No good can come of any of this, Aunt Tatiana reiterated.

“I’ll keep working on them, though,” Lissa continued, oblivious to my churning thoughts. “And I assume you guys are doing your own things to get answers?”

“So it seems,” I said.

“Well, let me know if I can offer any help. I talked to Rose earlier, and it sounds like you’ve already got her working on something. Feel free to use her and Dimitri and Neil however you can if it’ll help get Jill back.”

Lissa’s tone sounded perfectly innocent, and I realized Rose must have kept the news of Declan secret even from her best friend. It made me grateful but also drove home the precariousness of Declan’s situation. Lissa’s mention of Neil also reminded me that we still hadn’t yet had a chance to sit him down and explain what’s going on. Too many complications just kept coming up.

The rest of the day was spent waiting for Jackie and Eddie to come by. Marcus, who’d spent so much of his life on the run, seemed perfectly at ease cooped up in the cabin’s small living room. Sydney and I, who’d grown used to our freedom, short as it was, had a harder time. We made all the plans we could with our friends remotely, and then mostly tried to pass the time. Despite the private location, we were hesitant to go outside. The house’s one TV was in the basement, and the secondhand smoke coming out of there was strong enough to keep us away. That left a stack of old Reader’s Digests as our remaining entertainment.

“There’s a car pulling up,” said Marcus later that evening. He’d been standing near the window, occasionally looking out the drawn curtains. A frown crossed his face. “I don’t see Jackie or Eddie.”

Sydney leapt up and joined him at the window. After a few moments, her tension faded. “It’s okay. I know them.”

Marcus opened the door, and two women I recognized entered. One was Maude, the senior member of Sydney’s coven, who’d helped at the lake. The other was feisty old Inez, giving me a wink as she stepped across the threshold. Maude lingered at the door, keeping it open as though she expected someone else to come through. No one did, and after several seconds, she nodded for Marcus to close it. I knew enough from Sydney to realize someone invisible had entered, and as that realization hit me, the spell surrounding that person broke.

“Eddie,” Sydney exclaimed, running to give him a hug.

He grinned back. “You guys okay?”

“Fine,” I said. “Just stocking up on carbs and waiting for the next phase of craziness to start.”

“You’re sure no one followed you?” asked Marcus, tugging the curtains around the front windows closer together.

“Positive,” said Eddie. “We met up in a public place, and the Alchemists sent to watch me never even knew I left with these two.”

Inez was sizing up our surroundings with a critical eye and didn’t look impressed. “Jaclyn sent us since she couldn’t get away from your friends. They’ve staked out her house.”

“The Alchemists aren’t my friends,” Sydney retorted.

“Well, whatever they are, they’re a pain in the ass,” Inez said. “But we told her we’d help you, so here we are.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Sydney said, adorably polite as ever. “I know what an inconvenience it must be.”

Maude smiled kindly at her. “It’s not as inconvenient as some people would have you think.” She set down two large tote bags, stuffed to overflowing with mysterious ingredients. “Now then. I understand we need to make you stronger.”

“Do you?” Sydney asked in surprise.

Inez pushed up the sleeves of her rose-printed dress and peered into one of the bags. “That’s what Jaclyn says. Says you’re going to be getting in fights or some such nonsense.”

“Well, yeah, but I just figured I’d use the evasive techniques Wolfe taught me.”

“Wolfe?” Inez snorted in disgust. “That hippie that Jaclyn’s dating? Believe me, smarts and ‘evasive techniques’ are fine if that’s all you’ve got to rely on, but if you get a chance to be the baddest and strongest, always be the baddest and strongest.”

There were a number of things wrong with what she’d said, starting with her referring to Wolfe—who owned more weapons than anyone I’d ever met—as a hippie.

Inez carefully took out an innocuous-looking canteen from the bag. “What’s that?” I asked.

“A very special and complex potion,” said Maude. “One that several of us worked on for most of today.”

As she spoke, I took note of the dark circles under her eyes and fatigue in her voice. Sydney saw it too. “You didn’t have to do that . . .” she said.

“We did,” said Maude simply. “Cleaning up after Alicia is our responsibility—and if that involves preparing you for these bizarre acts of brutality, we’ll help you do it.”

“What’s in it?” I asked. The scope and randomness of human magic was still kind of amazing to me. Plus, focusing on it distracted me from thinking about Sydney and “bizarre acts of brutality.”

“You’re happier not knowing,” Maude told me. “Now then. We need to finish off the spell by—”

We heard the sound of a door opening. A moment later, the beaded curtain separating the living room from the kitchen rustled, and Howie stepped through. He looked surprised to see additional people here and blinked a few times, as though ascertaining that we were all real and not some hallucination. I imagined in his life, that was a distinction that had to constantly be made. And, considering my increasing interactions with Aunt Tatiana, it was something I could relate to.

“Hey, man, Marcus,” he said, pushing up his glasses. “Didn’t know you had more people over, man. We’re looking for the Doritos. Have you seen the Doritos?”

Marcus pointed to an end table by the couch. Howie brightened as he lifted the Doritos bag, then turned dismayed when he saw it was nearly empty. “You were up here eating them around lunchtime,” Marcus reminded him.

Howie looked pleasantly skeptical. “I was?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “You said you were watching some mutant-shark movie that was on commercial.”

“Trey was watching that earlier today too,” remarked Eddie in a too-casual way that made me think Trey hadn’t been the only one watching it.