Exhaling, I emptied my mind of everything but the ring of metal perched in my hand, imagining the smallest whisper of red I could puddling under it. With just the barest nudge, I sent a tiny mote of aura up to the amulet. I held my breath as my aura drifted closer, the glyphs etched into the charm beginning to glow. My heart pounded, and I squinted as the ping of energy grew closer, closer, almost touching the metal. A glowing haze over the amulet moved faster, and when my aura touched the charm . . .

“Ow!” I shouted as my hand cramped up. Jolts of energy darted through my fingers as the full spectrum of my aura raced to protect my hand, and I dropped the charm. From the window came a tiny shattering of glass.

“You okay?” Jenks called, Lucy’s voice rising as well, mimicking his tone perfectly though the words were nonsense.

“Fine!” I exclaimed, frowning when I looked at the window. The brandy snifter on the sill was busted, Al’s chrysalis amid the thick shards. “Nice.” Setting the defunct amulet aside, I stood, my nose wrinkling at the burnt amber smell coming off the chrysalis.

“Rachel?” Quen’s voice called, strong but faint from the front of the church, shortly followed by the slamming of the door into the wall. “Are you in back?”

A bittersweet feeling took me, and I plucked the large chunks of glass out of the sink and dropped them in the trash. “Yes!” I exclaimed, and Lucy mimicked my call again.

A feminine clatter of high heels in the hallway gave me pause until I remembered Ellasbeth. I barely had time to run a hand over my hair before the woman skidded to a halt in the kitchen doorway, her eyes bright, her lips parted, hair a mess and her coat buttoned wrong. “Where?” she said, her eyes roving my kitchen and my empty arms.

“Abba?” Lucy called from the back living room, and Ellasbeth spun. “Abba!” It was demanding this time, and Ellasbeth bolted.

“Oh! My baby!” she said, but she was gone and I was alone, wondering how this was going to go over. Lucy probably didn’t remember her. Sure enough, frightened, intolerant baby protest rose amid Ellasbeth’s dramatic tears. “Lucy! Are you all right? I missed you so much! Look at you. You smell terrible, but I missed you so much. Oh, you got so big!”

I probably didn’t smell all that good either, and I shoved the window open a crack to let the cool spring air pool on the floor. In the back room, Lucy began to fuss in earnest, her complaints almost unheard over Ellasbeth. “It’s going to complicate things,” Jenks’s voice came softly from the hall, mixing with Quen’s footsteps. “We just have to be more careful.”