In third period French, before the bell rings, Drew pulls his desk over to mine and whispers, "You heard about that dead frat guy?"

I nod without looking at him. I don't want to give anything away with my eyes. "Pretty awful."

"Doesn't it seem kind of strange to you that someone would be stabbed to death right outside our gates for no apparent reason?"

I shrug and look away. "Totally strange."

"What was he even doing here?" Drew asks.

I'm saved from answering as Mrs. Toliver calls the class to order and begins talking about irregular verbs. Drew reluctantly scoots his desk back, but I can feel his gaze on me all through class.

At lunch, I deliberately avoid locking eyes with Peregrine or Chloe; instead, I grab a lunch tray and get in the caf line with Liv and Max, who look surprised to see me.

"You're not eating with the Dolls today?" Max asks.

"I'd just rather eat with you guys."

"See?" Liv says to Max. "I told you she wasn't one of them."

Max shrugs. "Yeah, but who wouldn't want to be? I even want to be a Doll."

Liv rolls her eyes at him, and I force a laugh. I order some gross-looking lasagna from the cafeteria lady, grab a carton of chocolate milk and follow Liv and Max to a table in the center of the caf once we've all paid. I've just taken my first bite of the lasagna, which isn't as bad as it looks, when a shadow falls over me. I know without looking who's there.

"Eveny?" It's Peregrine, her voice hushed. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Beside me, I hear Max drop his fork. He and Liv stare, and I'm not sure if it's because she's gracing us with her presence in the cafeteria, or because even with her Louboutin boots, a fitted fur vest, and perfect makeup, she looks terrible.

"About what?" I ask. I take another bite of lasagna and do my best to ignore her.

"You know," she says. She's being uncharacteristically meek, and it's freaking me out a little. "Please?"

"I'm eating now," I say stiffly.

She leans down and whispers in my ear, "Please? There's a serious problem."

"No kidding," I reply.

"What's the problem?" Max pipes up eagerly from across the table. His eyes dart over to Peregrine. "If you need help with something, I'll help you."

Liv smacks him on the back of his head, but Peregrine acts like she hasn't heard him. "Just come talk to me for a minute, Eveny. I'm asking nicely."

I slam my fork down. "I'll be right back," I say. I stand up and follow Peregrine outside. She begins to head for the Hickories, but I say, "No. I'm eating with Max and Liv today. If you have something to say, say it to me here."

She looks wounded. "How come you don't want to eat with us?"

"For real?" When she doesn't reply, I say, "Look what you've done! You wanted to have a party so you could have more hot guys than usual drooling all over you. And someone ended up dead because of it!"

"But I didn't mean for that to happen!" she protests.

I look back toward the cafeteria and see through the window that Drew has arrived at the table and is deep in conversation with Liv. Max is staring at us with wide eyes. "Well, Liv, Max, and Drew don't create situations where innocent people die," I say.

"This isn't totally my fault," she says. "Look, I know I screwed up. But there's a bigger issue here. The guy they found dead was killed before my party."

"So?"

"So, everyone at the party was accounted for," she says urgently. "We had a guest list at the door. Every single person signed in. So how did that happen if one of them was already lying dead outside the gate?"

My blood runs cold. "What are you saying?"

"That someone stole the dead guy's identity and used it to get into town. Into our party. For all we know, he's still here."

"But the gate's closed again, right, so we're protected?"

"Not exactly," she says miserably. "If someone got into town when the gate was open, he'd still be able to do what he pleased here. Including kill us."

"So fix it!" I cry.

"I can't," she says. "Not alone, anyway. Just like I couldn't open the gate on my own, I can't restore the protection by myself either."

I shake my head. "I should never have taken part in this," I say, more to myself than to her.

"You didn't know," Peregrine says. "Please, Eveny. If you, Chloe, and I work together-"

"Why should I trust you?" I interrupt her.

Peregrine looks at me blankly. "What are you talking about?"

