‘Yeah. I just … I couldn’t sleep. I was worried about Tizzy. I had to know if he was all right. If he got home.’ As I spoke, I was on my tip-toes, trying to peer once more into the room at the end of the tunnel, looking for a sign of the doppel-Dizzy.

  ‘He got home,’ she assured me. ‘He’s asleep on one of the curtain-rods – you can’t see it from here. And I wish I could give you a huge hug to say thank you, because I really don’t know how much longer I could have coped without him. Sure, he makes a lot of snarky comments about what I wear, but he also gives the best kisses in the world. Plus, the mango sellers would soon be out of business without him. He came straight to me when you guys did the spell, and I teleported right to the Phoenix Park with the rest of my coven. We … we waited. For a really long time. And then we searched, and we did some tracking spells. We couldn’t find the Max from this world, though, and your Max, well … I think you already know that he’s not back home. So what happened? How come you couldn’t switch them back?’

  With my head bowed, I told her the tale.

  ‘Cat in a hat!’ she gasped when I’d finished. ‘He compelled Lady to destroy the stone? I mean, I thought the Kilian over here was bad, but that’s … wow. I mean, do villains even care how annoying we find them? Do they not realise that life is a whole lot sweeter when you fill it with love and nice hobbies, instead of dastardly plans?’

  ‘I dunno.’ I gave her a helpless shrug. ‘I think being dastardly is Kilian’s hobby. Well, that and that weird kind of golf where they fly from hole to hole on their broomsticks. So … where …?’

  She knew the question I wanted to ask, the one I couldn’t finish.

  ‘He’s still out,’ she told me. ‘Lassie and Rover – the ones from this world, obviously – they’ve taken him under their wing, and he’s out with their pack for the full moon. We didn’t know that you’d be doing this spell tonight. But … well, as you know, he’s still here. Last we tracked, he was in an alley behind a chipper with the rest of his pack. He’s okay, Wanda. I mean, he’s not okay, but … he will be. He’s been working hard with all of us, trying to find a way home. And now we know more about what happened, thanks to you returning Tizzy, and thanks to everything you’re telling me tonight. So we’ll have more to work with from here on out. We can search for this Heartstone. It probably exists in our world, too. I’ll go to Wentforth’s first thing in the morning and speak to the dean.’

  ‘Good idea,’ I said. ‘But … even if it is there, you might not be able to use it. It chooses the person it’ll work for. It would only let Lady get close, no one else. And she doesn’t exist in your world anymore.’

  ‘Well, no. Good goddess, that was sad, what happened to her. I barely knew her or the Max from this world, but I’d seen them together. They were so in love.’ She hastily cleared her throat. ‘But the Heartstone, it’ll be somewhere. I will find it, Wanda, and I’ll find someone to use it too, someone to do the spell on our side. Max really, really needs to get home.’

  ‘Why?’ My heart began to hurt, and my hand flew to my chest. ‘He’s not okay, is he?’

  ‘He’s fine. He really is. I mean … as fine as he can be.’ She gave me a small, shy smile. ‘I can’t believe you’re not with Will, though. Sorry. Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I think your Max is lovely, I do. He’s gorgeous, and kind, and funny, and my dad is absolutely crazy about him. They’ve been playing chess together.’ Her eyelids fluttered, as though warding off tears. ‘Hey, when we do find another Heartstone, and open up a doorway, you could always send Will my way, if you don’t want him.’ She bit her lip. ‘I don’t mean that. Not really. I know … I know he wouldn’t be my Will.’

  It was clear that she wouldn’t be able to hold her tears back much longer, so I decided to lighten the mood. ‘Hey, does your Queen consider flip-flops to be formal footwear too?’

  She let out a wry laugh. ‘Yip. But when she’s barefoot – which is most of the time – her feet never seem to get dirty. How is that? When I try and walk barefoot around the garden in the summer, I always stand on something. A bit of grit or a stone, or a cat toy, or some chewed-up and spat-out mango. That kind of thing never happens to Her Majesty, does it? Just out of interest, is your Queen sort of … well, is she …?

  ‘Mysterious? Annoying? And sometimes heart achingly lovely?’

