“When you’re my age,” Moira looked sterner now, “you’ll know it’s a silly new mama who turns down all the people happy to come rock him in the night for an hour or two.”

Sophie looked discomfited-and a little mutinous. “We’re trying a couple of sleep spell variations-Mike’s been working on a new one all morning.”

“Mmm.” Moira winked at Nell. “It might be more effective to use it on yourselves.”

Sophie chuckled, eyes still closed. “Sleep deprivation is normal for new parents. I keep telling myself that.”

Nell looked down at the peaceful boy in her arms. It was hard to imagine that the cute cheeks and sweet downy hair belonged to a tyrant of the night.

However, people had said exactly the same thing about her triplets. She stroked his cheek, suddenly grateful for nights of sleep and kiddos that mostly restricted their trouble to the daylight hours.

The light in the room shimmered again, Jamie’s gently programmed warning of a new arrival. Nell looked up, expecting one of her baby-crazed daughters-

And gaped.

Sophie opened her eyes-and wondered briefly if she was tired enough to hallucinate. She finally decided, given the shocked silence in the room, that she probably hadn’t.

It wasn’t every day a two-hundred-pound stranger draped in gold lamé dropped in to Witches’ Lounge.

A piercing series of beeps blasted into the silence, jolting the sleeping babe into unhappy alertness. Nell, with the grace of long juggling experience, slid Adam into Sophie’s arms and reached for her shrilling phone.

She scanned the alert-and then, with menace in her entire stance, got to her feet between Sophie and the intruder. “Who are you, and how did you get past our firewalls?”

“Relax, honey. I bring no harm to you or that sweet boy-child.” Their visitor lowered herself into the nearest chair. “I’m Adele, seer of truths, and I come to bring you a message.”