“ ‘I get it,’ she said, ‘but Rowan is searching with us, she’s searching in ways that aren’t routine.’ Her face suddenly went dark, and she shook her head. ‘There are other tests, blood tests on those of us who have abnormal genes. Yeah, abnormal genes, that’s how you’d put it. Because you see, some of us do. That’s why my marriage to Pierce will almost certainly happen. He doesn’t have the abnormal genes but I do. So it’s safe for me to marry Pierce. He’s got the clean bill of health. But I wonder sometimes . . . maybe I shouldn’t marry at all.’

“ ‘But I have safe genes, don’t I?’ I insisted. ‘Why not forget utterly and totally about Pierce and marry me?’

“She stared at me for a long moment.

“ ‘What is it, Mona?’ I asked.

“ ‘Nothing. I was just thinking of what it would be like to be married to you. It doesn’t much matter about the clean bill of health. We’d surely have witch children. But I’m not too certain it would matter. But Quinn, you have to give up on that idea. It’s just not going to happen. Besides, I’m only fifteen years old, Quinn.’

“ ‘Fifteen!’ I was amazed. ‘Well, I’m eighteen,’ I said. ‘We’re both precocious. Our children will be geniuses.’

“ ‘Yeah, no doubt of that,’ she said. ‘And they’d have private teachers like I do now, and they’d travel the world.’

“ ‘We could travel the world with my Aunt Queen,’ I said, ‘and with Nash, and he would tell us about all the countries we would be visiting.’

“She had the most serene smile. ‘It would be a dream,’ she said. ‘I’ve been to Europe—this last year I went all over with Ryan and Pierce—Ryan is Pierce’s father. Ryan is the big lawyer in our lives, though we have a whole family firm of them actually. But anyway, what was I saying? Europe. I could go again and again and again.’

“ ‘Oh, think of it, Mona. You have your passport already, and I have mine. We could just steal you away. Aunt Queen’s been pleading with me to go!’

“ ‘Your Aunt Queen would never let you steal me,’ she laughed. ‘I can see she has a venturesome spirit, but she wouldn’t agree to kidnapping. Besides, the family would just come after me.’

“ ‘Would they really?’ I asked. ‘But why, Mona? You speak of your family as though it’s a giant prison.’

“ ‘No, Quinn,’ she said, ‘it’s really like a giant garden, but there are garden walls that separate us from the rest of the world.’ She was getting abysmally sad. ‘I’m going to cry again and I totally and egregiously hate it.’