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"It was just a ride A chance to get out of Savannah for a few blessed" She spat out the words, but then cales me Nor does he hide his whiskey the second I appear," she said with a glare at her brother

"Okay, fair enough," Oliver said "It was a platonic, lily-white outingSo why do you think this has anything to do with Tillandsia?

"The house It’s huge, badly in need of a lot of repair and renovation The single thing that’s in decent shape is the front door It was freshly painted Red panels set against a black background It’s hideous I told Tucker it would have to be the first thing to go, but he just laughed He said he kind of liked it and would probably keep it that way" I tucked away the realization that this new Tillandsia house was Peter’s project until I would have time to process it

Oliver shook his head "Could be coincidental"

"It could be," I responded as the truth hit me, "but we all know it isn’t Maisie and I came into this world as a result of Tillandsia’s ‘activities’ Tucker himself told me that my mother was the one to introduce him to Tillandsia She inducted Uncle Erik"--I still found roup as well Didn’t she?"

"Sweetie--" Ellen began

"Yes," Iris interrupted her "But not for sex Es, anticipating that they’d protest "The girls are soet Maisie back, Mercy ht," Oliver said Ellen nodded her assent, but pulled her arht, nearly turning her back on the rest of us Oliver followed her with his eyes, but when he spoke, he was addressing me "Your little ‘incident’ the other day With the old fellow," he added, as if there were any chance that accidently burning ato leap to mind "It took a bit of power to deliver that jolt When you drew that poe all felt it Any witch around here would have Kind of like an electrical brownout"

"Thatthat draws a lot of power off the line, other witches will know you are up to so off athe energy"

"Okay, hoould you do that?" I proersnap, it depends on the size of the thing you are atte"

Iris put her hand on my forearm "If you can’t draw off the line, you are basically left to resort to your friend Jilo’s tactics Using sy like to like That’s fine for tricks In reality, though, there are only tays outside the line to get your hands on real, big power: blood ic and Tantra, sacrifice and sex"

"So she used Tillandsia to build up a battery of power," I said

"Yes I believe that you and Maisie represent an unexpected by-product of Ey"

"But why? What was she trying to do with it?"

"We don’t know for sure I guess we never will," Iris said and shook her head sadly "She died before we could get it out of her"

"Oh" My breath faileda fine job of sticking to her story "Not even any guesses?" I asked, and winced at the sound of h