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A small risk against a big one. I had to takeit.
Breathing slow and even and trying not to think about what I’d just read, I set the stack of paper back in the box and replaced the lid. Then I slid the box onto its shelf exactly where I’d found it. Derek’s contract I carefully folded until it was small enough to fit in my jeans pocket. I wasn’t going anywhere without it on me, not until I could show it toDad.
I walked back to the door on wobbly legs. Shouldn’t I be relieved? I had what I needed. I’d gotten what I’d comefor.
But reading the terms of my stepmother and my fiance’s agreement so starkly laid out had hit me harder than any suspicion could have. The way they’d written about me, as if I were just a tool for them to use as they liked… A shudder rippled throughme.
I had two more days to get through, two more days of pretending I didn’t know, to protectmyself.
And underneath both of those concerns, the dread that had been nagging at me from the first moment I’d suspected Celestine squeezed around mygut.
I had my proof. I had the means to convince Dad to break my engagement and see that Celestine was banished from our lives. But I still had no idea what happened after, when I had no consort and no real hope of finding another to properly kindle mymagic.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rose
Pulling Celestine’s spell back into place over the lock took almost all the magic I had left. I pressed it steady against the deadbolt and paused, bowing my head. My breath was coming quick from the effort, a light sweat cooling myskin.
Despite all those practice exercises I’d done, all those forms I’d propelled my body through, nothing completely prepared a witch for magic usage. In time, I’d find it came easier andeasier.
If I kept myspark.
The tiny glimmer that remained sent a tickle of sensation down to the base of my belly. A memory flared up, as hot as my spark had been last night. Damon touching me there, then filling me socompletely…
Even if being with him hadn’t lit my spark, I’d have wanted to do that again. Oh, yes,indeed.
And not just with Damon. What would it be like to come together with Kyler, or Seth, or Jin? Or all of them, all at once? A flush washed through me as I headed down thehall.
Philomena would have called me a wanton for thoughts like that. But she’d have said it with a smile and a wink, like acompliment.
I had been planning on going downstairs and into the gardens, to bask in the sun a little and pretend that any warmth coloring my cheeks was coming from the outside. But just before I reached the stairs, I spotted Derek on his way up. My heartlurched.
Derek Conwyn hereby declares that he shall govern Rose Hallowell as hisconsort…
A man hasneeds…
“Rose,” he said with his usual smile, as if nothing could possibly be wrong. By my light, he was such an actor, wasn’t he? I guessed Celestine must have been looking for that quality when she’d chosen heraccomplice.
I made myself smile back, but my heart was still jumping like a trapped frog in my chest. The folded contract in my pocket might as well have been burning a hole through my thigh. “Hey! I actually just— I promised one of the records people I’d get some info tothem—”
I motioned toward my bedroom. Maybe I should just not talk for the next hour… or day... orcentury.
But Derek bought my weak excuse. “Of course, don’t let me stop you. I thought maybe we could look over the seating chart beforedinner?”
The seating chart. For the wedding. The wedding that was absolutely never going to happen. A slightly hysterical laugh twitched in my chest. I managed to hold itdown.
“Yes, sure, that soundsgood.”
I ambled over to my room even though every muscle was urging me to bolt.Thatwouldn’t look suspicious atall.
The second I’d closed the door behind me, I walked to the bed and collapsed on to themattress.
“Does that mean your covert mission went well or poorly?” Philomena inquired from where she was standing overme.
“Both,” I muttered. I pushed myself into a sitting position. “My stepmother and my fiancé are scheming to turn me into their puppet. I can prove it to Dad now, but I have to play along with them until he’sback.”
“Can’t you just disappear until he returns?” Philsuggested.
