We were looking at the hall clock when the door to the living room opened.

Thirty minutes, on the nose.

Hans stepped out first and held the door for Felicia. She had discarded the weird, shy look that had been so unlike her. Now she was blazing. For one of the few moments since I’d arrived in San Diego, my sister looked like the Felicia I’d known.

Felicia had decided to go with the adventure. I’d known she would, all along. I let out a deep breath and forced my lips into a smile. I could only hope she would not be killed by someone faster, someone more powerful, or someone luckier.

Hans was as lit up as Felicia. His face was full of happiness, excitement. Hope. For the first time I could see what my sister had seen, had heard in his voice. This was a brave man.

This brave man was my sister’s fiancé, I discovered in the next thirty seconds.

Eli and I stood together and let the tide wash over us.

“I will try to finish at the school,” Felicia said rapidly. “I know that’s important, to learn as much as I can before I start practicing full-time.” She was so quick to tell us this, she must have felt I’d be very upset if she didn’t complete her studies.

Eli drew breath to say something, but I put my hand on his arm. “I don’t care if you do or not,” I said, which was mostly true. “But I think if you two don’t get married right away, you’ll have time to grow up some more. And if you gain more control over your power, so much the better.”

Eli said, “I agree.”

“Also, Hans needs to figure out where you two will live,” I suggested. “What with the upcoming… troubles.” I didn’t want to say the word “war.” It was too terrible. “Hans has a lot to take care of, and a lot to plan, since I guess any day Ahren may hear from his folks.”

“He has heard,” Hans said. “This morning. That is another reason I needed to talk to you. In pleading my personal suit, I am afraid I pushed Ahren’s needs to the back.

His parents have found a house in England, in the countryside outside London.

They have secured their financial situation.

They are safe for the moment… unless England is invaded. ”

“What about your own family?” Eli asked.

I wondered why Hans hadn’t led with that detail.

“As I told you, my parents are already dead,” Hans said simply. “They had a fine jewelry store in Hamburg. Last November, Hitler’s stooges broke every window in the store, stole all the jewelry they could find, and killed my father when he would not open the safe.”

We froze. That was about the worst thing I’d ever heard. “And your mother?” I said.

“My father had stayed in the store overnight, because he thought he could protect it. He thought his neighbors would help him. When my mother didn’t hear from him the next morning, she made her way to the store and found everything broken and destroyed, including Father.”

Hans took a deep breath and looked up, his eyes going from one of us to the other. I could see this was the first time Felicia was hearing the whole story. Tears rolled down her cheeks. I had never seen my sister cry before. She leaned against Hans, and he put his arm around her.

After a moment, he said, “Mother knew how to get in the safe. She was brave enough to do it. She hid the jewelry in her clothes. She left out the back door and crept home, staying out of the way of people as much as she could. Even our own people. She met our rabbi in the street and told him what had happened, and he insisted on walking her home. She knew that would actually put her in more danger, but he insisted.”

I realized I was holding my breath.

“She was right. He stopped to speak to another Jewish man. She simply kept on walking. The rabbi and the other man were arrested, and she could hear the commotion behind her, and the screams, but she kept on walking. She did not look from one side to another before she got home. She hurried inside and locked every window and door. Mother evaluated the jewelry and loose stones she had managed to save. She put them all in a padded box and wrapped it. She wrote me a letter, and one to my sister, Liesl, too. She went to the post office, one quite far from our neighborhood, because she thought it was safer. There she mailed the letters to me and Liesl, telling us what had happened, and she mailed the box to her brother-in-law in Switzerland, where he had opened another branch of our store. She knew my uncle would keep the jewelry or its monetary value for us. We have heard from him. He received the box. So I am not penniless, if I can get to Switzerland, thanks to my mother. On her way home, she was accosted in the street by a group of thugs and got shoved to the ground. She hit her head on the curb and died in the hospital. Her friend Esther saw it happen.”

There was a long moment of silence. “Where is your sister?” I asked.

