The problem was, Eleanor’s mother was both right and wrong. It had been hell for Vivian St. Vincent. She’d wanted to escape and had used her very big brain to do so. She wanted to travel. All Eleanor wanted was to fit in, or at least to go unnoticed. She always managed to almost get there when she’d have an incident and it would all go to hell in a handbasket.
The house was huge. It had a ton more rooms than anyone needed. Fifteen bedrooms, each with their own bathroom, as well as a ballroom, a living room, a sitting room, and three kitchens. She used to get lost when she’d visit.
Now, the doors to the front flung open, and her grandparents stepped outside flanked on both sides by a man and a woman Eleanor had never seen before. Not that she knew all of her grandparents' friends. She hardly knew any of them. It was more like the ages of the people in question that startled her. They were certainly closer to her age than her grandparents.
Eleanor got out of the car, and her grandmother kissed her on the cheek. “Darling, we’re so glad you’re not hurt. To think you were attacked.”
“Grandmother. Grandfather.” She greeted them both. “Yes, that was very surprising, for sure. Are you certain you want me here? I just had an event.”
Her grandfather scowled. “Yes, that Ruttan fellow told me all about it. Hurt someone. But he also told me your idea of how you could be managed, and frankly, we’d like to give it a try. Hence these two people here. Eleanor, meet Stefan and Kim. They’re former Enforcers. Married couple. And we have hired them to watch you.”
She went cold. Of course, she had suggested this, having a babysitter. But she’d thought about a nurse not an Enforcer. Let alone two them. Enforcers scared everyone. No one wanted to end up on the wrong side of them. They made people vanish.
Well, there was no choice but to address this. “I don’t know what my grandparents have told you, but since I was fourteen years old, I’ve been in and out of institutions. I have spells I can’t remember. During that time I speak incoherently. Do weird physical things and occasionally hurt people who get in my way. I don’t mean to. I’d like it to stop.”
She maybe spoke in ancient Alurmic. That was possible, if she believed Mitchell. She thought for the moment she’d keep that to herself. Thoughts of Mitchell had plagued her all day. She needed to reach out to tell him sooner than later that she’d left Prestige.
“You won’t hurt anyone with us here.” Kim touched her arm. “I was hexed once. I know how hard it is to lose control. And don’t worry, you’re not going to be whisked away and arrested. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
Eleanor nodded. “You used to be Enforcers? People stop?”
“They do when they want to have a real life,” Stefan answered. “We’re semi-retired. We could be called back in certain circumstances. This is a trial period. We have to see if we can function as non-Enforcers. So we have to figure this out, too. We don’t want to push into your personal life. Just make sure you and everyone else are safe.”
“That’s what I want, too.” Maybe this could work. “And I don’t have a personal life. Just one friend I need to speak to.”
Kim stepped back. “I’m sorry, Mr. St. Vincent, I don’t see a curse or a hex on her. Eleanor, I’m a good hex remover. I can sometimes see them on people when others can’t. But you’re clean.”
Eleanor had known that. She walked past her grandparents. She’d reach out to Mitchell and then go pass out. He, at least, wouldn’t have to make any more trips to Prestige. A thought dawned on her.
“The man who attacked me, he was very tall, blond haired, almost white really. My friend thought he was speaking in an ancient language.”
Her grandfather made his scoffing noise. “Clearly insane. Ancient language? Who would believe such a thing?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Just thought I would mention it.”
Stefan met Kim’s gaze, but Eleanor had no idea what they were thinking. She suspected that unlike Mitchell it would never be easy to know what an Enforcer was thinking.
Her room was as she’d left it. The bed was neatly made, it would always be thanks to the staff spelling the place clean every day, and outside, birds chirped. They didn’t care that she’d be expected to sit through a five-course dinner even if she couldn’t eat. They didn’t care that she’d be subjected to dinner guests coming and going, regardless of how she felt, so her grandfather could potentially marry her off.
The birds chirped anyway. The world spun. And so it went.
She didn’t often reach out magically to talk to anyone, but she knew how to do it. Placing her hand on a communicator, she pictured Mitchell in her mind. The communicator would compensate for any magic she didn’t have—the only requirement was that the user had to have some magic. Although she barely qualified she could make it work—and it would tell Mitchell she wanted to talk. If he were able and willing, he’d answer.
His eyes—those big brownish, grayish eyes under those expressive eyebrows—popped up into her mind first. She didn’t need to picture him entirely, just his name would have done, but his whole picture presented itself and soon the communicator signaled Mitchell.
His voice filled the room. “Is that you, Ellie? How are you doing this?”
“Mitchell, hi.” She tried not to sound giddy. “Yes, I’m home. My grandfather ripped me out of Prestige because of the incident yesterday, so I’m here with them. I didn’t want you coming back and not finding me there.”
“Oh.” He didn’t sound happy. “You’re on the other side of the country, then.”
She hadn’t expected the awkwardness she felt. “Um, so listen. I really appreciate everything, but whatever you’re working on, I mean, you don’t have to do that anymore. Okay? I’m officially off of your worrying about radar.”
