"Midge plays both sides in a conflict. Always has. I've never had a problem with her, but she makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up every time I see her."

Which was saying something when those neck hairs belonged to a guy who spent half his life tearing through the woods on all fours.

"I'd better push off." He fished his car keys from the front pocket of his jeans. "Verna's on the warpath as it is about this situation."

"Listen, I really appreciate your support." I stumbled over my words. Why the h.e.l.l was grat.i.tude so d.a.m.n hard? "Both of us do. It means a lot."

"No sweat," he said, equally uncomfortable. He took a few steps down the driveway, then turned around. "They don't want to hurt you. They like you and they love Chloe, but they're scared that the human world is making inroads and Isadora offers a way out. Your ex tipped the balance and it scared them."

"I told you Karen's not here to stay."

"Tell it to them," he said. "They see Chloe surrounding herself with humans. They think she's pulling away from her obligations. All they want is for things to go back to the way they used to be."

"You sound like you're starting to rethink your own position, Paul."

"Not me," he said, "but Isadora and the Fae are part of our history. She's one of us and so were her sons. Sugar Maple is different without them."

"In a good way, if you ask me. n.o.body needs that much crazy. She's a psychopath."

"She's the chieftain of her clan. She fights for what belongs to her."

"Dude, she tried to kill kill me." me."

The guy was my friend and he didn't blink. "She lives by the rules of the Fae." He shot me a look. "And it's not all Tinkerbell and Disney."

Not unless Tinkerbell was a commando.

CHLOE.

"I'm going out to look for Karen," Luke said from the kitchen doorway. "She should've been back by now. Don't wait up."

"Don't wait up?" Janice muttered as soon as he left the room. Then she muttered a few things I don't want to repeat.

"This isn't good," Lynette, the optimist, said with a rueful shake of her head. "He didn't kiss you goodbye. You should always kiss the ones you love goodbye because you never know if you'll see them again."

"You really know how to ruin a party," Janice said. "Why don't we work on our obituaries while we're at it?"

I tried to laugh but couldn't quite manage it. Some party this was. I had spent most of my time rea.s.suring people who claimed to know and love me that I wouldn't let them down. And to make it worse, Luke had seemed distant, preoccupied, borderline rude in a way I'd never seen him before. Was this more of Isadora's handiwork or just a side of him I could have lived without?

The side Karen had lived with during their marriage.

"We had a fight before you showed up."

"Before or after the hot s.e.x?" Janice asked.

I shot her a look. "After."

"After?" She glanced over at Lynette. "I thought humans believed in postcoital cuddling."

"It wasn't really a fight," I said, the words spilling out like they had lives of their own. "I don't know exactly what it was, but I don't think he's going to be here in Sugar Maple much longer."

Janice's sigh was long and loud. "I don't want to say 'I told you so' but-"

"Then don't."

"But I-"

"Just don't," I said. "I get it. I've heard it before. I know the drill. I just don't want to hear it again. Isadora's breaking out of her banishment. Luke's daughter is trapped in some other dimension. And I was stupid enough to let the ex wander off on her own at midnight. If you say one more word, I might turn you into Wayne Newton."

Janice opened her mouth but Lynette, with cobra speed, clamped a hand over it. "We don't want to hear it, Jan."

Suddenly I felt so exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open. Time was ticking away, and I was no closer to a solution to the mess we were in than I was when Isadora threw down the gauntlet. "I need to crash for a half hour," I said to my friends. "If you could clear the house, I'll let you have the pick of my stash."

Five minutes later I was alone with my cats and my Chips Ahoy. The box of red was history. I tried not to think about the fact that Karen was still out there wandering around Sugar Maple. Without my protection she was helpless as a baby rabbit.

I didn't like to think that might be why I let her go, but I felt the sting of truth at the possibility.

Because I knew the answer to this whole mess. I'd known it from the beginning. All I had to do was let her go. Let her child go. They weren't part of Sugar Maple. They had no bearing on my future or the future of anyone else in this town. Nothing I did would bring Steffie back to the realm of existence she had shared with her parents. No magick was that strong. Not Aerynn's or Isadora's and definitely not mine.

Luke and Karen had already lost their daughter. There would be no more hugs, no more bedtime stories and snuggles, no watching her grow up and go to college and get married and have a baby of her own. Even if I managed to vanquish Isadora once and for all and free Steffie's spirit, none of those very human experiences would come to pa.s.s. Steffie's time in this realm had come and gone.

Was I willing to risk the future of Sugar Maple and the people I loved on the slim chance that I could find a way to undo Steffie's imprisonment and and banish Isadora once and for all? banish Isadora once and for all?

The risks were enormous. If I screwed up, there was every reason to believe Isadora would make good her threat and pull the town and everyone in it beyond the mist.

But what if I did nothing? What would happen if I just sat back and let the tower clock toll midnight?

The thought was ugly but compelling.

Isadora would still be trapped within her banishment, which would give me time to grow my skills.

Sugar Maple would still be part of this earthly realm, same as it had been for three hundred years.

And Luke would still be here with me. We would have a chance to get it right, a chance to push closer to forever.

All I had to do was let Steffie go.

20.

KAREN.

"Lie down and get some rest." Bettina Weaver lit a vanilla candle, then dimmed the lights. "Someone will get your things for you."

"Tell Luke where I am," I said, sinking deep into the feather bed.

"Of course," Bettina said. "We wouldn't want him to worry, would we?"

