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‘That sounds really inappropriate,’ Susie whispered.

Temperance cut over her, quickly. ‘Not today, just . . . dying some clothes a new colour.’ She used the garden cane she was stirring the bucket with to lift the jacket out briefly, the purple water sloshing over the side a little, causing Susie to jump.

Martha peered down. ‘Is it for your good fairy friend?’

‘Huh?’

‘Bad Fairy who we made good. He picked strawberries with you, too. I’ve seen him surfing at the beach. I think,’ she checked over her shoulders, ‘that he’s a mermaid as well. But that’s between us.’ She stuck her finger up her nose twice.

Temperance gave a light-hearted shrug. ‘Who knows what he is, love! He’s certainly a mystery to me. Is that your mum calling? You’d better go!’ She waved and turned back to the bucket, submerging the leather jacket once more, forcing it into the murky water.

‘It’s weird with Abel,’ Susie said. ‘Sometimes I see these flashes of the old Miagi and then – whoosh – the shutters come down. He can be fun at the pub with Margie, but then a vibe killer out in Salcombe with us. He’s someone totally different these days. Abel used to be so fun, so up for anything. It’s weird that we still don’t know why he left like that. I can’t get anything out of him. Back in the day, he was pretty much,’ she folded her arms, tucking her hands into her armpits, ‘a brother to me.’

‘Maybe he was just better at fooling us all when we were younger. Maybe this is the real him and he just can’t be arsed to put a gloss on it anymore.’

Susie flicked her eyes to Temperance’s. ‘You can’t mean that! You guys were thick as thieves – and he was your first crush! And clearly you loved him enough, once upon a time, that when you cast out for your true love, that’s who the universe brought your way. Him. Abel. That can’t have all been smoke and mirrors on his side. He must have cared about you too, Tee.’

Temperance blew a long breath out through her nose. She felt something in her stomach tighten. She didn’t want to believe it either, not really, but time and again since Abel had come back to East Prawle, he’d proved that he felt nothing for Temperance. Nothing for her now and not even a shred of warmth for what they’d once had together all those years ago. Maybe it was time to share with Susie the only proof she had. Temperance turned on her heel and stalked into the house.

Five minutes later, she returned with a sky-blue hoodie, a washed-out transfer of a white seahorse on the back. Temperance handed it to her little sister, her forehead wrinkled. ‘Read this for me. What do you feel?’

Instantly, as she took the hoodie, Susie’s mouth turned right down at the corners. Her shoulders hunched over as if she’d been winded in the stomach.

The memory dragged her in, even before she was ready for it. Sickness swilling at the pit of her being: bitter, angry. A shameful feeling of disgust. A heart-thumping panic to run away, to get far away from this awful mess. Two teenagers sat in the pub garden, knees touching on a bench, then lips meeting nervously. But from the point at which they kiss, thick black ripples are radiating out around them, turning the picture grey and muddy. Abel is packing a bag now, Diane watching him anxiously, her words muddled and warped, indistinguishable.

Susie opened her eyes. ‘Shit!’ She looked dead at Temperance. ‘You’re there, Tee! You’re kissing . . . you’re kissing Abe! But it’s all ringed in this dark disgust. What . . . what is this?’

Sharp jabs stung her fingertips where she would usually feel a warming buzz after reading. Susie threw the jumper down onto the scrubby grass, pushing it a further foot away with her powers so that it turned a somersault in the air. She needed as much distance as possible from this toxic memory.

‘The night Abel left, I’d gone to meet him at the bus shelter like we’d planned. He wasn’t there but he’d left his hoodie behind, with a note. The note said he was sorry, he had to go, but when I picked that up, I knew the truth of it. He was so grossed out and embarrassed by the fact we’d kissed that he couldn’t bear for anyone to know, or to face me again. So he left.’

‘Oh, Tee, Tee,’ Susie jumped up and wrapped her arms around her sister, cinching her into a tight hug. ‘I don’t . . . I can’t believe it. Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?’