“Liesl is in Hamburg, still. She has a husband and a son, very small, only three.” Hans almost smiled as he mentioned his nephew. “Her husband is not Jewish, which my parents thought was a terrible disgrace, but it may save Liesl’s life. And the boy’s. Or it may not.”

I wondered if the seer’s vision had to come true. Could it be prevented? If enough people rose up and fought against this political party in Germany? If someone shot its leader? I would have to ask Eli or Felix, but only when we were alone.

“So you plan to finish school unless war breaks out,” Eli said, returning the conversation to something less fraught.

“Yes,” Felicia said. She was still leaning against Hans. “I will finish. Hans has to take Ahren to England. Then he’ll try to cross to Switzerland to open a bank account. If Liesl has to run, she’ll have something to live on, too. Thanks to her mother.”

“And her father,” I said, remembering the man who would not give up the code to the safe.

“If war does break out, what then?” Eli said. I had been too scared to ask, because I was sure I already knew the answer.

“Then I’ll join Hans, and we’ll fight,” Felicia said.

“I know that’s why the other side wanted me, to use me as a weapon.

Maybe to kill Jews, and anyone else who rises up against them.

England will fight or be occupied. France and Belgium, too.

Maybe Britannia and Australia and India will have to join the fight to support Britain. ”

I hadn’t been aware my sister even knew where those countries were, much less their alliances. I was surprised I did.

I wondered if any of those places would have a chance to fight before they were overrun.

Evidently this man in Germany had been planning this for a long time.

He would have built up his army and store of munitions and all kinds of weapons.

He would have magicians on his side, of whatever background. Because he believed.

England had always forbidden the practice of magic, and publicly treated those with magical power as dangerous enemies of the state. I wondered what the wizards and witches of England, Ireland, and Scotland would do.

“I got to say something that you don’t want to hear,” I said.

Hans and Felicia put on their worry faces.

“You have to keep this a secret. Your engagement to Hans, your plans, his plans, everything.”

Eli was already nodding. “I agree,” he said.

“I don’t,” Felicia all but wailed.

“You can’t say a word,” I said, and I was dead serious.

“Hans has to leave for Europe with Ahren. He has to spend time over there getting his finances straight. You need to stay here and go to school like you had planned. If you announce you’re marrying Hans, they’ll try to track him and stop him.

Or they’ll go all out to kill you. I can’t stay here forever. ” I wasn’t going to speak for Eli.

“There’s some protection at the school, but this Hitler and his followers may not respect the fact that the school is a safe area for the students.”

Hans and Felicia looked at each other.

“We can be married when I return to get you,” Hans said. “The most important thing is that we are pledged to each other and have that to look forward to.”

Hans seemed completely sincere.

My sister thought about crying again. Her face puckered up. To my relief, she recalled she was supposed to be mature enough to marry. “You’re right,” she said. “The most important thing is that we know we belong to each other.”

Eli and I exchanged a quick glance. I felt like I’d never been as young as Felicia. Maybe he was thinking the same.

“Hans, what’s your age?” I said.

“I am twenty-two.” His back straightened. “And now I am the head of my family. What remains of it.”

Actually, he and I were almost the same age. Hans was younger in experience, but after what happened to his folks, he was catching up fast. I couldn’t imagine the sense of betrayal he must feel. He’d grown up in Hamburg, he probably loved his country, and look what his country had done to him.

Felicia was all excited and in love. What would happen if Hans returned to Europe and was killed?

What if some German agent got to him before he could get out again?

What if he never came back? Felicia would have a broken heart before she was seventeen.

She would mourn Hans more deeply than she ever had Peter.

“Hans, when do you leave?” Eli asked, bringing us down to the practical level. “What can we do to help you?”

“I have been booking our passage on an airplane to get us to New York.”

“You’re going to fly ?” Felicia said, excited and terrified.

“You’re going to fly?” Eli said, envious.

“How long will that take?” I was beyond startled.

“All day,” Hans said. “But it will save time. We talked about flying over the Atlantic, too, but there are not that many flights. We will go by ocean liner instead, which should take us four to five days.”