“Straight answers are very difficult. There are many possible futures and we seers are limited by our own mortal minds. The most powerful of us can see multiple paths and multiple possibilities, but never all, and even then it works best with direct contact.”
“Direct contact?” I asked.
She lifted a hand. “Will you put your hand in mine?”
I hesitated, not trusting this, and not trusting her. When Grace had asked me to take her hand, my instincts had rebelled. In retrospect, I think I should have listened. Now, my instincts weren’t rebelling, more my nerves. Curiosity was actually imploring me to reach out and take the offered hand.
“I don’t bite,” she said.
Slowly, I nodded, and rested my hand in hers. “What do you see?”
“You’re at a crossroads. Every choice you make now ripples through your life, changing it in dramatic ways. There is a lot of darkness in your future, and…” She paused, and her voice suddenly went throaty. “You must fight free of the mind mage. He cannot protect you from what is coming.”
I tore my hand away. “And I suppose your grandson can?”
Abigail frowned. “I don’t know. You tore your hand away before I could see down those paths.”
“And what, exactly, is coming?”
She stared at me with soul-deep blue eyes. Evan’s eyes, I realized with a pang. “Your death.”
I stood, knocking my chair over in the process. “When? How?”
“I don’t know,” she said sadly. “There are too many possibilities.”
“Too many ways I could die, you mean?”
She nodded.
I shook my head, stubbornly. “That doesn’t make sense. If I die just because I stay with Matthew, then what possible reason would Grace Blair have to set us up?”
“Grace can’t see past her own death.” Abigail’s eyes were suddenly haunted.
“Grace is going to die?” I asked. Then I amended, “Soon?”
“Yes. At this point she’s doing a lot of guessing. More than she’s used to doing, I would say.”
“I think that’s quite enough for today.” I started for the door, not bothering to see if Wesley would follow. Briefly, I wondered what he thought of that entire insane exchange.
“You’ll be back soon,” Abigail called after me.
“I doubt it,” I muttered.
She cackled. “You have to. You forgot to ask me about the murder.”
I hesitated at the door, but pushed through, not really caring about her answers to stupid questions. When we got to the car, I let Wesley drive. He started the engine and put it into gear. “She didn’t seem very clear about anything.”
I looked at him, trying to work out the reason for the unusual tension painted across his face. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Who’s next on the list?”
I hesitated for a moment. Was I going a bit too far, involving him in a world of personal magical problems that went beyond the scope of his job? Sooner or later it would drive him away, and maybe that’s what had happened to all of my other partners. Not all of them had been completely unwilling to believe, but none of them had been able to handle an investigation with me.
I glanced at our computer-generated list and groaned. “Jasmine Hewitt. She enjoys cursing people for the fun of it, and for some reason, she blames me for her daughter’s death.” I programmed the address into the GPS and once again we were off.
21
THE REST OF MY WORK DAY might have been completely uneventful if it hadn’t been for the sheriff calling me into his office just as I was about to go home.
“What’s up?” I asked him, shutting the door behind me. I tried not to sound too eager for any information he had on the case, though I was beyond tired of asking powerful people inane questions. At least most of them were coming forewarned now and if they didn’t condone the department’s action, they at least recognized my own lack of power in the situation. The only exception had been Jasmine Hewitt, but a bouquet of stinging nettle had ensured that her muteness curse rebounded upon her. I wasn’t sure if she would be able to undo it if she couldn’t speak, but the question wouldn’t keep me up at night.
“I’ve been hearing rumors about some kind of magical meeting going on this weekend,” Sheriff Adams said.
Swallowing my disappointment that this had nothing to do with the Roberts case, I nodded. “Yeah, an out-of-towner is trying to rally the community into joining his nationwide magical governing body. I don’t really know the details, but the idea of magical unification isn’t new and in fact, most areas have some kind of council of elders, at least.”
“Why not Eagle Rock?” Sheriff Adams asked.
“The town was founded by loners and anarchists. I guess it hasn’t been bred out of us.”
“I see.” He took a deep breath. “Well, as you can imagine, I’d like in on that meeting.”
I blinked at him. “Um, I don’t think they’ll want you there.”
He shrugged. “Maybe not, but this county is my responsibility and I take that seriously. If a group of people is going to come in and take the law into their own hands, then I want to know about it. I might even agree with the need for their oversight, but I want to be clear on matters of jurisdiction when it comes to magical crime. Plus, I want to know how to contact help if I need it.”
I saw his point, but wasn’t sure what I could do. “Sheriff, I don’t think you get it. I wasn’t invited.”
He frowned. “That must have been an oversight. Surely, you can get an invitation?”
Grimacing, I remembered what Alexander’s lackey had said about talking to Evan Blackwood or Alexander DuPris if I wanted them to rethink their decision.
“I’m interpreting that look as you know a way but don’t want to use it.” Sometimes, he really was too perceptive. He probably had a touch of intuition.
“I might know a way to get myself an invitation, but I don’t know about you.”
