As Eli drove us back to his mother’s house, we didn’t talk. That was all right, for once. We had a lot to think about.

I gave up worrying about Felicia. She was going to do what her heart told her to, despite the danger, despite giving up a future that could have been secure and comfortable.

The future was not for me to know.

I was glad of that.

Why didn’t seers kill themselves? Did they ever see anything good?

I’d made that big decision, to leave Felicia’s life in her own hands. So I went back to something more familiar: I struggled to remember what her schedule was for tonight, since we were obliged to go ahead with the pretense she was still in the market for a suitor.

“The talent show,” I said out loud. Eli shuddered.

“I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to put all these grigoris on a little stage to show off their other talents,” he said.

“Did you have a talent? Six years ago?” I was fascinated with the Eli of a previous Wizards’ Ball Week, the Eli who had looked at all the talented grigori women and not picked one.

Eli laughed. “Hell, no,” he said. “But Isabella danced.”

“Danced?” I tried to imagine Isabella dancing in front of a crowd. “Like… square dancing, or what?”

He laughed again. “No, flamenco. It’s a kind of Spanish dance, with these things you click attached to your fingers. It’s very dramatic and fiery.”

“Was she good?”

“She looked good in her costume, and she had the drama down pat.”

“I wonder why she never found anyone. She’s really pretty, and a Dominguez.”

“Everyone, including me, was scared of Francisco. It was clear that if you married one of the Dominguez children, he’d still be the leader of the family. You’d never get away.”

“That’s why they were all single, I reckon.”

“All except Valentina. She married your father, got cut from the family tree, and maybe died because of that. After that story went the rounds, courting Maria Rosa, Diego, Fernanda, or Isabella became even less attractive.” Eli shook his head.

“I have to admit, it was brave of Isabella to help Felicia. I don’t know how she got money to the Karkarovs, or how much of that Felicia even got the benefit of, but at least Isabella tried. ”

My husband had a little too much admiration for his former flame.

“She did,” I said, giving the devil her due. I was glad when he dropped the Isabella topic in favor of the party this evening.

“I got a list of the performers. Clayton is going to play the guitar. Mateo and one of his cousins will juggle. One of the German girls is going to play the piano. An Irish boy is playing some kind of harp and singing. Two of the Chinese kids have an acrobatic act.”

“I don’t know what that is.” I was learning so much this week. Most of it, I didn’t really care to know.

“Contortions, mainly, for the very limber and young. You’ll enjoy it.”

“Do you think anyone will try to kill Felicia tonight?”

“The good side of keeping her engagement a secret is that everyone will think she’s still on the market, and they’ll be trying to get close. They might feel they still have a chance to get her over to the German side. No matter what she’s said through me.”

“Even if we got to talk about her being promised to Hans, the Germans and Japanese would realize she’s engaged to a Jew. They wouldn’t have any hesitation in mowing her down.”

“Unless they kill Hans first,” Eli said. “Then she’ll be free to marry again.”

“I can’t see a way out of this,” I admitted, after thinking for a moment.

“The only idea that might work would be to take Felicia away from here and hide her until she and Hans can marry. She’d miss the last months of school.

I don’t know where we could hide her that a good magician couldn’t find her.

They sure found her when she was in Segundo Mexia. ”

Eli had nothing to say about that. My thoughts drifted off. Not for the first time, I assessed how my life had changed the minute my sister entered it.

Death follows Felicia , I thought. Maybe that was not too surprising, since death was her specialty.

If she had been an earth grigori, for example, her life would have been very different.

Or if she’d been an air grigori, like Eli and Peter.

It was hard to imagine Felicia without the burden and glory of her frightening power.

I didn’t blame Felicia for having such power and not being shy about using it. I would have, too. Or for not loving Peter. You couldn’t help that. But having her for a sister had changed my life, and I couldn’t deny it.

My sister was the center of a struggle between two powers. My sister was in love. My sister could kill many people in a matter of minutes, even seconds.

My sister was awesome and terrible and a teenager.

I loved her.

Death followed me, too.