Flanna stepped into Aurora Hollow ahead of Zoe, through the wardrobe door in the attic bedroom, and found the strange little man Erasmus waiting, perched cross-legged on the seat of a spinning stool and turning in slow circles.
“Good evening, ladies.” Erasmus stopped spinning and faced them, and for a moment only stared in their direction. “Are you okay, Penny?”
Flanna felt a prickle of fear, not even here for a full day and she was found out, and forced herself to calm down.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“You seem ... different.” Erasmus reached up to his glasses, and Flanna thought he was going to take them off.
She’d heard much about the South Island Monk’s ability to read and control minds, and didn’t want to be caught by his mind-probing stare.
He only adjusted them back on his bulbous
