Fates 06 - Totally Spellbound

by Kristine Grayson

  He had gained respect for other cultures while away from his own. The other soldiers hadn’t. They had tried to destroy it.

  We should imprison you, Atropos said.

  He had felt alarmed at that. They were going to take away Marian’s magical good health and then imprison him so that he couldn’t spend the last few days of her too-short life with her.

  If it were not for your history of good works, Clotho said, and for your love of the unfortunate Marian.

  We are sympathetic to love, Lachesis said.

  He had let out a small breath, his hands folded in front of him. He had felt so tiny, standing there. A single man warring against time and fate and rules he didn’t entirely understand.

  However, Atropos said, we cannot allow love to violate the rules of existence.

  Of course they couldn’t. Because every beloved of every mage would live forever then. As if that were wrong.

  He wasn’t sure how that was wrong.

  Much as we would like to, Clotho said with more gentleness than was necessary.

  They hadn’t wooed him, exactly, but he felt a little better. At least he would be with Marian at the end.

  Besides, Lachesis said, you have yet to find your soulmate.

  What? he snapped. Marian is my soulmate. You know that. All of England knows that. I love her more than life itself.

  And therein lies your problem, Atropos said. You have given too much too early.

  No, I haven’t, he said.

  You have a long life ahead of you, Clotho said.

  One that will be lonely if you are not careful, Lachesis said.

  Of course it will be lonely, he said. You won’t let Marian live.

  She cannot. She has lived her life, Atropos said.

  You knew she was mortal when you met her, Clotho said.

  I thought I was mortal when I met her, Rob cried.

  Then you should not have left her to fight in those silly wars, Lachesis said.

  Those silly wars were where I discovered that I couldn’t die, Rob said. He had learned, just outside Jerusalem, exactly what his powers were and how deadly they could be. He had turned away from them then; he’d never been a man to use his abilities to harm others.

  War had been the exact wrong thing for him—the greatest mistake of his life.

  He hadn’t needed these Fates to remind him of that, and all the lost years, the years away from his beloved.

  You might miss your love altogether if you do not open your eyes, Atropos said.

  It was hard for him to focus on them. The sadness that he thought he had put aside when he had tried to save Marian’s life was beginning to overwhelm him.

  If you do not see how like follows like, Clotho said.

  If you do not listen to the prophecy, Lachesis said.

  You have never asked us your birth prophecy. It’s time you hear it. Atropos looked mysterious and strong, standing against the pillar.

  You shall regain your true self, Clotho said.

  And save the world for true love, Lachesis said.

  If only you recognize that true love has many lives, Atropos said.

  You denied me that life, Rob snapped. He could take no more. He clapped his hands together, casting a powerful spell that flung him away from the Fates and their so-called justice.

  Later, he found out through Little John that the Fates had nearly imprisoned him after that insolence. Only John’s argument, and Rob’s obvious grief, prevented it.

  “I didn’t mean that,” John was saying. “I didn’t mean to bring up Marian again. Really. I meant besides then. You know, in the past 800 years.”

  Rob must have had an expression, then, something that told his best friend he had been reliving the prelude to the worst moment of his life.

  Even now, he could barely think of that day, holding the frail shell of the woman he’d loved as she died in his arms, knowing that he had the power to save her—and everything he would do, everything he would try—would be reversed by those evil Fates.

  “It’s all right,” Rob said, shoving his plate away. The food no longer seemed appealing. “I know what you meant.”

  The good humor was gone from John’s face. He finally seemed to understand why Rob wasn’t going to use his magic for something as trivial as finding an attractive woman.

  If he hadn’t been able to use that magic for something crucial, he wasn’t going to waste it on a whim.

  “I just think it’s important, you know?” John said. “I think you had a sign last night, and I think you need to act on it.”

  “A sign from the Fates?” Rob asked with more than a touch of bitterness.

  John shrugged.

  “I did what they wanted one too many times,” Rob said. “I don’t care about their signs.”

