“Perhaps I may be of assistance,” offered Clarence, getting to his feet. With the help of his snake-headed cane, he hobbled over to an ornate wooden box on a shelf in the wall. I’d seen that box a hundred times while I’d been in his home. What I hadn’t seen was him ever open it, and my jaw nearly hit the floor when he lifted the lid and revealed stacks of one-hundred-dollar bills. He handed what had to be at least a thousand dollars to my mom. “Will this be enough for the young master, Lady Ivashkov?”

My mother actually had the audacity to deliberate. “It’s a start,” she declared magnanimously. She turned to Rose and Dimitri. “Now. Which one of you is going to drive me?”

Surprisingly, Rose volunteered. Although still uneasy around Declan and babies in general, she seemed kind of excited about shopping for one. Sydney looked disappointed at not being able to join them but made no arguments. With Alicia and the Alchemists on the loose, Sydney couldn’t leave a secure location like this without good reason. She contented herself by holing up in a guest room and prepping some spells that would be of use in the search for Alicia tomorrow. That left Dimitri and me to babysit, which seemed like the setup for some sort of wacky sitcom.

“They really are amazing, aren’t they?” he mused, admiring Declan as he slept in my arms. “Someone so small . . . who will have such enormous potential. Good, evil. Great acts, small acts. What will it be? What will he become?”

I wouldn’t have known the answer for anyone, let alone for a child born because of the incredible magic used to restore his mother from an undead state. As Dimitri spoke, I was surprised to see a deep, heartfelt longing in his eyes. He and Rose might have teased each other about babies, yet underneath it all, he seriously and desperately would love a child of his own, I realized. With a few words, I knew I could change his entire world if I told him the truth about Declan, that Dimitri might very well be able to have a son or daughter of his own. It might only have been the result of lucky timing that he and Rose hadn’t conceived yet. That the possibility was out there was something they needed to know.

He would be indebted to you, Aunt Tatiana murmured. Since you’ve known him, you’ve always chased him, always been second to him. With Rose. With great deeds. But if you told him he could have a child with her, he would get down on his knees and weep at your feet.

The power was in my hands, and the temptation to tell him nearly overwhelming . . . but I bit my lip. I couldn’t. Not until Neil knew.

When my mom and Rose returned, I was astonished to see they’d become fast friends. I was also amazed at the quantity of merchandise they’d managed to buy in so short a time. A bassinet, a gazillion clothes, toys, and a whole bunch of products for babies I hadn’t even known existed. Sydney looked it over with a critical eye and immediately began double-checking product reviews on her phone.

“This will get him by for now,” my mother announced. “But of course he’ll eventually need a full-size crib, once he’s bigger. And although that car seat is adequate for now, we saw several that would be much more suitable.”

“We saw some with cup holders and sunshades,” added Rose.

Sydney nodded in agreement. “He’ll definitely need a sunshade.”

I knew it was pointless telling them Declan wouldn’t be in our care by the time he needed a cup holder. When it came to the strong-willed women in my life, I found it was sometimes easiest to nod and agree with whatever they dictated was best. That being said, Declan did seem much more comfortable sleeping in a real bed that night, and the rest of us stood around admiring him after he’d fallen asleep.

“Sweetest baby ever,” my mother said with a sigh.

“You mean second sweetest, right?” I corrected. I was a little surprised at how quickly she’d taken to him, but then again, perhaps I shouldn’t have been. Her whole life had been thrown into upheaval, between leaving my father and supporting my unorthodox marriage. Here, in Declan, she had a project that she could throw herself into—something far more meaningful and substantial than her cross-stitch and less weird than a dragon or a witch’s cat.

More importantly for us that night, my mother was more than willing to take on the responsibility of Declan’s overnight feedings. Part of this was because she was still on a nocturnal schedule from Court. But she could also tell that the rest of us were exhausted, and being woken every couple of hours probably wasn’t in our best interests if we wanted to be alert and ready for a possible encounter with Alicia tomorrow. After all, her whole point in that twisted scavenger hunt had been to wear Sydney down.

“I hope we find her,” said Sydney as she got into bed that night. “Can you even imagine? This could all be over by this time tomorrow. We find Alicia. We find Jill. Everything goes back to normal—well, whatever passes for normal with us.”

I slid into bed, enjoying the luxury of stretching out after having pulled my last nap in a cramped airplane seat. It was also heady to have Sydney in relative privacy for a change. Clarence’s home was so big that our guest room was isolated in this hallway, unlike the cramped quarters back in Court’s guest housing. Sydney, dressed simply in shorts and a tank top, curled up against me, and I sighed happily. At last, a moment of peace with her.

“Adrian,” she said, “we need to talk about what happened at the commune.”

My hold on her stiffened. “A lot happened.”

“I know, I know, and obviously we’re dealing with the most important part—Declan. But we need to talk about what you did—that healing.”

She blames you! hissed Aunt Tatiana. She blames you for Olive’s death!

“You think I’m responsible for Olive dying?” I demanded.

“What?” said Sydney. “No. No. Of course not. Adrian . . . you don’t blame yourself, do you? A Strigoi did that to her. There was nothing you could have done.”

“Then why are you giving me a hard time about the healing?” I asked.

She exhaled. “I’m worried about the way it wore you out. You said you’d tone down your spirit use. That it was for the best.”

“Actually,” I said, “I don’t know that I ever said that. I think you decided it and have been forcing it on me.”

Her kind tone suddenly became a lot frostier. “‘Forcing’ it? Adrian, I’m trying to help you. You heard what happened to Nina with all that spirit use. I don’t want you comatose like her!”