Nissa folded her arms. "Well, you sure handled that one, Boss."
"Give me a break." Keller tossed the lamb onto the window seat. "And just how did she make you two turn around and come back for us, by the way?"
Winnie pursed her lips. "You heard it. Volume control. She kept screaming like-well, I don't know what screams like that. You'd be surprised how effective it is."
"You're agents of Circle Daybreak; you're supposed to be immune to torture." But Keller dropped the subject. "What are you still hanging around for?" she added, as she swung her feet out of bed and carefully tried her legs. "You're supposed to stick with her, even when she's in the house. Don't stand here staring at me."
"You're welcome for putting you back together again," Winnie said, her eyes on the ceiling. In the doorway, she turned and added, "And, you know, it wasn't Galen she kept screaming we had to go back and get last night. It was you, Keller." Keller stared at the door as it shut, bewildered.
"You can't go to school," Keller hissed. "Do you hear me? You cannot go to school."
They were all sitting around the kitchen table. Iliana's mother, a lovely woman with a knot of platinum hair coiled on her neck, was making breakfast. She seemed slightly anxious about her four new houseguests, but in a pleasantly excited way. She certainly wasn't suspicious. Grandma Harman had done a good job of brainwashing.
"We're going to have a wonderful Christmas," she said now, and her angelic smile grew brighter. "We can go into Winston-Salem for a Christmas and Candle Tea. Have you ever had a Moravian sugar-cake? I just wish Great-aunt Edgith had been able to stay."
Grandma Harman was gone. Keller didn't know whether to be relieved or frustrated. Despite what she kept saying, as long as the old woman was around, Keller would worry about her. But with her gone, there was nobody to appeal to, nobody who could order Iliana into safekeeping.
So now they were sitting and having this argument. It looked like such a normal breakfast scene, Keller thought dryly. Iliana's father had already left for work. Her mother was bustling around cheerfully. Her little brother was in a high chair making a mess with Cheerios. Too bad that the four nicely dressed teenagers at the table were actually two shapeshifters, a witch, and a vampire.
Galen was directly opposite Keller. There were shadows under his eyes-had anyone gotten any sleep last night?-and he seemed subdued but relaxed. Keller hadn't had a chance to speak to him since the dragon's attack.
Not that she had anything to say.
"Orange juice, Kelly?"
"No, thank you, Mrs. Dominick." That was what this family thought their last name was. They didn't realize that witches trace their heritage through the female line and that both Iliana and her mother were therefore Harmans.
"Oh, please, call me Aunt Anna," the woman said. She had her daughter's violet eyes and the smile of an angel. She was also pouring Keller juice.
Now I see where Iliana gets her scintillating intelligence, Keller thought. "Oh-thanks, Aunt Anna. And, actually, it's Keller, not Kelly."
"How unusual. But it's nice, so modern."
"It's my last name, but that's what everybody calls me."
"Oh, really? What's your first name?"
Keller broke off a piece of toast, feeling uncomfortable. "Raksha."
"But that's beautiful! Why don't you use it?"
Keller shrugged. "I just don't." She could see Galen looking at her. Shapeshifters usually were named for their animal forms, but neither Keller nor Raksha fit the pattern. "I was abandoned as a kid," she said in a clipped voice, looking back at Galen. Diana's mother wouldn't be able to make anything of this, but she might as well satisfy the princeling's curiosity. "So I don't know my real last name. But my first name means 'demon.'"
Diana's mother paused with the juice carton over Nissa's glass. "Oh. How... nice. Well, then, I see."
She blinked a couple of times and walked off without pouring Nissa any juice.
"So what does Galen mean?" Keller said, holding his gaze challengingly and handing her full glass to Nissa.
He smiled-a little wryly-for the first time since sitting down. " 'Calm.'"
Keller snorted. "It figures."
"I like Raksha better."
Keller didn't answer. With "Aunt Anna" safely in the kitchen, she could speak again to Diana. "You understood before, right? That you can't go to school."
"I have to go to school." For somebody who looked as if she were made of spun glass, Diana ate a lot. She spoke around a mouthful of microwave pancake.
"It's out of the question. How can we go with you? What are we supposed to be, for Goddess's sake?"
"My long-lost cousin from Canada and her friends," Diana said indistinctly. "Or you can all be exchange students who're here to study our American educational system." Before Keller could say anything, she added, "Hey, how come you guys aren't at school? Don't you have schools?"
"We've got the same ones you do," Winnie said. "Except Nissa-she graduated last year. But Keller and I are seniors like you. We just take time off for this stuff."
"I bet your grades are as bad as mine," Diana said unemotionally. "Anyway, I have to go to school this week. There are all sorts of class parties and things. You can come. It'll be fun."
Keller wanted to hit her with the pot of grits.
She had a problem, though. Iliana's little brother Alex had escaped from his high chair and was climbing up her leg. She looked down at him uneasily. She wasn't good with family-type things, and she especially wasn't good with children.
"Okay," she said. "Go on back and sit down." She peeled him off and tried to start him in the right direction.
He turned around and put his arms up. "Kee-kee. Kee-kee."
"That's his word for 'kitty,'" Iliana's mother said, coming in with a plate of sausages. She ruffled his white-blond hair. "You mean Kelly, Kelly," she told him.
" 'Keller, Keller!" Winnie corrected helpfully.
Alex climbed into Keller's lap, grabbed her hair, and hoisted himself into a standing position. She found herself looking into huge violet baby eyes. Witch eyes.