"I know there are more important things to worry about, but couldn't you have clued me in about the fact that Caleb's my protector? Or were you having too much fun watching me make a fool of myself?"

"So he told you." The corner of her mouth twitches. "Well, it was kind of amusing watching you stare at him like he was God's gift to earth." When I just glare at her, she adds, "Fine, so Chloe and I thought it might be too much for you to handle along with everything else, okay? In case you haven't noticed, we've been trying to ease you into this whole zandara thing. It's obvious that you like him, so why hurt your feelings right away by telling you that you two can never be together?"

"Yes, you're a benevolent angel," I say drily. "So while we're on the subject, is there anything else you're keeping from me? Any other secrets about my own life I should know about?"

"Now you're just being a drama queen." She sticks out her lower lip in a dramatic pout. "So are you going to keep yelling at me, or are you going to help us fix this?"

"Obviously I'm going to help you. Tonight?"

Her shoulders sag. "It'll take us a day or two to put together the necessary herbs to render the intruder powerless. We'll need the help of the whole sosyete too. This is a big deal."

"I don't understand," I say. "Can't we just reverse the charm we cast to let him in on Saturday?"

"We have to find out who the guy is first. As long as one of us in the sosyete actually saw him at some point that night, as long as we know what he looks like, we can harness that memory in a ceremony and cast against him."

"And we can't cast a charm to learn his identity?" I ask.

Peregrine purses her lips. "You don't think we would have done that already if we could? No, the spirits rely on our eyes. If we didn't see something, the spirits won't know it either. It's exactly why we've never been able to figure out who killed your mom. No one saw what happened, except your mom and the killer."

I try not to let the words slice into me. "Well, what's the name of the guy who was killed outside the gates?" I persist. "Obviously the killer used his identity to get in."

"The police haven't released his name yet. But I'll keep trying to find out."

"You do that," I say tightly. I can't resist adding, "I don't believe this is happening. All because you wanted to have a party."

Peregrine's eyes narrow. "You can quit blaming me, Eveny. You know nothing about how this town works. Nothing."

With that, she spins on her stiletto heel and walks away toward the Hickories.

Back in the cafeteria, Max, Drew, and Liv stare at me as I slide into my seat and pick up my fork. I take a bite, but the lasagna's cold. I've lost my appetite anyhow. "What?" I ask after a moment.

"Did you just stand up to her?" Liv asks.

"She had a question she needed to ask. It was no big deal."

"It's like she thinks she runs this town, like she thinks she's so much better than the rest of us," Liv mutters. "It's about time someone lets her know she's not the queen of the world."

Liv returns to chatting with the guys, and I watch them for a moment, feeling like I'm miles away. Although Peregrine may not be the queen of the world, she is one of the Queens of Carrefour. And like it or not, I am too.

19.

That afternoon after school, I'm changing into jeans and a T-shirt in my room when I spot my mother's letter lying on my desk. I pause and sit on the corner of my bed to read it again. It feels like the answers about what I'm supposed to do should be there in her words. Then again, maybe that's the wishful thinking of someone who's just stepped into the most mystifying situation of her life.

I head outside to look for Boniface, who I'm hoping will be able to help me understand. He's not in the rose garden, but I eventually find him in the toolshed, organizing a rack of hammers and screwdrivers. He turns when I enter. "Hi, honey," he says. "How was school?"

"I need to talk to you," I say instead of replying.

He stops what he's doing and looks at me with concern. "What is it?"

"We think there's a Main de Lumiere soldier in town," I tell him. "Not just the one who killed Glory. But someone from the outside."

"That's not possible." He looks suddenly unsteady on his feet. "How would they have gotten in?"

I reluctantly explain the fraternity party and the guy whose body was found outside the gate. "I know it was the wrong thing to do," I conclude miserably, "but at the time I thought it was a harmless sort of wrong."

"Of course you did," he says. "But Peregrine and Chloe, they know better. They've gotten out of control."

