“Keelan, can you and Tammy make sure Mr. Edwards gets back to his quarters?” His mother asked. “And stay with him for half an hour or so.” She said apologetically to Edwards, “The process can leave you a little shaky.”
Kemble was surprised his mother didn’t ask him to do it. Keelan was exhausted. He couldn’t figure out why she came back down after her quick shower. Maybe she couldn’t sleep until she knew Devin was healed. It was now very clear that Keelan was in love with her brother. If the paintings in her garret weren’t certain proof, the look of devastation on her face at the scene in front of the mud sure was. She was in for heartbreak. Devin had a power. He had the gene. That was shock enough. But he must have gotten it from loving somebody else, or Keelan would have gotten a power too. What a mess.
Keelan didn’t complain and neither did Tammy, for once, but left the room with Edwards. Tammy seemed to be looking after her older sister as much as Edwards. Keelan was dazed or something. Was it more than being nearly killed tonight? He sure wanted to know what had gone on in that house.
“Tristram, close the louvers. Maggie, sit down.”
Tristram pushed closed the wood doors that shut off the kitchen from the rest of the house but were rarely used. Their mother put her hands on Maggie and breathed deeply. Tristram hovered near her. Maggie went slit-eyed. She’d be feeling that deep sense of wellbeing you got when his mother healed you if the injuries weren’t too bad. If you had bad ones, it could be pretty painful. Michael had been almost dead before they caught the infection in his wounds down in the islands. Michael called the experience “memorable.” Kemble wondered if it hurt so much because his mother had pulled his soul back into his body.
His mother sat back. “There,” she gasped. “Just a concussion and a scalp wound.”
Maggie was blinking rapidly. “I will never get used to that.” She took a big breath.
Tristram knelt beside her and gave her a hug. “Thank you,” he said to his mother.
“Anytime,” his mother said airily. “Feeling better?”
Maggie nodded. “So you want to know what happened up there, right?”
Maggie was a wise one. Tristram stood up, glowering.
“Yes,” his mother said simply. “I need to know.”
Maggie looked up at Tristram. “Don’t you dare get mad, Tris. Devin went up to Pendragon’s to get the Talisman. Sneaked out in the trunk of Jane’s car. I think he needed to feel like he could do something for the family and he was certain it was up there. Kee was going after him whether I went with her or not. I couldn’t let them go alone. I didn’t know they had powers when we started out, though I suppose that wouldn’t have made a difference. I’d still have gone.”
Had she seen Kee’s power? Devin was right then, that she had one. And he knew who raised it. He had a sinking feeling this was going to get ugly.
“I want to ask why Devin and Kee didn’t call on us for help, but I’m going to save that for later,” his mother said. “I probably know the answer anyway.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” Tristram growled at Maggie. Probably hurt as much as angry.
Maggie slid her hand between Tristram’s thighs and squeezed the one nearest to her, leaning her head against his hip. “Because I had to make sure Jesse had one of us around to love him, no matter what happened up at Pendragon’s house.”
That shut Tristram down. He didn’t say anything. The thought of losing her probably scared him out of his skull, or maybe he was paralyzed because she loved him that much. Pretty humbling. Tristram squeezed the hand that gripped his thigh.
“Well, the first revelation was that Kee could feel where Devin was,” Maggie said. “And that he was being hurt.” Tristram started visibly. Brina took a long breath and let it out slowly.
Double down on the sinking feeling, Kemble thought.
“I realized that on the way. When Kee and I got there, we could see and hear those shadow things in the garden. Pendragon was surprised we knew they were there. Said you had to have power to sense them. Kee sensed them in spades, so that confirmed what I thought about her. Devin was a surprise though.”
And Kemble hadn’t felt them when they were up there the other night. He felt small. His mother looked up at him and lifted a brow in question.
He sighed. “I knew about Devin. He held the water back so we could escape the river.”
“I thought so.” His mother nodded. “Thank goodness,” she added. “Of course, it was water. He’s been fascinated with it as long as we’ve known him.”
