I’d left my jacket and most of my books behind, because I thought it would be too suspicious. I had only a single paperback tucked into the back pocket of my jeans. I’d brought it along in case I had trouble getting my family out of here.

“They’re talking about moving us into quarantine.” Angie sounded numb. To finally see her daughter healed, only to watch her succumb to an unknown illness . . . it was enough to break the strongest spirit.

The nurse started toward the phone. Lena moved to block her way.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Nobody told me. When did she start feeling ill?”

“Early this morning,” said Angie.

Potts stepped closer to Lex and her pearl.

“What’s going on?” demanded Toby.

Lena hadn’t brought her bokken. Wooden swords were too conspicuous. Instead, she reached beneath the back of her T-shirt to unsheathe a wooden dagger the size of a Bowie knife. The edge sharpened in her hand.

“Are you threatening me?” Potts snapped.

“Are you threatening my niece?” I replied, my words deceptively calm and cold. “Take that damned pearl off of her so I can read what’s happening to her.”

Potts didn’t move. Angie ripped the pearl necklace from Lex’s neck and took it to the bathroom in the back of the room. I heard and felt its influence being flushed away.

“You’ve been working with Vanguard,” Potts said. “We suspected as much. What do you hope to accomplish? Will you kill me the way you killed those people in Michigan?”

“You have a problem, Mr. Potts.” I split my attention between him and the nurse. “I’m relatively certain everyone in this room cares more about the welfare of that little girl than they do about you or me. And now that the magic-damper is gone, I can see exactly what you had done to her.”

To Toby and Angie, I said, “Magic couldn’t heal her, because she’s not sick. She’s been cursed.” The pearl would have suppressed the symptoms, but it couldn’t destroy the underlying cause, any more than it could permanently change Lena’s nature.

“You’re insane.” Potts started toward me.

A wooden knife thudded into the floor between his feet. Lena tightened her fist. Oak spikes grew from the knuckles.

I yanked off my glasses and studied Lex’s leg. The curse was centered on her knee. Tendrils spread to the foot and up her thigh toward the hip, like a weed taking root.

Lex groaned and opened her eyes. “Uncle Isaac? I don’t feel good.”

“I know, kiddo. I’ll fix it.”

“Smudge is glowing. Is he hungry?”

“Not this time.” I ripped the magical portion of Lex’s curse aside and crushed it into nothingness. That didn’t repair the physical damage it had done. “Lena, do you have that healing cordial?”