The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes Read online

Xan straightened, retrieved her hand. Dee stumbled, suddenly off balance and shivery.

  ‘It would be nice to reestablish a relationship with my nieces,’ Xan said. ‘After you think about this, after you decide what you want to do about Danny, let me know. I’ll help any way I can. I’ve spent the last long years making sure I learned how. Correctly, so I can’t hurt anyone else.’

  And just like that, Dee was alone once again with nothing but a sense of sudden cold and the growing suspicion that for once in her life, Xan had told the truth.

  Elric really was gone. Lizzie couldn’t believe it – when she went through her deserted bedroom back into the workshop, there was no sign of him. She’d assumed he’d just been masking his presence, and she closed her eyes and tried to sense him, tried to conjure up the flowing colors he seemed to emanate, but the air was flat and still. She looked down, and she was barefoot. How odd – even when she didn’t deliberately put shoes on, she always ended up with something interesting on her feet. But ever since she took her shoes off last night, she’d stayed barefoot.

  Never in her life had she gone against her sisters’ will -she was the peacemaker, the problem solver, the one to figure out something that would make everyone happy, or at least marginally satisfied. She’d automatically stepped into the middle of the array he’d drawn on the floor the night before, and she could practically feel him around her, hear his voice in her ear. The rat bastard. He’d told Xan where they were. For all his ‘oh, I’ll help you,’ he’d turned around and given them up. He’d lied and betrayed them. Not only that, but he’d sent her fiance off to the ends of the earth, and probably given him amnesia, as well, at least as far as she was concerned.

  Bastard. All that shimmering charm was nothing but a charade, just like her father’s facile charisma, and beneath it-

  ‘Stop thinking so hard.’

  She whirled around. He was standing in the entrance to her workshop, as if he thought he’d be welcome. He’d changed his clothes – whether he’d literally changed what he’d been wearing into something new or had somehow found a new set of clothes, she didn’t know and she didn’t care.

  ‘You son of a bitch,’ she said.

  He seemed undisturbed by her greeting. ‘Don’t overreact. I’m not the only one who’s arrived in this godforsaken little town. If I hadn’t told her, somebody else would have.’

  ‘Who else has she sent?’

  ‘Didn’t you listen to your sisters? Xantippe understands people far too well – she sent exactly the sort of men who’d most distract your sisters. Their soul mates.’

  ‘Is that what you’re supposed to be? My soul mate?’

  For some reason his laugh sounded slightly hollow. ‘I think Xantippe thought you wouldn’t be interested in sex. I was simply going to distract you until she arrived.’

  ‘Why you?’

  ‘I offered. I came to her in the first place – Xantippe always knows things, and I thought if anyone knew what was upsetting the flow, then she would. She told me it was you.’

  ‘And sent you to stop me.’

  ‘I told you, I offered. I have no idea what she wants with you, and I don’t really care. I just wanted to stop you from wreaking havoc’

  ‘And how did getting rid of my fiance serve that purpose?’

  He didn’t look the slightest bit guilty. ‘He was the wrong man for you, and you knew it. I just saved you the trouble of dumping him.’

  ‘Why, how thoughtful,’ she said, acidly polite. ‘So if you were so determined to stop me, why did you teach me things? And don’t pretend that you didn’t – I already feel different. I’m more focused. More powerful.’

  ‘I was afraid of that,’ he said, not sounding particularly pleased. ‘You’re a fast learner. And you’re going to need to know these things sooner or later, I thought I might as well start your education.’

  ‘Why bother? Why didn’t you just seduce me to shut me up?’

  He looked startled. The violet ring around his pupils seemed to have widened, a dark, smoky look that made her think of long nights and purple silk. ‘Would it have been that easy?’

  ‘Would it have been that hard? You assured me you were very good in bed. Wouldn’t it have been simpler to distract me with sex? Unless, of course, you don’t want-’

  ‘Don’t even go there.’ His voice was low, dangerous.

  ‘Go where?’

  ‘You know what I’m talking about.’

  The last twenty-four hours had been a mass of simmering emotions and frustrations, feelings she couldn’t even begin to understand, and suddenly she cracked, the last of her nervousness vanishing. She turned on him, coming right up to him as he filled her doorway. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know why you stayed once you found us, I don’t know why you decided to teach me things, why you sent Charles away, I don’t know why you have such a crazy effect on me.’

  ‘Sure you do,’ he said, sliding his hand behind her neck, pulling her face up to his. ‘You know too damned well.’

  This time she was prepared. He was going to kiss her, and she steeled herself, determined not to respond. Why should she respond? she thought. She didn’t like him, she’d just been engaged to another man, and besides, she didn’t really like kissing…

  ‘Maybe you just haven’t been kissed by the right man,’ he murmured.

  She jerked away. ‘You can’t read minds!’ If he’d been reading her mind for the last twenty-four hours she was in deep shit.

  ‘Can’t I?’ He seemed no more perturbed than if one of her magicked bunnies had hopped out of his reach. ‘Normally I can’t. But every now and then I get a glimpse of what’s going on in your tortured little brain, and it terrifies me.’

  ‘Nothing terrifies you,’ she said. ‘What is it you want from me? You’ve done your job, Xan’s coming. Why are you still here?’

  He shoved his dark blond hair away from his face, the silver earring gleaming against his skin, and his smoky eyes were troubled. Odd, he didn’t seem to be the kind of man who troubled easily. ‘I’m not sure I know.’

  ‘Then go away and don’t come back.’

  He stared at her. ‘That’s what you really want?’

  ‘That’s what I really want,’ she said. Because if he stayed he’d kiss her again, and she couldn’t afford to let that happen.

  It was that simple. One moment he was lounging in her doorway, all golden beauty and shimmering colors, and the next moment he was gone. She put out her hand, knowing she would feel him if he’d simply altered her perceptions, but nothing was there. He’d really, truly gone. Forever, as she’d asked him to.

  And she burst into tears.

  Lizzie worked on transformations, deliberately messing with the fabric of the universe, until finally she had to admit that he wasn’t coming back. When the full realization hit, she ran. She shoved her bare feet into the first shoes she could find, a pair of feathered mules that Mare had drooled over, grabbed her purse and dashed out of the house, slamming the door behind her. The day was dark and overcast, unseasonably warm, and she could feel the storm brewing, the one that had been dancing over their heads since yesterday. The wind had died down, replaced by a sullen torpor that did nothing for Lizzie’s state of mind. She needed cool, crisp spring air to clear her mind, and instead she was assaulted with the onset of a storm that was almost tropical in intensity.

  She hadn’t even planned where she was heading, and the shoes had been a bad choice. High-heeled mules weren’t exactly boots made for walking, and she stopped to look down at them in frustration. If she tried to change them they might turn into ferrets, and she couldn’t very well walk into town with livestock attached to her feet. But high-heeled, feather-bedecked slides weren’t doing her much good, either.

  She could feel his arms around her, encircling her, bringing her own arms into a circle as his low voice breathed in her ear, filled her head and her body with shivery hot feelings. She needed an array, he’d said, but she couldn’t