The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes Read online

  It was the Borgia pendant, a huge rich amethyst, set in silver and looped on a silver chain, the violet catching the light from the setting sun through the window. It felt alive in her hand, and her fears, the ones she thought she’d banished, came rushing back. She put it down on the table, backing away from it. ‘I don’t want it.’

  She was too rattled to realize he’d moved, scooping up the pendant, or she would have tried to get away, but he simply put one hand on her shoulder, stilling her, and placed the pendant around her neck. She could feel the weight settle between her breasts, and it vibrated against her heart, warming it, like a fire glowing inside her. And then he kissed her.

  It was the last thing she expected – the touch of his mouth against hers – and he pulled back, looking as startled as she felt. She stood frozen.

  ‘Ah, shit,’ he said, and catching her face in his hands, he kissed her again.

  It was like nothing she’d ever felt before, and she reached for him, holding on, afraid she might fall. A swirl of color, greens and blues and lavenders, all dancing around in her head as he kissed her, with slow, deliberate thoroughness. Charles preferred closed-mouth kisses-

  But Elric didn’t. He stroked the sides of her face until she opened her mouth for him, and he used his tongue, kissing her with a slow, deliberate care that left her shaking, cold and hot. She had no choice, no thought but to kiss him back, sliding her arms around his neck, pressing her body up against his, the living amethyst between the two of them, between their hearts, and it glowed, burned, sang, as she closed her eyes and let herself sink into the breathless wonder of the kiss.

  She didn’t know what would have happened next if the ferret hadn’t scampered across her foot. She jumped away from him, banging her head against his jaw, and looked around her in dismay. Two ferrets, six mice which should have been white but were instead varying shades of purple, and Pywackt, staring at her in haughty disdain, a deep lavender himself, before he started after the mice.

  ‘You’ve got to stop doing that,’ Elric said. ‘There are already too many rodents in this world.’

  Lizzie ignored him, scooping up the mice before Py could get them. A moment later she was holding flowers in her hands, the same roses that had been residing in the now empty vase, and she realized she hadn’t transformed the silver this time. She stuffed the flowers back into the vase, but by this time the ferrets were a pair of leather shoes once more, though Py seemed determined to prove otherwise.

  ‘That’s a step in the right direction,’ Elric said in a cool voice. At least you didn’t cross elemental boundaries this time.’

  ‘I did that?’

  ‘You did. I, however, was the one who turned them back. I think that’s the first thing I need to teach you. How to undo the messes you make.’

  She would have argued with him, but she had something more important on her mind. ‘Why did you kiss me?’

  He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Maybe you just needed kissing.’

  ‘Don’t do it again,’ she said.

  Except that he really did have the most melting smile. ‘I can’t promise that. But not unless you want me to.’

  ‘Then I’m safe,’ she said firmly.

  ‘I wouldn’t count on it,’ he murmured.

  It made her stomach jump in anticipation. ‘Are you going to teach me or not?’ she demanded, half shocked at her cranky tone of voice. Elric the Magnificent was enough to try the patience of a saint, and she was feeling less and less saintlike.

  ‘I’m going to teach you,’ he agreed. ‘Everything I know.’

  Lizzie wasn’t even going to consider why that sounded so deliciously frightening. All she knew was that she didn’t want to change things, even if she could.

  ‘What?’ Xan said, glaring down at the see glass on the table. ‘The hell you’ll teach her everything you know!’

  A loud sneeze made her jerk up so fast she almost knocked the glass off the table. ‘How did you get up here this time?’

  ‘Well, it wasn’t easy,’ Maxine said, looking perturbed. ‘Somebody had put a brick in the portal, some big ol’ shiny invisible thing, and-’

  ‘What do you want, Maxine?’

  ‘Boy, you look good.’

  Maxine’s eyes were frankly admiring, and Xan was in a place where a little frank admiration was welcome, so she relaxed.

  ‘Thank you. Now what do you want?’

  ‘Is that dress silver? Like real silver?’

  ‘Yes. What do you want?’

  ‘You goin’ out tonight? Like to a party?’

  ‘A gala at the Kennedy Center with a small party of friends afterward.’ With Vincent for the last time. Knowing Elric was near was speeding up the inevitable. Every man paled beside Elric, but Vincent became invisible. And after tonight, all his power taken, he’d be dispensable, too. Used up. Discarded.

  Xan began to feel almost cheerful.

  Maxine sneezed again.

  ‘Maxine, can’t you take something for that?’

  ‘Allergies,’ Maxine said. ‘I’ve always had ‘em, not the regular kind, the doc can’t figure out what I’m allergic to, but it’s worse in here.’

  Magic, Xan realized. I picked the only person in Salem’s Fork who’s allergic to magic. She sighed. ‘Did you have something to tell me, Maxine?’

  ‘Yes. Did you know that Danny knew Dee in college?’

  ‘No, he did not.’

  ‘Well, he said he did,’ Maxine said, as if it were irrefutable.

  ‘He lied to you, Maxine.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Men do that. Was there anything else?’

  ‘Well, he’s not in love with her. I asked, and he said to give him time.’

  Xan sat back. ‘You asked. He just got into town this morning, and you asked if he loved her.’ Maxine nodded. ‘I thought-’

  ‘Don’t think, Maxine. It’s not good for you.’ Xan took a deep breath. ‘Now that you’re here, I have a job for you.’

  ‘Okay,’ Maxine said. ‘You want me to slip him a love potion? I bet you make a great love po-’

  ‘Maxine, he’s her True Love. He doesn’t need a love potion. He’s destined to love her. They all are. I cast the spell to find their real loves. It’s fate. It’ll happen. Leave them alone.’

  ‘Right.’ Maxine nodded. ‘Got it. Still, a love potion. Couldn’t hurt.’

  ‘Maxine.’

  ‘Don’t mess with fate. Right.’

  ‘Someone else is messing with fate,’ Xan said grimly, looking down at the Fortune house. After I expressly told him not to.’ You were supposed to take her powers, not teach her to use them, Elric, you double-crosser.

  ‘Whoa,’ Maxine said.

  ‘The bastard never does anything I want him to,’ Xan said, thinking of all the things she’d have liked Elric to do. ‘Oh,’ Maxine said knowingly. ‘A woman scorned.’

  ‘I beg your pardon,’ Xan said.

  ‘What a dummy,’ Maxine said, shaking her head. ‘You’d have thought he’d have gone for it. I mean, you’re no spring chicken, but you’ve definitely got it going on.’

  ‘Maxine, do you want to die a slow, agonizing death?’

  ‘No.’

  Xan waited for a moment, but Maxine seemed to have gotten the point. ‘Lizzie is at home wearing an amethyst pendant. Get it from her and bring it to me.’

  ‘Amethyst…?’

  ‘Purple stone pendant. Get it.’

  ‘Okay.’ Maxine saluted. ‘Uh, Xantippe?’

  ‘No, you cannot give Danny and Dee a love potion.’

  ‘What about Mare?’

  ‘Jude already loves Mare. Go.’

  ‘What about Crash?’

  Xan stared into the see glass, trying to find Elric. ‘Who?’

  ‘Mare’s old boyfriend. He’s a mechanic who’s living in Italy and he came back to town and proposed to her at the Greasy Fork at lunchtime.’

  Xan turned her head slowly to look at Maxine, standing there in her diner uniform w