fair?”

“Not my favourite place, I know,” said Sera, who had yet to understand the appeal of watching armoured men on horses run at each other with big sticks in hand.

“All that stuff Nicholas said about the Fair earlier made me think of their market. What if there’s something there that’ll work in the spell?

The last time I was there, they had so much for sale.

Not just random touristy stuff either. There were handmade figurines and old carved decorations and leather and loads of other things.

I’ll be back soon. There are more scones in the oven. ”

Roo-Roo nudged her arm with his head. Sera gave him a pat.

She paused at the door on her way out. “You should tell Matilda you think she’s beautiful and vibrant. I think she’d really like that.”