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I’d done it. Now to get inside. With a whirl and a slash of my arms, I threw myself into the teleportation spell that had served me well in the past.
I was only hopping a few feet this time. The flash of blackness darted past my eyes, and then my feet were jarring against the thick pile of Dad’s rug at the back of the room.
Dad was sitting at his desk. He’d left Derek standing across from him. My former consort-to-be rocked back on his heels, his stance casual but his expression a bit tight as he chuckled at something Dad must have said.
The box of Celestine’s books was sitting by the corner of the desk near my former fiancé, the stack of them looking completely undisturbed since Dad had carried them out this morning. The corner of my conjured paper was still sticking out from the top one.
So Dad hadn’t found it yet. He’d called Derek in for some other reason. I wanted to hear whatthatwas too.
“You don’t have to worry,” Derek said. “Nothing has changed in that regard. It really couldn’t, could it?”
“That’s true,” Dad said with a faint smile. He leaned back in his chair. “I just like to consider all the factors. You and my daughter still seem somewhat… distant from each other.”
What regard? What factors? I itched to shake the answers out of them, but all I could do was watch. Was Derek going to tattle on me, report how I’d pushed him away? Would he want Dad to know that or not?
“From what I saw in Portland, Rose is pretty independent,” he said. “It’s not a surprise that she’s slow to share her trust, is it? But we’ve been getting to know each other, and I know we’re both still committed to the consorting. I’m doing my best to show I’m worthy of the trust she’s already placed in me.”
Oh, was he? I’d hate to see his worst then. My hands clenched. I didn’t just want to shake him now—I wanted to punch that ingratiating smile right off his face.
“I can’t argue that Rose has always been a bit of a loner,” Dad said. “My fault, mostly, trying to raise her out here. But you knew that about her from the start.” He eyed Derek.
Derek spread his hands. “And my comment wasn’t a complaint, only an observation. I look forward to continuing to get to know her better, even if it takes some time.”
Dad made a humming sound. Was that all this was? He’d noticed my hesitation around Derek and wanted to feel out how Derek felt about the match now? They weren’t talking as if they were planning on forcing the issue.
Derek let his hand come to rest on the top of the box of books, and my back stiffened. He’d been eyeing those books earlier. He knew that he’d be in as much trouble as Celestine if their arrangement was discovered by an outside party.
“I do want my daughter to have a worthy partner,” Dad said. “And believe me, I’ll speak up if I see reason for concern. Just as forewarning.” He smiled again, pleasantly enough, but with a glint of steel in his hazel eyes.
Derek chuckled again, less convincingly this time. Dad pushed back his chair and bent to retrieve something from one of the drawers on his desk.
“You’ll have a little more alone time in the next day or two,” he said over the rustling of papers. “I think I’ve pinpointed my wife’s current location. I’ll be traveling out to meet her shortly—my flight leaves in a few hours.”
Moldy cinders. He’d tracked down Celestine after all?
I barely had time to panic over that revelation before Derek’s hand crept right down on the stack of books. Dad swiveled to check something on the shelves behind him, and Derek gave the books a quick nudge, looking through the titles, I guessed. I clamped my mouth shut on a squeak of protest when his thumb slid over the protruding corner of paper under the cover of the first.
He glanced at my dad and lifted the cover. His shoulders went rigid.
No.
I jerked my hand, slamming the cover shut with a burst of magic. But Derek had already snatched out the paper I’d conjured. Dad turned at the sound, and my former fiancé shoved the paper into the pocket of his pants.
No, no, no.
“What was that?” Dad said, and Derek started to make some dismissive gesture, and I wrenched at the magic inside me for a way to turn this situation around. My body shuddered with the surge of frantic emotion.
The spell I’d cast to make me invisible was starting to crack. I glanced down and saw a sliver of my hand. My heart lurched. Dad’s gaze started to shift from Derek, and I swung my arms around myself. With a flash of black and a hitch of breath, I’d whisked myself back to my bedroom.
My legs wobbled. I knelt on the hard floor, catching my breath. My spark still burned, but an ache spread through my chest around it. I was casting difficult spells, with magic I’d had little opportunity to practice before now. It was wearing me out.
What if Derek had realized magic had compelled the book shut? Could he connect that moment to me? I couldn’t go out there this frazzled.
My mind settled on the last place on the estate where I’d really felt secure. I needed that. Needed to ground myself.
I dropped onto the floor and grabbed my secret phone out of its hiding place. My fingers darted over the keypad.Is it safe for me to come?
Gabriel answered a moment later.All clear.
