Lizzie shook her head. ‘I’ll be out in a minute – we can talk about it then.’

Dee looked surprised and not pleased, but she shut the door, and Lizzie flinched automatically before realizing that she wasn’t feeling her usual emotions of dread and disaster. She was going to leave the room, and Dee and Mare were going to fight, and then there’d be shoes and bunnies and wildlife everywhere.

But right now the only wildlife in the room was in her bed, watching her warily.

‘Xan sent you,’ she said.

He seemed totally unmoved by her accusation. ‘I was planning on coming here anyway – she just pointed me in the right direction. Someone needed to stop you from making such a mess of things.’

She had no words for him, none that she was comfortable using. Mare could have told him off – Lizzie just wanted to cry.

She wasn’t going to let that happen, not in front of him. Nor was she going to strip off her clothes so he could watch. She grabbed her discarded clothes without another word and disappeared into the workroom, tripping over a new pair of shoes. High-heeled sandals with gold coins dripping off the ankle band – both tacky and charming. She didn’t bother to look too closely – if the coins were real gold and she’d somehow managed to transmute something into the precious stuff, she didn’t want to know. She was too overwhelmed.

When she came back through the bedroom he was nowhere in sight. It was only a small relief – he wasn’t gone forever. The bed was made, the deep purple sheets smooth and inviting. He should have changed them back, but then, Dee had probably seen them, even if she hadn’t seen the naked man lying beneath them. She could feel the pendant against her skin, even through the layers of clothing, and its slow pulse calmed her. Calmed her enough to face the calamity her life had become overnight.


When Lizzie walked into the dining room, Mare was sitting at the end of the table with Pywackt in her lap and a cup of coffee cradled in her hands, looking like her last friend had just died. She looked up when Lizzie sat down. ‘So who’s this Elric? I’m all for him, I’m just curious. The roof over your workroom was practically bouncing last night.’

‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Lizzie said. There was just the hint of defiance in her voice, and she hoped neither of her sisters would notice that the sweet little peacekeeper was developing a backbone.

It was a vain hope. ‘You sure you’re okay, Lizzie?’ Dee said, coming in from the kitchen, coffee mug in hand. ‘It’s not like you to sleep late. And why did you take the Borgia pendant from the jewelry case?’

Lizzie took a deep breath to steady herself, answering the easy part. ‘The jewelry belongs to the three of us, and this particular piece belongs to me.’

Dee looked as if one of Lizzie’s bunnies had turned around and bitten her. I’m pretty sure that needs to be the next piece to go-’

‘It’s not going anywhere,’ Lizzie said. ‘It’s mine.’

‘Lizzie, do you know how much that piece is worth?’ Dee said.

‘I don’t care. You can do what you want with the rest of the stuff – I don’t need any of it. I can take care of myself. I should have had this years ago – it was supposed to be mine.’ There was something about Dee’s distracted behavior that alerted her. ‘It was, wasn’t it?’

Dee sighed. ‘Honey, it was in mother’s jewelry box-’

‘But it was supposed to go to me.’

Dee rubbed her forehead. ‘Xan said you should have it, but as far as I knew, it was a trick, maybe some way to track us.’

‘That’s fair,’ Mare said, watching both of them with melancholy interest. ‘But you should have told us what Xan said.’

Lizzie nodded. ‘Or if it’s dangerous, you should have gotten rid of it years ago.’

Dee sat back, clearly upset. ‘I tried. I even threw it in the Pacific Ocean one year. It just kept ending up back in the jewelry box.’

‘Well, if that’s where it’s supposed to be, then it will be there.’ Lizzie sat at the opposite end of the table. ‘Somebody tried to steal it yesterday, too, and that didn’t work, either. Maxine even tried to take it for some fund, but it’s still with me. It belongs with me.’

‘Maxine was collecting for charity?’ Mare said. ‘What is the world coming to? But the signs are clear. The amethyst belongs to Liz.’

Lizzie looked at Dee. Are you going to call the meeting to order?’

Dee looked uncertain. It wasn’t an expression Lizzie was used to seeing on her practical older sister’s face, as if Dee’s entire universe had shifted unexpectedly. Just as Lizzie’s had.

‘Let me just get the jewelry box…’ Dee said.

‘Dee, don’t bother,’ Mare said tiredly. ‘It’s a waste of time. Just call the vote and get it over with.’

Dee sat down. ‘Well, Xan has found us. I’m afraid it’s time to leave. I’m sorry but I vote yes, we go.’

Mare nodded, all fight gone. ‘As long as I’m in Salem’s Fork, I’ll never get over Crash. I vote yes, we go.’

Dee looked over at her. ‘No Italy?’ she asked gently.

