“My uncles,” Jack repeated, once the coughing had died down, “might be convinced to not hunt the family to extinction should they take refuge in the UnderRealm. Although I’d probably have to kill a couple to get that much out of them,” he added thoughtfully. “Besides, we can’t go to the UnderRealm— Charlie already explained.”

The family turned to look at Charlie. She spread her hands in the universal gesture for well, duh.

“All right, then . . .” Allie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Joe, what about the rest of the UnderRealm?”

With a room full of Gales searching for him—although Auntie Gwen looked right at him, Charlie noted—Joe slowly became visible over by one of the bookcases. “What about the rest of the UnderRealm?”

“The Courts. Can the Courts stop the asteroid?”

Charlie caught Jack’s gaze and opened her mouth to say they’d discussed that, too, but snapped it closed again as Auntie Jane said, “The family does not deal with the Fey.”

No subtext. No undertone. A bald statement of inarguable fact, it smothered every other sound in the room. In all four rooms, Charlie realized.

“We do not interfere with them, and they do not interfere with us. We deal with them if they step over the line here in this world,” Auntie Jane continued, her words etched into the silence, “and that is all.”

“That’s clearly not all,” Auntie Gwen muttered. The entire family held its breath. “Joe . . .”

“Was brought into the family by Alysha,” Auntie Bea replied. It seemed that in this, at least, she supported Auntie Jane.

“Jack . . .”

“The events leading up to his conception and subsequent acceptance into this side of his birthright, were entirely unique.”

Charlie saw Auntie Gwen’s lip curl and braced for impact. Auntie Bea was significantly older, but that didn’t necessarily mean more powerful. Only in her twenties, Allie was more powerful than any second circle Gale in memory—and that was the sort of thing the aunties never forgot.

“Gwendolyn Victoria Gale,” Auntie Jane cracked the name like a whip, a third circle naming, not a first.

And all the fight went out of Auntie Gwen.

Fine. Charlie had fight to spare. “In case you’ve forgotten a point I made earlier,” she snapped, “an asteroid is about to have a go at wiping out all life on the planet. If that’s not unique enough for you to find a little . . .”

“Wildness, Charlotte?” You are treading on very thin ice.

“Flexibility, Auntie Jane.” I can swim.

“And should we invite the rest of the world into our councils?”

Charlie jerked her arm free of a cautioning touch—probably Auntie Gwen’s, she was the only woman close enough—and glared at the monitor. “That’s not the same, and you know it.”

“Yes, I do. As I know we do not deal with the Fey.”

“Some of them are already leaving.”

“Good. We deal with this situation as we have with others, within the family.”