“That’s why you gave him surfing lessons, isn’t it?” Maggie asked.
His mother sighed. “Yes. And the fact that he needed something to get him through his grief. He had a tough time. He never felt like he belonged.”
Maggie nodded. “It looks like he belonged after all,” she said, giving a little smile. “Anyway, Pendragon’s creepy butler let us in and took us right back to where Pendragon had … had Devin.” Maggie chewed her lip.
“How bad?” his mother asked.
“He’d been whipped.” Maggie swallowed. “You saw that from where his robe was bloody. But Pendragon had, uh … raped him, too.”
Tristram looked like he was going to punch a fist through the wall. His mother pressed her lips together, shaking her head. “Tough to heal the effects of that,” she murmured.
“Kee pulled out a gun we’d brought and I unchained Devin.”
The abrasions on his wrists and ankles. Kemble wanted to shudder.
“I don’t think she knew she had a power at that point or she would have used it,” Maggie said, hesitating as she considered. “But before we could leave, Morgan and her crew showed up. Pendragon wanted some kind of partnership with her. He could see the future in glass balls and do astral projection. He said he could change metal into gold too, though I can’t vouch for any of that. Pendragon offered us up to Morgan as a gesture of good faith to seal the deal.”
“He must be the one who betrayed us to Morgan when we left his house the first time.” Kemble’s mind leaped ahead. “That may be why he agreed to the meeting in the first place.”
“I’m not sure she ever wanted anything from him but the Talisman,” Maggie said. “She doesn’t seem like the partner type and Pendragon wasn’t going to settle for the position of lapdog. When things went sour between them, Pendragon used the Wand against the Clan and that girl started sending lightning bolts around the room. We were stuck in the middle.”
“Oh, my dear,” his mother said, taking her hand.
“I tried Calming them, but Pendragon had some kind of shield up and he clipped me with the Wand. I was out of juice for a while.” She took a breath and looked around at them. “Kee got desperate and her power popped out.”
“What’s her power?” Kemble couldn’t help asking. Yet another sibling who got a power before he did. And that also confirmed what they’d seen in the attic.
“Hard to describe,” Maggie hesitated. “She can kinda make your surroundings look like whatever she wants. You can’t see what’s real and everything is totally confusing. It almost looked like a painting. It had a canvas kind of texture. First it was nasty looking black and red tangles and then it turned into these curling green vines and … well … staircases. I can’t explain exactly. She sure paralyzed the crew in Pendragon’s house, though.”
“Wait.” Kemble thought back. “There was color dripping off those shadow things when we got to the lawn. Was that…?”
“Yeah. She tried to encase each of them with an intricate design, I think, so she wouldn’t disturb Devin by dousing the whole scene with a new reality.”
“Devin was holding back about fifty feet of mud at that point,” Kemble explained to his mother. “We would all have been suffocated. By the way, where did the mud come from?”
“Uh, I think Devin called it.”
Kemble nodded. “Mud’s just water and dirt, I guess.” He realized now how the isolated tsunami had hit only the peninsula. Devin.
“Devin held off the mud while Kee and I fought off the shadow things. Then everybody came and rescued us.” She looked apologetic. “Morgan got the Wand.”
“One more surprising thing,” Kemble added. “It was Morgan who killed the shadow beasts with the Wand. Drew made us wait for it. I think she’d seen it in a vision. I guess it was an accident. Morgan was trying to get Edwards and me, and she missed.” He paused in thought. “Edwards and his men seemed not to be able to see the beasts at the end.”
“Only people with power can actually see them. At first Kee’s melting visions made them visible. When it drained away…they disappeared, at least to Edwards.” Maggie shrugged. “So that’s the end.”
But it wasn’t the end, and most of them knew it.
Keelan and Devin both had a power. Keelan could feel where Devin was. They all looked around at each other. Kemble wasn’t going to be the one who brought it up.
“Aren’t they both dating other people?” Maggie finally asked. She had guts.
“What so bad about that?” Tristram asked. “They happened to get their power raised at the same time. That saves them the stress of one of them having a power and one of them … not.” He stuttered to a stop. “You know they’ve always done everything together.”
