***Daniel***
Daniel stayed crouched where he was for several minutes before scanning the lawn and standing up. His legs were cramped from hiding in the bushes, but he was sure that Cassie hadn’t seen him. He’d known almost immediately when someone started following him through the passageways, but he hadn’t known who it was.
When she’d opened the door and stepped out, he’d been shocked to see her. So shocked, he’d almost given himself away but managed stay quiet. If he were honest, he’d have to admit that he’d forgotten about her.
He wondered what she’d been doing in the passageway but realized that she’d probably been doing just what he had been: eavesdropping. The question was why she was eavesdropping, why she was sneaking around behind the walls like he was.
When he got back to the barn, Vanessa was waiting for him. “I shouldn’t be here, but Charlie and Steven wanted me to tell you that they’d come down to the barn tomorrow morning,” she said.
Daniel nodded and started to tell Vanessa about Cassie following him in the passageway but changed his mind. “That’s good; I want to talk to them,” he said instead.
“It looks like Charlie has the situation well under control,” Vanessa said, clearly impressed with her.
“Maybe, but I don’t trust Deacon. He’s not going to give up that easily, and I’d like to know where Demetri disappeared to,” Daniel said, “Deacon isn’t the only one we have to be worried about.”
Vanessa nodded her head, “I haven’t heard his name spoken once since I got here, but he’s got to be around somewhere.”
“Well, keep your ears open; he’s going to show up. I’m sure of it,” Daniel said. “Tell Charlie and my brother that I’ll be here in the barn in the morning.”
As soon as Vanessa was gone, Daniel saddled a horse, picked a trail, and began to explore the grounds. He’d learned nothing new from Charlie’s conversation with Deacon except that the man was sick, which meant that he was desperate, but just how desperate he wasn’t sure.
Charlie was a strong witch, able to protect herself, and he had no doubts about his bothers ability to protect them both. But he needed to be prepared, needed to know the area should the necessity to escape arise. No matter how sick Deacon was, the man couldn’t be trusted, could still be very dangerous, and he wasn’t taking any chances.
Chapter Six
***Daniel***
The next morning at breakfast, Daniel told Magnus that he was going to spend the day cleaning the tact room so that he could be there when his brother and Charlie came down. Magnus looked at him suspiciously but let him have his way. “If that’s how you want to spend the day, I won’t stop you, but I’d rather be out riding; have one of the stable boys do it.”
“I don’t mind,” Daniel said, then added, “I need to find out where everything is, and I can’t think of a better way.”
Magnus looked at him skeptically again, but said, “Okay, it’s your choice.”
After a few hours in the tact room, he was thinking that he should have used a different excuse. He was covered in dust and cobwebs, had moved piles and piles of junk from one side to the other, but been unable to throw a single thing away.
Everything either looked useable or like an antique so it was a relief when he heard Steven’s voice coming from the front of the barn. “Is anyone here? We’d like a tour of the barn?” he called.
“It’s about time you showed up,” Daniel said, crossing the barn to give his brother a hug.
Steven hugged him back, but then said, “Are we alone?”
“Yeah, everyone’s gone for the day,” Daniel said, turning to Charlie. “I always wanted to travel, but this wasn’t quite what I had in mind.”
She gave him a big hug, then said, “Thank you for coming. I feel better knowing that you’re here.”
“What are we doing here, Charlie?” Daniel asked. “You didn’t have to come here; we could have solved this without you putting yourself in danger.”
Charlie turned away from him and walked over to one of the stalls and let the horse nuzzle her hand. “Annabelle said the same thing, but I had to come here, Daniel. I had to meet him. He needed to see for himself that the amulet was gone, that it’s become this,” she said, pointing to the dull brown rock hanging around her neck.
Daniel turned to Steven. “You were okay with this?”
Steven smiled at Charlie. “Yes, Charlie has my full support.”
Charlie put her hand on Daniel’s arm. “For the last few months, I’ve been coming to grips with the fact that not only am I a witch but that I have a past I can’t fully remember. There’s still so much I can’t remember, or things that are hazy, and it’s driving me crazy. Deacon is the only one who knows what happened all those years ago; he’s the only one who can tell me what really happened to my mother,” she said, her eyes pleading with him.
“I understand,” he said, giving her a hug. “But you could have told us what you were planning to do.”
Charlie shrugged. “Honestly, I didn’t know I was going to do it for sure until that moment. We went there prepared to destroy Demetri, but... I couldn’t do it.”
“Where is he anyway?” Daniel asked.
“We haven’t seen him since we got to the village; he just disappeared,” Steven said, a worried look on his face.
“I don’t like that,” Daniel said.
“If you want my guess, he’s trying to figure out how Melody hacked into his computers and files,” Charlie said, a grin on her face.
Daniel and Steven both laughed. “I’d forgotten about that,” Daniel said, then asked, “So, what is your plan?”
“I’m going to make Deacon tell me what happened to my mother and then I’m going to take the talisman and leave,” Charlie said, her voice hard.
“What…” Daniel started to ask, but a shadow fell across the barn doors, which were standing open. “Hold on a second,” he said, heading for the shadow.
