Her skin began to glow faintly and her eyes burned. Agnes felt a gentle wind wash over her body and her muscles seized up, just the way Leo had described the sensation, and she knew that Sera was calling up their veils of life, of memory. Part of her wanted to cry out and say no, don’t let Ambrosine or my father know of this power, but she was frozen and could not speak.

And then the memory came.

Alethea was in the brownstone on Creekwater Row. She was trying to hang a mobile over a crib in the nursery, hugely pregnant, her red curls pulled up in a messy bun. She stood on a stool on her tiptoes, her legs wobbling.

“Alethea!” Xavier cried when he came in. “Let me do that.”

She grinned and pecked him on the cheek as he took the mobile, stars and clouds and little golden ships. “I think our daughter will like this. It reminds me of sailing with Matthias in the summers.” She spoke Kaolish with the faintest trace of a Pelagan accent.

“What about our son?” Xavier asked. “Is his mobile made of gloom and doom like Hektor?”

Alethea laughed and slapped him playfully on the arm. Then she bent down and picked up a different one, trees and fish and a yellow sun in its center.

“His will be his mother’s home,” she said.

“But you hate Culinnon.”

Alethea sighed and let Xavier hang the mobile over the second crib. “I don’t hate it,” she said. “I wish it were different. Not so isolated or secret. I think that island has made my family crazy.”

Xavier kissed her on the forehead. “Good thing I stole you away before you lost your marbles then.” He made a wild, exaggerated face and she laughed again.

“It’s good they will be born there,” she said as he rubbed her stomach. “You were right. Our children are of two worlds and we should not shy away from that.” She made a face. “Mother must be ecstatic.”

“Eneas and I will be with you the whole time,” Xavier promised. “I’ll take any barbs she throws at you.”

Alethea pretended to swoon. “My hero,” she said. Xavier caught her and dipped her back, and she shrieked with delight.

“Oh, my feet,” she said. She looked down and sighed. “Someday I’ll be able to see them again.”

“I’ll have Swansea heat some water,” Xavier said. “A good soak is just what they need.”

“Mmm, yes,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. “That sounds perfect.” She gazed up at him. “I love you, you know.”

Xavier’s smile was brighter than the sun. “I love you too.”