Maggie just stared at her husband like she couldn’t believe he didn’t get it.
For some reason Kemble’s mother turned and looked at him. “Do you know something about this, Kemble?” she asked sweetly.
Uh-oh. Had he looked guilty? He ran a hand through his wet hair. Maybe he could get out of this. “Not really.…”
His mother stood. “I think you do.”
Drew pushed open the louvered doors and threw herself onto one of the stools at the bar. “I do,” she announced in that supremely self-confident Drew fashion.
His mother looked a little exasperated but Kemble was only relieved. Let Drew take the heat for revealing the secret.
“Kemble and I broke into her studio. Paintings of Devin everywhere. And they’re really good art—way better than anything she’s ever done.”
Kemble watched the others take that in.
“She was always painting pictures of us,” Tristram said slowly.
“What kind of paintings?” his mother asked. She didn’t even reprimand them for violating Keelan’s private space.
Drew stilled. Now she was not so cocky. “Different,” she finally said. “Different than the ones she used to do.”
His mother nodded. “And now back to Kemble. I know you know something about this.”
God, he was a coward. He actually felt himself backing away. His mother got that relentless expression. Then she softened. “Look, Kemble. You aren’t betraying anything. The cards have been saying it for months, maybe longer if I’d known how to interpret them, which I apparently didn’t until it was too late. I just want to be sure before I go try to fix this.”
Kemble had never been so relieved in his life. His mother was going to fix it. “I … uh, think … that … they may have, uh.…” He couldn’t say it. Not to his mother.
“Very well. Devin’s room?”
He nodded dumbly.
“Not bright,” his mother sighed. “But then you never are when it first happens.” She got a fond look. “It’s so strong.”
Tristram’s eyes got big. But Maggie had the same look on her face as his mother.
“You mean…?” Tristram started. “I mean, Kee and Devin…? We always called them the Kee/Devin Consortium, but we didn’t mean….”
Maggie punched him in the thigh. “They’ve been friends forever. It happens. And they’re not really related.”
“So distantly it doesn’t matter, at least biologically” his mother agreed absently. “Still, to them, it would matter. She’s lived with him like a brother, and when relationships change it can be hard to accept.”
“He’s sure been distant lately. Surfing at night, taking risks.” Jane had told him there was something wrong with Devin. Why hadn’t Kemble been talking to him before the thing with Keelan happened, rather than just trying to involve him in looking for the Talismans?
“With Brian always going on about incest.…” Brina sighed.
Kemble remembered Devin’s shame when he realized Kemble knew. Devin realized it was wrong. But the bonding of their genes would explain how the lapse had happened. How could you break that bond? Could his mother help them go back to the way things were before?
“She might be fixed on him, but he could have gotten his power from that girl he’s been teaching to surf,” Drew said slowly.
“Whom we have never seen,” his mother reminded them.
Uh-oh. “Jane says Devin made her up,” Kemble ventured. He could see by everyone’s expression that he’d delivered the coup de grace. Jane’s opinion meant something.
“I do wish Jane were here,” his mother fretted. “She’s always so sensible about how to fix things like this.” Even his mother depended on Jane.
It suddenly occurred to Kemble that his mother was not going to try to “fix things” by keeping Keelan and Devin apart. He tried to get his head around that. And what would Senior say? He very nearly shuddered. How would his mother fix that?
Speak of the Devil.
His father walked into the kitchen and heaved himself down in one of the chairs at the kitchen table. He stared at his wife, looking almost helpless. Well, that was something new.
“Did he tell you about it?” his mother asked.
Senior shook his head. “I’m awful at this, Brina. I was afraid anything I said would just make him feel worse. Maybe we can have Maggie Calm him.…”
“Nope,” Maggie said. She never had a problem standing up to Senior, which always amazed Kemble. “We all agreed I don’t use my power on family.” She glanced to Drew and shrugged apologetically. “Michael was accidental.” Drew waved away her apology, intent on the implications of this impromptu family meeting. “And I kinda Calmed Kee up at Pendragon’s house, when she saw what Pendragon had done to Devin,” Maggie added, biting her lip.
