“I’m going to work as soon as I see you off,” I confessed. “Otherwise, I’ll be crawling under my kitchen sink to get that wine, and if I fit, I might stay under there.”
“Pat told the pilot he can’t take off if I’m on the plane. It’s not fair.”
It really wasn’t. “I have something that might cheer you up.”
“Isn’t that supposed to be my line? What is it?”
“I’ve been informed that Mireya’s father has a free pass, but all other men have to answer a questionnaire to her satisfaction before I can date them. I think His Royal Majesty of Montana is getting a free pass, too, because he can make her a princess, and she wants to be a princess.”
Jessica fell against me, laughing so hard she cried and hiccupped. “You poor thing,” she choked out. “You have those damned allergies, then you break your foot. Now your daughter is dictating your love life? Next she’ll be issuing edicts on your sex life.”
“One or two siblings are permitted, and she’ll accept a third if there are twins. Seven isn’t permitted.”
Jessica hit her knees and pounded on the hallway carpet, howling her laughter.
I glanced at Jessica’s RPS agents. “If I kick her in the ribs once, will you look away? Just one time?”
Geoff slapped his forehead.
To my amazement, the two guards assigned to Her Royal Majesty turned around.
I checked for any children, and once I confirmed there were none nearby, I planted my medical boot on Jessica’s shoulder and shoved her over. “Bitch.”
Jessica flopped onto her back and draped her arm over her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I swear I’ll make it up to you somehow.”
I nudged her in the ribs with my toe. “She’s happy. She’s getting all the chances I never had. I can’t repay that. This all happened because she wanted to be nice to your children. Just for that, thank you.”
“I should really be the one thanking you. I don’t think my kids realized they could have friends without worrying about the politics of it before Mireya came around. She challenges them, and they’re competitive to the core. They want to match her.” Jessica sighed, rolled over, and hopped to her feet, dusting herself off. “I’m not sure they can, but she’s so damned humble it doesn’t matter if they succeed or not.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s so brilliant. She’s so smart and eager to learn, and no amount of competition can match her thirst for knowledge. But she doesn’t care. She has the patience of a saint, and she tries her best to help my kids understand. She’s a genius.” The Texan queen scowled at me. “But you’re just digging for compliments at this point, because I know you know this already.”
I smirked. “Proud parent here. Did you expect anything else?”
“No, I didn’t. The school is going to send me the information packets to give to you along with all the contact numbers. Have you replaced your phone yet?”
“I think the replacement is at work; Senator Forester said he was taking care of it, but I haven’t been back to the office to get it yet. If there isn’t one at work, I’ll take the company card and pick one up later today.”
Two RPS agents left my condo with Mireya’s bags, and my daughter barreled through the door, blew by me, and bounced off the wall cutting the corner to the elevator. She backpedaled. “Mom, Mom! Come on. We’re going to be late.”
“I’m pretty sure they’re not going to leave without you.”
“You don’t know that.”
I pointed at Jessica. “They aren’t leaving without her.”
“You don’t know that.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s too early in the morning for so much jumping around, spawnling. If you don’t want to be late, come give me a hug. You might miss your flight if I throw one of your tantrums because I didn’t get a hug.”
She plowed into me, hitting me so hard I fell, hitting the floor with a thump and a yelp.
“You deserved that,” Her Royal Majesty observed.
Mireya hugged me so tightly I squeaked. “Behave while I’m gone. Don’t play with the fridge or freezer. Don’t go to work without having your coffee, take your medicine, and keep your coat and scarf with you. Breakfast really is a meal, so try to have something in the morning. That’s before noon. Mrs. Jessica, she might need a babysitter.”
Jessica pointed at Geoff. “She has one.”
“He might do, maybe.”
“I’ll make sure a responsible adult keeps an eye on her. We do need to go before traffic gets too bad.”
Mireya bounced off me and rammed into the queen, grabbing hold of her hands and dragging her towards the elevator. “We can’t be late.”
With a little help from Geoff, I got to my feet and hobbled after the pair. Jessica held the elevator for me, and I swallowed back the lump in my throat.
There’d be time enough for tears after I saw her off.
On the ground floor, Mireya kissed my cheeks. “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too, spawnling. Be good, all right?”
“I will. Be careful.”
“I will.”
Mireya kissed my cheek again, turned, and ran out the front doors to the waiting SUV. Prince Adam beamed when he saw Mireya, and he held the door open for her just like she liked.
“She’s a good girl. She’ll be all right, and you’ll be all right, too.” Jessica held out her hand, and I shook with her. Without another word, the queen left and took my daughter with her. Long after the pair of vehicles had pulled away from curb, I stared down the road.
Geoff drove me to work despite my desire to walk, and I sulked the entire way. “It would’ve been faster to walk.”
“And the first time a pushy reporter or photographer spotted you, you’d cry for the cameras. That’s just what you need right now, your splotched face on the front page. This way, if you leak, no one can take pictures of you. As we can bypass the lobby altogether, should you breakdown and cry, there’ll be limited witnesses.”