  John sighed. “Maybe you should,” he said, almost to himself. “Maybe you should.”

  Eight

  Megan spent most of the morning on the phone, making sure that she truly had tied up all of her loose ends. She used the phone in her suite—which Travers swore she deserved (what had Zoe done to him, anyway? Whatever it was, Megan was starting to like it)—and then she returned to Travers’ for lunch with Kyle.

  She and Kyle finished first and went to the couch while Zoe and Travers discussed wedding dates.

  “Dad’s gonna leave soon,” Kyle whispered to her. “You wanna do something fun?”

  “Like what?” she asked, not questioning Kyle’s knowledge of his father’s future plans.

  “Star Trek Experience, maybe?”

  “You’ve already seen that,” his father said from across the room.

  “With the Fates. It wasn’t the same. They really weren’t into Star Trek.” Kyle looked at his dad as he said this last. “Aunt Meg loves Star Trek.”

  “Classic,” Megan said. She had a thing for the young William Shatner that none of her friends ever understood.

  “I’m saying no on a repeat of the Star Trek Experience,” Travers said. “How about something wholesome? There’s got to be some museums around here.”

  “In Vegas?” Megan asked.

  “There’s a neon place,” Kyle said.

  “Not to mention the Elvis-A-Rama and the Liberace Museum.” Zoe came in from the kitchen, munching on a candy bar.

  Megan suppressed a sigh. How did women like that stay so slim when they ate so poorly?

  “I don’t think either of those are for Kyle either,” Zoe continued. “But there’s a children’s museum that’s across the street from the Natural History Museum.”

  Kyle blatted a Bronx cheer. Megan had to work to suppress a smile. She’d had the same reaction—mentally, at least.

  “We can find something to do, can’t we, boyo?” she said. “If nothing else, we can go to the water park I saw.”

  “No,” Travers said. “The last time Kyle went there, he got a hideous sunburn.”

  Megan looked at the boy. His skin was fine, so it couldn’t have been on this trip. “The last time? You’ve brought Kyle to Vegas before?”

  Zoe and Travers exchanged a look. “Long story,” Travers said after a minute.

  “And it wasn’t my fault,” Kyle said. “The Fates didn’t have any sunscreen.”

  “You’ve spent a lot of time with those women,” Megan said, trying to keep the disapproval from her voice.

  Kyle shrugged. “I like them, even if they don’t know much about Star Trek.”

  “They shouldn’t bother you too much,” Travers said. “They have some business of their own to take care of.”

  “With the Faeries,” Megan said, keeping her tone flat.

  “Yeah.” Zoe finished the last of the candy bar. “Now that we found the wheel for them.”

  Zoe and Travers were serious. Megan resisted the urge to shake her head. She had accepted the psychic part—she was aware of the studies conducted in the 1970s that showed psychic powers existed (even if all her professors had debunked those studies)—and she had been around Kyle for e
leven years. She liked the psychic explanation a lot better than the intuitive one. If the kid had been as intuitive as she had given him credit for, then he would have to have been almost superhuman.

  She smiled to herself. For some reason, she didn’t think that psychics were superhuman but that intuitive people were. That was one for her own shrink to figure out.

  “Megan,” Travers said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She started. She hadn’t heard him approach. “We’re going to get a marriage license. It shouldn’t take long, but I’m leaving Kyle with you, if you don’t mind.”

  “That’s what I’m here for,” she said a little too brightly. “And you can take as much time as you need. Maybe a little…alone time…would be appropriate?”

  Travers grinned at Zoe, who grinned back.

  “We’ve been so busy saving the world that we really haven’t had time for ourselves,” Zoe said, and once again there was no real irony in her voice.

  “We might take you up on that,” Travers said.

  “Just not here, please.” Kyle put his hands over his ears. He was blushing furiously. “I don’t want to think about this stuff.”

  Travers laughed. “Promise, kiddo. I don’t want you thinking about that stuff ever, although I supposed I won’t be able to stop you some day.”

