"I can't concentrate on other things until I'm sure about the Tears! Send them to me, whatever stock you have, and then we can-"

"I can't do that."

"Damn it, Jonas! We're supposed to be allies!" I said, and belatedly noticed that the apple was now slimy apple mush, and seriously gross.

Tami handed me a paper towel.

"A fact you seem to be forgetting of late." It was acid. "But at any rate, I couldn't send them to you if I wished to."

"And why not?"

"For the same reason I know the acolytes will not obtain any from us. The last batch was sent to court a week before Agnes passed-"

"A week?"

"-and in her absence, naturally no more have been-"

Jonas was still talking, but I was having trouble hearing him over the sudden roaring in my ears.

How much is a batch? I mouthed to Rhea.

Three.

Three?

"-and in any case, it requires six months to-Cassie? Cassie?"

"Whoa," Tami said, grabbing my arm, and looking a little woozy. "You do this all the time?"

"Feels like it," I told her, glancing around Agnes' living room.

It was dark and quiet and empty, just like last time. Which wasn't surprising since this was last time, or at least the same night Rhea and I had visited before. I'd just brought us back to several hours earlier. The acolytes were probably still off at my inauguration, and with Rhea along, the wards were ignoring us.

Or maybe there was another reason for that.

Because Tami wasn't just awesome with kids and a great cook. She was also a magical null. One of the rare witches who couldn't do magic herself, but who could make sure nobody else did any, either. Or anything.

At least, I really hoped so, because safecracking was not in my skill set.

"It's behind the painting," I told Tami, who had gotten over the disorientation of a time shift and was staring around in apparent fascination.

"This is where the Pythias lived?" she asked, taking it in.

"Until it was blown up."

"Damn," she told me. "Your place needs an upgrade."

"I wouldn't feel comfortable somewhere like this," I said, pulling the painting open.

"You sure? 'Cause I could get used to it. I could get used to it real fast," she said, checking out the crystal on the bar.

"You don't like the suite?"

She rolled her eyes at me. "Honey, that's not a suite. That's a halfway house. You know you can't keep that up, right?"

"It's only been a couple days-"

"A couple days too long. You got to think of your image."

I glanced at Rhea, who hadn't said anything, but whose silence was kind of telling. "It's a penthouse suite," I pointed out.

Tami laughed. "It's a penthouse suite with bullet holes in the walls, cots all over the floor, and no privacy for those girls or for you. I don't know why you've put up with it this long!"

"Other things seemed more important."

"Yeah, but you have your court now," she said, joining me. And putting out a hand, ten inches or so away from the surface of the safe. "You've gotta think of the girls. Know how long I had to wait for the bathroom this morning? I should have gone down to the lobby-it would've been faster!"

"Casanova should be back to work soon. I'll ask him-"

"Why? Why ask him anything? You don't have to stay there. You could live anywhere. You could live here." She glanced around appreciatively.

"Did you miss the whole blowing-up thing?"

"Okay, maybe not here here, but you know what I mean. Somewhere like this."

I frowned. "What's wrong with Vegas?"

"It's Vegas?"

"I thought you liked it there."

"For a vacation, sure. But it don't exactly say serene and otherworldly, does it?"

"I'm not serene and otherworldly-"

"And you're not gonna be living there."

I frowned some more. "It's convenient. MAGIC used to be there," I said, talking about the supernatural version of the UN. Which had recently suffered a small setback in the form of an angry god. "They're talking about building it back. And even if they don't, a lot of groups still have reps in the area-"

"Those yard-long beers, always a draw."

"-and Dante's currently has the best wards anywhere!" The Senate had moved in temporarily while they sorted out long-term accommodations, and they'd upgraded the security almost immediately. "It makes sense to stay there."

"You just like it there," Tami accused.

I didn't deny it. Despite the glitter and the glamour, Vegas had started to feel like home. And what were my alternatives? Going back to Philly? Because I didn't have such great memories there. Or Atlanta? Where, yes, things had been better, if by better you mean living in constant fear of getting caught by my crazy old vamp master and then almost dying. I'd met some nice people in Atlanta, but it's hard to make friends when you know you're basically endangering them all. So, okay, but nothing I missed.

I thought I might miss Vegas.

There were places I'd been with people I did call friends. Memories I'd made, even whacked-out ones, that were important to me. And people . . .

Lots of people I cared about, even if some of them were currently acting like asses.