His mother looked thoughtful.
“He said he’s leaving tomorrow.” Senior took a breath. “And that he never wanted to hurt us.” He looked around and saw the eyes of his family on him. By now they all knew what Devin meant. His father saw it in their expressions. “So am I the last one to figure it out?”
His mother scooted her chair closer to Senior’s and took his hands. “No.” She smiled. “We’re just pooling our information now. We’re sure about Keelan. She’s got a power to adjust visual reality and she’s been painting pictures of Devin obsessively. We know Devin has a power, but Drew thinks he might have gotten it from someone else.”
Senior shook his head. “No. It’s from Keelan. It was tearing his guts out to say he was leaving just now. He actually vomited. I remember that sensation only too well.”
“Me, too,” Tristram said, with feeling. He put his arm around Maggie’s shoulders as if to prevent her from ever being more than millimeters from his side.
“And I knew her feelings for him had, uh, undergone a change,” Senior continued. “The way she looked at him in front of that wall of mud.… I told her he’d want her to leave him.” He gave a small smile. “She yelled, ‘Don’t you dare die,’ and she wasn’t talking to Kemble or me.” He looked at his wife. “I recognized that look because it’s how you look at me sometimes.”
Kemble could hardly believe Senior was taking the fact that Devin and Keelan were in love with each other without fireworks. Did he realize they’d actually had sex? Kemble thought for sure Senior would forbid the whole thing or something. Apparently he wasn’t the only one.
“So, uh, it’s okay that they’re, uh, together?” Tristram asked.
Senior sucked in a breath and looked to his wife. He shrugged his shoulders. “What can you do? Can’t fight destiny. And he’s not really her brother. I guess if I could pick someone for her, it would be a man as honorable and caring a
s Devin.”
The heaviness in Kemble’s gut was not only jealousy but a hint of the despair lurking in his future because it would never happen for him.
“I agree,” his mother said, rising. “Well, he’s going to leave tomorrow. We have to deal with that.” She glanced to the archway. “Oh, hi, dear.”
Everyone turned in horror to see Keelan’s eyes widen in surprise and dismay. Then she trudged into the room, looking like she carried the weight of the world on those slender shoulders. They were probably all wondering, as Kemble was, exactly how much she’d heard.
“Is Mr. Edwards all right?” his mother asked as though nothing was going on.
Keelan nodded. “He’s asleep.” Her eyes were empty, but as Kemble watched they filled up with pain. “How … how is Devin?”
“I’m going in to him now. You just go up to bed.” His mother bustled forward and turned Keelan around.
His sister made a brief struggle. “Not until I know.…”
“I’ll come up to your room when I’ve finished.” Keelan looked like she might protest. “I’ll bet you’d like a little privacy right now.”
Brilliant. Keelan obviously wanted that more than anything. She just wouldn’t let herself retreat until she knew Devin was all right, at least physically. What Devin had gone through tonight might be tougher to get over than the physical injuries.
His sister nodded and heaved a sigh. His mother gave her a pat and sent her out toward the stairs. When she was safely out of sight, his mother let out a breath. “That was close.” She looked around. “I’ll go to Devin. I shouldn’t have left him in pain this long, but I … I had to know.” She fixed on Maggie. “I know it’s a violation of the agreement. But he’s been through a lot tonight and you were so good with the children at the hospital the other day. Can you try to help him?”
Maggie nodded, and Kemble could see that her eyes had filled.
“Now, Kemble, see what you can do to get Tammy and Lanyon to bed.” With that, his mother strode purposefully out toward the arch to the Bay of Pigs. Usually, Kemble would back his mother against almost any odds. Tonight? She was going to try to get Devin and Keelan together. But Kemble wasn’t totally sure he could accept seeing them in this new light. He glanced around to the others and saw a similar uncertainty from Tristram and Drew. A kind of grim certainty hovered around his father. Only Maggie smiled in satisfaction.
Waiting for Magic Page 28