Temperance pulled back. ‘You were so little and you were already heartbroken that he’d gone. Besides, it was pretty hard to have a frank conversation when I spent three weeks in my room ugly-crying.’ She nudged the hoodie with her sandal. ‘It was the first thing I ever read with magic, can you believe it? It taught me how powerful those leftover emotions can be. Not so good for my ego, though.’ She gave a hollow sort of laugh that fell flatly between them.

Susie gasped. ‘You’ve kept it all this time? We could have cleaned it. Or burnt it at the very least. Temps, why would you hang onto something like this?’

She bit her lip for a moment. ‘My head couldn’t work it out: my best friend vanishing into the air. I had these dreams that he’d turn up at our door with a bag of Doritos and a huge apology, begging me to be his girlfriend. Even years later. It was,’ she cleared her throat, moving on from the tiny crack in her voice, ‘pathetic of me. So, each time I had that dream, I had to remind my heart of the truth: he didn’t love me, he didn’t want me. It was all a silly, one-sided, teenage thing. Clearly my heart didn’t fully get the message, hence the magic dragging him back to East Prawle when he still can’t stand to be near me. But I’m going to fix that. Reverse the cast. Use the magic to send him away again. At dawn.’

‘Dawn: like, tomorrow?’

Temperance nodded. ‘First thing tomorrow.’

Wedding dresses were not designed for napping, that much Temperance knew to be true. To be able to get into the dress while it was inside out and still fasten it up somehow, she’d needed Susie’s help. So to save Susie also waking up at an ungodly early time to catch daybreak on the beach, the sisters had got her into the dress before bedtime and Temperance had tried to sleep on the sofa. But not only was it tightly cinched with boning and lacing, and giving out rustles like a cat tearing through a stack of paper bags, this time Temperance was not dulled to the powers of the dress as she had been on FairyFest night, with a gallon of booze in her system. Initially, falling asleep was fine – the thick hue of royal blue pure love made her feel truly content and at ease, so she could drift off in a minute. But then a red kick of hip-rolling lust would surge through her dreams.

And oh those dreams. They were so real. And so hot. Temperance learned two things about her subconscious that night: it was horny and it was cruel. Her brain dug up the filthiest of dreams, but all about a man who wouldn’t share a water taxi with her, let alone a bed.

At first, Temperance wasn’t even aware that she was dreaming. The living room door swung open and Abel walked through, his wetsuit pushed down below his navel again, wet footprints glittering in the lamplight. Temperance could see his chest rapidly rising and falling, like he’d just run all the way back from the beach. She was about to open her mouth and tell him to get lost but the words got stuck in her throat as she took in the curve of his biceps, the stepping stones of his abs.

Without saying a word, he strode toward Temperance and knelt over her on the sofa, his thighs outside hers. There was a steely certainty in his eyes. Abel’s right hand reached out and held her chin, then ran down her neck and her shoulder, all the way along her arm. His touch was tender, but when he reached her wrist the movement stopped and his fingers gripped suddenly, raising her hand above her head. Before she could say a word, he’d scooped up her other hand and now had both wrists pinned to the cushion behind her. ‘Stay,’ he growled as he sunk forwards.

His sea-cold lips found the soft skin at her neck, her collarbone, then the top of her breasts. Temperance wriggled to bring her hands down to his bare torso, to feel that new-to-her chest hair, those steps of muscle. But each time she tried, he only repositioned his hold and gave an impatient sigh. And then his lips would start again, exploring every part of her body available, the rough warmth of his tongue drawing ley lines over her skin, drawing deep on a powerful longing she had kept buried for so long.

Temperance was caught between lust and frustration, her head swimming with the mix. She tried to push her hips up against him, demanding to play her own part in what was building between them, but she was powerless against his tall frame, his solid muscle.

Just as she whispered, ‘Abel. Abel, please,’ she woke up , breath heaving and sweat along her hairline.

Temperance blinked into the darkness, willing the images to fade away, to slip just out of consciousness like most dreams did when the spell was broken. But she could see it all in perfect recall, could feel the weight of him still over her, somehow.