I pull my mother's letter out of my pocket and hand it to him. "I feel like there's something in here I'm supposed to understand, something connected to what's going on now. Can you take a look?"

"Of course." He unfolds the letter, and a shadow crosses his face as he begins to read. "This sounds just like her," he says when he's done. "God rest her soul."

"What do you think the two verses are supposed to mean?" I ask. "Or her line that dark times are coming?"

"She knew her sister queens well enough to realize that if she was gone, they might resort to practicing zandara in a way that defies your ancestors' rules. And she knew enough to be afraid of what that might lead to."

"I don't understand."

"The universe is like a seesaw-when one side is lifted up, the other has nowhere to go but down-and zandara exists in the middle. Action and reaction. But when your mother died and Carrefour lost its triumvirate, her sister queens' power was greatly reduced, and they could no longer cast with the strength they were accustomed to. In other words, they can use herbs, but there's nothing to magnify their power anymore."

"Right, it's why the protective charms around the town are crumbling. I know all that."

"But did you ever stop to wonder why the wealth of central Carrefour hasn't crumbled too?" Boniface asks.

My stomach swims uneasily as he continues.

"A few years after your mother died they realized there was another source from which they could draw power," he says. "They're still able to execute small charms with herbs and flowers, and they do so when they can. But the bigger things-new cars, great wealth, unnaturally good looks- those have to come from somewhere else. So they tapped into the Peripherie."

I look at him in horror. "What are you talking about?"

"The Peripherie was always less privileged than central Carrefour, but it wasn't like it is today," he says. "That's a result of Annabelle Marceau and Scarlett St. Pierre realizing they could achieve great things by taking from the other side of town. Casting a charm to get a new sports car, for example. Because they can't draw a large amount of power from flowers and herbs without having three queens working together, they cast using the Peripherie's good fortune instead. So they get their car, but something of value crumbles in the Peripherie, the same way an herb dies in the world when it's drawn for a simple charm. That's an overly simplistic explanation, but you get the idea. There's always a balance, and when it doesn't come from plants, it has to come from somewhere."

"So they've been taking from the Peripherie all these years, making themselves richer while people out there get poorer and poorer?" I whisper.

"Yes. I don't approve, and neither do most of the people in the sosyete. But they're the queens. They don't need our permission. And until you came back, Chloe and Peregrine were doing the same thing. Now they won't have to; they have you."

My mind is spinning. "But look at all the destruction they've caused."

Boniface nods, and that's when I realize he hasn't addressed the second verse my mother wrote. "What do you think the rest of her letter means?" I ask.

He looks away. "I'm not sure."

I take the letter back from him and read it. Blood of my blood, in dreams I will come to show you the way. And suddenly, I know.

"I need to get into the parlor, Boniface," I say. "There's something in there I'm supposed to see; I think that's what the verse means." I quickly explain the dreams I've been having and the way the door handle burned my hand when I tried to open it. "My mom's letter specifically mentions blood and dreams," I conclude. "That can't be a coincidence."

He looks into my eyes for a long moment, like he's trying to figure something out. Then he sighs and says, "There's no missing key, Eveny. The room is charmed. It hasn't been opened in fourteen years."

Well that explains the burning-hot handle. "Who charmed it?"

"Ms. Marceau and Ms. St. Pierre closed the parlor off years ago. It holds memories that they wanted to forget-but that they couldn't afford to lose altogether."

"Memories connected to my mother?"

"I think I'd better call your aunt," he says.

"No." I shake my head. "I'm going to uncharm the room myself." I don't trust the mothers, especially now that I know they've been destroying the Peripherie. If they're hiding something connected to my family, I have to find out.

I stride toward the house, and Boniface follows me. "Please, Eveny, I think you should wait until someone can be here to explain things to you."

"Explain what?"

He looks uneasy, but he doesn't answer the question. Instead, he says, "How about I call Peregrine and Chloe? Perhaps they should be here for this."