“It was a near thing,” I said, aware I’d been quiet too long. “What do you see as Mateo’s future?”

A good diversion. Like most good uncles, Agustin enjoyed talking about his nephew.

Mateo would one day be a leader of the clan Medina, and Agustin’s house close to the beach would be Mateo’s, since Agustin had no living children.

“Though, of course, if Mateo marries,” Agustin said, “he would have his own home, a smaller cottage, with only two servants, immediately. They are right behind the bigger houses. One can still see the water.”

Agustin was warning me that that would be a hardship, but one a young couple must be expected to undergo. Mateo and his wife had to be prepared to live a simple life for a while. They could not expect luxury right away. In Agustin’s view, the Medina family was being stern.

That life—a small cottage on the beach of Baja California, with only two servants—would be luxury to Felicia.

“That beautiful lady across from us and to the right… is that Felicia’s aunt?” Agustin was trying to sound casual.

I had to look for a minute before I spotted her.

The “beautiful lady” was indeed Isabella, who was having an animated conversation with a grigori around her own age. I didn’t know him, but the tattoos and vest pegged him.

“Yes, that’s Isabella Dominguez.”

“Hmmmm.” Agustin looked very interested. “I have heard she is very strong magically.”

“That’s true, too,” I said.

“I’ll have to meet her later,” he murmured, and then properly turned his attention to his left-hand neighbor.

Eli had instructed me that I should talk to both my dinner companions, as if I never would have thought of that myself.

I turned to the man on my right to start a conversation.

He was stout, in his sixties, and food was more interesting to him than polite chatter.

He answered my opening questions with as few words as he could and asked me none in return. I felt I could ignore him after that.

That left me free to glance at the parallel table.

Mateo and Felicia were having a good conversation, at least if all the smiling was any evidence.

Farther down my table, Eli was listening to Camilla Dashwood with polite attention.

Fenolla was sitting by Jason Featherstone. My good deed had paid off.

I looked for Felix, and eventually I found him. He was sitting by the German woman who’d introduced herself to Felicia at the Japanese Friendship Garden. Felix was sitting on her right, and on her left was a man who looked—to me—Japanese.

Felix never did anything by accident. What was his purpose?

The meal dragged on forever. What had been described as “a light supper” was anything but.

When the host and hostess, a Canadian couple from Vancouver, rose, everyone else got up, too, which suited me fine.

To my surprise, Clayton Dashwood sought me out and asked me to dance. When I made sure Felix was close by Felicia, I accepted.

“Your husband sat by my sister at dinner,” Clayton said. He was a man who smiled often and easily. He was smiling now.

I didn’t know what to say. Clayton might believe that had been a sign in favor of his courtship, Eli seeking out his sister.

“Yes,” I said, smiling back. That seemed safe enough.

“She took quite a shine to him.”

“I feel that way myself.”

Clayton laughed.

I needed to change the subject since I might say the wrong thing. “Britannia didn’t follow the example of England in barring the practice of magic,” I said. I was genuinely curious.

“We have enough autonomy for that. It’s legal in Canada and Australia, too, mostly so the natives of those places can practice their religion freely.”

Another item to add to the list of things I hadn’t known.

“Tell me about your home in Virginia.”

“There are a lot of Dashwoods. We’re scattered all over the state. My sister and I live on a large farm in Cumberland County. Richmond, the capital, is the closest city.”

“Your parents?”

“My father is gone, but my mother is still living. She’s quite a character. Everyone calls her Birdy.”

“What do you raise on this farm?” I asked next, when I figured I was following his steps well enough.

“Mostly grains. Camilla and I don’t have to actually get out in the field to plant or reap. We have a lot of families working for us.”

Black families. “And they’re free to come and go as they please?”

“Of course they are. But most of them, their families have lived on our land a long time. We pay them fair wages, and they own the houses they live in. So they stay. Are you suggesting we still have slaves?” Clayton sounded indignant.

“I spent time in Dixie, where people are slaves in all but name.”

“Cumberland County is better than that,” Clayton said firmly.

“I’m sorry to have given offense,” I said, and I meant it. “So, the Dashwoods have many family reunions?”

