I hadn’t realized not having other family had left such a hole in her existence. Unfortunately for her, Dana was not going to be the answer to this apparent lack. Just as soon as I could get Dana settled down and thinking straight, she was heading back to northern Illinois or one of the other safe camps. Maybe realizing she didn’t have to go back to Alcippe would be enough to get her on the road.

She said she was having a boy but, according to what everyone had told me, in the millennia since Ares and Otrera had hooked up and the first Amazon was born, I was the only one who’d had an unwaverable need to raise a male child myself.

Why would Dana be the second? And if she was, it didn’t really involve me or my family, did it?

“Actually, I’m moving to Madison,” Dana announced, her fingers wrapped around a mass of pie dough, like a bride holding a bouquet.

A squeal erupted from Harmony.

Apparently urged on by my daughter’s enthusiastic response, Dana continued, “And I’m having a baby!”

“Oh.” Harmony turned, eyes huge in her face, and stared at me. I grabbed a granola bar from a drawer and shoved it into her hand.

“Better get to school.”

“But the bus-”

“Walk slow.” With a shove, I sent her on her way.

With Harmony safely on her way, I turned back to a confused-looking Dana.

“Did I…?” Dana started.

“In the human world teens having babies, especially unmarried teens, is not reason to celebrate.”

“But I’m…”

“I know-twenty-two.” I shoved my fingers into my hair.

Dana dropped the pie dough and beat a fast retreat from the room, brushing past an intrigued-looking Bubbe on her way.

Crap, all over again.

Without pausing to explain, I rushed after the upset hearth-keeper. She’d swung left and disappeared inside the door to one of the many rooms we didn’t actually use for anything besides storing dust.

I followed her.

She was standing next to the window, her palm pressed against the glass and loud sobs lifting her breasts.

“Dana.” I took a step in.

She turned further toward the outside view, hiding her face.

“I didn’t mean…it’s just…” I sucked at this. “Harmony doesn’t know we’re Amazons,” I finally blurted.

That got her attention. Her face jerked toward me. “She doesn’t? How can’t she know she’s an Amazon? It’s who she is.”

A throb was beginning in the area of my left temple. I lay two fingers against the spot. “She’s not an Amazon; she’s Harmony.”

Dana blinked, her blue eyes clouding with confusion. “But isn’t she your-”

“I mean, she is an Amazon, but I didn’t raise her as one and she doesn’t know about the Amazons, and I want her to be herself first.” Why did this all make a lot more sense when I said it to myself or my argumentative mother and grandmother? Saying it to Dana’s sweet, bewildered stare made it all sound…idiotic.

“She doesn’t know what she is? She hasn’t trained? Or apprenticed?”

Horror now. Great.

“No. I mean, there isn’t any reason…girls here…” I was blathering. Finally, I gave it up and grabbed Dana by the hand instead. “The point is, you can’t just say things around Harmony that you might back at camp.”

“But I am pregnant.”

I sighed.

“And I’m not giving him up. Alcippe wants me to, but I’m not. You understand that, right? You know how I feel?” Her hand shook in mine, as if her entire body was shaking with barely contained emotion.

“Of course I do, but-”

“I know it’s a lot to ask, and I just met you, but all the Amazons know who you are and what you did. A bunch of us always said if this”-she looked down at her stomach-“happened to us, we’d be brave like you. That we wouldn’t let anyone take our baby from us-even if he was a boy.

“But I’m not strong. Not like you. If you send me back there, I’ll give in. I know I will, and I’ll hate myself for the rest of my life.” Her shoulders heaved in a display more filled with drama than what I’d seen come out of Harmony in her entire fourteen years of life.

That was when I knew I was in trouble.

Chapter Sixteen

While Dana finished her pie, Mother agreed to help me carry her bags upstairs.

“Which room did you give her?” Mother asked.

“The one by yours.” I jerked a bag out of the compact’s rear seat and hurled it toward my loving parent.

“When’s the baby due?”

“Eight months give or take, and before you ask, no, I’m not switching with you. We have thick walls. You’ll be fine.”

Mother grunted, and I didn’t think it was from the weight of the duffel.

She looped her arm through the handles of three more bags. “Does Alcippe know?”

“That she’s pregnant? Yes. That she’s here?” I shrugged.

Mother shot me a look. “She isn’t going to like it.”

“See, a silver lining already.” I stacked another duffel onto Mother’s pile and started chugging up the sidewalk toward the front door. Mother passed me in two strides. I did a jog step to catch up, but only managed to drop two of the duffels I was attempting to warrior-handle onto the ground.

“What’s up?” Peter scooped up the bags and tucked one under each arm.

I thought about going all Amazon and insisting he hand over the bags, but in the interest of being more broad-minded, thought better of it. “There are more in the car.” I jerked my head back toward where the compact sat-the hatchback wide open.

As I did, my newest employee, Nick, wheeled into view on a skateboard. In a graphic T-shirt and torn jeans he looked a lot less like the clean-cut boy I remembered and a lot more like trouble.

I swallowed the thought. Same kid, different clothes.

He stopped by Dana’s car, glanced from it to Peter and me and our loaded-down arms. I dropped my bags at Peter’s feet, hoping he’d pick up my clue-and the bags.

“Nick, you’re earlier than I thought you’d be.”

He flipped the board up and grabbed it by the tip. “Sorry, I have somewhere I need to be.”

“You aren’t staying?”

He shook his head. His attention wandered past me. I turned, thinking Mother had reappeared, but there was no one there.

“You look busy,” he said.

“We are.” Again I looked at Peter, but he hadn’t moved, and seemed fascinated by my conversation with Nick. “But you’ll need to do some paperwork.”

“Sure, not a problem. I’ll stop by later.” Nick’s gaze was on Peter now.

Realizing I had committed some kind of etiquette faux pas, I introduced them. Neither jumped forward to greet the other. They just stood there, each sizing the other up, like two dogs whose paths had crossed in a neutral field. Neither declaring the territory, but neither backing off either.

I rolled my eyes and retrieved the bags I’d dropped. Nick wheeled off, and I didn’t bother to turn around to watch him leave, or to see if Peter was following me as I continued down the sidewalk.

I didn’t get far; Pisto in all her golden glory stepped out of the cafeteria door. Her gaze went first to Peter, then the car, then locked onto me. “Is that Dana’s car?”

“Could be.” I kept walking. There was something about Pisto’s stance I didn’t like. That was a lie. There was something about Pisto I didn’t like.

She stepped in front of me. “Is it?”

I heaved out a breath. Why did this have to be so hard? “You’re in my way.”

She crossed her arms under her chest. “What’s she doing here? And where are you going with those bags?”

I considered not answering again, because, seriously, she was getting on my last nerve, but again, in the interest of having a broader mind…“You’d need to ask her. And upstairs.” This time I shoved my way past her. The shocked look on her face as I bumped her from the sidewalk was beyond rewarding.

Unfortunately, the feeling only lasted about two seconds-the time it took for her to drop her hand on my shoulder and pull me back.