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awkward attempt at a term of endearment? “Go? Where? Anyway, I can’t go. I’ve got school tomorrow.”
    From the other room, Mom shouted, “Who is it? Who’s at the door?” I could hear her coming down the hall.
    The man—Ramses, was it?—seemed to shrink back at the sound of Mom’s voice, but he stood his ground. “Ana, today is your birthday, yes?”
    I nodded mutely, wondering how this stranger knew. Could he really be my father?
    “Sixteen on the sixteenth,” he continued, his voice straining a bit. “You must forget school, forget this life. Come with me.”
    Luke, I am your father.
    I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
    Mom’s voice was closer now. “Ana? Who is that?”
    Ignoring Mom for the moment, I continued to stare at the stranger in wonderment. “Go with you? Dude, I don’t even know you,” I said.
    “A great tragedy,” Ramses agreed. He put his hand to his heart and bowed his head slightly. “And, believe me, not of my choosing. But I have been with you from the beginning, my child. I am your kin.”
    Mom came into the hallway, saw the man, and shrieked, “Back to hell with you, demon!”
    Ramses straightened himself up as best he could, given that he was dripping blood onto the hall carpeting, and said, “Amelia, you have denied our child her birthright. This violates the treaty. Anastasija should know the truth.”
    Yeah, this whole encounter was deeply confusing. A little explanation would go a long way. I was about to tell Mom so when I felt the atmosphere shift. Magic was afoot. “Wait, Mom,” I started, but Mom interrupted.
    “North, south, east, west, spiderweb shall bind him best—,” Mom began intoning. I could feel power begin to swirl. The magazines and mail piled on the front-hall table began to flutter expectantly. The porch light flashed on a fluff of dust—a spider’s web?—spinning through the air.
    Now, why couldn’t I do stuff like that?
    Ramses took a step into the house, but raised his hands as though in surrender. His eyes nervously followed the speck of fluff as it began to encircle him, a thin, white thread unraveling and growing impossibly long with each turn.
    “Now, no need for any of this,” he said. “Let me take the girl with me.”
    “Take her? Never! You have no right to lay any claim now, not after all this time.” Mom broke from the spell to glare at him. The spiderweb net wobbled momentarily, as though the wind might abandon it.
    “But I do, and you know it.” Ramses’ tone was strong, clear, and just a little fierce. “The time has come. The princess must return to her kingdom.”
    He didn’t really just say that, did he? Was the guy insane? I felt a little faint.
    Mom, however, seemed to be taking it seriously. She raised her hands, palms out. “East, west, north, south,” she continued. “Hold his limbs and shut his mouth.”
    Wait, was Mom really casting a rhyming spell? Did those really work? I always thought that was another one of those in-jokes among witches to fool the uninitiated. Maybe I really had hexed Thompson with the rhyme about sex.
    A sudden burst of wind rushed through the hall. The mail rushed out into the street, and my hair flapped wildly. The spiderweb whirled furiously, spitting out thread as it circled him faster and faster. Ramses batted at it as it tightened around his arms and legs. The more he swatted, the more entangled he became. His eyes searched me out with an imploring look, asking for my aid. But what could I do? I didn’t even know if I wanted to help him, and if I did, I couldn’t fight Mom’s magic. I had none of my own. Anyway . . . he was just a demented stranger . . . right?
    Returning his attention to Mom, he said, “You disrespect both our clans with this action, Amelia. If I must, I will send my army.”
    I turned, hoping to buy a clue about what he was talking about from Mom, but her expression had darkened in a way I’d never