“He doesn’t own it right now. He’s getting ready to bid on it,” Callum said.
She looked at him. “How did you find that out?”
“So, you do know him,” Callum murmured. “I have my ways.”
She threw her hands up in the air. “This is a suicide mission of sorts.”
“That’s why we are going to be with you,” Angus said. “Maggie is going to help steal it. He doesn’t know her so it will be easier to approach him. We talked to Rena, but she says Morin knows her too. It might look a little too suspicious if a Fae and a witch show up.”
“He knows?” Logan asked. She shook her head. “I don’t think of Morin as a man who would be given to believe that.”
“First of all, we are those things and you know it. Secondly, he sees us as grifters. So it isn’t that he sees us Magickal beings, but as someone out to get him. He doesn’t know I have powers.”
“Oh, that’s better.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice.
“I’m not the one who has an issue here, Logan,” Meg said.
“I think we all need to settle down,” Callum said. “The important thing is that we got you into several functions where he will be attending.”
“While Logan is being an ass about it, I have to agree with him,” Meg said. “He’s going to see me coming a mile away.”
“That’s why we have a cover for you. Maggie is a good friend who just married.”
“That’s true.”
“And you are dating her brother-in-law.”
There was a long beat of silence. The ticking of the antique clock behind her the only sound in the room.
“What was that?” she asked, barely able to get the words out. Panic had a chokehold on her throat.
“You’re dating Logan,” Callum said calmly. “And, you will not hide from your past. He knows it, you know it, and you just need to deal with it. Let him think you’ve changed.”
“I have changed.”
“Okay, well, then just be yourself.”
She looked at Logan, then back to Callum. “But, why does Logan have to be there? No offense.”
Logan shook his head. “It has to do with the curse, yes, Phoebe?”
She nodded. “The one who creates fantasy is the one who will capture the sapphire. Or in some other words I left out.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “I can’t seem to hold a thought too long these days.”
“Pregnancy hormones,” Maggie said with a smile. “You’ll get some of your memory back when you have the baby. Of course, you’re so bloody tired you don’t care.”
“So, that’s that. I thought you could leave the day after tomorrow.”
“What about me?” Jack asked.
“You get to stay with us, Jack. If it’s all right with your mother and father,” Phoebe said. “I believe both Callum and I could do with practice.”
He nodded and looked at Maggie. “I need to stay. They need practice, a lot considering.”
Maggie smiled. “What do you mean considering?”
“Just considering.” He made a face. “Can I go now?”
She nodded. He popped up and ran toward the door. He stopped abruptly, then approached Logan. He crooked his index finger and Logan leaned closer. The boy whispered in his ear. Logan’s expression blanked, then his eyes widened. He looked at Jack, who nodded, then left the room.
“What was that about?” Maggie asked.
Logan glanced at Meg, then looked at Maggie. “Sorry, I don’t feel right breaking his confidence. Nothing all that important.”
But he glanced at Meg again before turning his attention back to Callum.
“Yes, well, I guess you four need to pack and get ready for the trip,” Callum said,
She nodded. “I need to call and get the flat opened. I’ve had it closed up for the last few months.”
Then, she escaped, knowing it was the cowardly thing to do, but she didn’t see a way out of it. If she didn’t get out of the room fast enough, she might just come unglued. And that was never good for anyone.
CHAPTER THREE
Meg sat on her bed, her eyes closed, as she tried once again to meditate. Everything in her slowed down, her mind went blank—then she felt it. The air shifted around her and smelled the earthy scent of cloves.
Rena.
“If you don’t stop doing that, I might just have to kill you.”
“You know you can’t do that, Meghan,” Rena said. “You don’t have it in you.”
She opened her eyes and found her oldest friend in the world sitting in the chair next to the windows. Her dark hair was down and she was dressed in a flowing purple dress. It wasn’t anything abnormal, but Meg sensed a tension in her friend’s shoulders that told her Rena was worried.
“So you know.” Meg could tell from her expression that she did. It was hard to keep secrets when it was just the two of them. If Maggie had been in the room, it would be the same thing.
Rena nodded. “I’m very worried about it.”
That had Meg’s blood turning cold. “What do you mean?”
“I worry that it might hurt too much for you.”
She snorted and tried to pretend that it didn’t upset her. The fact that Rena thought she couldn’t do the job rubbed her ego the wrong way.
“You say that like I’m soft.”
Rena’s expression relaxed as she turned her head towards Meg. “Little sister, you have always been too soft.”
She sighed. “Well, it has to be done. There needs to be a distraction. Logan just showing up isn’t going to work.”
“You will put Pierre on alert.”
“And his attention will be with me and not on Logan. It works.”
“How do you feel going there as his lover?”
She made a face even as she ignored the way her heart did a little dance. Hell, just the idea of playing the role, of having him pretend to be hers, even if just for a few days, had her body singing.
Her obsession with him was really getting out of hand.
“You like him.”