Clayton brightened. I believed Clayton was hoping my questions meant he had a chance with Felicia.

I liked this man. I believed Felicia could do much worse.

Mateo was so young. I didn’t know if he was completely his own man yet.

I didn’t even think about Hans Goldschmidt. There were too many questions.

“Camilla’s never married? Is she the older twin?”

“By three minutes. She married a Preston a few years ago, but they never got along. They called it quits after two years. She came home to live.”

“Too bad.”

“They just didn’t share any interests,” Clayton told me, whirling me around the whole time. This was a man who could do a lot of things at once. “Camilla loves the land, throws magic at it when she can, and loves to ride and fish and hunt. John Preston was more of a stay-in-the-house person.”

I felt a twinge inside. Did Eli and I really share interests? I made myself ignore it. “And you? Are you more one or the other?”

The music ended and we stepped to the edge of the crowd.

“I like to be out on the land,” he admitted. “But I do read in the evenings, and I practice my magic every day. It’s a big help in farming, especially with the weather, and Camilla’s power is real… up and down.”

Clayton had told us his family needed to find mates with very strong magic.

Felicia certainly had plenty and to spare.

Might not be the kind he needed, though.

I had a picture of Felicia strolling through fields making millet grow…

but Felicia was more likely to throw bombs at the invading crop pests, whatever those would be.

I knew very little about farming, since Texoma ran more to ranching.

Farming depended heavily on things outside the farmer’s control.

Seemed like that would be a better choice for an earth or air mage, like Eli.

When the band struck up again, he led me out onto the floor and we began dancing as if we’d discussed it.

I must have been staring at his face while I thought about what he’d said, because Clayton looked uncomfortable. I hadn’t intended that. “It sounds like a beautiful place,” I said. “Is there running water?”

“Of course,” he said, surprised. “We’re not far from a river, and we have two wells.”

“That much water,” I said, envious.

Clayton smiled. “I forgot you’re from Texoma. Must be a pretty dry place.”

“Very dry,” I said.

When this song was over, we gave each other a goodbye smile.

Clayton excused himself to claim a dance with some other girl.

I got back to the business of watching my sister.

But the first person I saw was Felix, skulking by the wall.

He caught my eye and gave me a jerk of the head to summon me.

He was the last person in the world I wanted to talk to, after his ill-timed revelations.

But he jerked his head again, more urgently.

Well, shit. Okay.

I wandered over to him, doing my best to look casual. “What’s happening?” I said in a low voice.

“The German and Japanese together,” he said. “They’re conspiring against Felicia. They’re also targeting some of the other Listeds.”

This sounded so weird and creepy that I almost laughed. “How on earth do you know that? They’d hardly tell you.”

“I acquired a mind-reading spell,” Felix said. He said this in a straightforward way, but I could tell there was something real shifty about it.

I hadn’t known such a thing was possible… or for sale. I thought magic had to come from spells you’d learned, or from the well of magic inside you, or from the use of potions. That’s what I understood.

“You bought it?” I said. I could feel my lips press together in disgust.

“Yes, from someone who can power them, a Frenchman,” Felix said impatiently. “It’s quite rare.”

“That’s wrong,” I said, before I could think twice.

“Says you. You shoot people for a living.”

My temper was at the end of its tether. “I hate the idea you can buy a way to read someone’s inner thoughts,” I said, just in case I hadn’t made myself clear.

“I’ve acquired valuable information to protect Felicia,” Felix said. I couldn’t argue with that.

“That’s why I sat between two people I despise. Now we know who’s trying to kill your sister. We can stop them.”

“How’s that going to work?”

“We have to kill them,” he said.

I took a very deep breath. This was a bad place for an argument, and it was the second one Felix and I had had this evening. Why couldn’t he have told this to Eli? Did he believe I was more likely to agree this was a good plan?

“What the hell is driving you?” I said, working hard to keep my voice low and even. “This comes from someplace besides keeping Felicia safe.”

“My mother was a Jew.”

I couldn’t say anything for a minute. Half of me couldn’t believe Felix cared about anyone’s religion, even his mother’s.

Half of me wondered how he’d kept it under wraps for so long if it was so important to him.

