Chapter 10
Diana slept better than she had in days. The security of being tucked between the two men she loved, knowing they loved her too, and that they were all protected by the strongest magic, allowed her to shut herself down all the way.
Until last night she hadn’t realized how on edge she’d been.
Here in this special place, with the morning air fresh and crisp, Diana knew she’d returned to her usual, confident self. Rick and Ed’s attack had affected her more than she’d realized, more than she’d wanted to admit. The stress of Logan’s battle with Gregor had only added to her tension.
She, Logan, and Cameron were just finishing a hike through the woods. They’d kept within the bounds of the property—and magical protection—enjoying the pretty, early autumn day. Cameron shared some of his experiences working for Maria’s Quest not only in Indonesia but also in South America.
“It’s been the biggest challenge, knowing there’s a lot I can do because of my magic, yet understanding I can’t do it all. There are some things people have to do for themselves.”
“It was a shock to all three of us when we got here and realized, despite your television programs and movies, that most people either don’t believe in magic or believe those possessed of it are evil.”
“Given the Fortunas as an example, that’s a belief that’s not difficult to understand,” Cameron said.
“Odd, but I’d never heard any whispers of there being…we’ll use their term, warlocks, for lack of a better one.” Logan held her left hand and Cameron her right as they made their way back to the cabin. “I’d heard of Fortuna International, of course. But the only chatter about the company was that they were doing well and had done well even through the downturn of 2008.”
“I suppose we should be grateful they kept their powers on the down low,” Diana said.
They broke through the trees into the glen that cradled the cabin.
“We need a gazebo here,” Logan said. “It would be a nice place to sit. There’s enough room to make one big enough for us all.”
“That would stop us from having to conjure furniture every time we have a meeting.” Diana grinned. “Speaking of which, we should check in with everyone and arrange a meeting for later so we can tell the others what happened yesterday.”
“Yes, we should.” Cameron brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “Let’s have a division of labor, here. You contact your sisters, I’ll go speak to Mother, and Logan can build the gazebo.”
“You realize, of course, if anyone overheard that so-called division of labor, they’d pity me.”
“Well now.” Cameron punched his brother in the arm. “Better that you be pitied for being overworked than pitied for being dead by misadventure—aka stupidity.”
Logan rubbed his arm. “You’re not going to let that go, are you?”
“Not anytime soon, no.”
Diana could only chuckle at the display of brotherly camaraderie.
Logan shook his head then turned to look at the spot he’d pointed out for the gazebo. Cameron walked over to him, and she guessed he was going to give his brother a hand with it despite his “division of labor” speech.
Diana tuned out the men and focused inward. She and Cheri and Meghan had been connected since childhood, and that connection had only strengthened since they’d come to this realm. In the beginning, they’d needed each other almost desperately as they learned to cope with their new reality.
Her sisters would have been aware that something had happened last night, but they wouldn’t know what, exactly. They met her in mind space and, after checking with their husbands, agreed to meet at the cabin after supper.
Diana turned back to her men. The gazebo was finished, and furnished, and the men were sitting inside, with a mug of coffee waiting for her.
“I’ll be right back.” Cameron kissed her and then vanished.
“Mom prefers face-to-face as opposed to mind space.” Logan grinned. “I think that’s because, when we were younger, we used to try and find out what she was thinking when we were there.”
“I used to try and do the same thing, until I learned better.” Diana grinned. “I have a feeling that, as teenagers, the two of you were a handful.” She took a sip of her really good coffee, prepared just the way she liked it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Cam and I were model sons.”
“Mmm. But models for what, that’s the question.”
Barely a minute later, Cam returned, a wide grin on his face.
“Da was home from his guest lecture trip. They were having tea, and Mother was updating him on your adventure yesterday, Logan, when I arrived, and, no, I didn’t tell her about it.” He rubbed his hands together.
“Fuck. It never even occurred to me Mom would know all about that, but of course she would.” Logan looked at Diana. “Mom always knew whenever I used my magic.”
“She didn’t seem too happy about it, let me tell you. And you know what happens when Mom’s not happy.”
“Oh, man. I’m in for it.”
“You may be because now Da wants to come tonight, too.”
Diana chuckled then leaned over and placed a kiss on Logan’s lips. “I think your parents are both just worried about you and want to do whatever they can to help.”
“There is that, but Dad will definitely let me know he’s not happy I upset my mom.”
“No doubt. The same way he let me know Mother was very glad I decided to accept an assignment with Maria’s Quest here in the States.”
“Were you in dangerous situations overseas?” Diana knew that, sometimes, aid workers were kidnapped or even killed while they tried to help others. It was just one of the many facets of life here she found completely bewildering.
“Of course. And even though I have a definite edge when it comes to taking care of myself over most, I’m not bulletproof, a fact that my father would remind me of on a regular basis.”
“You don’t seem to have minded those fatherly lectures.”
