Waiting for Magic (28 page)

The old woman’s
yellow eyes betrayed her excitement only by a glitter.

“The blond boy is coming here tonight. I expect he will bring his sister. Give me three hours alone with them, and then you can have them. I’ll produce the Talisman and we’ll form a partnership that will be unstoppable.”

“The blond one is adopted. He doesn’t have the gene,” Hardwick said dismissively.

Pendragon pounced. “So the power is genetic. I
knew
it. That’s why you’re obsessed with Tremaines. It isn’t just revenge. They won’t join you, will they?” He smirked. “And you can’t have rival magic wandering around thwarting you. But you’re wrong. The blond boy
does
have a power. I saw him hold back the L.A. River, which poor Phil didn’t anticipate.”

So that’s how they survived.

The old woman drilled Hardwick with her eyes. She hadn’t wanted to give away that the powers were genetic. But she was intrigued. She could get Tremaines and the Talisman too. Pendragon was only partially right about the old woman’s motivation though. She wanted revenge on Brian and Brina Tremaine, not only for their refusal to join the Clan all those years ago, but because they had children. That’s what the old woman really couldn’t forgive.

The old woman considered. “I accept your offer, Mr. Pendragon. We will return at one a.m. We will dispose of the Tremaines, and discuss our future partnership. And the Talisman.”

He nodded, and his expression was almost as avaricious as the old woman’s.

They gathered their coats and Rhiannon’s umbrella and went back out into the rain.

“No discussion,” the old woman snapped when Hardwick started to speak. “Not of our plans, or what we thought of our dear friend who is not, as it happens, a charlatan, or of anything to do with Tremaines. He has a very effective means of eavesdropping.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

This had been the most horrible day of Kee’s life, hands down. The hangover made her supersensitive to sounds and smells. She could hear everything going on in the house, even from up in her garret. Her sense of touch was aggravated, too. The scrape of her nipples against the old, soft t-shirt under her painters’ work shirt was almost more than she could bear. Her core was swollen and sensitive in a way that should be bad. She put her hand to her heart, over the rash from the scrape of Devin’s unshaven jaw against her breasts, feeling it flutter and thump in turns.

Even the thought of last night brought Devin’s stricken expression up in her memory, the regret in his voice. A little moan of anguish escaped as she clutched at her shirt. She’d hurt him. That was the last thing she wanted. What
had she been thinking, seducing him like that?

He’d been so tender with her. She hung her head. She’d practically forced herself on him, and he’d been gentle and concerned about it being her first time. He’d said it was his first time too. That was a little odd. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t done the deed with Surfer Girl. He was a guy. Maybe S.G. was holding out. Or maybe he
’d lied to spare Kee’s feelings. That would be just like him. He was generous. How he’d gotten that way, Kee didn’t know. She bet most kids who were orphaned spent all their time grabbing for as much in life as they could. Not Devin. He was a giver. She’d had to insist he accept even her friendship when he first came to the Breakers.

Her tears were gone. Unlike the world outside her window, she was dry inside. The frenzy of painting was gone too.
Blank canvases were stacked in the corner. They weren’t the ones that stared accusingly at her. Those would be the pictures of Devin, still arrayed around the room. As painful as they were, they might be soon all she had of him. He’d take his S.G. and run as far away from the Breakers as he could. All because she couldn’t control her lust.

Being a bad girl pretty much sucked.

She gazed out the window at the rain as the hours passed. Darkness fell on the cliffs. Would it never stop raining? Drew and Michael were talking about the effect of the weather even now. That was odd. She shouldn’t be able to hear them from up here.

“Mudslides in the canyons,” Michael was saying. “Malibu and Seal Beach are sandbagged against high tides.
The Santa Monica Pier sustained some damage.”

“This must be the worst El Ni
ño we’ve ever had.” Kee could imagine Drew leaning over her husband as he read the paper, rubbing his muscular shoulders.

“No end in sight.
Storms are stacked up over the Pacific, waiting their turn at us.”

Kee shifted her focus. Her father was talking with Miles, going over some proposal. They’d be down in the office wing. Lanyon was playing something morose somewhere, and the new dog Tammy
had finally named Lancelot was barking at Bagheera. Jane and Kee’s mother were chatting as they cooked. Only the person she wanted most to hear was silent.

She could feel where he was, though. He was in his room. Had been since he came up from the beach this morning.

Wait! Her heart began to beat faster. She could hear the others. That was strange enough, like she was attuned to some frequency her senses hadn’t received before. But she couldn’t
feel
them. Devin was quiet, but she
knew
where he was. She stilled. It was as if there was a band between them, pulling taut to draw them together.

Oh. My. God.
The heightened senses, the attachment that bordered on physical with a man with whom she’d just made love…. It all clicked into place. She started to hyperventilate.

It wasn’t just that she lusted after Devin. He was the One
for her. That sense of connection, of always knowing the other’s location, was just what Tris and Maggie, Drew and Michael described.

She gasped. Her Destiny was her
brother?
Who had been here all along? No lightning strike. No instantaneous revelation.