  ‘Yeah.’ She laughed again. ‘All of that. Hey, is it true that your Melissa isn’t married to Miles in your world? She goes out with that rock star, Mack McAdams? Because I have to tell you, even though she swears otherwise, I think my Melissa has a crush on him. We went to a concert once and she very nearly swooned.’

  ‘It’s true,’ I told her. ‘Although they spent a long time doing nothing but staring at each other before they ever talked. I’ve been thinking about it, you know – how some things are different in our lives. I think some of it might be down to one simple moment. You and Dudley, in the toilets at the Hilltop Hotel, back when you were getting changed for your interview at Berrys’ Bottlers. You understood him when he tried to talk to you – and clearly you’re quicker on the uptake than me, because I didn’t – I thought the hotel had a rat infestation. In my world, Maureen O’Mara changed her plan after that. She magicked me a newspaper with some rooms for rent, and I moved in with Max. If I’d been able to understand Dudley the first time I met him, I never would have moved in with Max. I wouldn’t have been there with him when he brought Wolfie home, and Melissa and me wouldn’t have grown so close to the members of the Call of the Wild.’

  ‘Wow.’ She shook her head. ‘I mean … it’s mad, isn’t it? That one little moment.’

  ‘Yeah. Totally mad. I still can’t figure out how my mother married Rover in your world, though.’

  She tapped her chin. ‘From what Tizzy says, you were more involved in that Jasper Jaunt case than I was – where he seemed to be missing, and his girlfriends were getting knocked off. I mean, I did work on it, but my mother did most of the heavy lifting. She spent a lot of time with Rover around then, he helped her track Jasper and … they just hit it off. A whirlwind romance. But it didn’t last long. He was totally brokenhearted when Will and me found my dad and my parents got back together, but he’s okay now.’

  We chatted for a while more, talking about the differences in our worlds, swapping spells and ideas for how to open the doorway again and bring Max home. I loved every second of our conversation, mostly because she was my only connection to Max, but also because she made me feel differently about me. She was cute, and she was funny, but she was also heartbroken, and grieving over Will. Despite the things she’d been through, she had a sense of positivity about her. She was looking forward to her future, happy to have Tizzy back, excited about the progress she was making with the school. If she’d killed Will, who she clearly loved with all her heart, and she could still smile, and laugh, and achieve so many amazing things … well, if she could do all that, then I could face whatever came my way.

  I would have talked to her for hours, if I could. But the faded-yellow tunnel was growing evermore flimsy, and I knew it was time to go back.

  ‘I know.’ She nodded towards the walls of the tunnel, clearly thinking the same thing. ‘This Dreamwalk won’t hold up much longer, so … we’ll do it again, all right? Same time tomorrow?’

  ‘Same time tomorrow,’ I promised.

  She gave me a tearful smile and said, ‘You’ll get him home, Wanda. We’ll work together, and we’ll fix this. And in the meantime, I’ll look after him. He’ll never be alone.’

  I swallowed back my own tears and said, ‘Tell him I love him,’ before I turned and walked away.

  25. The Sun, the Moon and the Stars

  My promise to her was broken on the very next night. Despite doing everything exactly the same way, I couldn’t Dreamwalk. I tried again the following night, and the one after that, and the one after that …

  Finally, Friday came, and the Queen arrived at Wayfarers’ Rest. We were having a party for not-my-Max. I knew how grateful I was that the other Wanda was looking after my Max, so I wanted to do the same for this one. Lassie and Rover were spending lots of time with him, so he certainly hadn’t been abandoned, but I wanted to show him that, even though it was a strange situation, he would always have friends in my coven and me.

  ‘It was a fluke that it happened just once, Wanda,’ the Queen told me as we arranged the drinks and snacks. ‘I don’t think it can happen again.’

  ‘But I don’t see why not,’ I argued. ‘When I was stuck in that world Will created, I was able to communicate with you by Dreamwalking.’

  She shook her head. She had tiny little bells on her crown, and they tinkled. ‘That was different. We were breaking through magic which existed in our universe, not communicating with an alternate version of our world.’

  ‘So why did it work that first time, then?’

