It was precisely seven o'clock when Diesel dropped me off at Dazzle's. Clara was up to her elbows in bread dough, looking like she needed a vacation. Her hair was more eccentric than usual and shot with flour. Her expression was somewhere between a death in the family and royally pissed off. "Where the heck have you been?" Clara half shrieked. "I was kidnapped. " "That's no excuse, " she said. "You could at least call. " I hung my sweatshirt on a hook by the door and buttoned myself into a clean chef coat. "I don't have a cell phone. And anyway, I was unconscious a lot of the time. " Clara pushed her hair back with her hand, and a glob of bread dough stuck in the hair just above her ear. "I was really worried. Ten more minutes, and I was going to start calling hospitals. How could you get kidnapped? Where was Diesel? I thought he was supposed to be protecting you. " "My father unexpectedly showed up last night, and there was no way I could explain Diesel without creating a family crisis. So I kicked Diesel out. I guess it was a dumb thing to do, because Steven Hatchet was waiting for me when I opened the door to come to work this morning. " "Who's Steven Hatchet?" "He's the guy who sliced my arm. " "You said it was a freak accident with your carving knife. " I measured out the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder for the first batch of cupcakes. "I fibbed. " Clara stopped working and looked at me. "I'm starting to get a bad feeling. " "Steven Hatchet supposedly is an Unmentionable. And supposedly, we're the only two people on the planet who have the ability to find certain empowered objects. " "The SALIGIA Stones. " "Yes. Unfortunately, Hatchet is a complete psycho nutcase who thinks he's living in the Middle Ages. And now, his whole life is centered around impressing Wulf. He calls him his liege life is centered around impressing Wulf. He calls him his liege lord. And it gets even better, because Hatchet is an authority on toxins and torture. " "Cripes, " Clara said. I dumped butter, milk, the flour mixture, and vanilla into the big mixer and turned it on. "Anyway, Hatchet snatched me and brought me to Wulf's condo. " Clara had both hands flat on the island, leaning toward me, eyes wide. "You were in his condo? Omigosh, what was it like?" "It was in a high-rise on the park in Boston. Beautifully decorated. Old Masters type art on the walls. They looked authentic, but what do I know. " "What about his bedroom and his kitchen? Does he cook?" "I only saw the living room. " Thank goodness. I whipped up egg whites, added them to the rest of the batter, and filled the cupcake tins. I shoved the tins into the oven and started another batch of cupcakes. A half hour later, I pulled the cupcakes out of the oven and set them on a rack at my workstation. Clara came over and looked at them with me. "What are they?" Clara wanted to know. "Cupcakes. " "They don't look like cupcakes. They're all flat and lumpy. " "I don't get it. My cupcakes are always perfect. I've been making cupcakes for as long as I can remember, and I've never had this happen. " "Maybe there's something wrong with the oven. Maybe you forgot the baking powder. " "I have a second batch baking in the lower oven. " We went to the oven and looked in. Disaster. My chocolate cupcakes were oozing over their wrappers and dripping onto the oven floor. "This is horrible, " I said. "How could this be happening?" Clara's face went pale. "You've lost it. " "Lost what?" "Your ability to make Unmentionably superior cupcakes. " "That's ridiculous. It was the flour or something. " "It happened to me, " Clara said. "I never talk about it, but I'm going to tell you because you have to know. I used to be an Unmentionable. I come from a long line of Unmentionables. " "Get out!" "There was this guy I was dating after my first divorce, " Clara said. "He was really nice, and one thing led to another, and next thing, we spent the night together. And when I woke up in the morning, I was a Normal. " "Are you serious? What was your ability?" "Cookies. I still make cookies, and they're okay, but I used to make cookies that were perfect. And my cookies made people happy. " "They still make people happy. " "It's not the same. Everyone who bit into one of my Unmentionable cookies smiled. And then there was the other thing, " she said. "There was more?" "If I really concentrated, I could bend a spoon just by looking at it. " at it. " "Jeez. " "I know it's a parlor trick, but I really enjoyed it. The cookies I can manage, because I can still make decent cookies, but I feel bad about losing the spoon bending. " Some of the color returned to Clara's cheeks. "It was great at a dinner party. All of a sudden, someone's spoon would curl up, and everyone would freak out. " "No one knew it was you?" "Some might have suspected. It was known that the Dazzles weren't all normal. Mostly, there were all sorts of wrong rumors about our abilities. Like flying and casting spells. The truth is, most Unmentionable abilities are pretty mundane. " I plucked one of the misshapen cupcakes out of the pan. "I never knew I had help making cupcakes. I just always figured I was really good at it. A natural ability. " "You were right about the natural ability, " Clara said. "So how did I lose it?" "I suppose you lost it the same way I did. You had sex with another Unmentionable. Did you sleep with Diesel last night?" "No. I haven't slept with Diesel at all. At least, not that way. " Clara bit into her lower lip. "Wulf?" she whispered. "Not that I remember. " "That's not a definite no. " I put my hand to the island to steady myself. "I was unconscious for some of the time. " Clara fanned me with a kitchen towel. "You don't look good. " I slid down the side of the island and sat hard on the floor, legs out. "I don't feel good. " "Is there any other possibility?" "Hatchet. " I leaned forward, head between my knees, took a bunch of deep breaths, and tried to wrap my mind around the horrible possibilities. "The thing is, I can't imagine either of them doing it. " "You don't think they're capable?" "I think they're both capable . . . Just not under these circumstances. Hatchet is impulsive, but I can't see him messing with a woman he thought belonged to his liege. And Wulf wants me to find the fourth charm. " Clara pulled me to my feet, and we looked at the cupcakes. "Cupcakes don't lie, " Clara said. My emotions were mixed. The thought that I might have been violated while I was unconscious made my stomach sick. The possibility that I might have lost my Unmentionableness (if in fact I ever possessed it) wasn't completely disappointing. The scary people would leave me alone, and I could return to a normal life of mortgage payments and cupcake making. Okay, so maybe my cupcakes wouldn't be spectacular, but I could learn to make them perfectly enjoyable. I mean, anyone can learn to make a cupcake, right? "Are there any telltale signs of . . . You know?" Clara asked. "Is your underwear on backwards?" I checked around. Everything seemed to be where it was supposed to be. "I'm going to make another batch of cupcakes, " I told her. "And I'm going to follow the recipe and concentrate. "