Just as he got to the doors, Cassie stepped in front of him, and he ran right into her. He could feel her falling, so he grabbed her around the waist and picked her up. She weighed practically nothing, but her body was pressed up against his, and he realized that she wasn’t a little girl but a full-grown woman.
She began to squirm, which to his surprise sent a wave of desire shooting through him. He quickly set her down. “I’m sorry, Cassie, I didn’t know it was you,” he said.
Cassie looked up at him, and a blush spread up her neck and across her cheeks. “No, it’s my fault. I should have called out to you,” she said, then saw Charlie and Steven standing just inside the barn.
Her eyes got big, and she began to back away. “I better go,” she stammered.
“Did you want to go riding? I was just giving a tour of the barn, but if you want to wait, I can saddle a horse for you,” Daniel said, not wanting her to leave.
“Oh, umm... no, thank you. I’d better go before my dad finds out I was here,” she said, then turned and ran back the way she’d come.
Daniel walked back into the barn confused. “That was strange,” he said.
“Who was that?” Charlie asked, a smirk on her face.
“You don’t know?” Daniel asked, surprised.
“No, why should I?”
“That’s your sister,” Daniel said, trying not to smile at the shocked look on Charlie’s face.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Steven asked.
“That was Cassie, Charlie’s half-sister. I guess you two didn’t meet,” Daniel said.
***Cassie***
Cassie was out of breath by the time she made it back into the secret passageway, so she slid the door closed and leaned against it, getting her breath back. When she could breathe again, she headed for her room, cursing her stupidity. But she’d been tired of being cooped up in her room, tired of waiting around for something to happen.
It had never occurred to her that her sister might go down to the barn; in fact, it was the last place she’d hav
e expected to find her. Now her father would surely discover that she’d left her room, and she knew that he wasn’t going to be happy. But it wasn’t entirely her fault; if he’d have just let her meet Charlie, she would have been happy to stay in her room.
When she slipped through the panel in the closet, she breathed a sigh of relief and pulled a stack of boxes in front of it, promising herself that she’d never use it again. Collapsing on the bed, her face buried in the pillow, she couldn’t help but cringe when she remembered running away like a child.
When she’d seen her sister standing in the shadows of the barn, she’d panicked and fled, which at the time had seemed reasonable. Now she wished that she’d stood her ground and introduced herself, acted like the adult she was. That was when she realized that she was more like a child than an adult and that she’d spent her entire existence letting her father run her life.
Suddenly filled with anger, at both herself and her father, she got up from the bed and began to pace her room. It was time she grew up; she couldn’t spend the rest of her life cooped up in this castle like some princess in a fairy tale. Just because she was sick didn’t mean that she couldn’t enjoy life, that she couldn’t experience some of the things she wanted to.
Getting her backpack from the closet, she thought of her aborted plans to escape while her father was gone and realized that she might not have to abandon her plans after all. With her sister here, he’d be distracted; it would be easy to slip away. All she had to do was take a horse and ride to the far side of the grounds where there was a hidden door.
Once she was through the door, it wasn’t very far to the village. She’d have to hide the horse somewhere, riding it into town would attract too much attention, but she’d figure that out later. She wouldn’t stay for long, just a quick visit and then she’d head back, and if she timed it right, no one would even notice that she was gone.
Her anger melted away, replaced by excitement, although deep down she knew that she was still behaving like a child. She pushed that thought away; she was going on an adventure, and nothing was going to stop her. She was going to live life for a change instead of watching it from her bedroom window.
She put the backpack away; the first thing she had to do was figure out the best time to make her escape, and to do that she’d have to visit the barn again. This time though, she’d make sure that Daniel was there alone; she wasn’t risking running into her sister again.
It might take a couple of days, but she was confident she’d find the perfect time to slip away for a few hours, and if worse came to worse, she was willing to take a risk and ask Daniel to help her. Thinking about the handsome American made her heart flutter and her stomach tighten strangely, feelings she’d never had before and wasn’t quite sure what to do with.
She knew that she was feeling attraction, maybe even desire, but until now she’d only read about those feelings in books. One thing she knew for certain: those feelings had made her act like a fool the last time she’d been alone with Daniel, and that couldn’t happen again.
If it turned out that she needed his help, he had to see her as a competent adult, not some simpering little girl. She’d just have to figure out how to ignore those feelings for him, keep reminding herself that he’d never be interested in her, that he’d never want to be with someone who was sick like she was.
Besides, she wasn’t exactly a beauty; her face was too thin, her body more like a boy’s than a woman’s. She knew what she looked like, knew that most men wouldn’t even give her a second look; it was another one of her shortcomings that she’d learned to live with.
She’d long ago resigned herself to living her life alone, knew that she’d never meet a man who would be able to overlook all her inadequacies. But that had always been okay with her; now she wasn’t so sure. Daniel had awakened feelings she hadn’t known she was capable of.