  “Stop now!” Kyle said, his eyes squinched shut.

  Megan shook her head.

  Travers kissed Kyle on the crown of his head, then smoothed the hair over the kiss. “See you soon, kid.”

  Kyle nodded.

  Zoe waved at them both, and then she and Travers almost skipped out the door.

  “You can put your hands down now,” Megan said.

  “Not yet,” Kyle said tightly. He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped himself in a ball. “They’re broadcasting from the hallway.”

  Megan put her arm around her nephew and pulled him close. “I’m so sorry I never realized what was going on.”

  He relaxed against her. “It’s okay,” he said after a moment. “You know now.”

  “Yeah.” And it baffled her. How had Kyle grown up to be so normal with everyone else’s thoughts in his head? How had he been able to tell the difference between himself and other people?

  “Great-Aunt Eugenia taught me,” Kyle said.

  “What?”

  He brought his arms down and slid his legs to one side, leaning hard on Megan.

  “Great-Aunt Eugenia. She came to visit when I was really little, and she showed me, inside my own head, how to keep private if I had to.”

  Megan blinked. Something about this sounded familiar. She’d talked with Great-Aunt Eugenia too about privacy. Great-Aunt Eugenia had been such an outrageous woman, with her flowing clothes, her booming voice, and her strong opinions, that Megan had never been sure whether the conversation had happened or if she had only imagined it.

  At that moment, the door to the suite banged open.

  The three women who called themselves Fates poured into the room.

  “We need a driver,” Clotho said. She was wearing tight blue jeans, a pink blouse, and high-heeled sandals. Her makeup was perfect, just light enough to kiss her skin, and her hair seemed even blonder than it had the day before. She resembled nothing more than a life-sized Barbie doll.

  “Quickly!” Lachesis said. The cream-colored blouse she wore untucked over a pair of stone-washed jeans gave her voluptuousness a studied air.

  “We can’t miss this opportunity!” said Atropos. Her tight black capri pants, white blouse, and slippers made her seem like an exotic version of Mary Tyler Moore from the Dick Van Dyke show.

  “The front desk will get you a cab,” Megan said. She wasn’t going to get sucked into these women’s vortex. They’d had enough influence on her family.

  “Aunt Megan. You got a car,” Kyle said.

  “And we wouldn’t all fit in it,” Megan said. “It’s a Mini Cooper.”

  “We can squeeze,” Clotho said. “We’ve done such things before.”

  “Please,” Lachesis said. “We only have an hour.”

  “They’ll get lost,” Kyle said.

  “No one gets lost in a cab,” Megan said. “The driver always knows where he is.”

  That wasn’t exactly true; she’d had a driver in New York when she had been there for a conference who hadn’t known where Brooklyn was. But that was different. Vegas wasn’t that hard to learn.

  “We’ll only be a phone call away if you need help,” Megan added.

  “We need help now,” Atropos said.

  “John Little says he’ll fit us in,” Clotho said.

  “He’s doing us a favor,” Lachesis said.

  “John Little.” They spoke the name as if Megan should know it. “And I should care about this why?”

  “Because true love is at stake,” Atropos said. “You should always care when love is at stake.”

  Kyle looked up at her. “Aunt Meg, they’re not kidding.”

  “I know,” Megan said. “But I don’t have to share the delusion.”

  “Please, they will get lost. They’re pretty naïve about some things.” Kyle batted those baby blues. Someday, some woman was going to get lost in those eyes. “For me?”

  Megan was already lost. She’d been lost since she’d held him as a newborn, all red and wrinkly and warm.

  She sighed. “Is this how your dad got roped in?”

  Kyle grinned. “He didn’t mind.”

  “I remember him at Viv’s wedding,” Megan said. “He minded.”

  “Oh, thank you.” Clotho clapped her hands together. “We really do need an escort at times.”

  “Kyle tries, but he’s still a tad young,” Lachesis said.