“Do your best,” he told me. “But I do want you there, even if you can’t get me in. I refuse to believe you can’t find a way to go.”
I didn’t have to talk to Evan about it, I reasoned as I left the station. I could find Alexander DuPris, a near stranger with the mature power of charisma, and ask him to bend his apparently rigid rules on my account. That sounded like fun, especially since I didn’t know where he was staying.
A feeble excuse, I knew. In a small town like Eagle Rock, I was sure any number of people could tell me where the man was staying. Deciding there was no sense putting it off, I called Madison to tell her not to expect me for dinner, and then called my parents to find out if they knew where Alexander was staying, since they had joined forces with him last night. I hit my answer in one call, and within half an hour of leaving the station, found myself knocking on Alexander’s hotel door.
To my dismay, Evan answered.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, taking a step back.
He leaned against the door frame and crossed his hands over his chest. “I could ask the same of you.”
“I came to talk to Alexander.”
“He’s not here.”
“Oh, well, then I’ll come back later.” I took another few steps backward, then turned to flee down the hall in the direction of the elevators.
“Cassie, wait!” Evan called.
I didn’t stop, at least, not of my own free will. Evan reached out with his active gift and yanked me back toward the door. All right, that may sound more brutal than it really was, because he was pretty gentle about the whole thing, but it still wasn’t of my choosing.
Somehow, I swore, I would find a way to keep him from doing that. Maybe I could get Nicolas to brew some kind of potion or something.
He pulled me inside the room and shut the door with an ominous bang, leaving the two of us alone in a standard hotel living room suite with a door probably leading off to the bedroom.
When I faced him again, I made sure to let him know just
how pissed off I felt. “Did we have something to say to one another?”
“Probably a lot of things,” he said, “but you still seem pretty upset right now, so most of it will have to wait.”
“It can wait forever. I never want to see you or speak to you again. Now, let me go.”
“Why did you want to see Alexander?” Evan asked.
I scowled. I’d gone to see Alexander, a perfect stranger, to beg him to let me go to his stupid meeting just so I wouldn’t have to face Evan. Fate and I clearly weren’t seeing eye to eye. “I don’t need to leave a message. Maybe you could just tell me when to expect him back?”
“I don’t know. He had an emergency to take care of in Chicago and said he might not be back until Friday.”
“So why are you here?” I asked
“This is the movement’s temporary headquarters and we still need to convince everyone in town to go to the meeting.”
He still hadn’t let me go and I began to struggle against the binding force. “Do you actually think you’ll earn my forgiveness by reminding me that you can overpower me?”
Suddenly I could move again, but I didn’t move away. It wasn’t that I wanted to have this confrontation, but I had little choice, especially given the sheriff’s assignment. I would have to swallow my pride and get it over with.
“So what’s the message?” Evan asked.
Balling my hands into fists, I bit off the words. “I’d like an invitation to that stupid meeting of yours on Saturday. Apparently, my name didn’t earn a place on the original list.”
“Okay,” Evan said.
I blinked a few times. After all that buildup, his response seemed rather anticlimactic. “That’s it?”
He shrugged. “I told Alexander to put your name on the list in the first place. I actually have a feeling that Larry Jackson is the one who made the executive decision to cross it off.”
“Oh. Well, the sheriff wants to go, too.”
This time, Evan didn’t answer right away. “I see.”
“He’s got a vested interest in maintaining law and order. He recognizes that he’s out of his league around here and would welcome the help, if Alexander’s group can give it, but he thinks it would be best if everyone worked together.”
“I’ll have to think about it,” Evan said. “I’ll give him a call.”
My message delivered, I had nothing else to say, so I gave him a brief nod and turned to go. “All right, then, I guess I’ll be going.”
“Wait.” Evan grabbed my arm to keep me from leaving and I suddenly remembered what Matthew had said about the chastity spell… he only needed a moment of contact.
“Don’t touch me!”
He let go and took a step back, apparently surprised by the hostility. “I think we need to talk.”
“What could we possibly have left to say to one another? Or did you want to come clean about that chastity spell you put on me?”
He didn’t look the least bit chagrined. “If you know about it, then it’s a good thing I did it.”
“You-you–” I couldn’t think of a bad enough insult, so I ended up stammering like an idiot.
“He’s using you, Cassie, and he tried to take advantage of you. Are you really the kind of girl to jump into bed with a guy after a week?”
A thought flickered in the back of my mind that I tried to ignore, but as with most thoughts, the more I tried not to think about it, the harder it became to push away: I hadn’t slept with Braden after three years. Instead, to try to protect my pride, I lashed out at him. “Thankfully, not with you.”
“He tried to force you,” Evan said, saying the words carefully, as if talking to a slow child. “He tried to rape you.”
He had a lot of nerve to make such a suggestion, when he had nearly raped me a few weeks ago. Yes, he had just touched a bracelet with an interwoven lust spell, but still… that had felt like an attack. Not what Matthew and I had tried to share.
“He didn’t try to rape me,” I said. “You did.”