“Have I ever told you that you’re a jerk, Geoff?”
“Remarkably, you limit your displays of crankiness to scowling. You haven’t called me a jerk since you were pregnant and I hauled you out of a tree.”
“I’m resetting the counter. You, sir, are a jerk.”
“It’s not safe for you to walk right now. Once your boot is off, it’ll be a different story. We’ve talked about this before.”
“Since I can’t run, I need to be in a vehicle that can do the running for me,” I dutifully replied.
“Exactly. Just be grateful. After you fell down the steps, Jessica wanted a full-blown detail on you. She was about ten seconds from making the betrothal public so she could justify the extra security. I reminded her that you needed to talk about it with Mireya first. Then I pointed out you’d be at a higher risk if the news became public. I strongly emphasized she should hold the announcement until after the auction.”
“Now I owe you.”
“I thought you’d appreciate that. If you’re lucky, you’ll be on your own again in a few weeks. Jessica’s going to be overprotective for a while, but once she settles down, she won’t be as vigilant. If you catch her on a good day and there haven’t been any incidents for a while, she’ll likely relent. I can’t promise she won’t force a detail after it’s officially announced, but you’ll get a breather.”
“I don’t mind having you around, but you have got to be tired of me by now.”
“Trust me on this one, Mackenzie. I’ve been on Jessica’s detail for so long that you’re a breath of fresh air. Jessica toys with us because she can.”
“But she can take care of herself.”
“Not against all things, but yes, her magic is exceptional for self-defense. You’re a challenge because you have no magic at all. That’s why I’m often assigned to you. I can handle most types of assailants.”
“What’s your talent?”
Geoff smirked. “I’m a spark.”
My eyes
widened. “You use lightning?”
“That’s only one of my tricks. My control of electricity is so refined I could stun you, carry you off, and mitigate the side-effects on my whim. I can also manifest lightning from a clear sky.”
“Really? Can you do a demonstration?”
“You want me to stun you?”
“Just don’t carry me off. That’d be embarrassing. Can you just give me a jolt?”
Geoff laughed right up until he parked in the garage, shook his head, and held out his hand. “All right. I’m only doing this so you know what it’s like so you don’t freak out if I have to stun you to get you out of a bad situation. During your pregnancy, my orders were to fry anyone who came after you, as I won’t use my talent on a pregnant woman.”
“Is it going to hurt?”
“It hurts, but it’s nothing you can’t handle.”
I put my hand in his. A blue-white spark jumped between his hand and mine, but all I felt was a feather-light tickle against my skin. I frowned. “It tickles?”
Geoff narrowed his eyes, and a brighter spark flashed between us. It stung, but no worse than a needle. “And that?”
“Felt like a needle or a bee sting.”
The crack of thunder startled me so much I jumped in my seat, and a charge of static raced up my arm. My fingers twitched, and I yelped at more from the noise than pain.
“And that?”
I yanked my hand away from him and shook it, but the tingling sensation remained. “It feels like my arm fell asleep,” I complained.
“Jesus Christ,” Geoff breathed.
“What?”
“You’re a null.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes to slits. “Yes, I’m aware of that.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I just pumped enough electricity into you to flatten someone. That’s the strongest burst I can do without risk of death. It made you tingle. You resisted my magic. There’s no other explanation.” Geoff unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door. “It’s the one talent no one ever bloody tests for because it’s so damned dangerous and difficult to identify. Most nullifiers are only identified because their parents had it, their parents had it, and somewhere down the line, someone tried to use some serious magic to hurt them and they discovered their ability. I should’ve figured it out. I heard your doctors complaining they were having a hard time reading you.”
“What?” I whispered.
“Get out of the car and come here. Let me try to shock you one more time.”
“Okay,” I replied, warily joining him. He pointed at a spot near his SUV. I stood where he told me, and he took several steps back.
“Close your eyes.”
I obeyed, my entire body tensing. Something stirred in the air, something with a sharp scent, something that made me shiver in anticipation. Thunder boomed, and the next thing I knew, I was sitting on the asphalt, shaking from head to toe, and gasping as though I’d run a race. I cracked open an eye to discover a blackened circle on the ground around me.
“You all right, Mackenzie?”
“I’m fine.”
“You should be convulsing on the ground, your muscles spasming. All I did was knock you over.”
“Please don’t do that again,” I begged.
“I won’t. Trust me, it’s tiring.” He closed the distance between us, and he held out his hand to pull me to my feet.
I staggered, shook my head, and straightened. “It’s magic?”
“It is, but there’s only one problem.”
“What?”
“It’s the one type of magic we can’t let anyone know you have. Damn it. Listen to me. Don’t tell anyone, okay? Not a soul, not even Jessica.”
“But why not? It’s—”
“People will gun for you and Mireya for a chance to get that magic introduced to their bloodline. It’ll put you both at risk. No one can target you if they believe you’re a null, not a nullifier,” he hissed.
I could see the logic, and I wrung my hands together. “Couldn’t it have been a fluke? You’ve been tired, too. Right? It could just be a fluke.”