Sitting down on the bed, she grabbed a pillow and hugged it to herself, wondering why she’d never felt this before. Then she remembered her dream and the way she’d felt when she woken up and realized that she had felt them before, for the man in the dream. Smiling at her romantic thoughts, she threw the pillow aside; she was not dreaming about Daniel—that was silly.
She sat there for a minute trying to decide how to fill the rest of her day; she didn’t dare set foot out of her room again, as that would be asking for trouble. But she wanted to know if Charlie was going to tell her father that she’d seen her at the barn; it might help to know what was coming. Her mind made up, she headed for the closet and the secret passageway.
Chapter Seven
***Daniel***
Charlie stared at Daniel, then asked, “What did you just say?”
“I said that was your half-sister, Cassie. I thought Vanessa would have told you about her,” Daniel said, still enjoying their shock.
“Well, she didn’t; we couldn’t talk openly inside the castle,” Charlie said. “Why has no one ever known about her? Where did she come from? Why is she here?”
Steven stepped up next to Charlie and took her hand, “No one knew about you either,” he said.
“But that was different; he abandoned me.”
“Well, I think he’s hidden her,” Daniel said. “She’s sick, has some strange disease no one can treat, makes her weak and stuck in bed for days, although I haven’t seen that happen yet.”
Charlie turned and began to pace back and forth in front of the horses. “I can’t believe I have a sister,” she finally said, then asked, “What’s she like? Is she like Deacon?”
Daniel shook his head. “She looks kind of frail to me, and she’s tiny, you saw her. The only time we talked, she only said about three words.” Then he shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever her deal is, I don’t think she’s much of a threat to us. After today, I’ll be surprised if we see her again.”
Daniel was surprised to find that it made him a little sad to think that he wouldn’t see Cassie again, but pushed it away. She was a distraction, and just because he felt sorry for her didn’t mean that he should do anything about it. Charlie studied him for a second, then began to pace again.
“Just because she looks harmless doesn’t mean that she is; magic can be tricky, Daniel. We can’t trust her; if she shows up here again, see what you can find out about her. I’m tempted to ask Deacon about her, but I think I’ll wait and see if he tells me about her first,” she said, coming to a stop in front of them. “If she’s a powerful witch like Deacon, we might need a little more help.”
Daniel laughed. “If she is a powerful witch, she’s also a good actress,” he said, then when he saw the look on Charlie’s face, he added, “But I’ll be careful, treat her like the enemy.”
Charlie rolled her eyes at him. “Just remember who we’re dealing with,” she said. “I’ll ask Deacon for permission to ride while we’re here, that way we can stay in touch without attracting attention.”
Later that afternoon, Daniel was pleased to be proven wrong when Cassie came sneaking through the back door of the barn. She startled him, and they both let out a little yelp. “Sorry, I decided to come in the back way,” she said, her voice shaky.
Daniel smiled at her, “That’s okay, I was lost in my thoughts and not paying attention,” he said, glad to see her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you got back from your ride the last time. We had a small emergency. Thank you for taking care of the horse; you didn’t have to.”
Cassie blushed. “I couldn’t leave her with the saddle on,” she said, quietly.
“Did you want to go for a ride again today? I promise I’ll be here when you get back,” Daniel said, flashing her a big grin.
Her eyes got big, and she sucked in a deep breath, then looked down at her feet. “I probably shouldn’t, I just... Well, I needed some fresh air, but I’d better get back,” she stammered and disappeared out the back door.
Daniel stood staring after her, smiling; he wasn’t sure why, but Cassie had a way of making him smile. She was so ton
gue-tied when she was around him, he couldn’t help but feel like she wasn’t supposed to be in the barn and wondered if she was using the secret passageway to get out of the castle.
He still didn’t think that she was a threat, but he was curious about her. Deacon had carefully kept her existence quiet for a long time, and there had to be more of a reason than just that she was sick. Unless she was dangerous when she was sick, there was no reason to hide her, and from what he’d seen and heard, Cassie was anything but dangerous, healthy or sick.
But Charlie was right; he had to be careful. He was here to protect Charlie and his brother. Cassie could be helping her father, and there was too much at stake to take anyone or anything at face value here, so he’d watch her and keep his distance like Charlie advised.
***Cassie***
Cassie watched from the trees as Charlie, Steven, and Daniel rode towards the front gates wishing she was with them. She’d woken with the first rays of sun, jumped out of bed, and gotten ready for the day. By the time Vanessa showed up with her breakfast tray, she was so anxious, she practically shoved her out of the room.
Vanessa looked at her strangely. “I’ll come back for the tray and change the bed in a little while,” she said.
“That’s okay; I’ll leave the tray in the hallway. I want to be left alone today, so you can leave my lunch out there too,” Cassie said, inwardly cringing at how bossy she sounded.
Vanessa’s eyes widened a little bit, then she said, “Whatever you say, Cassie. Have a good day.”
Cassie felt bad; she and Vanessa had become friends, and she’d never treated her like a servant, but her need to see her sister again was stronger than her guilt, so she let Vanessa go. She quickly ate her breakfast, and slid the tray out into the hallway, congratulating herself on how well her plan was working.
Daniel (Fairplay Shifters Series Book 6) Page 4