Evan’s face flushed, and he clearly remembered the incident with the bracelet. “It was a spell, Cassie. You know I would never–”
“Would never what? Do something to my body against my will? Like, oh, I don’t know, a chastity spell?”
“This isn’t about me. What do I have to do to get through to you? It’s been a week! A week, and you…” He stopped and frowned, seeing the ring on my finger. “When did you get that?”
“Saturday night.”
“Right after our fight?” Evan asked.
“Yeah. So?”
“So you don’t think that maybe he took advantage of your mental state? You can’t seriously tell me you think it’s a good idea to make life-altering decisions at a time like that!”
I closed my eyes and shook my head, blocking the logic. “I told you to stop trying to protect me.”
“And I told you I wouldn’t do that.”
“Why?”
His voice softened. “Did you forget everything I ever said to you?”
In a flash of memory, I heard his long-ago spoken words. I love you. I’ve been in love with you since the first grade.
Impossible, I thought. Maybe he thought he was in love with me, but he’d proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn’t, or at least, that he didn’t know the meaning of the word.
I didn’t say any of that to him, however; because I suddenly remembered something else he’d said to me, a very, very long time ago. “I remember everything just fine, do you? Do you remember the day we met?”
His face twisted into a thoughtful frown. “First day of first grade. I made a fool of myself and you helped smooth it over.”
“I told you something that very first day that I didn’t tell too many people, not for a long time. I told you I didn’t have any magic. Do you know what you said to me?”
His face paled, but he shook his head. “Not… quite.”
“You said, ‘You can have some of mine.’”
He didn’t say anything.
“Of course, you were six years old. You couldn’t have known what you were saying. I mean, it hurts like hell, doesn’t it?” A shudder ran down my spine, a shudder of a memory that couldn’t have been mine – of pain almost beyond bearing. I’d lived it through my mother’s memories and yet, somehow, the pain felt more real than that. More personal.
“Cassie,” Evan said, his voice pleading, “I didn’t do it. I-I don’t know how to tell you I’m sorry, but I didn’t do it. My father did it, and I haven’t spoken to him since I found out. As far as I’ve known my whole life, this is just the way I am. It’s part of who I am.”
“Maybe if it were part of who I was, I wouldn’t be having trouble with Matthew right now.” My hand flew suddenly to my mouth as I realized what I’d just admitted. Or no, not admitted… suggested. I wasn’t having trouble with Matthew. I loved him.
“You can fight him,” Evan said. “You know he’s controlling you. Deep down inside, you know it. Now you just need to find the will to throw him off. It’s not about magic.”
I stared at the ring. “Who says?”
“My grandmother. She says you already have the power to stop him, but that you’re too weak to fight right now. Too vulnerable to suggestion. Some people don’t mind letting others do their thinking for them. A lot of people, actually, which is why Matthew can be so powerful, but not you. You have the power.”
I thought about his words for a long time, not quite accepting, but not quite dismissing. When I finally spoke, the words were a bare whisper. “I can’t imagine what would be making me so vulnerable right now.”
“Say anything you need to me to hurt me,” Evan said. “Anything you need to get it out of your system. Just find the strength to fight him.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s not like I’ll ever go back to you anyway.”
There was an agonizing pause before Evan spoke again. “My grandmother still thinks there’s hope for us.”
“Ye
ah, well, someone ought to revoke her seer’s license. I hope you don’t agree.” Again, he hesitated, and my eyes snapped up to meet his. “You don’t agree, do you?”
“It just strikes me as odd, if you really hate me, that I’m your excuse for failing to fight off Matthew.”
“You’re insane.” I turned to go.
He had one last thing to say to my retreating back. “All right, but at least consider the possibility that there are more than two choices here… Matthew or me. You don’t have to give in to him just because you’d never come back to me.”
22
MY FIRST INCLINATION, UPON LEAVING THE hotel, was to head to Matthew’s house and have him help me with the swirling emotions that threatened to consume me. In fact my car drove halfway to Matthew’s house, as if on its own steam, before I thought to question the impulse.
Just give in. It’ll be okay. Matthew will make everything better.
The worst part was, it was all true. He would make everything better and I didn’t doubt for a moment that he would take good care of me. Protect me.
Abigail Hastings didn’t think I needed a protector.
It was that thought which made me push my foot down onto the brake pedal, turn my car around, and head home. At least, the first time.
What was wrong with me? Why shouldn’t I see Matthew? We were engaged to be married, after all. Wasn’t it natural that I go to him with my problems? Would I turn away just because he was born with the ability to read minds? That didn’t make him a bad person. Magic isn’t inherently black or white, only the uses to which it is put.
Again, I slammed my foot on the brake and turned the car around, heading back toward Matthew’s house.
Everyone kept confusing me by bringing up the fact that he was a mind mage and suggesting that he was forcing me into this. He wasn’t forcing me to do anything. It was my choice to date him, my choice to spend time with him, and my choice to make love to him. Well, it had almost been my choice. Evan had taken that choice out of my hands, damn him.
Mind Games Page 20