“No, Mackenzie. It’s no fluke. I might be an old man, but I know my magic. I know what it feels like when I use it. I know what it’s like to shock someone. The first time I tested my magic, I feathered electricity over your skin, not enough to hurt, but enough to make you aware it was there. The instant I amped it up enough for it to hurt, I couldn’t touch you.”
“But you knocked me over.”
“Air pressure from detonating a lightning bolt around you. My magic technically didn’t knock you over. The changes in air pressure did.” Geoff moved my hair away from my ear. “No ringing? No spots in your vision?”
“No.”
“The last time I used that amount of magic on someone, we had to call in an illuminator to reverse the damage to his eyesight, and he had his eyes closed.”
“You could just be jumping to conclusions,” I protested.
“You’re really going to be stubborn about this, aren’t you?”
I swallowed. “But it’s magic? It’s really magic?”
“It’s really magic.”
“Then Jessica needs to know,” I whispered. “If Mireya has this, she needs to know, and so does Adam.”
Geoff spat curses, pulled his phone out, and dialed a number. Before he connected, he glowered at me. “I hope you’re right about this.”
I did, too. I fidgeted while he connected the call.
“Your Majesty, I’m sorry to bother you, but there’s a situation.”
“Oh, yes. That’s a great way to get her attention. You’re going to make her panic.” I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled.
“Mackenzie is fine, but you’re going to have to do some research on her parentage. Mackenzie wanted a demonstration of my talent, so I humored her. Nothing happened.” A smile played across his lips. “No, Your Majesty. I could tickle her, but beyond that, the worst I was able to do was knock her over. I can confirm without shadow of a doubt she nullified my talent. There’s a charred section of pavement in the parking garage from where I dropped a full lightning bolt on her pretty head. Yes, I tested my way up. Despite appearances, I do like my job. The second jolt I gave her should’ve knocked her out for ten minutes. I was going to drive her home and put her back into bed, but she ruined my plans. I advised her to not tell anyone, but she insisted I tell you in case it mattered because of Prince Adam.”
They talked for a few more minutes, most of Geoff’s replies being either yes or no. When he hung up, I planted my hands on my hips. “Well?”
“Most of those questions involved her asking if I was really sure. She also agreed with my initial assessment, and she was trying very hard to speak in code so no one in the vehicle with her would have any idea what she was talking about. I think it worked, as I barely had any idea what she was talking about, and I knew the subject. She’s going to send someone to New York and give your parents a jolt to see what happens.”
“You’re not going to hurt them, are you?”
“Of course not. She’s going to have them jolted just hard enough to test if they react as expected. It’s a simple test. It’ll be designed to look like an accident, probably during a handshake. We should know within a few days if you inherited the talent. Until then, try to pretend nothing has changed.”
I nodded. If he was right, if I was nullifying his magic, I agreed with his concerns.
Mireya was young and impressionable, and I could readily believe someone would try to sway her for the potential to mitigate other talents. I’d heard of such things, but I’d viewed the talent as a dream within a dream.
I had longed for a spark of magic of my own, but reality was rarely kind. The only time a nullifier’s magic shone was in the face of life and death, a situation I wanted to avoid.
Geoff herded me to the elevators. “It’ll be all right,” he promised.
All I could do was pray he was right
.
Chapter Twenty-Four
As my daughter had promised, she’d emailed me a three-page questionnaire for any hopeful suitors, and her questions worried and amused me. In a way, I pitied her teachers; she directly addressed my lack of a sex life, detailing the requirements for any potential fathers of her future siblings. Included was a request for a full health exam, including sperm count, and to make certain I knew what was expected, she listed a minimum allowed number.
I found her concerns regarding his ability to make coffee particularly endearing.
Who needed magic of any stripe with a daughter like mine?
“Crazy girl,” I murmured, unlocking my desk so I could dig out my tablet and import the questionnaire for later reference. If I didn’t like the men I met, I’d inflict the entire thing on them to drive them away.
To distract myself from the reality of my daughter boarding a plane and flying to France, I dedicated my full attention to the auction, beginning the ground work on the style of auction. I liked the idea of a full masquerade, blending what had been done in New York with more mystery. If I opened the auction with a ball, men and women could mingle, talk, and get to know each other without the pressure of the auction getting into the way.
If I banned electronics from the ballroom, I could add a layer of mystery. His Royal Majesty of Montana would have a better chance of meeting women and using his magic to find a suitable candidate. If I assigned a number to participants, then it would be possible for individuals to meet—and bid on—each other later.
Chemistry mattered, and I thought the gimmick would have the best chance of giving His Royal Majesty what he wanted.
It would also give Dylan a chance to show up. If I did a masquerade, I’d be the best hidden woman in the crowd, and I’d make certain anyone looking for me would have to put in a lot of effort. If Dylan wanted to find me, he’d have to work for it.
The masquerade also reminded me of the possibility of having to arrange fake names. I considered, and decided anyone who wanted to enter the Texan auction would have to do so honestly. It would eliminate men like Dylan.
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