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grew up learning how to program—and hack—computers. So one day a bunch of Men in Black show up at the house and we all get dragged off to jail. That was the last time I ever saw my parents. Nobody would tell me anything about what was happening and meanwhile, I’m sitting in Juvie—fourteen, no relatives, you do the math. So this slick Oakhurst creep shows up and says my mom sent him and I get to come live at Oakhurst until the whole legal thing is settled. My mom knew some weird people, so it seemed almost reasonable—and anyway, I thought any place would be better than Juvenile Hall, right? So I get to Oakhurst, find out—surprise!—I’m a Teen Witch, and about a month later I get called into Mordred’s office and he tells me my parents want me to stay at Oakhurst where I’ll be safe.” She broke off, staring silently into space for a moment before picking up the spatula and starting to flip the eggs.
    “Oakhurst had a computer center even back then, and once I’d settled in, I started phreaking the line to dial out to my old BBSs. When I talked to people, they didn’t believe I was me—everyone’d heard my mom, my dad, and me were all dead. And I knew it was true, because my parents would have posted if they were alive, and they didn’t.” She shrugged. “I figured ‘Doctor Ambrosius’ just didn’t tell me the truth because he was afraid I’d flip out. I spent a lot of time online—there wasn’t any kind of firewall or anything back then; this was the early nineties, remember—and that’s where I met Merlin. I thought he was just another hacker, but he was nice. After I got my other memories back, I was pretty desperate—the ‘problem’ kids were going missing and I was pretty sure I was on the list. He told me how to get out of Oakhurst without being grabbed by the Wild Hunt, and where to find him. And here we are. Breakfast’s ready.”
    *   *   *
    “So you’ve been living underground all this time?” Addie asked, when they were settled in the monitor room with their food.
    “Merlin helped me papertrip myself,” Vivian said. “Including the academic credentials I needed to get work—at least, once I looked old enough to have been to college. But once I try to blow the whistle on Oakhurst, the first thing the Shadow Knights are going to do is drag up the ancient history and convince the Feds I’m a cyber-terrorist.”
    “If they can find you,” Burke said.
    “They would,” Vivian said darkly. “And that means they’d find you, too. So we’ll try this Merlin’s way first.”
    “Which is what, exactly?” Loch asked. “Finding these ‘secret weapons’ Merlin’s hidden so carefully even he can’t find them?”
    “If he knew where they were—or for that matter, if they stayed in the same place for very long—anybody with Scrying Gift could locate them eventually. Since they can’t, we’re hoping Mordred thinks they’re lost.”
    “But what are they? And how do they work?” Spirit could hardly believe she was asking these questions, but what other choices did they have? And what makes you and Merlin so sure the four of us can use them?
    “They’re the Four Hallows of Britain: the Sword, the Shield, the Cauldron—or Cup—and the Lance. Spear, you’d say. The Cup heals anything placed in it, and can provide whatever you most need—”
    “Must be a pretty big cup,” Loch muttered. Vivian shot him a poisonous look.
    “—the Sword confers victory on the wielder, the Lance can pierce any object it’s cast at—and the Shield cannot be breached by spell or by weapon. Merlin managed to get them to America, but without their proper guardians, they radiate enough magic to be instantly perceptible to Mordred. So Merlin hid them. Or, more precisely, told them to hide themselves. Find them, and you’re all set.”
    “You aren’t telling us everything,” Spirit said after a moment.
    Vivian looked at her with an expression of grudging respect. “I’m telling