‘Is that ward hidden in your bedroom?’
‘Why do you ask that?’
‘It’s the only room in the house Rupert and I aren’t permitted to enter,’ said Dot.
‘That is a very good guess, Dorothy. But, no, I am not so predictable.’
‘Whatwouldhave happened if you’d severed the wards by mistake?’ asked Dot, watching the witch.
‘Catastrophe,’ said Theodora. ‘Acanthi would have spilled in and murdered us all.’
‘Butwhydo they—’
‘Dorothy, I’m trying to teach you about wards.’
‘Of course,’ said Dot, setting her pen down. ‘How many wards are out in the city, then?’
‘Hundreds,’ said Theodora. ‘They are far less potent than the wards in the tea shop, but en masse, very useful. They are each a small amplifier for my magic. I will draw on them tomorrow.’
The witch’s expression clouded. Dot took up her pen once more and redrew the portal rune. They were silent some time before the witch said, ‘Tell me about Seafarthing.’
‘Oh, we don’t have to talk about it,’ said Dot. ‘It’s dull.’
‘It’s not,’ said Theodora. ‘Have you friends?’
‘Um,’ said Dot, awkwardly. Rarely wasshethe one asked a question. ‘I, well, I suppose I was close to my sister when we were small. Celia loves to read, and she has a little book club, and she’sso sociable. My dad is very taken with her. He thinks she’ll be a teacher too.’ Theodora was watching Dot curiously. ‘Outside of that, I suppose the people I like never tend to like me back.’
‘Ah,’ said Theodora. ‘I have the same curse.’
Dot snorted. ‘You? In all your cleverness and beauty and—’
She stopped herself. She had revealed too much. Theodora seemed not to notice. Instead, the witch said, ‘Why South Sea cuttlefish? Why didn’t Archie study something closer to home?’
The quarter moon arrived. Dot sat on the cold step by the Ethel Avenue side door. The blackbirds warbled their pre-dawn chorus and Dot sipped her tonic as she watched Theodora chalk a circle onto the street, muttering snippets of rhyme in the spirit language. She chalked a flourish in the upper right corner, connecting the spell to the quarter moon and added another flourish in the centre, connecting it to the city wards. When the witch was done, she laid down several long branches of wood (‘Oak,’she had explained, ‘of an extremely rare breed’)and brushed over the chalk a powdered concoction of fennel, rosemary and wombat claws (‘clipped, not stolen’).Finally, Theodora took out the phial of blood that Lio had begrudgingly given her the night before and broke it over the centre of the rune. A shot of violet magic crackled along the linework and raced out along the street like lit gunpowder.
Theodora glanced around.
‘No one yet,’ she said, coming to Dot. ‘So, I suppose we had better get our bait.’ The witch caught Dot’s change of expression. ‘Don’t look so worried for him. The moment Acanthi set foot here, Lio will be teleported right into the living room. Not that he deserves my protection, really. Nor yours. Why have you forgiven him so easily for his betrayal?’
‘I truly don’t think he meant us any harm,’ said Dot, chin resting on her hand. ‘However silly his reasoning.’
Theodora rolled her eyes.
‘He’s quite unlike the men from Seafarthing, you know. None of them would uproot their entire life to search for their lost first love.’
‘Just wake him and tell him to come down here, Dorothy.’
The witch cast a portal and Dot stumbled through the whirling darkness out onto the landing before Rupert and Lio’s shared room. She steadied herself. She clasped and unclasped her hands. She knocked.
‘Lio? It’s time.’
Dot smelled his cologne before he had even stepped out of the morning gloom.
‘Must you play her errand girl so eagerly?’ Lio asked before trudging down the stairs like a man toward the gallows. Dot was left dizzy and a little dejected as she watched him.
‘It is a bit pathetic,’ said Rupert in pyjamas, pushing past her. He yawned as he, too, climbed down the stairs. Dot wanted to shout after the boy, but had nothing witty to say, so she simply stomped down after them.
When Dot at last came into the living room, Belchamber and Rupert were already looking out of the repaired windows, down at the street below. The morning sky was turning pink. Dot squinted against the glass, and she spotted Lio stood in the Ethel Avenue doorway.