I glanced around. Someplace like this, I'd forever feel out of place, inadequate, like a little girl dressing up in mommy's clothes, pretending to be someone I wasn't. While in Vegas . . . you could be anybody you wanted to be. I'd often thought that was the real allure of the place. Not the cheap beer or the chance to get rich-which, on the Strip, at least, was basically zero-or the clubs or the shows. But a chance to try on a new skin for a while, to do something different, to be someone different.

A banker could be a biker.

A secretary could be a seductress.

And a palm reader could be Pythia.

Plus, London might be more posh, but it was also more structured. Everybody who'd been with the old court was here. If I came back, I'd be expected to do things their way, the old way. But in Vegas . . . it would be my court. And maybe it wouldn't be as serene or as perfect, but . . .

But it might be more fun.

"I think we'll stay there for a while, see how it goes," I told her nonchalantly.

Tami shot me a look. "Well, wherever you stay, you need a bigger place-a lot bigger. You need some impressive areas for receiving guests. You need somewhere you can talk, with some damned privacy-"

"I need in that safe," I reminded her. "Are you almost there?"

"Give it a minute," Tami said, unconcerned. Because I guess after you break into a couple dozen Circle-run establishments, one little safe doesn't seem like a big deal. "And a decorator," she added. "The last thing you need is to let whoever designed that damned hellscape of a hotel anywhere near-"

"You could do it," I blurted out, before I thought.

And damn it! I'd planned to wait a bit to say anything, like until I had some money. But too late now.

"You could help with . . . a lot of things," I finished awkwardly, because she was looking at me.

"You offering me a job?"

"A . . . sort of job."

"What's a sort of job?" Ms. Practical asked.

"A . . . job with a delayed paycheck," I said, wincing. "But just until I can pry the money out of Jonas," I added quickly.

"You gave us a place to stay when the kids and I would have been out on the street. You got me a pardon from Marsden, to keep him from locking me up. I think I can forgo the salary for a while," she said dryly.

"Then you're on board?"

"On board as what? Chief babysitter? 'Cause I can do that, but-"

"No. I was thinking more like chief . . . coordinator. You can hire the babysitters and the tutors and whatever else we need. You can help me find a place for the court. You can help, well . . . coordinate things."

I couldn't be any more specific than that, since I didn't even know what we needed. I hadn't ever really thought about a court, not of my own. The one here in London had always been Agnes' in my head, and somehow, the fact that it was mine now just hadn't registered. Probably because the idea scared me to death.

But it scared me a little less with Tami around.

She glanced at Rhea. "You okay with that? I wouldn't be stepping on any toes?"

Rhea shook her head. "No toes. Or . . . or anything else. That actually sounds . . ." She took a deep breath, and I could almost see some of the weight falling off her shoulders. "That sounds wonderful," she said honestly.

"Well, I guess I could give it a shot," Tami told me, but distractedly. Like she was already making a mental to-do list.

"And the safe?" I asked, because it looked the same to me, with the pale, almost invisible barrier still glowing faintly in front of the door.

"No." Tami turned her attention to it. "Doesn't feel like I've drained it at all."

"Drained it?" Rhea said. "Is that what you're trying to do?"

I nodded. "Tami's a magical null. If she's not actively repressing her abilities, wards come down when she walks in a room."

"It was how I used to raid the Circle's damned internment camps," she told Rhea. "Hard to keep out somebody who can just walk in through the front door."

"Yet this one is keeping you out," I said, starting to get worried. I'd seen Tami drain bigger wards faster plenty of times.

She sighed. "Yeah, we may have a problem."

"What sort of problem?"

"You know how a null works, right?" she asked.

I nodded, but Rhea shook her head.

"Our magic is inverted," Tami told her. "Instead of projecting out, it pulls in. Specifically, it pulls in other magic in an area and destroys it. It's like we have a big, black hole somewhere inside, just sucking all the magic in. But unlike a black hole, we do have a limit-we do get full."

Rhea nodded.

I wondered where Tami was going with this.

"So, most of the time, it's not a problem," she said, looking balefully at the safe. "For a strong null, the limit is really, really high. A talisman, like the ones they use to power most wards, can usually be drained in a couple of minutes."

"But you've already been at it that long," I pointed out.

She nodded. "Yeah. And if I'm right, I could stay here all day, till I was full and running over, and it wouldn't matter. That thing's not coming down."

"Why not? It's just a ward-"

"A ward hooked into the ley line system."

"What?"

Tami nodded. "And the ley lines aren't some supernatural battery, like a talisman. They're more like . . . a direct link to the world's electrical system. To big rivers of metaphysical energy that just keep coming and coming and coming. I can't absorb that. No one can."

I stared at the little safe. "But . . . but if people can hook a ward directly into a ley line, why use talismans at all?"