  ‘Honestly? I don’t know. I can only assume that it was because the door wasn’t long closed after Lady’s spell in the park.’

  ‘Oh.’ I felt my entire body sag. ‘But … we have to keep in touch, me and this other Wanda. I promised her.’

  The Queen put her hand to my cheek and gave me a sad smile. ‘I understand. We’ll try, all right? There’ll be some other way for you to communicate.’

  She didn’t sound confident of that, and she wandered off from the table, muttering about needing to go home for a moment to check on Pinky.

  Sighing, I turned to Melissa. ‘So. How much rum should we put in the punch?’

  She grinned. ‘All of it. It’s been a hard time. We need to let our hair down.’

  ‘Definitely.’ Christine came to the table with a crate filled with bottles. ‘We’ve got plenty of wine, and some Superbrew, too. This is going to be a great party. Well … once we’ve all had a few drinks, anyway.’

  As she laid the bottles on the table, the guests began to arrive. Erik and Ronnie were the first through the door. Not-my-Max came next, along with Lassie, Finn and Rover. Jasper arrived with Wolfie, and Mack came in a few minutes later with Callum Cool and Bryce Blue. When Adeline and Arthur Albright walked in, they told us they could only stop by for a short while on their way to a chroniclers’ conference, but I knew they’d stay for hours.

  Miles came by next, bringing some of the older Nemo kids to the party. It had been a little while since I’d seen Candace, but she was just as bossy (and somehow adorable) as ever. She told me to keep my chin up and my shoulders back, and everything would be all right.

  I think that if I were hosting that party for any other reason, I would have enjoyed it. The food was great, the drinks were flowing, Mack’s band performed some songs, and everyone seemed to be having a genuinely good time.

  Well, everyone except those of us who loved Max the most. Lassie was trying far too hard to smile and laugh with not-my-Max, and my dad was trying a bit too hard, too.

  I was refilling the crisps and peanuts in the living room when I saw my father lead not-my-Max to a small table, with a seat either side, and a chess board set up in the centre. With a forced smile, my dad patted him on the back and said, ‘I thought we could play for a little while, if you like.’

  Not-my-Max looked worriedly at the board. ‘That’s … chess, right? I don’t actually know how to play, I’m afraid, Aengus.’

  ‘Oh.’ My dad’s face fell. ‘Well … we could play something else. I have Battlewitch. Or …what card games do you like?

  Not-my-Max shrugged. ‘I like computer games, mostly. We could play War of the Enclaves together. Oh, do you even have that over here?’

  ‘We do,’ replied my dad, sounding a little defeated. ‘I’ve never actually played it myself, though. I’m not much for computer games.’

  ‘Oh,’ said not-my-Max. ‘Well … I’m sure I could probably learn the rules to chess.’

  ‘Maybe.’ My dad’s voice was non-committal. ‘Or … we could go and have another drink? I’ve got a lovely whiskey we could try.’

  Not-my-Max’s face grew relieved. ‘Yeah. Yeah, let’s have another drink.’

  As they went off to the sideboard together, their conversation growing ever more stilted, I moved to the other side of the room.

  Rover had a half-full bowl of peanuts, and I held up a pack. ‘Some more?’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, smiling at me. ‘Yes please. Good party, Wanda.’

  ‘Is it?’ I topped up his bowl, then began to refill another bowl on the coffee table. ‘Good. Good, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.’

  He put the bowl aside. ‘I’m not, Wanda. I’m trying, but I’m not. I just … I feel rotten about everything that happened. My nose wasn’t much help this time around, was it? I wish I could have sniffed this better, had a better smell of what was to come.’

  ‘Oh, come on! How could you? I mean, how could anyone know that what you were scenting on the wind was actually the oncoming storm, caused by an interdimensional tunnel or wormhole thingy, as your sister ripped a new Max out of one world and sent our Max into another?’

  ‘Well …’ He gave me a wry smile. ‘When you put it like that … Listen, I have something for you. Fancy clicking your fingers and taking me back to my flat for a minute?’

  I glanced over at not-my-Max, who was now sipping whiskey with my dad and trying to make conversation. ‘Yeah. Yeah, anything’s got to be better than this.’

