“Stay here, Bria,” I said. “I’m going to see if Mom has finished her meeting yet and can come help us.”

   “Okeydokey, smokey,” Bria replied in a distracted, singsong voice.

   She’d probably sit there for another hour before she noticed that I was gone, so I put my globe down and slipped away while I could.

   I headed downstairs, hugging the walls so I wouldn’t be in the way. Mom was hosting her annual holiday party later tonight, and all sorts of people were moving from one room of our mansion to the next. Caterers clutching cases of champagne, florists carrying evergreen wreaths, even a couple of musicians dragging around harps, getting ready to set up their instruments in the main living room.

   The kitchen was on the way to Mom’s office, and I stopped and peered inside. The caterers had been the first ones to arrive this afternoon, and they’d already been cooking for hours. Honey-baked hams and deep-fried turkeys rested on wooden boards, waiting to be carved, while the chefs worked on cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, and other classic holiday fixings. Everything smelled amazing, and my stomach rumbled in anticipation.

   “Sounds like someone’s hungry,” an amused, masculine voice called out.

   I looked to my right to find a middle-aged man staring at me. He wore a blue work apron over his clothes, and his ­walnut-brown hair peeked out from underneath his tall white chef’s hat. His eyes were a bright, merry, Christmas green, and his cheeks were red from the heat of the stoves.

   “It’s hours until dinner,” I said, my stomach rumbling again.

   The man looked left and right, but the other chefs were busy, so he reached over and grabbed a chocolate shell shaped like a poinsettia from a tray. Chocolate mousse, one of my favorites, was piled high in the shell, topped with fresh raspberries, making it look like a real poinsettia.

   He winked and passed the dessert over to me. “I won’t tell if you won’t, Genevieve.”

   I frowned, wondering how he knew my name, but I was too hungry to care. “Thank you,” I said, and took a big bite.

   It was just as fantastic as it looked. The chocolate mousse was light and fluffy, and the raspberries added a sweet, fruity flavor. The dark chocolate shell crunched under my teeth, then melted in my mouth, adding even more rich, decadent flavor to the dessert.

   “Good, huh?” the man said in a teasing tone.

   “Mmm-hmm.” I quickly polished off the rest of the dessert.

   He winked at me again, then went back to work, piping more chocolate mousse from a pastry bag into those poinsettia molds.

   I left the kitchen and headed to the very back of the house, where my mom’s office was, overlooking the gardens. Workers were out there too, stringing up white holiday lights, thick boughs of evergreen mistletoe, and red velvet bows. One of my favorite things about the holidays were all the bright, bold colors, along with the shimmers of the lights and the sparkles of silver and gold—

   “I can’t do this anymore,” a voice said.

   “Well, that’s too bad, Eira,” another, snider voice replied. “You’re part of the group, so you’re in the thick of things, along with the rest of us, whether you like it or not.”

   I frowned. He was talking to my mom. But what couldn’t she do anymore?

   I tiptoed down to the end of the hallway. The office door was cracked open, letting me see my mom sitting at her desk. She was so pretty with her long blond hair and blue eyes. Not for the first time, I wished that I looked like her the way that Bria and Annabella did. But instead, I’d gotten my father’s dark brown hair and gray eyes, although I barely remembered him, since he’d died right after Bria had been born.

   I eased to one side, staring at the other people in the office.

   One of them was a beautiful woman with short blond hair that had been styled into loose, elegant waves. She was wearing a red cocktail dress, and a large heart-shaped pendant glinted around her neck. She must have been bored by the meeting because she was standing in front of some shelves, picking up my mom’s snow globes, shaking them, and watching the glitter fly around inside, just like Bria had earlier.

   A man was sitting in the chair off to one side of my mom’s desk. A black suit jacket draped over his shoulders. It matched his hair and eyes, as well as the trimmed black goatee that clung to his chin. He smiled at my mom, revealing a set of fangs in his mouth, but his expression didn’t seem to be all that friendly.

   The vampire propped his elbows up on the chair arms and steepled his fingers together. “Let me make this simple, Eira. You can either continue to carry on your role within the group, or we will find someone else to take your place.”

   She lifted her chin. “Go ahead, Hugh. Find someone else. That would suit me just fine.”

   The vampire let out a low, ugly laugh. “You know as well as I do that there is only one way someone leaves the Circle.”

   My mom crossed her arms over her chest. “Is that a threat? Because I don’t take kindly to threats.”

   The blond woman picked up another snow globe and shook it. “Really, Eira. Do you always have to be such a troublemaker? Why can’t you just be a good girl and go along with things?”

   “Because, Deirdre,” my mom snapped back, “unlike the rest of you, I happen to have a little bit of my conscience left.”

   Deirdre rolled her eyes, but she put the globe down, turned around, and looked over at the vampire. “Spending all these years away from Ashland made me forget how self-righteous she always is. How do you stand to deal with her, Hugh?”

   He shrugged.

   My mom’s lips pressed together into a tight line. “I never wanted any of this.”

   “But you are part of the Circle, just as your parents were before you.” Hugh paused. “And just as your lovely daughters will be after you.”

   Anger sparked in my mom’s eyes, along with a shimmer of her Ice magic. “Leave my girls out of this. They have nothing to do with you and me and the rest of this rotten business.”