“Baz!” Penelope is twisted around and shouting at me. “I need your help!”
I crawl up between the two front seats.
“Help me make the van go faster,” she says.
I look out the window—the van might actually be flying. “It can’t go faster without the Normals noticing,” I say.
“We could cast spells so they don’t notice.”
We zip past a Volkswagen Golf. The driver nearly goes off the road, staring at us. “We really couldn’t, Bunce.”
Shepard is holding the steering wheel with both hands. “Penelope—are you steering, or am I steering?”
“You’re steering, Shepard!” she says. “Obviously!”
“Do the brakes still work?”
“Obviouslynot.Why would the brakes work on a flying car?”
“You really shouldn’t be allowed to use the word ‘obviously,’ ” he murmurs under his breath. “That shouldnotbe in your vocabulary.”
Penelope turns back to me. “Are you absolutely certain my father is caught up in all this?”
“Pippa says he is, and Simon saw him at a meeting.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t get it. My dad’s atpeacewith his magic—he’s a perfectly capable mage.”
“Not compared to your mother.”
“Baz!” She looks up at me, outraged. “What a thing to say!”
“I’m not insulting your father, Bunce. I just think it’s easy forusto say he should be happy. That Daphne should be happy. We have all the power we’ve ever wanted. We don’t know what it’s like—”
“Shepard, here!” She points out the window. “Get off!”
“Where?”
“This exit! The one that saysWatford—get off now!”
“I can’t, there’s a car!”
Bunce holds out her fist.“Sent to Coventry!”
Shepard veers onto the Watford exit ramp at the last possible moment. We’re still flying over the road. “Tell me you didn’t just disappear that car,” he says.
“I justmovedit . . .”
“What’s wrong?” Snow has come up to crouch beside me.
“Nothing new,” I say, taking the opportunity to touch his arm.
He’s antsy. He took off his coat, and he keeps spreading his wings out, then drawing them back—like someone clenching his fists. I don’t say anything when they bump into me.
Bunce is navigating Shepard around the city of Watford and into the countryside. We’ve slowed down a bit . . . The wheels seem to be on the ground again. (Does Bunce really have aflyingspell?)
“We’re almost th-there,” Pippa says. She and Salisbury have crept up behind us.
“Is that it?” Shepard asks. “Up on the hill?”
