The three of us stood in the parlor, staring at the sunroom, while Faustus sat in the threshold, seemingly waiting for us to get on with it.

“Before we go in,” Nora said, “we need to discuss what we’re going to do if we discover the worst.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.” Izzy stopped pacing with a sudden jerk. “What will we do? We can’t exactly go to the police. But we can’t ignore it either.”

“Well,” I said matter-of-factly, “in the extremely, extremely unlikely event the toad shows us something, I was thinking I would go into town tomorrow, alone, and talk to Theo about Constance. Maybe we could find out more about her life and lead the police in a direction that might help.”

Suddenly, I was blinded by a mass of curly hair. Izzy had ambush-hugged me and was now rocking us both back and forth. “Going into town? To see Theo? That’s wonderful!”

“But you heard the part about me going alone, right?”

“Certainly. Whatever you want. I’m just so proud of you, darling.”

I smiled. I was kind of proud of myself too. I hadn’t gone into town in months, especially not to the bookstore, and while it wasn’t going to be easy, I really thought it was progress.

“What are you doing?” Nora whacked her sister on the arm. “Stop it!”

Nora, apparently, had a differing opinion.

Izzy turned to look at her. “What?”

“The bookstore? Oh, whoop-de-doo,” Nora said. “Don’t you think you’re ignoring the more obvious issue Brynn should be tackling?”

Izzy turned away from me and whispered as though I couldn’t hear, “Baby steps, Nora. Baby steps.”

“Baby steps? She’s a grown woman!”

I slowly backed away to let the two of them bicker and headed for the sunroom with Gideon’s pillow. I really didn’t need to hear them discuss how best to parent me anymore. Their styles were never going to change. Izzy had always been overly proud of every little thing I had ever done. While Nora always seemed to think I wasn’t quite living up to this magnificent potential she believed I possessed. It didn’t matter that I was an adult now. Once a parent always a parent, I guess.

Regardless, I was pretty happy about my plan. I was done going back and forth with my family about what I should be doing. I didn’t need my magic to find out who Constance had been in life. I could learn about her in other ways. I could still help people even if it wasn’t the way my aunts wanted me to. And besides, the whole issue was moot because what had happened to Constance was an accident. I was sure of it. We were just upset because it had happened on our watch. The toads gathering outside the house had to be a coincidence. Nothing more.

“Brynn? Are you going in without us?” Izzy called out, hurrying after me.

Nora followed behind. “And what are you doing with that pillow?”