Actually I didn't care if he was worried or not. I just didn't want him storming over here and ruining everything the way he had at the seance.

They were going to contact Steffie. Midge and Bettina and Verna and the others were going to do what Chloe and her friends couldn't: make it possible for me to talk to Steffie. They said Isadora was nothing but an annoyance, that Steffie's spirit wasn't in any danger at all. It was all an illusion conjured up to make Chloe look bad.

"Don't you pay any attention to all that nonsense between Chloe and Isadora. The trouble goes back to the very beginning, but it has nothing to do with you and your daughter. Isadora was trying to stir things up, that's all."

They were so apologetic. They loved their town and didn't want me to think badly of them. And I didn't. They were kind and helpful and they believed that Steffie was trying to contact me. I had to keep reminding myself that Midge was vampire, Bettina was a faerie, and Verna the wife of a werewolf.

Not that it mattered. All I had to do was relax and they would do the rest. As far as I could see, I had nothing to lose. I already knew that Chloe and Luke couldn't help me and that when it came to Isadora, I was in way over my head. If they had a plan they believed would work, why not go with it? They had nothing to gain from helping me reach my daughter. They were doing it because they were good-well, people people wasn't the right word, but you know what I mean. wasn't the right word, but you know what I mean.

So I did and a heartbeat later Bettina opened the door to a gorgeous guest suite at her parents' Inn.

"You might want to keep a low profile," she said with a slightly guilty smile. "My parents aren't big fans of Chloe."

I let it pa.s.s. My feelings for the knitting sorcerer were mixed, but for the most part I liked her. Even if she had stuffed me in a transparent bubble and left me there to age like cheese.

"I thought there were no vacancies," I said as I marveled at the hand-painted wall coverings, the incredible quilts, the enormous four-poster of glowing mahogany. "I would have dumped Chloe's cottage in a second for this."

Which probably wasn't the most politic thing I had ever said, but if you saw my room at the Inn, you would understand.

"Saturn is in close transit tonight," she said by way of explanation. "The spirits will stay close to home until it pa.s.ses."

I didn't understand half of what they'd said to me about spirit trails and rest stops and journeying souls. All I knew was that they were going to put me in contact with my daughter. Nothing else mattered.

Not even the ragged, haggard-looking Revolutionary War-era soldier sitting on the edge of the windowsill, looking at me with sad eyes.

"Abigail?" he asked, a note of hope in his rum-soaked voice. "Have you come for me, Abby?"

Except for the fact I could see the window behind him, he looked as alive as I did.

"I'm not Abby," I said, struggling to sound like I spoke to ghosts every day of the week. "I'm Karen."

"Where's Abby?" he asked. "I'm here for Abby."

"Abby's in the parlor, Ethan. She's waiting for you there."

I shrieked at the sight of a glamorous woman in full 1940s movie star attire sitting on the foot of my bed.

It was getting seriously weird around here.

She smiled at me and pressed her index finger to her lips.

"Out with you, Ethan," she said in a friendly tone of voice. "You have no business being in a lady's room."

Ethan was gone in an instant.

"Cute as a bug in a rug." Her bright blond hair swooped over her right eye and fell to her shoulders in a shimmering skein of gorgeousness. "He and Abby have been playing hide-and-seek for over two hundred years."

"Wow." That was the best I could do, given the circ.u.mstances.

"So how did you get here?" she asked, curling her silk stocking-clad legs under her and getting comfortable like we were two good friends at a slumber party.

"Midge and Bettina brought me."

"No, no." Her laugh was pure movie G.o.ddess. "I mean, how did you die?"

"Die?" I leaped up from the bed. "I'm not dead." I pinched myself to be sure. "I'm absolutely alive."

"Honey, it's okay. It takes some of us longer than others to make the transition. You'll be fine. I promise you."

"No," I persisted. "Seriously. I'm not dead but my-my little girl is. That's why I'm here."

Her brilliant smile dimmed a little. "Holy cow," she said. "I guess there's a first time for everything." She patted my leg but all I felt was the faintest movement of the air. "I saw an adorable little redhead around here yesterday."

"Steffie! Dark green eyes, lots of freckles, about six years old?"

"That's the one."

"Where is she? Can you take me to her? Did she say anything? You have to-"

"Hold your horses!" She rose from the bed and straightened the seams of her stockings with her fingertips. "I don't make the rules around here. n.o.body does. We're just travelers looking for a way to complete our journeys."

"What does that mean mean?" I snapped in exasperation. "Everyone keeps saying things like that but it doesn't make any sense."

Too bad I was talking to thin air. The forties movie star had gone the way of the Revolutionary War soldier.

Was it possible Steffie was close by? I had always thought my maternal instincts would lead me to her no matter where she was, but I wasn't picking up anything at all. Still, the movie star claimed she'd seen a red-haired girl who met Steffie's description, and from what I'd seen, spirits really did feel comfortable here at the Inn.

Just lie down and rest. We'll take care of everything.

I didn't exactly hear the voice, but the words blossomed inside my head.

"Bettina?" I asked the empty room. "Is that you?"

Just lie down and rest. We'll take care of everything.

The voice was soothing. Authoritative in a hang-loose kind of way.

Put your head down. That's right. Now close your eyes and think about your daughter.

I almost laughed. Like I didn't think of Steffie every moment of every day.

But I did what the voice told me to do. I'm not sure I could have done anything else.