Not a question. It wasn’t hard for Rena to know what she was thinking, or feeling. At least not when they were in this kind of proximity.
“What’s not to like?”
“He seems too nice.” Rena said it as if it were a drawback. For her it was. Rena never looked for someone who would treat her properly. She wanted a bedmate and that was it. Meg had always assumed that was the way of faeries. They all seemed to be missing the need for an emotional connection.
Meg laughed. “Of course. But he is a pretty man.”
Rena nodded and looked out the window. “He is one who would shield you. You need that.”
“He doesn’t like the witch part of me.”
“No, he doesn’t like the fact you can seduce men with your voice. That worries him. And, he has a problem with people who steal for a living.”
“I do not steal.”
Rena shook her head. “You are playing with words and you know it. I am not condemning you. And he doesn’t either. He just has trust issues.”
“You read that from him?”
“Not really. But he is a man who loves his family and for many years, they have kept each other safe by hiding the truth of their existence from the world. You lie for a living, or did at least. So, he’s unsure about trusting you. And it probably bothers him that you get to him. He thinks he shouldn’t want you but he does.”
What her friend was telling her made sense, but it also made Meg nervous. Rena wasn’t the sharing type and the fact she had been thinking so much about the situation meant that it was serious. There was something bad in their future.
She didn’t need that tonight, and she didn’t need to worry even more about their situation. To ease her worry, she smiled—even if she didn’t feel like it.
“That’s a lot of talking for you, Rena.” When her friend did not respond, she asked, “So he doesn’t like that I can seduce with my voice?”
“No. Men like to think
they are the seducers. When a woman has the same power, or more power, it makes them wary. It is a fault in their egos they cannot fight.”
“Well, that doesn’t really matter now, does it? Nothing is going to happen.”
“But it should. You should shag his brains out. Then you might not be so moody around each other.”
She laughed, and Rena smiled, as she continued to look out the window.
“I love how blunt you are.”
Her smile faded. “Some do not.”
Rena had always been the most serious of the three of them. It had been six months since Meg had seen her before she’d said they needed to go to Scotland. Since they had reunited, there was something very painful that Rena hadn’t discussed. Meg had given her friend privacy, but she ached for her nonetheless.
“Well, some people are idiots,”
“And so what is the plan?” Rena asked, as she looked back out the window.
Meg followed her line of vision and realized she could not see anything. It was dark as a witch’s heart out. But then, when Rena worried, she tended to draw into herself. She had been like this since her sister had died.
“Pierre just won the jewel in an auction. We have to steal the jewel before he can get it back to his place in the country.”
“Easy.”
“Not really.”
Rena turned to look at her. Her eyes softened. “I know it will hurt you going back.”
“I can handle it.”
Rena shook her head. “I am not your father. You don’t have to pretend with me. He was the one you loved.”
“Of course I love my father.”
“No, Pierre.”
Those heady days of a Paris spring came rushing back to the forefront of her mind. The excitement of being in love for the first time had been something she would never forget. “Yes. Or maybe, I thought I did. What do you know at the age of nineteen?”
“You did love him before he destroyed that love by not trusting you.”
The pain of his betrayal stabbed at her heart still, but not as much as last year or the year before. Time and distance helped heal that.
“Can you really blame him?”
“Yes.”
Meg couldn’t fight the smile. Rena’s support had always been absolute. “How? I’m a grifter, have been since the cradle.”
“You offered him a precious thing, something beyond what he deserved. Your heart…along with your virginity.”
Meg studied Rena for a long moment. “It’s not like you to be so melodramatic.”
Rena rose and walked over to the bed. She took Meg’s hands in hers. “It was a bad time for both of us and you paid a higher price. Just don’t let those feelings get in the way. If they do, it could mean trouble for everyone.”
She nodded. Rena squeezed her hands and then released them. She took a seat next to Meg on the bed.
“Now, Paris. I do love Paris.”
She smiled. “I know. Is there anything you want me to bring back?”
“The essence…that wonderful smell of bread baking in the morning and wine and cheese for dinner.”
“Not sure I can handle that.”
“Oh, little sister,” she said slipping her arm around Meg. “You can handle more than you think.”
She sighed and leaned into Rena’s offer of comfort. She closed her eyes and prayed her friend was right.
* * * *
Logan zipped his bag shut and scowled at his brother.
“I think you can quit worrying about me. I’m bloody old enough to take care of myself.”
“Maggie worries,” Angus said with a smile.
“It’s not as if we can die.”
Angus’ smile dimmed. “But we are taking two companions who can.”
Logan sighed and nodded. It was sometimes hard to remember a time when they had to worry about mortality. But now they had acquired mortals as their companions, they all knew they needed to be more careful.
“Maggie is very worried about Meg.”
“Why?”
He shrugged in that way that had been driving Logan crazy for several centuries. Angus thought he could fool people with the gesture, but Logan wasn’t It was Angus’ way of avoiding straightforward questions.