  ≈

  A few seconds later, I stood awkwardly in Rover’s living room. It was neat, comfortable and warm, but I would have liked it a whole lot more if I weren’t thinking about the fact that his sister’s flat was right next door.

  ‘I have something to give you, Wanda,’ he said as we took a seat on opposite couches. ‘I’ve been going backwards and forwards on whether I should even give it to you in the first place, to be honest. I … I want to wait, for him to get back, but …’

  ‘But you don’t think he’s coming back.’

  ‘No, no, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I think … I think he’ll be back, I do. I think you can do just about anything you put your mind to, Wanda, and that includes getting Max back from this other world. But I also think … I think this is one of those things that might take a little while longer than we’d like.’

  ‘You smell it,’ I accused. ‘You smell that it’s far, far down the line.’

  He didn’t answer, so I knew I was right.

  ‘Wanda,’ he said after almost a minute had passed. ‘On the morning of that full moon, before he went missing, Max told me all about this amazing place you’d discovered when you were looking for that rabbit’s missing magician. A street with no name, in Dublin. So we went there, he and I, and took a stroll around.’ He smiled. ‘It was like getting a warm hug, being on that street. I just loved it there. Max and me had some coffee and cake, and we had a nice long talk, too.

  ‘We talked about Lady, of course. I told him I’d had a word with her, and she wouldn’t be bothering him again.’ He laughed slightly. ‘I was wrong about that, wasn’t I? But … he told me that it didn’t matter, either way. He told me he was happier than he’d ever been in his life. He told me that he had this feeling, too – like he needed to grab onto you and never let you go. Like this was the time that you and he had to make the most of. He said you’d talked about marriage earlier that morning, and he was going to pop the question just as soon as he had the perfect ring.’

  There was a painful flutter in my heart, as I thought back to that conversation with Max. Even now his words were etched in my mind.

  ‘I just want to say it seriously right now, Wanda,’ he’d told me. ‘I do. I love you. I don’t just mean for a couple of years and then move onto the next relationship kind of love. I mean I love you. Only you. Always you. And someday … I dunno … maybe even someday soon, I might even want to marry you. Would that be weird? Would that freak you out?’

  ‘No,’ I had told him in return. ‘No, it wouldn’t. It wouldn’t freak me out at all.’

  Dragging my mind back to the present, I met Rover’s eyes. ‘Yeah. Yeah, we spoke about marriage.’

  ‘Well, he was all set to ask Lassie to make an engagement ring,’ Rover went on. ‘But after we had our coffee and cake, as we were walking back along the street with no name, Max saw something in the window of a little jewellery shop, and it just called out to him. So … he bought it. He didn’t want to give it to you that afternoon. He was going to wait for the next night, he told me. The night after the moon. So that if you said yes, you could go out together and celebrate. He asked me to hide it here for a day, because … well, he knew if he had it, he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from asking you straight away.’

  Rover crossed the room and picked up a small box from the mantelpiece, a box I’d been trying very hard not to notice. He came and sat next to me on the couch and held the box out to me, opening the lid. There was a ring inside. The band was a sparkling white gold, and there were tiny, star-shaped diamonds, encircling what I thought was a moonstone. The tiny diamonds were arranged so that they looked like rays of sunshine, bursting out of the moonstone.

  ‘He said that he knew it was the right ring, because that’s what you are to him. The sun, the moon and the stars – his whole universe. Have I done the wrong thing? I have, haven’t I? I should have kept the ring hidden and kept my big mouth shut.’

  With a strangled-sounding voice I said, ‘No, I’m glad you gave it to me, Rover, thank you,’ and then I snapped the box shut.

  26. Our Happy Ever After

  I wasn’t sure how long I was going to stay living at Wayfarers’ Rest. I’d been here for weeks now, and I just couldn’t work up the energy to leave. Not-my-Max certainly didn’t want me messing up his carefully arranged cushions, so I was better off living anywhere but there. It helped that the garden of my coven house was so lovely at this time of year, with the foxgloves coming to life in pinks, purples and yellows. And it definitely helped, too, that from certain windows in the house, I could see the sun glinting on the sea.