“ ‘She knows that, Quinn,’ said Michael. ‘Her powers of clairvoyance are tremendous. She knew it when you came through the front gate. She’s wrestling with the very things Rowan confided to you. The truth’s coming full force on her. She’s sick. And then there’s the question of her lost offspring—the one that Julien told you was alive. She heard that news when you did, and she was the one who came to us and told us to come down and welcome you in.’

“I wanted to say this was a great consolation, which it was, but I wished they had told me before this time and I didn’t want to complain. Also something else occurred to me. Why had they interrupted my conversation with Julien when they did? If they hadn’t come, how much more would Julien have said?

“ ‘That’s a question to which we don’t have an answer,’ said Michael, having read my thoughts again.

“ ‘But you stopped him. You stopped him from revealing family secrets,’ I said. ‘You thought it best.’

“ ‘We did,’ said Dr. Mayfair. ‘We thought it best.’

“ ‘Does it matter to you that I am one of you?’ I asked in a sober voice.

“Neither of them had an answer for me. Then Rowan spoke in the most dejected manner. ‘If only Mona wasn’t ill,’ she said. ‘If only we could find a cure. Then everything would be different, Quinn. As it stands now, what is the point of asking you to cast your lot with us? What is the point of asking you to be genetically tested as all of us are? What is the point of you taking on the weight of our history and our curses and all we suffer and know?’

“ ‘Genetic testing?’ I asked. ‘To see if I have a susceptibility to see spirits?’ I drank down the hot chocolate. Michael poured me another cup.

“ ‘No,’ said Rowan, ‘to see if you could produce the mutation in your offspring as Mona did.’

“ ‘I want it,’ I said.

“She nodded. ‘All right. I’ll set it up at Mayfair Medical. You report in to Dr. Winn Mayfair. Call his secretary to arrange the time.’

“ ‘And now, where are you keeping my darling princess?’

“I heard her from the top of the back stairs: ‘Quinn!’

“I rose at once and ran up to her, jogging left then left again with the little stairway, and then throwing my arms around her as we came together on the second floor.

“ ‘Remember my warnings,’ came Rowan’s voice from below.

“ ‘I promise, no penetration,’ said Mona. ‘Now leave us alone.’

“I picked her up off her feet.

“ ‘Oh, my egregious boy!’ she declared, her breasts hot beneath her snow white shirt, her red hair everywhere in my eyes and against my heart, her naked legs smooth and beautiful to my touch.