Eli had to have known this. He’d grown up in the flotilla with Felix.

“All right. How do the Japanese come in?”

“They’re allied with the Germans. The Germans will take Belgium and France and then try to take England. The seer said so.”

I couldn’t think of what to say.

“Don’t stand there with your mouth hanging open,” Felix snapped.

“So they’re trying to kill my sister because?”

“Because Eli forbade them to approach her and offer her marriage. After we’d heard the seer.”

I thought the top of my head was going to fly off.

I stared a moment longer at Felix, and then I spun on my heel and walked away.

I went right out a side door and stood on the terrace.

I could hear the music faintly, and the sound of the crowd, but muffled, because my anger filled my head like buzzing bees.

I could not leave. If I was going to be of any use to my sister, I had to stay. I had to talk to Eli about this. I had to resist my strong urge to do him harm.

The air was cool and fresh, and I breathed it in in huge gulps.

When my nerves and my thoughts quit humming, I had a lot of other ideas.

If England was going to be the target of the Germans, where did that leave Britannia?

Would all Britannian men be called up, in event of war? Canadians, Australians?

Worst thought of all: Did Clayton Dashwood want Felicia because he knew this, knew what an asset she would be in wartime?

Eli came out of the door behind me. I knew it was him without looking.

“Don’t talk to me right now,” I said. “I mean it. Not a word. Just go back inside.”

And for a wonder, he did.

I didn’t manage to be social for the rest of the evening, but I did work at looking at least not unpleasant and staying in the room.

Uphill battle. I watched Felicia like a hawk.

She danced, smiled, talked, and laughed.

I saw the German woman dancing with a man from…

Italy? Maybe? The Japanese man did not dance.

But he circulated. He better not circulate any closer to my sister, or I’d step in.

There were conduct rules at the Wizards’ Ball, rules about aggressive acts and the penalties for them.

I’d already broken them at the opening ceremony.

I would do that again if I needed to. Rules be damned.

After what seemed like four more hours, but was only one, the evening began to wind down.

We all retrieved our wraps and coats. We needed the extra warmth.

The temperature had dropped at least twenty degrees.

At least we didn’t have to deal with a ferry.

We did have to wait for our car to be brought around, and we stood in silence.

Eli, Felix, and I did our best not to look at one another.

Eli must have talked to Felix; he now understood why I was angry.

Felix didn’t like to talk to me anyway. Nothing new there.

Felicia wanted to chat about her evening, but when she took the temperature around us, she fell silent, too.

Eli dropped Felix off and began the drive to the Savarov house.

“Are you two going to tell me what’s wrong?” Felicia asked from the back seat.

“No,” we said in unison.

“We have to talk to each other first,” Eli said.

“Okay.” Felicia sounded very guarded. As well she might be. It must be like having Mom and Dad fighting.

If Peter had not died, this whole long procedure would be unnecessary. Felicia had been fond enough of Peter to marry him, maybe. We could have done without the dresses and the dances and the long meals.

This was me being ridiculous. Felicia had been on track to let Peter down. Then we’d have had a spurned Peter to deal with, as well as all these new suitors. Though at least Peter would be alive, and oh, how I wished he was.

And what about Felicia’s secret affection for Hans Goldschmidt? Did he return it? Was he in any position to offer Felicia anything ?

What if we did everything right this week and Felicia didn’t cotton to anyone? Would we have to wait another three years and do this over? In three years, what would the world be like if this war happened? Would there even be another Wizards’ Ball?

The house was silent and mostly dark. Veronika, Ford, and Alice had turned in. We parked in back and went into the house, still wrapped in silence.

Felicia paused at her bedroom door to say, “Thanks for all you’re doing. I know this isn’t the way you want to be spending your time, Eli. Or you, Lizbeth. I want you to know I appreciate your doing it.”

“I’d do anything for you,” I said.

And I had, already.

I began the last flight of stairs. I don’t know what Eli said to Felicia. I heard his voice. I’d made it clear I was done with him for tonight.

I guess he slept in Lucy’s old room; wisely, he didn’t come to bed with me. We’d been married a little over a year. We had never slept apart if we’d been in the same town.

I felt it sharply. But tonight his absence was a relief.