Five adults, a Leprechaun, a Dragon Prince, and two toddlers required a lot of French toast, but with Allie on one grill and Katie on the other, Graham beating the eggs, Charlie pouring juice, Auntie Gwen setting the table, Joe dealing with the coffee maker, and Jack watching the twins, breakfast got made.

This was what she needed, Allie realized. When Charlie was home, then her family was home and family could deal with anything life threw at it.

Even near noon, the sunlight felt thin and the wind was cold and damp. As Catherine tucked her chin down in the collar of her down jacket, she thought of all the reasons why she’d left Ontario and put the weather at the top of the list. She hadn’t been back since Edward’s Hunt; he’d fathered her children, she’d owed him for that. She hadn’t been the one to take him down, that honor had gone to their eldest daughter, newly changed, but she’d been there at the end. When she’d left, she’d assumed it was for the last time.

Second last, she’d be back when her time came.

Fine, third. She’d be back for Jane’s time, too.

Her eldest sister had wanted her to be her good right hand—a desire she’d have been less insulted by had Jane not been left-handed. She’d Seen how it would be; Jane, already armed with both power and personality—and fully aware of how to wield them both—would use the Sight to nudge the family, then to steer the family, then to command the family, then it would have spread outside the family, then it would’ve been poisoned apples all around and no one wanted to go there again, least of all, if she were honest, Jane. It always took months to sort out the pies.

With the wind trailing chill fingers across the back of her neck, she watched Jane stand on the back porch for a long moment before descending to cross the yard, sighed, and revised her list. The weather now came a close second to her sister.

Dressed in boots and jeans and one of her late husband’s jackets, Jane had begun to look old. To anyone else, she appeared to stride across the field much as she ever had, but Catherine could see how she placed each foot with care. The frailties of age might come late to the Gales, but they came. Of course, anyone who assumed those frailties lessened the danger was an idiot.

Catherine was no idiot. Which was why she’d walked out of the Wood at the edge of the woods and stayed there. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t See any charms of Jane’s on the house. The ones she couldn’t See would be the problem.