"This place at our 'special gatherings' table is set for Lorrie Kordell. We ask you to visit us, Lorrie, and we honor your memory in hopes you will join us."

We passed the tissue box around, then filled our own plates and sat at the dinette in the kitchen. "Can I sit in the dining room with Mom?"

"Of course," I said.

Beverley picked up her plate.

"Do you want us to join you?"

She turned back, smiling despite the tears on her cheeks. "Yeah. We'd like that."

After dinner, Beverley went upstairs to get her costume on.

Nana said, "She's strong, that girl."

"I know." I admired her.

"As strong as you were as a girl." Nana left to go and help Beverley.

By the time I had the kitchen cleaned up—except for Lorrie's plate, which would sit overnight—I heard them at the top of the steps, singing a song from the movie we'd just watched. Nana's singing voice was a raspy, gravelling undertone to Beverley's breathy falsetto.

Hurrying down the hallway, I grabbed the digital camera and started taking pictures as they descended. Beverley was a lovely mermaid of green and gold with a dozen strands of Mardi-Gras beads around her neck. It reminded me of Aquula's pearls. I wondered what Beverley would think if she ever met Aquula.

"You look fantastic!" I said.

"You think?"

"Absolutely!"

Suddenly, Nana stumbled on the last step.

Lunging forward, I caught her under the arm and kept her on her feet. I didn't even drop the camera.

"Oh my," she said, hand over her heart.

"Are you okay?"

"My knee. It just gave out."

"To the couch," I said, not fully releasing her as I helped her get there and sit.

Wide-eyed, Beverley asked, "Wow, Seph. That was fast."

"And lucky for me," Nana said.

I said, "It's time to put the crystal away, Nana."

She wouldn't meet my eyes, so I knew she'd been peeking into it.

Not wanting to take a chance she might end up with a broken hip or worse, I left her and went up to her room. Taking her crystal from the dresser, stand and all, I placed it in a shoebox on the top shelf of my closet.

As I returned to Nana, I noticed movement in the dining room. Beverley's hand was curled on the top of the chair-back, her head tipped as if she were laying her head on someone's shoulder. "I miss you so much," I heard her whisper.

"The contractors will be here to give me quotes over the next few days. Let's keep your trips on the stairs to a minimum until we can get the addition done for you, okay?"

Not one to appreciate being made to feel old or feeble in any way, Nana simply nodded.

Beverley joined us. "Can you still take me to Lily's party?"

"You bet I can," Nana said and stood, resolve hardening her features.

It was six forty-five and as I watched them go, I noted that the sun had set, and that the sky was a beautiful shade of blue and growing ever darker. I heard rustling in the corn, but again, the stalks were too thick to see the deer.

Inside, I carried my box from Menessos up to the bedroom. Now I had to shower, get ready, and do something with my hair that would work with a tie-on mask.

With a soft towel wrapped around my now-clean body, and my blow-dried hair wrapped around hot rollers, I studied my costume. The clear shoe box, with pointy-toed black stilettos, made me frown. Cinderella's shoes weren't quite this high-heeled, and she'd run out of one on the steps. My feet wouldn't know how to function in that position. I'd likely fall and break my neck before I ever made it near the stairs. Those shoes were going to miss the Ball and take up residence in the back of my closet.

The jewelry boxes, however, did not make me frown.

My fingers caressed the soft, soft velvet of the costume before I lifted it by the shoulders. The skirt slid away, and I discovered that the bell-sleeved bodice was a separate piece. The sleeves were an amazing vibrant copper color, the cuffs midnight black. The bodice portion was also black, except for the center front portion with a long diamond of copper there.

Holding it up revealed that the bodice was short enough to leave quite a bit of midriff exposed once it was laced up the back. Elaborate black and gold embroidery surrounded the brassy grommets that the silk cording zigzagged through. This was never going to get tied properly with me being alone. I'd have to do my best; maybe Lydia would adjust it for me at the Covenstead. Still, I loved the bell sleeves, though highly impractical, bearing a larger version of the elaborate hand-stitched embroidery all along the draping cuff.

I set it aside. The sleeves would get in the way of putting on the skirt.

Taking up the skirt, my examination of it revealed it was short in the front with two daring slits, and the back had flowing length. All of it was lined with a glossy silk.

I was not wearing that skirt.

Turning to my closet, eyes scouring everything, I came up with a pair of black velvet, narrow-leg pants. Paired with my low-heeled leather boots, the modified ensemble might work.

Putting the «bottom» items on first, I saved fighting with the bodice for last. I ended up with it knotted tight and my breasts accentuated more than I preferred, but it was knotted. I'd require help to undo it. I stood back and checked myself in the mirror.

A belt.

I needed a belt. Not that the pants were falling, they weren't. But something shiny to break up the darkness of the velvet. Again to the closet. Nothing. Then I remembered something I'd come across in helping Nana unpack. Going across the hall, that unsettled feeling sent me back for the protrepticus from my jeans pocket. Able to move safely to Nana's closet, I found her fancy copper scarf of sheer material with tassels on the ends was perfect.

It matched the copper velvet, so I tied it around my waist, angled it on one hip. In my room, I took out a black pouch I used at Renaissance Faires when I read Tarot, tied it to the scarf, and slipped the protrepticus inside.

Standing again before the mirror, this time I was satisfied. It was like half of me was pirate and half of me was Guinevere.

Guinevere. To Menessos's Arthur? Not.

After arranging my hair much as I had for the Rock Hall showcase and applying a little makeup (I did line my eyes a little heavier because of the mask), I returned to the jewelry box. I lifted the heavy choker of triple-row onyx beads interspersed with nickel-sized rounds of bright topaz. The weight of it was mostly in the huge piece that hung from the front center of the choker and rested on my sternum. A large topaz set in gold, surrounded by onyx. A matching headpiece fit into my hair like a web of jewels glittering there. A topaz from it hung in the middle of my forehead.

After adding the rings and rubbing at the scrapes still on my right-hand knuckles, I slid the matching bracelets of burnished gold and flat, wide pieces of onyx onto my wrists, and was on my way, mask in hand.

My arrival was a little past fashionably late; the doors had opened at eight and it was now just before nine o'clock. The ritual wasn't going to start until midnight. Still, the Covenstead parking lot was nearly full. The two media vans on the lot didn't surprise me.

I flipped down the illuminated vanity mirror on the visor and put on the mask. It was the fabric tie-on kind, made of silk, and covered my face from nose to brow. The mask was adorned with small copper sequins and glitter across the brow, and thin lacework and a row of tiny black beads looped down on my cheeks. It was lightweight and not as uncomfortable as I had expected.

I added a stroke of coppery lipstick to my lips, replaced the visor, and exited the car. Signs indicated that admittance was through the north doors only.

This was an annual affair, open to the public so the curious could observe what witches do in their rituals. As I understood it, Vivian had used her flair for the dramatic and people had come to expect a show. I wondered what Hunter had come up with—it was clear the sales were good, which meant expectations would be high. That was great, as ticket sales were the coven's major fundraiser. Lydia had sent me a complimentary ticket in the mail. As I approached the north doors I slipped it from the Tarot pouch.