The wafting vapours of hot tea woke her, as she sprawled beneath a lumpy patchwork blanket.

‘I thought you might get cold otherwise,’ Callum said with a smile. ‘Tea?’

She accepted gratefully, noting the tired look in his eyes. ‘Did either of you sleep?’

‘A few hours was enough. Not that I think your sleep was very restful. You thrash around quite a bit, you know? Although you’ve certainly had enough adventures to warrant strange dreams.’

‘Quite a few.’ She sipped at the tea. ‘A few more than I’ve wanted.’

‘And you’re…? I don’t mean to doubt,’ he breathed out heavily. ‘But I’ve dreamt of something like this, you see. I always told myself, maybe one day, if we kept trying, if we worked hard, researched tirelessly… You keep telling yourself that to go on, but it gets hard sometimes. And then you drop straight into our laps like it was destined to be. It’s amazing!’

She gave him a sad smile. ‘It’s not as much fun when you’re to one who gets transported back in time. Besides, I might be more of a curse because I don’t know how I did anything.’

‘But we’ll figure it out. We’ll do all the research we can and work our way towards trying spells. Then it’s just a matter of finding someone familiar with shields to assist us, and we can make genuine progress.’

‘Professor Vermont could help us? He’s my magical history teacher.’

‘Why him?’

‘He’s always been kind and helpful to me. The other students say he’s a genius. Besides, I thought he and Alistar knew each other?’ James had said as much.

Callum laughed at her awkwardness. ‘I guess they do. It’s just me… I have a thing about becoming involved with anyone in the nobility.’

‘What? He’s a noble?’

Callum laughed and nodded. ‘You’d be surprised how many magicians have royal connections somewhere or other. It’s what happens when you deliberately marry magicians into the bloodline… Anyway, the Vermonts are from Cottsbury Estate. But, unfortunately, they’ve fallen on hard times, or so I’ve heard at least.’

Elvie was speechless. He was from Cottsbury Castle, and she’d naively asked him about it. How stupid! James had said someone had died – they could have been a relative.

‘We could ask him,’ Callum continued. ‘He might be busy, of course, with the duels starting soon. So let’s hold off for now while we do the required research, and then we’ll re-evaluate.’

Elvie didn’t like the sound of that; she was impatient to cast spells and get home. On the other hand, she had a sense Callum and Alistar were cautious people who wouldn’t want to do anything until they were confident of the outcome – well, Callum was like that at least.

‘If you’re happy to do so, we could work at it today – the research part, that is?’

That appeased her. ‘I’d like that; however, I have a class on basic manipulations this afternoon.’

‘Not to worry. I’ll drive you to the Court after lunch.’

She smiled, but her heart wasn’t quite in it. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t stop thinking about her blunder with James and Cottsbury Castle. Between that, and talk of travelling and shields, she also forgot all about the rocks in the night.

Around lunchtime, Elvie found Rilla sitting in the kitchen. Repeatedly telling the story to Callum made her tired, and she needed the break.

‘Everything okay?’ she asked Rilla, who was focused on her food.

Rilla was silent. She did this when she had a problem and wasn’t confident enough to say anything about it.

‘Rilla!’ Elvie said with exasperation. Her eyes came up, peaking through her blonde hair. ‘You might have found out some things about me, but I’m still me, you know. You can ask me whatever you want?’

Rilla had been quiet all last night as well, now that she thought about it. Elvie struggled to take it in. Was it shock? Or… ‘You’re not scared of me, are you?’ she asked.

Rilla shook her head, and in the corner of her friend’s eyes, tears formed.

‘Please Rilla, tell me what the problem is?’

Her friend sputtered. ‘You’re going to leave.’ Elvie was taken aback. ‘Once Alistar and Callum work out a spell, you’re going to leave here – and me.’ Tears flowed freely now.

Elvie recognised her mistake instantly. What she’d thought was fear because she came from the future, was actually fear of her leaving to go back there.

‘You’re my best friend Rilla…’

‘Then how can you want to leave?’ The wall holding back the flood broke, and large tears tumbled out. ‘You are going to go, aren’t you?’

‘I…’ Elvie couldn’t reply. She wasn’t going to lie; after all, it was her greatest desire. What else could she say? ‘I’m sorry, Rilla.’

Her friend rubbed at her eyes, pushing back her chair with a screech, vigorously wiping at her eyes. ‘I’m going to go and stay in Ash House. They’ve kept my room there, and Ghirstwen said I was welcome to come back to it whenever I wanted. I’m going to stay for a while.’

‘But… Rilla.’ Elvie reached a hand towards her, but her friend left without turning back.

Elvie sat dejectedly, shoulders slumped and moments from tears herself. She considered going after her friend, but what was there to say? Rilla was right after all; it appeared that no matter where she was or who she was with, she would always leave someone behind.