He didn’t answer right away. “I’ve got to go. I’ll… soon.”
Had she missed something or had he not finished that sentence? What was he going to do soon? Eleanor shook her head. Enough of this. She’d take a shower and go to sleep before she had to be presentable at dinner.
That was all she had to do right then.
It was enough.
The Enforcers had kept their word. She didn’t see them anywhere, and she had no idea if they were even in the house. The dinner table, however, was filled with all of their neighbors. She wasn’t at all surprised. They came almost every time she came home, as though she’d just gone to Europe for a while or on a spice mission for the family, like her mom used to occasionally do.
Everyone laughed. No one expected her to talk. She chewed quietly and listened. There was a party coming up for a fundraiser her grandmother was hosting. Oh, not just coming up. It was tomorrow. Great, she’d have to get dressed and come downstairs. There would be every eligible bachelor imaginable thrown at her. She’d go to bed with a headache. Unless she had an episode. But please, universe, don’t let her have one there.
Maybe she could wear something horrific, and then they’d all stare at her because she was so ugly and not because she was so nuts. There it was, that word again. Mitchell would have hated that word. She hadn’t thought about that word in weeks.
She chewed her meat. It really was delicious, but still, it seemed to sit in her stomach like a giant stone weighing her down. She didn’t want to eat. This was dinnertime. Everyone ate at dinnertime.
Those were the rules.
If eating dinner was harshly enforced, waking up in the morning was not. Her grandmother often slept most of the day away and therefore no one was forced out of bed, ever. In her life with her mother, during her first fourteen years, they’d risen with the dawn, but in her grandparents’ home she often didn’t get up until dinnertime.
That was probably one of the reasons she was never hungry. It was just after three and a hairdresser had come in to magically spell her mop of brown locks into something pretty. Her grandmother hadn’t insisted on any particular look either for the hair or the dress, instructing her to just make herself look presentable
.
She’d been in an institution for weeks and then come back like everything was the same because, really, it was.
Mitchell hadn’t called.
She refused to focus on that. Instead, she stared at the course catalog for the local school that would allow her to get her high school degree. She really just needed to take a test. Then she could figure out college. Her mom had educated her, and it looked like she knew most of what she needed to in order to pass.
Her hands shook slightly. This was a very big deal. More than she’d even given it credit for having. She’d be Eleanor St. Vincent, high school graduate. Mitchell had been right. She could do this. Maybe she’d tell him, after she did. She’d send him a note saying thank you.
She closed her eyes and groaned. Yes, she was going to be that pathetic girl who couldn’t let go. She could see it already.
The garden was filling. As her grandmother was sponsoring this event for the local environmental group she wanted to show off the garden. This was a daytime party. Dressed in a light blue sundress that fit tightly over her breasts and hips despite her recent weight loss, she supposed she looked presentable enough. She finished the look with a pair of strappy sandals and made her way downstairs.
She’d gone through this kind of thing before. Maybe, if she was lucky, she’d get to hang toward the back of the party and slip into the back with the staff and go upstairs about mid-way through the event. No one would notice.
As long as no one did, her grandparents wouldn’t care. It was all about how things were presented, not how they actually were inside their home.
Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Kim, and then she vanished. Clearly, the Enforcers were better at hiding in plain sight than she was. Or maybe their magic let them go invisible. Most of the guests floated through the air. For now, Eleanor was going to stay on the ground. It took a lot of her magic to manage to float. She’d save it for another occasion.
The serving trays were floating, and unlike the institute, there was no one here to hold them. She grabbed a drink. Alcohol went right to her head and that was just what she wanted. One drink to take the edge off.
“Look dear, it’s the granddaughter.”
She sighed. She’d been spotted. Turning around, she plastered on a smile. Okay, she was on. Disappearing would wait for a little while. At least this particular couple had said the granddaughter and not the crazy one.
What were their names? Oh yes, Carol and Tag Browning. He did something in textiles. Somehow, she’d get them talking about that.
A hand slipped onto her back, and she jumped. The guy she’d been talking to for the last hour—or better said, who had been talking to her—was named Newt. Or that was his nickname? She wasn’t sure. His eyes widened, and he stepped back as Eleanor turned to see who had touched her.
For a second, she was sure her eyes deceived her. Mitchell? What was he doing there? Without any thought for propriety, she threw her arms around his neck. “Fuck. I’m so glad to see you. Oh, sorry. I cursed.”
He laughed, squeezing her back before he let her go. “I’m glad to see you, too.”
“How are you here? Oh do you know Newt?” She turned, but Newt had scampered off.
“I do, actually. That’s why he ran. His father owes my father some money.”
Well, then that made sense. “That’s why he spent so much time with me. I’m sure he’s been offered a sum to marry me.”
Something unreadable crossed Mitchell’s eyebrows. He took her hand in his. “Can you fly?”
“For very short periods of time.” She’d never seen him fly. Walking was required at the Institute.
“Take my hand. You can fly from my power.” She must have made a face because he grinned at her. “Trust me. I’ve done this. You can use my power to stay afloat.”
