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The others nodded.
Celeste gestured at Sunny, encouraging her.
Sunny took a deep breath, then related the general events of the evening she and Cullen met—skipping the more saucy details—and then briefly what happened in the marketplace the next day.
Occasionally Cullen chipped in with some of the information she’d overlooked. “Wait a moment,” he said at one point, “you have missed the part of the story where you cursed them and they could not follow.”
Sunny stared at him, and all around the table everyone waited on her response. “Oh, I said something rude because I got annoyed, that’s all.”
“She said strange magical words
and it was as if they stopped in time,” Cullen explained.
Sunny rolled her eyes. “I swore at them in ancient Arabic, that’s what happened. It just came out, something my mum used to say when I was little.”
“How intriguing,” Aveline said.
Celeste and Willow kept asking questions, especially when it came to the viscount’s involvement.
“We think he may be interested in you, Sunny,” Willow said.
“In what way?”
“We suspected you’d inherited your grandmother’s proclivity for magic, and it seems you have, but Fox had spotted it too.”
“I don’t understand, but I can’t argue with it,” Sunny replied. “Things happen that I seem to wish for, and I’m not sure quite how it happens.” She felt her face heating. It was difficult to explain and rather awkward, because she wasn’t really sure what’d gone on. ?
Aveline tapped her elegant, cherry-painted fingernails on the table thoughtfully. “At least we know Cullen was lost to history because you brought him here to the twenty-first century with your magic.”
Sunny’s jaw dropped. “My magic brought him here?”
“Yes.” Willow chuckled.
“But I thought it was your magic, Celeste, or that a wish was granted.”
“In some small part, my magic was involved. Consider me an enabler, or even a mentor who gave you your first proper project.”
Sunny shook her head. “How can I possibly be magic, and how do you even know?”
“When you saw the ship in its true form, for example, that was your untrained magical ability revealing itself, powerfully, perhaps as an innate reaction to injustice in the magical world. Nathaniel Fox was trying to stand in your way, you sensed that.”
“It’s clear to me,” Cullen said with a resigned expression, “Nathaniel was up to no good when he arranged passage for me.”
“Yes, we only knew you were due to sail on a ship.”
“A dark vessel if ever there was one,” Cullen replied. “Sunny showed me its true form.” He squeezed her hand in his.
“Her gift saved you,” Celeste said in a solemn tone. “Her second sight revealed the vessel to be bound for the dark tides.” She turned her attention back to Sunny. “You’re enchanted, in such a way you can stand against one of the most powerful witches to ever set foot in Raven’s Landing, Viscount Nathaniel Fox.”
Willow nodded rapidly, butting in. “That’s why we asked whether you believed there’s magical blood on both sides of your family.”
Sunny’s head was a mess. Every time she thought she had a handle on the situation, it evolved in a different direction, adding to the list of “weird issues to be dealt with” growing in her mind.
“I’ve told you all I know. There isn’t much more. My mother’s father was from a nomadic tribe. They settled in Morocco. I don’t know a lot about them...except they were into a lot of ritualized beliefs, stuff like shamanism, the channeling of energy through one soul.”
Willow broke into a huge grin. “I knew it.”
Celeste reached out and covered Sunny’s hand with her own. “What we need to do now is teach you as best we can and protect you.”