‘Nope.’

Dee patted her hand. ‘Lizzie?’

They both turned to look at her, only a formality, since sweet, spacey Lizzie avoided conflict like the plague.

But sweet, spacey Lizzie had changed. She felt the amethyst throb against her heart, and she lifted her head to look at them squarely.

‘I vote no.’


Lizzie could feel her sisters’ amazement, but she wasn’t about to back down. ‘I’m tired of running,’ she said. ‘I’m not a frightened child anymore. I like it here, and I’m not going to let anyone drive me away.’

Mare blinked at her. ‘Lizzie?’

Lizzie stared back at her, implacable.

Mare looked at Dee. ‘We’re not leaving Lizzie.’

‘Listen to me,’ Dee said to Lizzie. ‘We cannot stay here. We don’t even have a plan!’

‘Then we’ll come up with one,’ Lizzie said, and her voice didn’t waver.

Mare tilted her head at Lizzie. ‘Something’s new.’

Dee put her hands on the table. ‘You’re damn right something’s new. We’re in danger. There’s something about this time that’s different. Worse.’

Lizzie folded her arms, unmoving.

Dee took a deep breath. ‘Okay, we’re not leaving. Let’s think this through. Xan sent Danny James, and we know she deals in men and sex so he’s probably not the only one. Who else is new in town besides Danny?’

Mare put her chin in her hand. ‘Jude the VP from Value Video!! I already have my suspicions about him, but he’s dumb as pond scum, so I don’t see him as a major threat. And Crash, but I can’t see Crash and Xan plotting together. She’d hate the motorcycle.’

Lizzie felt Dee’s bright green eyes turn in her direction. ‘Lizzie?’

She couldn’t lie about Elric. Not now, not to her sisters. But she had no intention of sitting there and having them pepper her with a thousand questions about him, particularly when she had no answers, particularly after she’d just called the shots in her family for the first time in twenty-six years, something that would have made her giddy with power if the responsibility hadn’t been so terrifying.

‘What about Charles?’ Dee said.

‘It can’t be Charles,’ Mare said. ‘He’s gone.’

‘Gone?’ Lizzie echoed, astonished.

‘Pauline said he decided to move to Alaska. Quit his job yesterday afternoon and took off. And nobody has missed him.’

‘Well, hallelujah,’ Dee muttered into her coffee cup.

Lizzie knew who she could thank for Charles’s unexpected disappearance. One more thing her mysterious visitor would have to answer for. Who the hell did he think he was, sending the man she loved… no, she didn’t really love him, but the man she was going to marry… no, she wasn’t going to marry him, either. And this way she didn’t have to tell Charles anything, which was a blessing. He’d dumped her for a magic spell and Alaska.

‘Maybe we need to talk about Elric,’ Mare said, with her usual tact.

‘Who the heck is Elric?’ Dee said.

Lizzie stood up. ‘Someone I need to have a little talk with. And that’s all I’m saying. You two should probably talk to your… whatever they are. And don’t overlook Crash -there’s more to him than you might expect. We could come back, pool our information, and see what we can come up with. Find a way to fight back.’

‘Fight back?’ Mare said, interested. ‘You’re going to fight back? Go, Lizzie!’

‘But-’ Dee said, for the first time outmaneuvered by her younger sisters.

‘It’s a plan, Dee,’ Lizzie said firmly. ‘We’ll meet for lunch and compare notes.’

‘I’ll ask Crash why he picked now to come to Salem’s Fork,’ Mare said as she stood up. ‘And I will beat some answers out of that little toad Jude, but then I’m taking an early lunch break at Mother’s Tattoos. I’ll meet you there.’

She headed for the stairs and Dee called after her, ‘You get any more tattoos, you’re gonna look like a biker!’

‘What’s wrong with bikers?’ Lizzie said.

Dee didn’t look happy. ‘I guess I’m going to find out. Where are you going?’

‘I’m staying put.’

‘But you haven’t told me about this Elric person…’

‘He’ll come to me,’ Lizzie said in a dangerous voice. ‘And he’s going to wish he hadn’t.’

No shoes. No bunnies, ferrets, or wisps of purple fog, she thought, heading back to her supposedly deserted bedroom. Just one extremely pissed-off Miss Fortune, about to find out what the hell was going on. And maybe see whether she’d gotten good enough to turn a wizard into a frog.


They were staying. Dee should have been terrified. She should have been grabbing her sisters by whatever body part she could reach and dragging their asses out the front door so fast they left a dust cloud. And oh, yeah. She was terrified. She knew better than anyone just what they were up against. The truth? Xan could crunch them like cockroaches. And she didn’t even have to show up to do it.