you’ve all encountered them before, if only briefly, when you

attempted to prevent them from escaping the place of their

confinement. But the only Dark Ones who could possibly know

about me are those whose paths had crossed with mine before. And

Leila is the only one whose fate remains uncertain to us. So,

logically, she must have survived.”

Wyrdrune nodded. “I guess that makes sense.”

“As for my fairy intuition, Ambrosius will tell you that to

someone with the proper sensitivity, magic has a certain

idiosyncratic signature. Just as a psychic can hold an article of

clothing and discern certain things about the individual whom it

belonged to, so spells have a certain aura about them that can

identify the one who casts them.”

Wyrdrune frowned. “I never knew that. Is that true?”

Billy shrugged as Merlin replied. “I suppose it’s possible.”

“What do you mean, you suppose it’s possible? You mean you

don’t know?”

“Well… so I’ve heard, ” said Merlin, somewhat awkwardly.

“How the hell can you not know?” asked Wyrdrune, astonished.

“What, you think I know everything!” said Merlin irritably.

“Yes, but… you, of all people!”

“Yes, me of all people!” Merlin snapped. “So there are some

things about magic I don’t know, all right? So I’ve got feet of clay.

So sue me! Besides, I’ve never had all that much to do with fey

creatures like leprechauns and fairies. They’ve always made me

nervous.”

“That’s only because you’re so damned humorless and stuffy, ”

Makepeace said. “You’ve always been an insufferable elitist,

Ambrosius.”

“One pitcher, and two glasses, ” Morticia said, setting down the

tray.

“Ah, thank you, my dear, ” Makepeace said. He picked up the

pitcher and drank from it as if it were a glass, emptying almost half

of it in one gulp. “You’d better bring one for the boys, as well.”