“We’re certainly not going to leave a mess like this for a newcomer like you to deal with alone,” snapped Inez Garcia, coming up to me as I started to turn from Ms. Terwilliger. Inez was perhaps the most surprising addition of all today. She was a venerable old witch notable both for her powers and her refusal to join any coven. She was the witch Ms. Terwilliger had gone to about the wooden box. Her acerbic wit was also legendary, though she’d taken a mild liking to me (which was about as much as she liked anyone). Catching sight of Rose and Dimitri chatting near Trey, Inez gave a small snort of amusement. “No surprise you’ve got dhampirs with you. What happened to that Moroi boy you had in tow last time? The one with the nice cheekbones?”

“Oh, he’s over there,” I said, flushing slightly. “I, uh, married him.”

Inez’s pointed eyebrows rose. “Did you now? Well, good for you.”

Maude, one of the senior witches in the Stelle, called everyone to attention. We gathered in a big circle as she cast a spell that created a miniature map of the Salton Sea on the ground in front of us. The plan was simple, for now, mostly because we didn’t know for sure what to expect. Between Ms. Terwilliger’s magical recruits and the “muscle” I’d provided with Trey and the dhampirs, we had nearly thirty people. We were going to divide into smaller groups to investigate as much of the shoreline as possible. Some parts were easier to get to than others, so today’s goal was checking out the public areas. Theoretically, Alicia would’ve had the same limitations. The groups were divided up based on those who had strong affinities to detect magic in general and those who were good at casting spells to detect hidden enchantments. The dhampirs were distributed among the groups, just in case physical force was needed. Ms. Terwilliger wanted Adrian and me to stay with her, and Eddie insisted on remaining with us as well. Although Jill was his main priority, he still felt responsible for us.

It looked as though Ms. Terwilliger’s predictions were spot-on, that Alicia might very well have abandoned her plan when I didn’t immediately take the bait. If she had left a magical trap around, she’d also done a great job of eradicating all trace of it. Our search parties scoured all the public areas we could, checking some of them twice, without finding anything. Undaunted, we took a small break for lunch and then reconvened to explore the less accessible regions around the lake. Even getting into those areas required magic—mostly invisibility spells—and that took a fair bit of coordination. As evening rolled around, however, those clandestine searches proved as fruitless as the easier ones. No sign of Alicia or magical traps.