“No, I didn’t, love, because I understood them.” Cameron gave a shrug and a smile that put her in mind of the boy he must have been when he was younger. “One thing about getting out into the world and going where most people won’t is you see all kinds of different ways of life. I’ve met people who’ve suffered unimaginable losses—a young mother whose husband and children were all dead, people who’ve lost every material thing they ever possessed. It didn’t take me long to understand these realities are where parents’ worst nightmares come from.”
* * * *
Logan’s stepfather, Alistair Gilbert, had only to give him a look. Logan spread his hands. “I got in over my head, but my intentions were good.”
Though the man didn’t look happy, he nodded. “A man will risk much to protect his loved ones. I know how that is.”
Logan blinked. That’s not what I expected him to say at all.
“So now, son, let’s see what can be done to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
“I’m all for that.” He caught the way his father looked at Diana. Logan could feel the emotion coming from Alistair Gilbert. The man had not known her more than a handful of minutes, yet in his heart, she was already his daughter.
Logan’s gaze connected with Cameron’s. His brother had seen it too. He hadn’t had any doubts, but he was very pleased both his parents approved of and loved their woman.
Soon, everyone was present. They all sat within the gazebo, which was now bathed in gentle light and heated just a bit to keep the evening chill at bay.
“It took a bit of work, but we were able to get some more information on Gregor Fortuna.” Ryan Jones opened the laptop he’d brought with him. He quickly brought up his notes. “The family emigrated from Scotland to Italy in the mid-nineteenth century. Their name there had been Fergus. Gregor and his brothers—all seven of them—were born in Palermo. They were four sets of twins, and, yes, Gregor was the oldest of the last set.” He
’d looked at Cynthia when he reported that, as she’d asked specifically about his birth order last time. “He and his twin, Remis, moved here to the United States when they were just twenty-one. That was in 1968. They founded Fortuna International, an import/export business. For the next several years, there was intermittent coverage of them in the business section of the Chicago Tribune, as well as in the society pages—young men about town, rising entrepreneurs, that sort of thing. There are no marriages on record for either brother. However, during the next few years, Gregor sired three sets of twins, as near as we can tell, by three different women.
“I think it might be safe to assume, since none of the mothers were in the picture after the birth of their sons, that the women were either paid off or handled some other way. Then he became a daddy one more time, but this time of a single son. Also different, the mother lived on his estate, with her son, in a separate house until the boy, Roman, was eleven.”
“In fact, Roman’s mother is the only one we could find any information on at all.” Jeremy picked up the narrative. “Her name was Rowena Johns. We haven’t learned much about her except her name, which was on Roman’s birth certificate.
“Gregor adopted all of his sons, and all adoptions were classified as private—in other words he paid for them, and they were managed through a lawyer—so those mothers’ names aren’t even on the paperwork.”
“What happened when Roman was eleven?” Diana asked.
“Gregor sent Rowena packing and the boy to boarding school, where he remained until he went to college. From what we were able to discover, visits home for him were very rare.”
“How strange.” Meghan said. “Gregor was a seventh son, and Roman was his seventh son. And yet he rejected him. What would make him do that?”
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Cheri said. “All indications are that the man is power mad. I don’t think it’s a question of his sensing his son’s power might have been greater than his.”
“No, because he believes that, when his sons die, their power is added to his own.” Logan sat forward, his gaze meeting Diana’s and then his mother’s. “Having a more powerful son he would interpret as only good for himself.”
“It could be that Roman’s power didn’t manifest at ten, so he came to the conclusion that his experiment didn’t work. In fact, that is the only reason I can think of for the father to banish the son—if he believed him born without magic.” Alistair reached for his wife’s hand. Logan knew it was an absent-minded gesture. Rarely were the two together that they weren’t touching.
“There was no familial sentiment—or sentiment of any kind—within the man that I could tell.” In close quarters, their magic engaged, Logan would have had a sense of Gregor’s inner thoughts. “In fact, if I hadn’t known about Roman, I wouldn’t have learned of him during my time with Gregor. So you’re probably right, Dad.”
“Wait…what?” Diana sat straight, a look of confusion on her face. It was the same look her sisters wore.
“Sadly, not every man has paternal instincts,” Alistair said.
Diana shook her head. “No, not that. You said if his power didn’t manifest by ten?”
“Well, yes.” Alistair looked around the table. Then he focused on Meghan, when she leaned forward.
“In the home place, it’s twelve. Always on the twelfth birthday—four times three. Three is the sacred number, so major life events are always keyed to a third year. We came here when we were twenty-one. That rule came into being because we get our powers at the age of twelve.”
“Not ten?”
“No,” Cheri said.
“I wonder…” Cynthia leaned forward. “Is it possible that the three of you aren’t the only women from the home place to have come here in modern times?”
“I suppose it is possible,” Diana said. “We believed, when we agreed to accept the challenge presented to us, that we were giving up our home forever, that we’d never be able to go back. That’s a common enough belief. It was something we all took as fact growing up. I’ve never heard one couldn’t come here, and it’s certainly not forbidden. I guess I just thought no one would want to, given those consequences.”
