“This is Bill,” I told Frank as I came into the foyer. “He’s my … boyfriend.” I felt silly using the word for a man I’d spent all of two nights with, but Bill’s smile chased those scruples away. “At least I hope he is,” I added.

“Well, that’s sweet,” Frank said, staring at Bill. I scowled at Frank and then at the other two men in the hallway. Mac Stewart and his father Angus, both in plaid rain jackets and plaid rain boots dripping water all over my parquet floor. I remembered that Liz said the Stewarts were some kind of protectors of the forest … but that didn’t mean they couldn’t remember to wipe their feet.

“I’ll get a mop – and some hot tea for you, Callie,” Bill said, following my glance and glaring at the Stewarts. When he was gone, I turned to Frank.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Why are the Stewarts here?”

Mac Stewart puffed up his chest proudly. I noticed he was wearing the owl feather he’d gotten from me the night we met in the woods. “Our family are the stewards of the woods! I didn’t even know that until last night. We tracked that mean fish woman back to her hidey-hole and got her trapped there. See, I’ve got super powers just like you …”

“Hush, boy,” Angus said, not unkindly. “All she needs to know is that Lura’s threatening to shoot anyone who steps onto her property.”

“She says she won’t let us take her mother away the way we took away her fiancé …”

“That’s enough, Mac,” Angus cautioned, more sternly now. “We don’t have to air all our business here.”

“You do if you expect my help,” I replied, dropping my boots and folding my arms over my chest.

Angus Stewart heaved an exasperated sigh. “Lura has it in her addled brain that the Stewarts did away with Quincy Morris.”

“Why would she think that?” I asked.

“Because he was our cousin,” Angus answered, “from the Morris clan over in Ulster County. He was supposed to be guarding the woods the summer he went courting Lura. Some of the elders didn’t like it on account of her having an undine mother. A few of them, my father included, spoke to Lura about it the night before the wedding – the night before Quincy disappeared. Lura thinks they scared him away or, worse, killed him so he couldn’t marry her and disgrace the family. But my father swears they didn’t do anything to Quincy. Told me Quincy wouldn’t have been the first to find a bride in those woods. They spoke to Quincy that night and he was bound and determined to marry Lura, despite her being half-fish.”

“So what happened to him?”