  Megan stood. She smoothed her hair, feeling very out of place next to these beautiful women. All her insecurities were back, every last one of them. Was it part of the stress she’d been feeling? Or the fact that she was leaving her practice without knowing what she was going to do next?

  “Anyone want to tell me where we’re going?” she asked.

  Atropos smiled widely. “To hire Robin Hood,” she said brightly. “We need him to steal our wheel.”

  Eight

  Megan spent most of the morning on the phone, making sure that she truly had tied up all of her loose ends. She used the phone in her suite—which Travers swore she deserved (what had Zoe done to him, anyway? Whatever it was, Megan was starting to like it)—and then she returned to Travers’ for lunch with Kyle.

  She and Kyle finished first and went to the couch while Zoe and Travers discussed wedding dates.

  “Dad’s gonna leave soon,” Kyle whispered to her. “You wanna do something fun?”

  “Like what?” she asked, not questioning Kyle’s knowledge of his father’s future plans.

  “Star Trek Experience, maybe?”

  “You’ve already seen that,” his father said from across the room.

  “With the Fates. It wasn’t the same. They really weren’t into Star Trek.” Kyle looked at his dad as he said this last. “Aunt Meg loves Star Trek.”

  “Classic,” Megan said. She had a thing for the young William Shatner that none of her friends ever understood.

  “I’m saying no on a repeat of the Star Trek Experience,” Travers said. “How about something wholesome? There’s got to be some museums around here.”

  “In Vegas?” Megan asked.

  “There’s a neon place,” Kyle said.

  “Not to mention the Elvis-A-Rama and the Liberace Museum.” Zoe came in from the kitchen, munching on a candy bar.

  Megan suppressed a sigh. How did women like that stay so slim when they ate so poorly?

  “I don’t think either of those are for Kyle either,” Zoe continued. “But there’s a children’s museum that’s across the street from the Natural History Museum.”

  Kyle blatted a Bronx cheer. Megan had to work to suppress a smile. She’d had the same reaction—mentally, at least.

  “We can find something to do,
can’t we, boyo?” she said. “If nothing else, we can go to the water park I saw.”

  “No,” Travers said. “The last time Kyle went there, he got a hideous sunburn.”

  Megan looked at the boy. His skin was fine, so it couldn’t have been on this trip. “The last time? You’ve brought Kyle to Vegas before?”

  Zoe and Travers exchanged a look. “Long story,” Travers said after a minute.

  “And it wasn’t my fault,” Kyle said. “The Fates didn’t have any sunscreen.”

  “You’ve spent a lot of time with those women,” Megan said, trying to keep the disapproval from her voice.

  Kyle shrugged. “I like them, even if they don’t know much about Star Trek.”

  “They shouldn’t bother you too much,” Travers said. “They have some business of their own to take care of.”

  “With the Faeries,” Megan said, keeping her tone flat.

  “Yeah.” Zoe finished the last of the candy bar. “Now that we found the wheel for them.”

  Zoe and Travers were serious. Megan resisted the urge to shake her head. She had accepted the psychic part—she was aware of the studies conducted in the 1970s that showed psychic powers existed (even if all her professors had debunked those studies)—and she had been around Kyle for eleven years. She liked the psychic explanation a lot better than the intuitive one. If the kid had been as intuitive as she had given him credit for, then he would have to have been almost superhuman.

  She smiled to herself. For some reason, she didn’t think that psychics were superhuman but that intuitive people were. That was one for her own shrink to figure out.

  “Megan,” Travers said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She started. She hadn’t heard him approach. “We’re going to get a marriage license. It shouldn’t take long, but I’m leaving Kyle with you, if you don’t mind.”

  “That’s what I’m here for,” she said a little too brightly. “And you can take as much time as you need. Maybe a little…alone time…would be appropriate?”

  Travers grinned at Zoe, who grinned back.

  “We’ve been so busy saving the world that we really haven’t had time for ourselves,” Zoe said, and once again there was no real irony in her voice.