“That’s enough for us to go on,” I said. “We can find this place in St. George.” Whether it would be through Sydney’s sleuthing, the Alchemists giving in and helping, or even Sabrina’s insight, it couldn’t be that difficult now that we had a city. I would’ve liked to know more about the “obstacles” in place, but I wasn’t going to burn myself out when she probably just meant crazy Warriors and their weapons. The guardians could handle that. They had before.

“Do you need anything else from her before we freeze her up again?” asked Maude.

Alicia’s eyes went wide. “You said I wouldn’t be frozen if I cooperated!”

“That wasn’t exactly cooperating,” replied Maude coolly.

I shook my head. “That should be enough. If we need more, I’ll let you know.”

“No!” shouted Alicia. Fireballs formed in her hands, and she began futilely hurling them at the invisible barrier. “I won’t go into that state again! I won’t! You can’t—”

But Maude was casting beside me, and a minute later, Alicia was frozen in place again, her fireball-hurling stance even more ridiculous than her last one. The witches disbanded the circle, and Jackie came over to speak to me.

“Are you sure you got everything you needed from her? I felt you wanted to ask her more.”

“I did,” I admitted. “But her defenses were strong. I’ll pass the St. George information to my contacts and see what they can find out.”

Jackie nodded. “Very well then. I also spoke to Maude. If you’d like, you’re welcome to stay here at her house until the next move in this plan. It’ll put you a little closer to the action, and from what I hear, she has a lot more room than the last place you were staying.”

“Hopefully more produce too,” I added. I glanced at Neil. “You’re the security expert. Is it safe?”

“I believe so,” he said after a moment’s thought. “No one followed any of us. And if it’s fine with her, I’ll stay on too to look after you.”

We thanked Maude for her hospitality and stayed out of the way as the witches wrapped things up. Apparently, Alicia would eventually be transported to a magical trial and prison, but for now, she’d remain in the wine cellar/dungeon. Neil and I, thankfully, had guest rooms upstairs. I sent the St. George info to Marcus and then finally decided it was time to break some hard news, since it looked like Neil and I would be waiting around together for a while.

“Neil . . .” I began, when we were alone in his room. “We need to talk.”

“Sure,” he said easily. “Is it about Jill?”

“Nothing at all to do with her, actually.” I gestured to the bed. “Maybe you should sit down.”

Neil frowned, alerted by my tone. “I’ll stand, thanks. Just tell me what’s happening.”

I crossed my arms, as though I could protect myself from all the anguish I was about to dredge up. Until then, I didn’t realize how I’d been fighting to keep it from crushing me.

“Neil, there’s no easy way to say this . . . and I’m so sorry to be the one telling you . . . but Olive died two nights ago.”

Neil made no sound at all, but his face went white, so white I thought he might pass out. “No,” he said at last, after several long moments of agonized silence. “No, that’s impossible.” He shook his head adamantly. “No.”

“A Strigoi killed her,” I said. Whereas I’d initially struggled to find words, I now suddenly found myself rushing forward, unable to stop. “She was staying in a dhampir commune. In Michigan. A small group of Strigoi attacked it, breaking through the wards somehow. We think they got a human to pull one of the warding stakes up. Regardless, they got in, and Olive was caught when she was running away and—”

“Wait,” interrupted Neil. In the blink of an eye, his stricken face had turned hard and skeptical. “Olive wouldn’t run away from a fight. Certainly not from a group of Strigoi. She of all people would stand her ground.”

That terrible agony ripped through me. “She was running away to protect her baby. Declan—the baby my mom is taking care of.”

Another heavy silence filled the room as the weight of those words sunk in. I wished then that I’d waited for Sydney. She would have done a more eloquent job explaining this.

“And it wasn’t even the Strigoi she was running from,” I said, when Neil only continued to stare at me in shock. “Neil, the baby, Declan . . . he’s yours. Your son. You’re the father.”

Disbelief returned to Neil’s features, but this time it was more stunned than angry. “We both know that’s not true,” he said. “Was that . . . was that why she ran? Did she think I’d judge her? We had no real commitments, not truly. I was crazy about her, it’s true, but there was just—”

“The one time, I know,” I finished. “But that’s all it took. Somehow, something happened to her when she was restored from being a Strigoi that let her conceive a baby with you. I didn’t believe it either until I looked at him more closely with my magic. There’s definitely a spiritual, I don’t know, residue on him. It’s crazy, I know. But he is yours.”

Neil sat on the bed, so still he could have been a statue. I understood his grief and sat beside him. “Neil, I’m so sorry.”

“Olive’s dead,” he said numbly. He looked up at me and blinked back tears. “If what you’re saying is true—if somehow, through some sort of magic, that baby is mine, then why didn’t Olive tell me herself? Why’d she run away?”

“Because she was afraid of that magic,” I said. “And she was afraid of what people would say or do—both the Moroi and the Alchemists. She hid him to protect him from being treated like a freak of nature, and I promised to help protect him.”

Neil stared blankly for several moments, and then I think hearing about protection woke up his better instincts. “Who knows? Who knows about D-Declan?”

“About his true nature?” I gestured to myself. “Only me and Sydney. Rose and Dimitri know he’s Olive’s, as do a couple of people back at the commune. That’s it. We thought it was safest that as few people know about him as possible. If they knew that somehow, probably through Olive being restored, dhampirs could have kids . . . well, it’d shock a lot of people. Some would be happy, some curious. They’d all want to learn more about him, and that’s not what Olive wanted.”