Sensing my gaze, Alyce glanced up. "Morgan," she said, and I could see nothing but concern in her face. She came out from around the counter and took both my hands. "Hunter came by this morning and told us what happened. Are you all right?"

I nodded, looking at her. I let my senses seek for danger from her. I sensed nothing.

"Let's go in the back and talk," Alyce said. "I'll put the teakettle on."

I followed her behind the counter to the small back room, where David, the other clerk, sat at the square, battered table he used as a desk. An open ledger, its columns filled with numbers, lay in front of him. David, who was in his early thirties, was prematurely gray, a trait that he said was typical of his clan, the Burnhides. Today his face looked drawn and weary, as if he were aging to match his hair.

«Morgan,» he said, "I was horrified to hear what happened to you. Please, sit down."

He closed the ledger as Alyce put a mixture of dried herbs into a metal tea ball. Then she turned to face me. "We owe you an apology," she said. David nodded his agreement.

I waited nervously. An apology for what?

"We were too slow to see what Selene was really after," David said. "Too slow to stop her."

I could feel truth, and sorrow, in his statement. My nerves began to unwind.

"It wasn't your fault," I said. It felt strange to have these adult witches apologizing to me. "I should have seen through Selene and. . and the rest of them." I couldn't bring myself to say Cal's name.

The kettle on the hot plate began to steam, and Alyce poured the boiling water into a teapot. She set it on a trivet to let the tea steep.

"Selene is a very seductive woman," David said. "All of Starlocket was taken in by her, even those of us who should have been wary. Cal might have been the only one who truly knew her nature."