"Dueling, most like."

"So they're not his Mark."

"Good heavens, no. Lux has always been reckless. Short fuse. You see it with Marks like that. A Mark, mind you, that has grown deeper. Which is why Lux's name is so funny. It means Light, you see. I don't know if he's turned from itor is trying to find his way back. But I'll tell you this... Aether does funny things when you play with it. I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to bend Magic and got a very nasty shock indeed. You see those rings he wears. You know how he got them? Lux, old boy!"

I turned around. Lux was standing right there with our drinks. Huge paper umbrellas stuck out of them with swizzle sticks.

"And who is this young lady? Not breaking the rules, are you, Professor?"

It happened. One minute, Lux was preparing to engage the wizards and vampires in conversation, the nextmy eye caught sight of somebody else.

He wore a pair of dark wizard dress pants and I couldn't be sure but a black, spotted with darker black, silk dress shirt that changed as he turned, and the light hit him from different angles; it was almost holographic. His long mane of black hair fell to his shoulders. The serious-minded Wiccan I had seen before. His eyes were penetrating into my own, like chips of blue ice. He was just about to ask me something, when somebody else fell upon me.

"Julius Pendderwenn! There you are! Very glad to meet you! Wanted to introduce myself for ages! But then you already know me! It's you I'm interested in!"

He held out his hand to mine and shook it furiously with two of his own. It was a moment before I could look and see who I was talking to. I looked for the other Wiccan but he had gone.

"Good to meet you!" he said. He continued to try to rip my hand off. "Halsey Rookmaaker I was in your parents' House, don't you know? Their Wiccan House."

It was the smiley wizard I had seen before at the Welcoming Ceremony. And elsewhere... He had also been following us up in the stands when the Initiates and I had been training. One of the few to have done so.

"I'm sorry. Can I help you?" I said. Still full of the wizard I had just seen, it was a moment before I realized what Julius Pendderwenn had said...

"I knew your parents! Seventeen years ago! It was horrible when we lost them.... Who do you think took over when they werewell, anyway. But now you're here. Pendderwenn House has been waiting a long time to be complete. With you, I think we can be. Circles within circles. What goes around comes around, eh?"

"W-w-what?"

"Halsey... Pendderwenn House is here in Rome," said Pendderwenn. "Just think about it. Think about us. All right. I'm going. I'm going."

"We are not to the selection process yet," said Lux, who had finally reappeared and was now pushing Julius Pendderwenn away. Veruschka Ravenseal and the other coven leaders popped up, along with Maria Lenoir.

"Not breaking the rules, are we?" said Maria, whose marigold-colored eyes blackened infinitesimally, before lighting on me. Pendderwenn gulped.

"I want to see!" said Vittoria, pushing her way through.

Maria stood, waiting for an answer.

"It's nothing. Just a lapse in protocol," said Lux. I noticed as he spoke Lux dig in his pants-pocket and remove his Wiccan rings. He slipped them on.

"There are a lot of things that you don't know about yet, Julius," Maria Lenoir said to Mr. Pendderwenn, who shook from head to foot.

I turned my head away, letting my hair fall between us. She had looked at me.

"Who are House Pendderwenn?" I asked Lux, feeling like he had been keeping things from me, "and what are they doing in Rome? Is it really true my parents used to be one of them?"

It was hard to keep the bitterness out of my voice. Had there really been a House in Rome all this time, and I had not found it?

The party hiccoughed. Vittoria looked around waiting for something else to happen. Veruschka Ravenseal looked daggers at Mr. Pendderwenn who apologized profusely. "It can wait. It can wait," he said. "Just a little overanxious is all. Twenty-five years... it's a long time to wait. Won't happen again. Promise, promise."

"It better not," said Veruschka.

Apparently that was the end of it. The werewolves went back to their dancingand Vittoria, with one last look, disappeared with Paolo. Maria Lenoir continued to hover, however, like an overeager evil-eyed specter. "You know the rules, Lux," she said to him.

