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"And they still pissed you shared a little with Jilo"

"Yeah, they didn’t seeured that one out" The other witch faed a kind of trial to determine if I was ready to assuiven Jilo just enough to keep her in business had actually been used as Exhibit A in the case againstto burden her with that fact It was ive, and I’d done it ofit to protect me from myself, that I don’t kno to handle the power, that I’ off their list of complaints, "and that I think tooood"

"Who the hell are they to judge you?" she asked, angry as aher chick "The line, it chose you, even without yo’ ic It knew you It picked you"

"They said that lettinga six-year-old play with an atoot to ease into it, like I would have if I’d been able to access it since birth"

"What about the line? How you gonna anchor that da if you don’t have you full power?"

"I’ht now I’m connected to its power I have to be, ’cause it chosey andit I’ down the line, they probably would"

"Oh, they a way They could kill you, just like yo’ Ginny got killed"

My mind flashed back on the scene I’d walked into that sueoned with a tire iron "They wouldn’t do that," I said, praying that I was right

"You sure about that?" Jilo asked I said nothing, knowing that she’d read through any lie I tried to float I wasn’t sure Ginny’s ered the events that had led to the line’s selection of me as an anchor It had crossed ht to take care until I hadme would be the easiest way to create another vacancy

Deep down I suspected that if I proved too inconvenient, too ht decide to reratulate the able to o down trying to protect ht even put their seal of approval on the decision That’s why I’d been agreeing to everything the fa up on Maisie

"Jilo, she don’t get it," she continued, pulling hts "Hohat they doin’ any different frohtfully yo’s They know they a price for stealing a witch’s power"

"They aren’t really stealing"

"They taking it from you without yo’ permission," she said, but then read ave them permission, didn’t you?"

"I did what I had to do Maybe they’re right I don’t knohat I’ot to catch up"

"The hell you say Don’t you see, girl? The line, it thought you ready These other anchors, the faivin’ over yo’ power"

I knew she was right, but the truth was that I was afraid I was terrified not only of the faic at half power, leave alone full I had missed out on , taking baby steps A ical butt The faun life as a golem, intended to house the consciousnesses of the fay that had knocked Maisie into whatever place she’d landed had also fused the consciousnesses lent to E, pain-in-the-ass personality

Happily, the energy donors were pretty much unharmed--they didn’t seeolee and had retained a portion of their powers too Since he possessed both wisdoic, the families had decided that he would be my teacher, and that he would show rating, I still felt sympathy for him We had a bit in co him if he had his own ideas about what he wanted to do with his life They sio to it But even with Eained iic they’d allowed ed

"Fine We keep lookin’ for yo’ crazy-ass sister together, then To up the red cooler she always carried with her to Colonial Ceular clientele She slipped the Ball jar into the cooler I had asked her to keep custody of it, toMaisie could ht into what you gonna do with her if we do find yo’ Maisie, ’cause Jilo ain’t gonna be babysitting her" A sharp beah one of the square, foot-long openings in the wall The old woman of the crossroads stood there in silhouette, her features obscured by the bright light engulfing her "I know you determined to do this--that why Jilo helpin’ But you don’t owe yo’ sister nothing It that baby you carryin’ you need to be worrying about" She opened the heavy door with a wave of her hand "You ain’t gonna be able to keep flittin’ around on that bike of yours for onna keep on with this, Jilo say you find us some place cleaner and closer to ho her point with the sound of otten roo The gunpowder had long since been removed, but pointed and rusted objects still lay strewn everywhere, coated in decades of dust Outside the redbrick fortress, heaps of garbage negated the azine’s crenellated roofline I would have been hard-pressed to find a ht, Colin," I said, addressing the child I knew the baby was a boy; there had been no need for an ultrasound, since my Aunt Ellen always hit it dead on in these matters I also kneould name him Colin, after his father’s father

Aunt Iris was pressingit official before the baby was born I had every intention of , but I didn’t wear it yet Like the heart of a Russian nesting doll, I kept it stowed in its blue velveteen box in the jewelry case on my makeup table I loved Peter, but every ti there before God and the world to say "I do," I reone to Jilo and paid her to place a love spell on me He’d been desperate, terrified that I would leave him for Jackson It botheredas iven Peter, but the betrayal had been so deep, so unexpected, that part of o in any situation where he felt hard-pressed