"I didn't think you were pregnant," Melissa said immediately, and then relaxed with a sigh of relief. "But I'm glad you're not. I might have had to bring out the Motherly Wrath on your new boyfriend, and I rather liked him. I would have preferred not breaking him with my Motherly Wrath."

She smiled as gently and encouragingly as she could manage at Stephanie, but she still couldn't keep the worried wrinkle off her brow. Because she was worried. Because if Stephanie wasn't pregnant, engaged or ill, then what could be making Melissa's cool, collected daughter so nervous? What was this about the cult?

Melissa knew about the cult. Des had told her a long time ago, about the cult his grandfather had been part of, the one he was sure Gordon had joined too. That was the only time they'd ever talked about it, because it had been the first time she'd seen him absolutely serious and absolutely terrified this might be the thing to drive her away. That his family was a little ... eccentric. Eccentric enough to believe in magic. She'd never mentioned it to him, but during that conversation she'd seen a wistfulness in his eyes. A wish that he could believe too.

Something cold slid through Melissa's chest and down into her gut. "Stephanie, are you part of Gordon's cult?"