She left; I was left staring at Professor Lux with about a million questions. I think he could see it because he formed his Wiccan W and stirred his magic drink. It was a mark of the severity of the situation that he used his magic for something so mundane. He swizzled it and took the umbrella out, which folded up all by itself. What did Maria mean by that, and why was Lux looking the way he did, like he was nervousor worse... scared? I wondered.

"You've been marked," he said. "It was foolish of me to take you here tonight. I've put a bull's-eye on your back."

I grabbed Lux and dragged him over to an alcove where we could talk alone.

No more half measures. I wanted the truth.

He paced back and forth, and I saw him, absentmindedly, ma.s.saging where his tridents were. He didn't expect a fight, did he? "The other Houses will try and recruit you," he said to me. "That's what Pendderwenn was doing. He thought I was giving Ravenseal an unfair advantage. This Gathering is about more than indoctrinating new Wiccan Initiatesit's about staking your claims to themthe other Houses, I mean.

"Pendderwenn had no right to engage you like that," he went on, "but he thought I was making a move on behalf of Ravenseal before the Wiccaning. So..."

"Not so fast," I said. "What's a Wiccaning?"

He took a sip of his raspberry-mint c.o.c.ktail.

"It happens in two-days' time," he said. "There will be a reading of sortskind of like when we all held our lights.e.xcept this time it's for realat which point you and the other Initiates will have to choose."

"Our Marks, you mean?"

He nodded.

"With this type of choice there is no second choice," he said. "It is a chance for the other Houses to look at you as well. We have an unusually high number of Initiates this year, and not enough spots."

"They keep threatening me with that. Vittoria said there weren't enough openingsand as she's easily the most powerful new witch I mean to say, there's no way Ravenseal can afford to take all of us, can they? Maybe Pendderwenn's my best shot, maybe..." I said.

"Magic split, Halsey. I've been meaning to speak with you about thiswith all of the Initiates, as a matter of fact."

"We're Neophytes now," I said. I couldn't help it. I smiled.

"You see this W," he said. "Like it's being pulled apart. Like there are three of them. They represent the Three Houses. Harcort, Coven, and Ravenseal." He waggled his three fingers. "But there are more Houses than just we Three. Magic continues to split. Pendderwenn House is a satellite. It is a lesser coven. I will explain..."

I watched him compose himself, wondering if it were really true. Like everything involving Magic, there seemed to be layers upon layerseach one hidden under the next.

"A Wiccan coven is comprised of twelve membersjust twelve members. Thirteen, and it can no longer function," said Lux.

"There must not be that much Magic in the world," I said.

"On the contrary," he said. "Unlike vampires, who keep their numbers hidden, Wiccans have to be very open about just how many of us there are. The reason is because of the Last War, in which a lot of the Supernaturals were killed. It happened over a century ago. In the time of Charles d.i.c.kens and cobblestone streets.

"I won't bore you with the details," said Lux. "Suffice it to say, that a treaty was brokered, in which certain covenants were agreed upon, among them that Wiccan covens must Hivebreak away, and form autonomous covens."

"It was the vampires who made us agree to that," said Lux. "But we got something in return. Vampires could no longer employ Half Lightersmagically-empowered beings with unique gifts, such as the ability to see the future, to scry, as it's called; some can travel with their minds. Asher is one. He has the leave of the Houses, and that of his own tribe, to attend this Gathering with the Lenoir, who just want to keep an eye on things, they say. But hiving... Hiving is important....

"It was Erasmus of Ravenseal who proposed the idea... an idea supported by Maria Lenoir. She was there, you see. The Lenoir had a foothold. Their power was great. This was 1887. Maria was second-in-command at that point. How she gained further power I do not know.

