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“Engaged?” Jin said, raising his eyebrows. “Towho?”
I rubbed my mouth. “I don’t know,” I said. “Only I’d guess it’s… someone like her.” Someone who understood the strange things no one liked to talk about that much that happened on Hallowell grounds. Someone she could share those secretswith.
Someone very different from any ofus.
Not that I’d have stood much of a chance with her compared to the other guys even if there hadn’t been that invisible dividing line we never talked about between us and her. I pushed aside that uncomfortable feeling and glanced back atDamon.
“So will you bethere?”
“I’ll think about it,” he muttered, and stalked off the way he’dcome.
Chapter Four
Rose
Isliced my arm through the air and pulled my hand back to my chest, closing it in a fist. My left leg swept behind me with the hiss of my sock against the polished hardwood floor. The silence of the manor’s common magicking room settled back around me. I breathed in and out, slowly but evenly, the way my tutors had drilled into me yearsago.
The witching forms were meant to strengthen and focus the magic inside a witch. If your spark hadn’t lit yet, or had petered out, the movements didn’t do anything other than provide a little physical exercise. But any witch who cared learned the patterns of motion long before they were close to taking a consort. I wanted to be able to make full use of my magic as soon as it wasmine.
I leaned forward into a streak of morning sunlight. The room’s only natural illumination drifted down from a few skylights on the high ceiling. No risk of any curious eyes peeking inside. Just me and the dust motes dancing with me in the air, surrounded by the wood panel walls and the lingering scent of jasmineincense.
Books were my happy place, but now that I could practice the witching forms without a tutor looking over my shoulder, this place was pretty happy too. As I moved through the shapes and stretches, my mind drifted back to all the childhood stories I’d read about great feats of magical power. Raising bridges out of the earth to cross a frothing river. Calling a rainstorm to soothe parched fields and end a drought. Casting a shield to fend off an entirearmy.
Not likely I was ever going to need to do anything like that, but that didn’t make daydreaming any lessfun.
I finished the last in the standard forms set and took a few minutes to cool down. Then I headed down the hall to my bedroom to change. Done properly, the forms could work up a bit of asweat.
“Preparing for your grand entrance?” Philomena said, bouncing on the edge of the bed. “Oh, I can just tell this is going to be a thrillingventure.”
“I’m walking into town to catch up with some friends I played with as a kid.” I peered at the clothes I’d unpacked and hung in my closet yesterday. “It’s not going to be thatexciting.”
“If you say so, Rose. I suppose that means it doesn’t matter to you what you’re wearing when you seethem?”
“No,” I said tartly, “it doesn’t.” But then I spent another five minutes gazing blankly at the closet. A dress would be too… dressy, right? Just to take a walk through town. But I didn’t want to look as if I hadn’t bothered to put in any effort at all. The sweats and tee I had on weren’t going to cutit.
Phil snickered. I shot a glower her way and pulled out my best attempt at a compromise: my nicest pair of jeans and a purple cashmere blouse that would be just warm enough for me to skip a jacket. The material was so snuggly soft I always felt like I’d just wrapped myself in a bundle of cuddly kittens. A little comfort would be good for my nerves, which had already startedjumping.
It was still a half hour off from noon and the walk would only take halfthat.
I combed my fingers through my hair in front of the mirror until Philomena started snickering again. Grabbing my purse, I headed for the door. “Youshould stay here,” I told her, as much good as that was likely to do. You might think having an imaginary best friend would mean she always listens to you. Let me assure you, that issofar from beingtrue.
As I started down the staircase, my pulse hiccupped. Derek was standing in the front hall, speaking to one of the cleaning staff, a slightly chubby young woman with bright red curls namedPolly.
“—nothing of it,” he was saying in his light voice. “I’m glad to have it sortedout.”
“Of course, Mister Conwyn. Thank you.” Polly blushed and then noticed me. She bobbed her head and hurriedaway.
Derek turned, the light glancing off his ash blond hair. When he saw me coming down, hesmiled.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Derek Conwyn, really. He had a softly handsome face with a high brow and light brown eyes that glimmered when a subject caught his interest. Looking at him from above as I descended the stairs, I had an excellent view of his broad shoulders and defined chest. He’d come up from Louisiana, where his family was based, so when he spoke it was with an appealing drawl. I couldn’t complain about any ofthat.
The only problem was I didn’t know him all that well yet. He was from a witching family, he was willing to marry into mine, he liked jazz music and sailing and dropping bad puns when a group conversation got a little tense. The rest would come now that we had more time to spend together without so much company looking on. At least, I hoped itwould.
I didn’t really have a whole lot of choice. If I hadn’t taken a consort by the time I turned twenty-five, the spark of my magic would snuff out forever. Maybe I wasn’t madly in love with Derek, but hewasthe best out of the witching guys I’dmet.
“Derek,” I said, smiling back and hoping it didn’t look stiff. “I thought my dad was giving you the fulltour.”
“Oh, he got temporarily delayed with a business call,” my consort-to-be said. He offered me his hand as I reached the bottom of the staircase, as if I needed help handling that last step. I took it a littleawkwardly.