“Not sure, but I do know that Meg had a bad time of it in Paris. None of them will talk about it, but it wasn’t a good time.”
“Okay. Is everyone ready?”
Angus laughed. “We’re traveling with women, Logan. While they might be witches, they both like to keep men waiting. And we aren’t leaving until tomorrow morning.”
Logan frowned. He had no patience for the task, and it was making him irritable. Add in the erotic dreams about Meg, and he was not having a good time of it.
“You want to talk about it?” Angus asked, as he sat on the window seat. Great, he wasn’t going to leave.
“No. Wait, talk about what?”
Angus offered him that older brother smile that always irritated Logan. It had gotten worse since his marriage. “Meg and your attraction to her.”
“I’m not attracted.”
“Really? You could have fooled all of us.”
“She’s a witch.”
“You say that as if it is a bad thing.”
Logan looked at his brother and saw that he was smiling.
“Are you forgetting how irritated you were with Maggie? You did not like the Magickal side of her.”
Angus shook his head. “No, I didn’t. And I wasted precious time.”
“I don’t trust her. The idea that she made all that money stealing from other people makes me uncomfortable.”
Angus smacked him on the back. “Maybe you should ask her one day how she made all that money. You might be surprised.”
As his brother stood and started to walk to the door, Logan stopped him. “Wait, what do you mean? She didn’t get it by stealing?”
Angus shrugged. “I do know that Maggie said they never stole from anyone who didn’t have the money and didn’t deserve it.”
And with that, Angus left him alone with his thoughts.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back trying to get his mind and body under control. He wasn’t the one who had those pesky control issues. That was Callum. Logan had always been the kind of man who liked to, as Americans said, go with the flow. He didn’t feel like that lately.
As he thought about the woman, and what it could mean for his life and the quest, Logan couldn’t seem to push past the thoughts of Meghan. With each passing day, the hunger he had for her grew. He didn’t know what he could do about it, though. The idea of playing her lover made his head hurt. Of course, other parts of his body were rejoicing.
He just hoped he could keep his wits about him while they were there. The stakes were high, even higher now.
He would never forgive himself if he failed anyone now.
* * * *
“Callum and Phoebe are going to be taking care of you while we’re gone,” Maggie said to Jack, who sat beside her suitcase on the bed.
Jack nodded and swung his feet out from the side of the bed. Each time they came back, they landed with a thud. The sound and the action were fraying Maggie’s nerves even more.
“Like when you went away on your honeymoon. This time, though, you have to steal something.”
Lord help her. The boy had always been like this, but she would never get accustomed to his blunt statements. Maybe in time she could teach him to be more delicate with the truth, but she wasn’t sure that would happen anytime soon. His age and the fact that they lived with five immortals trying to break the curse, made it hard for Maggie to work with him. There was also a part of her that did not want to hinder his Magickal development. It went against everything she had learned. There was also the chance that trying to suppress his willingness to tell her what he saw could make him withdraw. She never wanted that.
“Yes. Well, Meg is going to help.”
He stopped swinging his feet and contin
ued to watch her pack. She knew that he was thinking about something he needed to tell her but didn’t know how. In the past, Maggie had learned to let him think it out. Forcing the issue never worked.
“You need to watch over her, Mum.”
She paused, then continued folding her sweater. “Is that so? Is there something wrong?”
“Not sure. I do know that she is hurting.”
She knew that, and she also knew that Meg’s time in Paris had changed her, fractured her in some way.
“We all hurt sometimes.”
“Yes, but you have Angus to help you now. He takes away that ache. She needs Logan.”
She snorted, then looked at her son. He was serious.
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged and played with the zipper on her suitcase. “She needs him to save her. Save everyone.”
“She isn’t part of the curse.”
He raised his head. The resolute expression stamped on his face told her he was positive about his predictions. “But she is, and she is Logan’s soul.”
Something caught in the back of her throat, and it felt as if something heavy had leveled on top of her soul. Deep within her, she knew that what Jack told her was absolutely correct. She wanted to ask him more, but he had other plans. He jumped off the bed and practically bounced toward her bedroom door.
“Belvidore said we’ve some scones for tea.”
He hurried off, and she stood by the bed, her sweater still in her hand. Something frozen danced over her nerve endings, but she couldn’t seem to comprehend what Jack had been trying to say to her. Were they in danger? Of course they were. They were going to steal a jewel from a man who made it impossible to steal from him. Now Jack was saying Meg was Logan’s soul, and she was part of the curse.
Before she could sort it out, Angus stepped into the room. His smile faded as he rushed over to her. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. The words lodged in her throat. Angus grabbed her and pulled her closer into his embrace. She dropped her sweater. The warmth of his body surrounded her
“What? Tell me.”
She sighed. “Jack.”
Angus sat them both on the bed. “Tell me.”
“He’s speaking in riddles again.”
“He always speaks in riddles.”
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