"But it was her pleasure to state the following: that either Wiccans should purge their numbersreduce their sizesto twelve a Houseor the Lenoir would systematically destroy all of them. There wasn't a question that they could do it. Their numbers were enormous. It was an ultimatum Erasmus, as wartime Head, was unwilling to test. His Mistress, Vanity Ravenseal, had already been killed, you see? One of the vampire hunters who had been turned had caught up with her, on Maria's orders, no doubt. Erasmus agreed that from thenceforward all Wiccan covens must Hive."

"But what is Hiving?"

"Hiving," said Lux, "is what happens to over-numbered covens when they get too bigthirteen Wiccans or greater. They must split offhive. One House becoming two. Parted. Forever."

He seemed to consider that important.

"So whereas Ravenseal is at eleven, presently, if it takes on more than one Initiate at this Gatheringbecomes thirteen members or greaterit must fracture. Thirteen people is too many.

"House Pendderwenn, of which your parents were a part I was a kid, but I have seen the Family Trees hived, originally, from us, from House Ravenseal. Here's the ruband it was something Maria Lenoir didn't intend...

"Only a fledged Wiccan member of any coven may form an autonomous House," said Lux. That means it is independent in every way from its parent coven. Julius Pendderwenn is not fledged, nor will he ever be, I don't think. Even if something should happen to him, it is Ravenseal's decision on who should replace him. Houses don't let other Houses Hive from them, Halsey. Not really."

I nodded. Now that I thought about it, I didn't want to be beholden to some parent covensome Ravenseal, or something like that. It was like the magic books. They should be free to develop independently, as should the Wiccans who read them, shouldn't they? Yet, if I joined a House like Pendderwenn...

"...I mean to say," I said. "I would be a slave," I told Lux.

Now that I thought about it, St. Martley's was an independent coven. They had never hived from anyone.... That I knew about....

"It's for protection," said Lux. "If a war were to break out, the Houses would contract, the parent covens dragging back their satellites, anywhere in the world. Ravenseal's numbers would swell, become greater than twelve, along with its power. Not to mention the Harcorts and the Covens. And that is what the vampires are afraid of. That we will be too powerful for them to control, if and when a second war ever starts.

"Erasmus must've really outsmarted Maria Lenoir that day," he continued almost to himself. "She must've thought that would've been an end to itwith Hiving. She figured eventually Houses would emanc.i.p.ate themselves, one from the other. But that hasn't happened. Which is why junior covens are carefully monitored and fledged Wiccans not allowed to head them up. That's third-degree Wiccans, by the way. Some say there's a fourth degree."

I drank my mint julep feeling like my head would explode.

It was nearing Midnight. And as the chimes rang, the party was endedI had not really met anyone. So many Supernaturals had attended this Ball. Yet, I felt, we were no closer to any kind of magical understanding. The room was emptying. I looked up into the stands, where couples were being shooed out of their niches. It was time for the goodnight.

Lux and I had spent the evening whispering together. I felt honored to be in his presence. So I knew, for instance, that he was twenty-eight-years-old. I asked him about it. And also, how long Wiccans could be expected to live. A part of me was thinking about Lennoxand then a nebulous guilt would surface until I remembered Lia's wordsone night only...

Lennox and I had forever. Or at least a forever. Lux explained: "We do not ordinarily outlive our counterparts, unless we have something left to do, some unfinished business.... Wizards, I mean..."

By counterparts he meant humansnon-magic human beings. Even with magic, people still fought wars. It made me sad.

Lia and Gaven came overand were just about to engage us in conversationwhen several things happened simultaneously.

Lux grabbed his Wiccan Mark and grimacedthe doors flew open and several people I recognized as members of Gaven's pack raced inand my head, my head went funny Shapes and sounds a.s.saulted meand a voice...

Ballard yelled and my eyes flew open. He was being held back by Locke and some of the other werewolves. Paolo stopped dancing with Vittoria to come over and rescue him. Suddenly, I was in a furstand.

