“Keep trying to find a way to stop the asteroid. And deal with the mess the Courts are causing.”

“And what am I going to do?”

“Same thing. We’ll use Winnipeg as your perimeter. You deal with everything closer than Winnipeg and I’ll do damage control farther out.” She cocked her head, obviously listening to something he couldn’t hear, and began speaking faster. “You won’t be able to reach me for a few days, but only until ritual. If I show up and join in, all will be forgiven.”

Jack still couldn’t hear what Charlie heard, but Auntie Bea was close enough now he could catch her scent, even through the closed door. He’d never smelled ozone so strongly. “It’s that easy?” he asked. If Charlie was ignoring the threat, he could ignore it. For a while, anyway.

Her answering smile was all stage presence. It looked sincere, but he’d seen it before. “It’s ritual, and I can rock the hell out of third circle.”

The bed vibrated when Auntie Bea hit the door. Charlie’s charm held but only just. Jack slapped up the grid he used to keep Allie out when the last thing he needed was her being mother-y all over his space. There was a lifetime between thirteen and seventeen and, as they put it in the MidRealm, he had some issues with mothering. “When did you charm my door?”

“Before I woke you up.”

“Charlotte Marie Gale, open the door! Now!”

“She sounds really angry.”

Her smile softened, sliding closer to truth. “I have it on good authority she’s afraid but finds anger a more fulfilling emotion.”

That sounded reasonable, he guessed, but worrying about Auntie Bea’s anger beat worrying about ritual. Jack didn’t want to think about Charlie rocking anything that didn’t involve him. He stared past her at the end of the bed, found no answers in the lumps his feet made under the quilt, and finally glanced up at her face, trying to look as though it didn’t matter. “Should I warn Cameron? About you being in the ritual?”

Her expression slid under his skin and burned. “No need.”

And Jack remembered he was expected to participate in this ritual as well. “Charlie . . .”

Shaking her head, Charlie stood and shifted the straps of her gig bag. If it looked like she was unsure of what she was denying, he wasn’t sure what he was asking so, in a way, they were even. “I’ve got to go.”

Which was when he realized his room was a little short of greenery. “How?”

“I can tear myself away, trust me.”

“No, I mean . . .” He nodded toward the door. “You can’t go down the courtyard. She’s waiting right outside.”

“Jack Archibald Gale, you do not want to get in the middle of this, young man!” The door vibrated with the force of Auntie Bea’s pronouncement. “And she is the cat’s mother!”