Diana looked confused. Her cheeks got even pinker. "I don't... I mean..."
"If you're not the Wild Power, you're not the Witch Child," Keller went on ruthlessly. "And you know that Galen has to promise himself to the Witch Child."
Iliana was breathing quickly now. She gulped and stared at the window. She bit her lip. She really is in love with him, Keller thought. And she knows it.
"Just something to keep in mind," she said, and went out the door.
"Did you get any info on the license plate?"
Nissa shook her head. "Not yet. They'll call us when they have anything. And a courier brought this." She handed Keller a box. It was the size of a shirt box but very sturdy.
"The scrolls?"
"I think so. There are wards on it, so we have to get Winnie to open it."
They had a chance after breakfast. Mrs. Dominick took the baby and went out shopping. Keller didn't worry too much about her. Just as Jaime was now being watched by Circle Daybreak agents, any members of Iliana's family who left the safety of the wards would be followed for their own protection.
They sat around the kitchen table-except for Iliana, who refused to join them and sat in the family room in front of the TV. She had a box of tissues, and every few minutes she would apply one to her nose. "Before you open that," Keller said to Winnie, "how are the wards around the house?"
"They're fine. Intact and strong. I don't think anybody's even tried to mess with them." Galen said, "I wonder why."
Keller looked at him quickly. It was just what she had been wondering herself. "Maybe it has something to do with what happened yesterday. And that's the other thing I want to talk about. I want to hear everybody's opinions. Who was in that car-Night Person or human? Why did they try to run over Jaime? And what are we going to do about it?"
"You go first," Winnie said. "I think you had the best view of it."
"Well, I wasn't the only one," Keller said. "There was someone else beside me." She looked toward the living room. Iliana made a show of ignoring her completely.
Keller turned back. "But anyway, simplest first Let's say the car was from the Night World. They cruised down the street in front of the school once before coming back. It's perfectly possible that they saw Iliana standing at the window. Maybe they were trying to determine for sure that she was the Wild Power. If she'd stopped the car, they'd have had solid proof." "On the other hand," Nissa said, "they must be pretty sure she's the Wild Power. After all, it's really beyond question." She was looking earnestly at Keller, but she spoke loudly enough for Iliana to hear everything distinctly. Keller smiled with her eyes. "True. Okay, more ideas. Winnie."
"Uh-night." Winnie sat up straighter. "The car was from the Night World, and they weren't actually trying to run over Jaime. They were going to snatch her because they somehow knew she'd been with us, and they figured she might have some information they could use."
"Nice try," Keller said. "But you were over by the door. You didn't see the way that car was driving. No way they were planning to grab her."
"I agree," Galen said. "They were going too fast, and they were heading right for her. They meant to kill."
Winnie dropped her chin into her hands. "Oh, well, fine. It was just an idea."
'It brings up something interesting, though," Nissa said thoughtfully. "What if the car was from the Night World, and they knew Iliana was watching, but they weren't trying to get her to demonstrate her power?
What if they were just trying to intimidate her? Show what they were capable of, by lolling her friend right in front of her eyes? If they knew how close she and Jaime were-"
"How?" Keller interrupted.
"Lots of ways," Nissa said promptly. "If they haven't snooped around that high school and talked to other kids, their intelligence system is worse than I think. Ill go farther. If they don't know that Jaime was in that music room with us yesterday at lunch, they ought to turn in their spy badges."
'If that's true, then maybe it's even simpler than we think," Galen said. "The law says that any human who finds out about us has to die. Maybe the car was from the Night World, and they didn't know that Iliana was watching-or they didn't care. They thought Jaime knew the secret, and they just wanted to carry out a good, old-fashioned Night World execution."
"And maybe the car wasn't from the Night World!" Iliana yelled suddenly, jumping off the family room couch. She wasn't even pretending not to listen anymore, Keller noted. "Did any of you ever think of that? Maybe the car just belonged to some crazed juvenile delinquents and it's all a massive coincidence! Well? Did you think of that?" She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at all of them. The effect was somewhat diluted because she was wearing a frilly nightgown with a flannel robe over it and slippers with teddy bear heads on them.
Keller stood up, too. She wanted to be patient and make the most of this opportunity. But she never seemed to have much control where Iliana was concerned.
"We've thought of it. Circle Daybreak is trying to check on it-whether the car's registered to a human or a Night Person. But you're asking for a lot of coincidence, aren't you? How often do people deliberately run each other over in this town? What are the chances that you just happened to be watching when one of them did it?"
She felt Galen nudge her ankle with his foot. With an effort, she shut up.
"Why don't you come over here and talk with us about it?" he said to Iliana in his gentle way. "Even if you're not the Wild Power, you're still involved. You know a lot about what's been going on, and you've got a good mind. We need all the help we can get."