His ex had been cursed with no power. He had to have done this with her. Okay, she let him lift her up, and sure enough, the breeze of his magic kept her above the ground. It was easy, it didn’t even hurt. She wasn’t overexerting.
“Thanks.”
“Stick with me, babe. This is easy.”
She laughed. “What are you doing here?”
“The Sharpe Foundation got an invitation from your grandmother. Usually, they send a check. This time they’re sending a representative.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You?”
“Maybe their representative needed to see with his own two eyes that you were okay.”
Music danced through the air. Had it been playing earlier? She hadn’t noticed. But now it moved through her. “I wasn’t sure I’d see you again. Ever. I wasn’t sure you wanted to talk to me the other day.”
“I wanted to figure out how to get here. It was easy, but… I couldn’t just show up. Well, I could and would have. I was just hoping for an angle so you weren’t subjected to gossip.”
He looked so handsome. He’d worn a black sports coat over a green shirt and a black pair of pants. In the fading sunlight, his hair combed back showed blonder than she’d realized he had. “You are so beautiful.”
Mitchell shook his head. “That’s my line. I was going to say you look beautiful. I’ve never seen you in clothes outside of the uniform at Prestige. You look… so beautiful. But then you said it first.”
She smirked at him. “I guess I’m faster to the draw than you. Or maybe you look more beautiful than I do so it struck me faster.”
“Maybe I was dumbstruck looking at you and couldn’t get my words out.” He raised his eyebrows slowly. Wow, she had missed those eyebrows, and it had only been a day since she saw them.
“I think if you can come up with the word dumbstruck, you’re not that way.”
He groaned. “Men aren’t beautiful. Women are.”
“Men can be beautiful, and you certainly are.” He wasn’t going to win this one.
Mitchell tugged on the edge of her hair. “Now that you’re out, there are some things I want to talk to you about. Maybe we could do some research together. I… Sorry, I just thought I saw someone who I haven’t seen in a long time. The woman who took the hex off me. Her name was Kim.”
“The Enforcer? You saw her. Good eyes. Yes, she’s here.”
His head snapped around fast, and his eyes darkened, holding her gaze steady. “Why are the Enforcers here? Is there danger? What’s going on?”
“Ex-Enforcers. My grandfather hired them to watch me. They can subdue me if anything goes wrong. It’s how he proposes to keep me out of the institutes.”
A muscle ticked in Mitchell’s jaw. “Then the faster we work this out the better. I’ve been doing some research on why someone might start speaking ancient languages. There’s no clear-cut answer here. But it’s fascinating.”
She smiled at him, even as sadness settled in her spine. They’d talked about beauty and now they’d gotten to the crux of it. They were friends, although he knew, and probably dismissed her crush on him, and that was that. She fascinated him. Intellectually. Because in the throes of the worst times of her life, she couldn’t even remember she spoke an ancient language.
Why was this bothering her so much? Well, because she wanted to be beautiful in the fading sun. Not, a problem to be solved.
“Mitchell,” she interrupted him. He’d been telling her what sources he was going to use to read about speaking in ancient tongues. “Can you set me down?”
He looked at the ground like she’d confused him and then back at her. “Sure. Are you okay?”
She floated down slowly, touching the ground as easily as if she’d always been standing on it. “I need another drink.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll get that for you. Stay here. I do have some manners. The woman needs a drink, Mitchell. Pay attention.” The last two things he said more as a mutter to himself. She never had more than one drink of alcohol, but tonight she needed two. What had her stupid heart thought? When he showed up here, it was out of some need to be near her for romance? Who was she kidding? He’d been kind. He’d tol
d her she was pretty, after she’d said it, and now they were down to business.
He was her friend. He cared about her and wanted to solve this problem. He was her friend. There was nothing wrong with any of that. She didn’t have friends.
Forget romance. She wasn’t made for it anyway.
“You know Mitchell Sharpe.” Stefan’s voice startled her, and she jumped. “Sorry, people don’t tend to hear me coming. Old habits die hard.”
She laughed, her hand coming to her throat. Whatever he was or wasn’t doing, Stefan was a threat to anyone who got in his way. That knowledge was pure prey to predator understanding. Everyone would be on the wrong side of the food chain against him.
“I… yes, I know Mitchell.” She wasn’t going to elaborate. It was no one’s business that he’d been in the Institute. She felt free to talk about it to anyone who would listen. She’d been called out too many times publicly to hope for any privacy with it. But she wouldn’t betray Mitchell’s ability to determine who knew what about his life. “We’re friends.”
Stefan nodded. “I see. I wanted to check because we have some history with him. Not negative per se, but we wanted to make sure he’s here from your invitation and not because he’s looking for us.”
“My invitation. Well, technically my grandparents. His family. My family. Money deals. Or something.”
Stefan cocked his head to the side. “I went to school with him. Not that he’d remember me. I wasn’t in the same crowd, at all. He was very rich, very popular, very taken with the then named Ava Blakely—these days Ava Abramowitz.”
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