Rob’s cheeks grew warm. “I’ve learned a few tricks.”
“You are more than slightly shady,” John said. “You always have been. And you’re tough, and you have a lot of magic. You’ve just forgotten who you are.”
Megan frowned. Rob glanced sideways at his best and oldest friend.
“What are you referring to?” he asked. “I’m a lot of things. I’m a displaced lord, a retired highwayman, a former Crusader, a widower, a billionaire playboy, and—apparently—someone slightly shady. What else?”
“For heavens’ sake, man,” John said. “You’re not just those things. You are a hero and a champion just like the Fates say. And you’re a leader of men. You always have been.”
Robin shook his head. “If there’s anything I’m not, it’s a leader of men, John. I’ve fought those creatures.”
“No, sir,” John said. “You’ve led me and Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck and dozens of others. You’ve led regimens and corporations. You’re a leader, Robin, and you always have been. All you need is the modern equivalent of the Merry Men.”
Thirty-one
Robin should have thought of that all on his own. He leaned back in his chair, Megan still touching his side, everyone in the room staring at him.
He had been the one who had been approaching this as if he had to go in alone, and he hadn’t thought of his usual team. Of course, everyone from his usual team—with the exception of John Little—had been dead a very, very long time.
Rob rubbed a hand over his face, mostly so that he had something to do so that he wouldn’t have to look at the Fates. He could still feel them, though, staring at him expectantly.
They thought life and death rested on this. They did say politics was involved (and that was pretty plain, now that he thought about it), and they claimed they needed a champion, not that he really wanted to champion those women.
But he could champion Zeus’ daughters—not for their own sake, of course, but for Megan’s. She really believed in him.
She was gazing at him fondly, as if she was already a step ahead of him. And of course it made sense that in this, she would be. It had to do with emotion, which was her forte. At the moment, it certainly wasn’t his.
“So how do you suggest I recruit these men?” he asked John. “There aren’t any forests around Las Vegas. And I have a hunch that if I walk around the city looking for enemies of the Faerie Kings, most people will think I’m referring to a rock band.”
John was glaring at Rob as if he were particularly obtuse. Then he shook his head. “I’m putting food on the table. If no one wants to eat, fine. I’ll eat it all myself. But you’re welcome to join me if you want.”
He stomped into the kitchen.
“What did I say?” Rob asked.
Megan smiled at him. Her smile was gentle. “You’ve already recruited.”
“Technically,” Travers said, “Rob was recruited.”
“Into a preexisting band,” Zoe said.
“I thought you guys were out of this because of your wedding,” Rob said.
“We have planning to do, that’s true,” Travers said.
“But we got our license.” Zoe smiled at Travers. There was deep love in that gaze. It made Rob smile, even though he hadn’t felt much like smiling in the last few hours.
“Travers and Zoe aren’t the central focus, but you do need a team,” Clotho said.
“We expected you to get one,” Lachesis said.
“And John Little is right. You have already one,” Atropos said.
John walked past them, carrying a steaming pot of chili. Kyle got up and headed for the table, grabbing a trivet off a nearby table on the way.
“I don’t see how Travers, Zoe, and John are a band,” Megan said. “You had more than that initially, didn’t you?”
That question was aimed at Rob. He was watching John and Kyle, and noticing how well they worked together.
“Yeah,” Rob said, feeling distracted. A plan was coming together in his head whether he wanted it to or not.
“Won’t it take more than four people to take on an entire kingdom? I mean, you had more to go after a sheriff.”
“He was in the pocket of the Pretender, King John,” Little John said as he marched back through the living room. “You people gonna eat or what?”
The Fates all stood up. Kyle was already at the table, fending off the obese dog. Travers stood, and extended a hand to Zoe, who took it.
“Why aren’t you participating in your own rescue?” Rob asked the Fates.
They smiled prettily at him, and oddly, not a one answered.
John came back through, this time carrying fresh baked bread. Everything smelled heavenly.
Rob’s stomach rumbled again. He stood, and took Megan’s hand. She squeezed his.
“I wish I could help,” she said softly.
“Oh, but that’s part of the plan, dear,” Clotho said from the table. She had sat beside Kyle and was petting that misnamed dog.
Rob frowned at her. “Megan can’t go near Faerie, and you know it.”
“We know nothing of the kind,” Lachesis said, sitting on Kyle’s other side. Didn’t that make the poor kid nervous? It would have made Rob nervous, and he’d known these women for centuries.
“Why can’t I go with you?” Megan asked. “Surely there’s something a mere mortal can do.”
“You’re not a mere mortal, dear,” Atropos said. She sat beside Lachesis and reached for the bread without waiting for the others to get to the table. “Whoever told you that is just wrong.”
Megan let go of Rob’s hand, although he kept holding hers. Her fingers were limp in his hand, but he didn’t let go. He was almost afraid to.
She didn’t need to learn about her skills like this. He made a small gesture with his free hand, but no one seemed to see it.
Travers sat next to Clotho, and Zoe sat beside him, which put her at the head of the table.
