“I need some food. Real food. No meat,” she added quickly, her stomach rebelling even at the thought. “And no onions either.”

“What’s wrong with onions?” Aoife asked.

“I don’t like the taste.”

The houseboat was moored in the bay at Sausalito. It was a long rectangular wooden box-like the upper story of a house set directly onto the water. It had been painted and repainted green-each time with a different shade of the color-but the sea air and time had stripped the surface and the paint now hung in long peeling sheets, revealing the mottled wood beneath. There was no engine, and it was clear that the houseboat hadn’t moved from its moorings in years.

Sophie and Aoife sat on the deck in two white plastic chairs. Sophie had already eaten two bananas, an orange and a pear and was now slowly munching her way through a pound of grapes, flicking the seeds into the water.

“I am not your enemy,” Aoife began. “Nor am I your friend,” she added hastily. “I just want to know what has happened to my sister.”

“Why do you care?” Sophie asked curiously, glancing sidelong at the red-haired woman. Although Aoife’s eyes were hidden behind dark glasses, the girl could feel them drill into her. “I thought you haven’t spoken in centuries.”

“She is still my sister. She is… family. She is my responsibility.”

Sophie nodded. She understood that. She’d always felt she had a responsibility to look after her brother-even though he was perfectly capable of looking after himself. “How much do you know about what’s happened in the past few days?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Aoife said, surprising her. “I felt Scathach go and I came here immediately.”

“Where were you?”

“In the Gobi Desert.”

Sophie squeezed a seed between her fingers and watched it arc into the water. “But that’s in Mongolia, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Scatty only disappeared yesterday. You must have used leygates to get here.”

Aoife nodded. “I used a little trick your friend Saint-Germain taught me a long time ago: he showed me how to see the gold and silver leygate spires. I used the gates to leap from Mongolia to the Ise Shine in Japan, to Uluru in Australia, then Easter Island and finally on to Mount Tamalpais.” She leaned forward and tapped Sophie on the knee. “I hate leygates.”

“Scatty said they make her seasick.”

Aoife sat back and nodded. “Aye, that’s just how they make me feel.”

Sophie twisted around to where the Japanese man who had driven the limo was scraping paint from the wall of the houseboat. “Did he come with you from Japan?”

“Who? Niten? No, he lives here in San Francisco. He is an immortal human and we are old friends,” she added with a hint of a genuine smile. “This is his houseboat.”

“Looks like he hasn’t been here for a while.”