Gaven and the werewolves were all six-nine. So I didn't see what had gotten Ballard's goat, or his werewolf or whatever. But Lux was really hurting. "I'm okay. I'm okay," he said to me, panting and out of breath. He stopped me when I tried to help him. "But I have to go," he said.

I tried to go with him but I was stuck in tall bodiesshunted to the sidewith Lia. Lux bade me goodnight and left.

Gaven was surrounded by werewolves.

"But they're okay?" he said. "No... I want no retaliation. Step up the protection detail. In fact, I want the Riders a.s.sembled. Tell the Team Leaders I wish to speak with them immediately. It can't be helped."

Lia whispered to me.

"Volt and Pouch were just attacked," she said. "They're being taken to my house."

"Volt and Pouch? You mean those two fourteen-year-old boys? Attacked by whom?" I said. "Are they okay?"

"Good question. We can't stay here. Gaven's orders. He wants us back in our dormitories. Come on," said Lia.

I followed after her. Ballard was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, Rome wasn't big enough for all of usall the Supernaturalseven for one night. "My idiot brother. Can't even control himself," said Lia. It was a while before I spoke with her again.

Chapter 17 Wizard Donuts.

Lia's snores filled the dormitory. The usual sounds were gone from the werewolf side of things. I realized half of them must be out and about.

On Gaven's orders. What had he said? That they were to ride around all night. But that couldn't mean... There weren't vampires making a problem in the city, were there? I couldn't sleep. Despite Lia's warnings or perhaps because of them my mind and body were both wide awake.

"Dear Diary," I wrote, but gave it up as a bad job. I was restless. My legs were itchy. I decided to go for a walk. The clock in our room said three-thirtyso I hadn't been asleep that long. Dreams at the Gathering were non-existent. Instead I was having waking dreamsvisions... of But no, it was impossible, I shook such inane notions out of my head; and because they were so warm, slipped on my Initiate's robes. I put my hood up. Now if I was interrupted, people would think it was just some strange specterlike Maria herselfnot a narcoleptic Neophyte who walks in her dreams.

Despite what anyone said, I didn't trust Maria. She gave off this vibe, like death. Maybe she was the one whispering in my head. I had to keep that to myself. I couldn't let it out that I wasthat I might be If people thought I was, they wouldn't want to be around me anymore, would they?

No, they would not.

Pretty soon I found myself standing in one of the hallways that led to the Star RoomI didn't know what had made me go there, but I had.

It had been put back to rights, the Star Room, like nothing had ever happenedthe holly and unused mistletoe and all of it had all been magicked into non-existence. Such efficiency scared the h.e.l.l out of me. I thought a party should be messy afterwards. Everyone drunk on sleeplessness and whatnot. It turned out someone else had come for messy mis-remembrances. Gaven himself. He stood there by the obelisk, running his fingers along itlooking at all of the figures. I startled him when he heard my footstepsapparently I was less disembodied than I thought. He turned suddenly; it looked like he was angry. His violence faded as fast as it had flared, however. "Halsey!" he said. "You shouldn't be here."

When I asked him why not, he said, "For lots of reasons." But then he smiled at me and went back to petting his sculpture. Gaven wore his biker jacket over his tux.

For a tricenarian, he was very hot.

Tricenarian. Gaven was losing his power...

"Ballard tells me you've been having funny dreams," he said.

He stood up and looked at me; I nodded.

"It isn't that he can't keep confidences. Ballard is a werewolf," said Gaven. "He is in my pack. He has an obligation to inform me if anyone is experiencing the Calling.

"Is that what this is? I havefunny dreams," I said. "I hearvoices almost." Immediately I had betrayed myself after swearing I would not tell anyone that I was crazy.

Gaven stuck his thumb back at the obelisk. "I have just been talking to Asher about this obelisk. Funny guy, Asher. But trustworthy, you know? Has things to say. Apparently this meeting place rests on my ancestors. This obelisk is their tomb. Their headstone, in point of fact."