“No one told me I’m a mere mortal,” Megan said as she slipped her hand from Rob’s grasp. She headed for Zoe’s free side. “I figured that one out on my own.”
Rob stopped, clenched his now-empty hand into a fist, and then walked a bit more slowly to the table.
Travers was looking at Megan as if he’d never seen her before. “You know, the more I’m learning about Great-Aunt Eugenia and our entire family, the more I’m thinking maybe the Fates are right.”
“Of course we’re right,” Clotho said.
“Have we ever been wrong?” Lachesis asked.
“You dumped your magic for a really dumb reason,” Kyle said.
All three Fates glared at him. Rob’s breath caught. If they still had magic, Kyle would be a toad now.
“I agree with Kyle,” John said, coming in from the kitchen again, carrying butter and some Tabasco sauce. He sat down at the foot of the table, leaving the chair next to Megan open. “You guys really let Zeus pull one over on you.”
“We…” The Fates all started that sentence in unison, then looked at each other and sighed.
“We know,” Atropos finished for them. “You have no idea how embarrassing it all is.”
“I know how dangerous it is,” Travers said. “I’m not letting Zoe go back into Faerie, no matter what’s at stake.”
“Like you’re in control of me,” Zoe said.
He looked at her. “Are you going back in?”
“Are you crazy?” she said. “I didn’t want to go in the first time.”
Rob shook his head. He sat down next to Megan. John was already ladling the chili into bowls. It was thick and dark red, filled with beans and big hunks of roast beef, just like John’s chili always was.
Rob’s mouth actually watered. He hadn’t had this in so long, and it was one of his favorite meals.
“I can’t go in with a skeleton team,” Rob said. “I’d need Travers to guide me to that wheel, and I’m going to need John’s help to get it out.”
“Wait,” Megan said. “I’m still
not sure what you all mean by the fact that I’m not mortal. I don’t have magic.”
“Women come into their magic after, y’know, menopause, Aunt Megan,” Kyle said, his face as red as the chili. “Didn’t anyone tell you that?”
“You haven’t come into your powers yet?” Travers asked. “That’s why you never turned me into stone like you always threatened.”
“She’s got her powers,” Clotho said. “You all have never noticed.”
“I noticed,” Rob said.
“We know.” Lachesis waggled a finger at him. “And thank heavens you’re soulmates, or you would get a lecture on using her talents to your advantage.”
Rob felt fear rise in his stomach. He didn’t want Megan to find out this way. “I didn’t—”
“What’s she talking about?” Megan asked.
“Darling,” Atropos said. “You’re the rarest of the rare.”
“All of magic is only blessed with one a generation,” Clotho said.
“If we’re lucky,” Lachesis said.
“And no matter how hard they try,” Atropos said, “not a single one has ever been born in Faerie.”
Rob glanced at Zoe. He wanted her help to stop this. But she was watching with fascination, and he realized that she was such a young mage, she had probably never met anyone like Megan before.
She had no idea what she was looking at.
“One what?” Megan asked in exasperation.
“You’re an empath, darling,” Clotho said.
“The most vulnerable, and most powerful of us all.” Lachesis smiled at her.
“Blessed and cursed among women,” Atropos said.
“And,” Clotho said, “the center of the magical universe.”
Rob looked at her. She hadn’t noticed when the Interim Fates had called her that. But she was noticing now.
Her eyes were lined with tears. “Don’t make fun of me.”
“We’re not, darling,” Lachesis said.
“You’re rarer than Kyle,” Atropos said.
“Kudos to Eugenia,” Clotho said. “She knew how to assemble the perfect family. We had our doubts.”
“But she proved us wrong,” Lachesis said.
Megan turned to Rob, her cheeks red. “What are they talking about?”
He took both of her hands. Damn the Fates for doing this in public. Damn them for putting him in this position.
“You absorb emotion, Megan,” he said. “You probably always have.”
Travers’ face had gone pale. “Is that why we fight? Because you feel how pissed off I am and then you get pissed off?”
Megan shook her head. “This can’t be true. If it were true, I couldn’t be a psychologist.”
“Actually, that’s what makes you a good one,” Rob said. “Somewhere along the way, you’ve learned to block some of that emotion, but you still feel it. So when someone tells you how he feels, you know whether or not he’s lying.”
Megan frowned. Was she comparing what he just said to what he had told her before?
“The Interim Fates told you what you were,” Rob said. “But you didn’t ask me about it.”
He was feeling a little panicked. She was being so quiet.
“I thought they were being snide,” she said.
“Because they called me hottie?” he asked, forcing a smile.
She shook her head. “You are. But they weren’t the most polite people.”
“Oh, dear,” Clotho said. “Fates should be polite.”
“On what planet?” John asked, and this time, Rob’s grin was real. His gaze met his best friend’s, and John shrugged, a smile dancing at the corner of his lips.
“Why, this one, of course,” Lachesis said.
“Contrary to popular opinion,” Atropos said, “we have no interest in other planets.”
“What?” Zoe asked.