But he couldn’t be the One. He didn’t have the gene. She must be imaging being able to feel him.
Her brain went into overdrive. Of course. She’d been imagining lots of stuff lately.

She flashed on that night at the river. She’d imagined all sorts of things that night: Devin having swirling blue-green eyes and
behind him a wall of churning brown.

Uh-oh.
How
exactly
had they gotten out of the river?

It came
rushing back. All of it. She’d been lying on the riverbed in the mud when she’d looked into Devin’s swirling eyes. The car had been upside down beside her. The brown heaving background had been
water
all around them. But not engulfing them.
Oh, dear Lord.
Devin’s arm was stretched out, palm up, as though he was holding the water back.

She blinked slowly. Devin had the gene all right, and power over water. She tried to get her head around that.

She loved Devin. It reverberated through her like a thrumming engine in her core.

Wait, wait. Of course she did. Like a friend, like a brother. But then the lusting part came in and now she was just confused.
She’d had sex with a man who was her brother in all but a genetic sense last night, and this morning she was mortified and miserable. Not exactly the nirvana of true love her siblings reported. And she hadn’t gotten a power. No sign of magic other than her acute sense of hearing, and the fact that she could feel Devin down in his room. Maybe if your soul mate was your brother, you didn’t get a real power because you didn’t deserve one.

And what about him?
That expression of horror and regret she’d seen on his face this morning didn’t exactly fit with just having made love to his Destiny. He was miserable too. There was some mistake here somewhere. She wanted to scream.

But he
had
gotten magic. All those years of feeling like an outsider and now he was the one who got power when she didn’t? Why? What was the difference between them?

Her heart sank. S
he remembered his horrified look this morning. Not the look one saw on your true love’s face. So he got a power because his love wasn’t tainted with an impurity like being in love with your sister. And that meant someone else raised his power.

She took a huge breath.
The incident at the river had been after he’d started dating Sybil Whatever-her-name-was. Surfer Girl.

Could fate be that cruel?

Or maybe she deserved her fate. She lusted after her brother and was jealous that he’d gotten a power when she’d been waiting for magic all her life. Hers was not a pure and transforming love. She was bad in a way she’d never intended. Selfish. Small. Real love didn’t start in a bottle of tequila for one thing. She flushed with shame. Devin had let her have sex with him because he was trying to be kind, right up until he couldn’t stomach any more this morning. She was too small a soul for true love.

Was this really the end of her dreams? Something fluttered in her chest. Was it hope or denial? A thought whispered through her head. Maybe she already had magic and just didn’t know it. Maggie hadn’t realized her power for a while. Kee
had to know the truth. She pushed aside an easel and stood in the center of the room.

“Okay,” she said, through gritted teeth. “Come out, come out wherever you are.” She stared at a spot on the wall and clenched every muscle she could find. Nothing. She gasped as she realized she’d been holding her breath. She shook out her arms and tried again. No clenching this time. Just force of will.

After about five minutes she went and sat in the window seat again, empty. Her insides felt numb. Maybe she had half a Destiny. Lust after a brother who didn’t love her back, get the connection and the senses, but no power. Her gene was some kind of mutant.

And she deserved no more.

The yard darkened. The wind whipped the fronds of the big date palms until they looked like hysterical women in the dark and the slashing wet.

A knock sounded on the door to studio. She felt Devin on the move. The imaginary band between them stretched.

“Kee?”

It was Drew. “Go away.”

“Time for dinner.”

She could not face dinner with the family. “No dice.”

“Mr. Nakamura shouldn’t have to bring food up all these stairs.”

Drew
was trying the guilt trip. “I don’t want anything to eat.”

Silence
. Drew finally sighed. “Look, I know it’s hard that somebody tried to kill you. Somebody tried to kill me once, too.”

What?
Oh, yeah. That’s what they all thought she was upset about. Thank God.

“You have to come down sometime, and no one will mention it if you don’t want to talk about it. Mother will keep them in line.” She could practically see Drew’s wry smile. “Everyone misses you. They’ll all be there, including Jane. Well, except for Devin. He took a sandwich into his room. He’s got an exam tomorrow.”

Dev wasn’t in his room. He was down by the garages. But the sandwich meant he wasn’t coming in for dinner. They’d pester her until she complied. That was obvious. “Okay.”

“Good.” But Drew didn’t make any move to leave the door.

“I’ll meet you down there.”

“Not happening. You’ll chicken out. I’m the family’s ambassador and your escort.”

“More like a guard,” Kee muttered.

“I heard that.”

Yeah. Drew had the same hearing Kee now did. No wonder it had always been so hard to keep a secret from her family. But there was one secret she had to keep. She glanced around at the paintings of Devin. She couldn’t bear to destroy them. But no one must see them. Kee heaved herself to her feet. She was stiff and her butt was numb. She picked up the old-fashioned key from the table, turned out the light, and opened the door just enough to squeeze through. Drew looked concerned, but she quickly changed her expression to that of an ambassador thoroughly bored with her assignment. Kee pulled the door shut and carefully locked it. She hoped she could survive dinner.