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“Looks like you did well,” Matthias said when they hurried into the lounge. “They’ve got CCTV footage of what happened but Dan masked you well enough that no one would recognize you. Even better, they’re more interested in the Kithreian than the girl.” He pointed to the TV. “See?”

Lydia turned and watched the footage. It was showing them fighting the Kithreian but as her father had said, their features were indistinct and blurred somehow. She stared at the screen for a moment. “Dan did that?”

“He did,” her father said. He looked over at Daniel. “You’re really good.”

“How come the cameras picked up the Kithreian?” Lydia asked. “He shouldn’t have been visible, should he?”

“He wasn’t until Kelaria and Naria attacked him,” Matthias said. “You’ll see when they show it again.”

Lydia continued to watch as the CCTV footage ended and a young asian news anchor appeared onscreen talking to a middle aged white man she recognised as Edwin Lauder – the man Sophie Ashbourne had described as her boss. As her father had said, they seemed more interested in the Kithreian than in Jenny. Indeed they only mentioned her in relation to him.

“Clearly this is an attack,” Edwin said when asked for his opinion on what they had seen. “The winged creature was clearly intelligent and it’s too much of a coincidence that it appeared where the young woman emerged. I wonder if they aren’t responsible for this current situation and are using our own children as weapons against us.”

“What about the people who stopped him,” the anchor asked. “They appeared to be human.”

“Indeed, and that is interesting as well,” he said. “It does make sense that since these powers are appearing now, there must always have been people with them. The interesting question is why are they showing themselves now, though?”

“That’s an excellent question, Edwin. Why are they showing themselves?”

Edwin tilted his head and smiled.”I suspect they haven’t before because it wasn’t so very long ago people would have labelled them witches or demons and attacked them.” He hesitated. “Unfortunately, I suspect some people still will, so that they’ve taken the risk of exposing themselves underlines the seriousness of the situation.”

“And how do you think the government will react?”

Edwin looked troubled at that question. “I really have no idea. Carefully, I hope – they’ve been a bit heavy handed with these children so far. It would probably be best to let people who know what they are doing deal with it.”

“I think I like him,” Sonia murmured. “He’s clearly trying to help without giving away how much he knows. I think we should contact Sophie Ashbourne and see if we can arrange a meeting with him.” She turned back to Lydia and the others. “Let’s get breakfast before your father and I have to go to the meeting. Lucas is going to sit it out today so he can be here when Jenny and her mother wake up.”

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