“You’re side-tracking them,” Travers stage-whispered.
“We’ve been accused of paying more attention to other planets than our own,” Clotho said.
“We’ve been accused of many silly things,” Lachesis said.
Rob tuned them out and turned toward Megan. She was staring at her chili as if she’d never seen it before.
“Are you all right?” he asked, even though he knew it was a silly question. She wasn’t all right. She was probably as far from all right as she could be.
“What did they mean?” she asked softly. “About you using my talents?”
He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to have this discussion in public. “Can we talk about it after dinner?”
“No.” The word was forceful. The conversation around them stopped. “We have the discussion now.”
He opened his eyes. The tears were gone from hers. Her expression was cool.
“Really,” Atropos said, “we have more important things to deal with.”
“Like who rules other planets?” Travers shook a spoon at them. “Sometimes you people just don’t know when to quit.”
“Stop it,” Megan said. “I just asked a simple question. I want one straight answer.”
She looked at Rob, and she was going to ask it again.
“How did you use my talents?” she asked.
“Oh, child,” Clotho said, “it’s not as devious as it sounds.”
“Unless, of course, he thought of it first,” Lachesis said, mostly to the other Fates.
“Which we’re sure he didn’t,” Atropos said to Megan.
Rob held up a hand. He wanted them to stop talking. He wanted to tell her this.
“You felt his emotion, dear,” Clotho said. “Which is a danger of being an empath. You can be seduced by someone whom you’re not attracted to.”
“But that’s not the case here,” Lachesis said.
“After all,” Atropos added, “you are soulmates.”
Megan’s cheeks had grown so pale that Rob thought she was going to pass out. “Is this true?” she asked—not him, but Zoe.
Zoe met his gaze, and he saw panic in her eyes. Then she looked at Megan and shrugged. “I’m new to this. You’re the first empath I’ve ever met.”
Which was no help at all. It felt like a dodge, which, of course, it was.
“It’s true,” John said. “But Rob’s not like that. You might’ve met some other guys who were, but not Rob. And honestly, you can’t blame the other guys either, especially if they were mortal. I mean, if they were mortal, then they couldn’t manipulate like that because they had no idea what you are.”
“What I am,” Megan repeated. She nodded. “What I am.”
She set her spoon in her dish of untouched chili.
“I’m going to leave the table,” she said. “I need to think. Don’t talk about important things until I come back.”
Then she grabbed a piece of bread and stood up.
“Megan,” Rob said.
But she didn’t look at him. She didn’t look at anyone. Instead, she put her head down and walked from the room, very slowly, as if her entire body hurt.
The dog followed her, its tail at half-mast, almost as if her need for comfort was more of a draw than his own desire for food.
Travers stood, set his napkin beside his plate, and started after her. Zoe caught his arm.
“Let her go,” Zoe said.
“But—”
“Let her go,” Zoe repeated.
“She needs space, Dad,” Kyle said. “She always has. Remember?”
Because she was an empath. Because the only way she knew her true emotions was to distance herself from other people’s.
Somehow she had learned that much. Despite her lack of training, she had learned a little.
“I’ll go,” Rob said.
“I think you’ve done enough,” Travers said.
Rob felt the anger he’d been suppressing rise. “What does that mean?”
“Using my sister’s abilities to seduce her? That’s pretty low, even for a billionaire playboy.”
“It wasn’t like that,”
Rob said.
“Sure it was,” Travers said. “She was easy, wasn’t she? I’ve read about you. You like to have women dripping off you, and you took the first available one on this little adventure. My sister.”
Rob clenched both fists. He was leaning over the table, facing Travers, whose fists were also clenched.
Rob wanted to leap across the table and strangle that arrogant man.
“If you guys spill my chili, I’ll never forgive you,” John said.
The break was just enough to hold Rob back. He could almost hear John in his head: Words, Rob. We have to learn to work with words.
All right. He would work with words, then.
“Do you think so little of your sister that you believe I’d take advantage of her, and she’d let me?” Rob said.
“She’s been taken advantage of before,” Travers said.
“Maybe because her family never took care of her.” Rob was leaning on the table so hard that it moved slightly.
“We always cared for her,” Travers said.
“Yeah,” Rob said, “that’s why you fight with her so much.”
“I fight with her because I love her,” Travers said.
“And don’t respect her.”
Travers reached across the table and stuck a finger in the center of Rob’s chest. “I wouldn’t talk about respect if I were you, pal.”
“I can talk about respect if I want to,” Rob said. “I’ve shown her nothing but respect.”
“Oh, yeah?” Travers poked his finger into Rob’s chest once more. Travers hadn’t trimmed his fingernail, and the movement sent a small, sharp pain through Rob. “That’s not what I’m hearing.”
“Your sister is an amazing woman,” Rob said.
“I know.” Travers kept his finger against Rob’s shirt. Rob was doing his best to ignore the provocation.
“I wouldn’t be standing here if it weren’t for her.”
“Because you can manipulate her,” Travers said.
“Dad,” Kyle said. The boy sounded agitated.
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