“That’s pretty much what I’ve thought, too,” Meghan said. “But I don’t know that someone didn’t come here years ago.”
“It seems likely to me that, if Gregor Fortuna wanted to build a dynasty of warlocks, he’d seek out women who had an ember of power within them,” Alistair said. “Women who probably had no idea they did. With his magic enhanced as it is, he’d be able to identify those with power from those who had none.”
“That’s what we think happened,” Diana said. “Roman came later in his life—just a few years later. What if Roman’s mother sought Gregor out? If she came here from the home place, she’d likely be powerful enough to mask her power from him, or at least make it appear embryonic, and, since she was with her son, she could mask his ember as well, if his power developed early.”
“You mean Rowena played Gregor?” Max Tanner asked. “Knowing that, when Roman appeared to have no power within him at the usual age, Fortuna would likely ignore him?”
“If this is true, then likely Roman does indeed possess magic. It would be interesting to know if Roman’s mother was really out of the picture when he was sent away or if she was with him at his boarding school, without Gregor being any the wiser,” Cameron said. “If she was smart, she would have signed whatever legal documents she needed to, giving the man legal custody. That would have allowed her—if she was a fully Gifted woman—to stay near her son without Gregor interfering.” Then he looked toward his mother. “Mother, do you know of the rest of the prophecy…or if there was another one prior to this?”
She sat back and met Cam’s gaze. Logan could tell the question caught her off guard. “No. For as long as I’ve come fully into my power, for all of the oral history handed down, we only ever knew what we knew, and that was this first prophecy.” She frowned. “It’s entirely possible that some of our history, some of what is to be, has been lost to us. We’ve had no contact with the home place since the Great Separation, when our ancestors opted to stay, to become part of the Chosen. And, no, I don’t know what the second prophecy is.”
Logan wasn’t surprised the question had drawn a blank. His thoughts returned to Gregor Fortuna. “The man is so obsessed with his power.” Logan leaned forward. “I got a lot of impressions when we were in that cave together. There was no sense of any thought of his youngest son, but I caught random thoughts about the others, as well as his twin.” There was another fact about his misadventure he’d wanted to mention. “Fortuna called where we were the Cave of the Ancients. I had no sense of where, on earth, we were. Mother, have you ever heard of it?”
“No. But it might not have been a place of significance, except to Fortuna himself. You felt many different power signatures there?”
“I did.” He didn’t know if he could find the right words to convey the sensation of it. “The thing is, as I’ve been going over it in my mind, I can’t honestly say if I was feeling the echoes of many different people of power or just different echoes of Gregor’s power, through the years, as he’s descended further into madness.”
“That’s a chilling thought.” Cheri rubbed her hands on her arms. In response to her distress, her men inched closer to her. “I can tell you Vincent and Emilio were unable to do anything but keep coming at us.”
“Mario and Pietro were just as determined. Even when they knew they couldn’t win, they kept coming.”
“Rick and Ed cut their losses,” Cam said. “Maybe because they were the youngest and possibly the least corrupted by their father?”
“And because they did, the old man decided to step in and handle things himself. There is one more thing I can tell you about Gregor Fortuna. I don’t know if his twin is alive or not, but he believes he stole Remis’ power and took it into himself.” Logan was certain of that.
“Remis Fortuna has b
een out of the public eye for more than twenty years,” Ryan said. “But there’s been no death certificate issued for him.”
“Maybe it all just comes down to the one element that’s been pervasive through all of this—destiny.” Logan felt that really was part of the answer. “That’s the only thing that makes any kind of sense.” He took Diana’s hand in his and was pleased when Cam took her other hand. “And I think, whether we want it that way or not, the three of us, together, are meant to be the ones to face Gregor in the end. I hate it, but that is our destiny.”
“That would definitely explain why your magic is fully developed.” Tony Delvecchio looked at both him and Cameron. “Because the three of you together are stronger right now than either of our triads.”
“Hopefully, you’re strong enough to defeat a madman,” Alistair said.
“It’s his madness that worries me the most.” Cynthia shook her head. “I don’t know what kind of a plan you can come up with, but we’d best do all we can to see to it you’ll be safe.”
Then she looked around the table. “As to Gregor Fortuna’s belief that he can somehow grab more magic for himself? As far as I know, taking the power of another can’t be done,” Cynthia said. “The magic that lives within each of us lives with us. It can’t be taken from us because it’s a part of us. When we die, it dies, too. But while we have it—while we yet live—we can channel it to boost the powers of others, temporarily.”
Logan understood what his mother was talking about. For the first time since he was in that cave with Fortuna, he felt like things were going to work out. There was only one detail to see to, and he already had an idea. “We just have to find a way to stay connected, all of us, until this is over so that, if we do need your help, we can get it.”
Chapter 11
They left Colorado the next morning and headed back to L.A. It took only a heartbeat of time to make the transition. Diana had no qualms about going to Logan and Cameron’s penthouse apartment. It was larger than her own place and just as comfortable.
The Gifted 3: Passions Ascended (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 10