Absolutely Captivated (22 page)

“What’d he mean about the raw magic?”
Kyle asked, still clutching the pillow.

“Magic can be stolen,” Clotho
said.

“Especially,” Lachesis said, “from
people who don’t have theirs under control.”

Travers wasn’t sure that was a bad
thing. “So?” he said. “Who’d miss what they didn’t know they
had?”

“You are at the most risk, Travers,”
Atropos said.

“You have had your magic so long that
it has integrated into your personality,” Clotho said.

“If you lose the magic,” Lachesis
said, “you will lose yourself.”

“Hmm,” Zoe muttered.
“I thought that was
my
problem.”

The Fates ignored her, but Kyle gave
her a frightened look.

His boy was traumatized. Travers
pushed himself off the floor and walked over to his son, putting
his arm around him.

“What about Kyle?” Travers
asked.

“He will be in even more
danger when he turns twenty-one,” Atropos said. “He will have a
great magic. Yours is tiny. But his is already incorporating into
himself.”

Kyle was trembling so hard it felt
like he was having his own private earthquake. Travers pulled him
even closer.

“So what do we do?” Travers
asked.

“Learn,” Clotho said.

“And learn quickly,” Lachesis
said.

“You’ll both need mentors,” Atropos
said.

“Both of us?” Travers asked. “Not just
me?”

The Fates nodded in unison.

Zoe continued to chomp on that piece
of pizza, as if she hadn’t eaten for days. She watched the
proceedings with wide eyes. Travers couldn’t tell if she approved
or not, and for the first time since meeting her, he didn’t
care.

“We believe,” Clotho said slowly,
“that we can mentor young Kyle for a short time until the
appropriate person is found.”

“You can?” Travers blurted. He didn’t
want these women training his son to do anything.

“Mentoring is a complex process,”
Lachesis said.

“Requiring active magic.” Zoe’s mouth
was full, but her meaning was clear. The Fates couldn’t help Kyle
if they had no magic.

“Not in the early stages,” Atropos
said. “When the student has no magic, no magic is needed to block
the errors. Early training is simply theory.”

“But Kyle has magic,” Travers said.
“He can read minds.”

“It is not exactly magic,” Clotho
said. “More of a manifestation of a later problem.”

“Manifestation?” Kyle
asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Zoe said.
“It’s not that important.”

“Are they right?” Travers asked
her.

“You’re checking with someone else
about magic issues?” Lachesis’ back stiffened. In fact, all of the
Fates sat up straighter. Travers wondered what that trick looked
like when the women actually had magic to help them look
taller.

“Well,” he said, “I mean, I’ve never
known you with magic, and—”

Atropos made a sound between a growl
and a sigh. “This has got to end soon.”

“We were too easily persuaded to go
along with this charade,” Clotho said.

“You were the ones who wanted to cook
dinner,” Kyle said, sounding perilously close to tears.

“Not that charade,” Lachesis said.
“The one Zeus perpetrated. The one that has led to those…children.
The one that will allow licentiousness and loveless futures for the
next thousand years.”

“Being a bit dramatic, aren’t we?” Zoe
asked.

“You saw them,” Atropos said. “You
know what we’re talking about.”

“Actually,” Zoe said, “I heard that
you weren’t exactly competent when you took over the
job.”

This time Clotho made the
growly, sighing sound. And it made Travers nervous. He pulled Kyle
even closer.

“We were never that bad,” Clotho said.
“We at least knew our mages, knew our job, and knew our powers.
These children don’t know anything. They’re puppets of their
father’s. If they get the post permanently, everything will be
ruined.”

“Well,” Zoe said, setting her pizza
crust down. “Not everything.”

“How can you say that?” Lachesis’
voice was growing shrill. “After you’ve—”

“Seen them?” Zoe said. “Because I know
incompetence, and even their father will get tired of this at some
point. But that doesn’t mean these girls can’t seriously screw up
in the meantime.”

Atropos sighed. The Fates eased back
down to their normal size.

“What I don’t understand,” Zoe said,
“is what you can do without magic.”

“That’s easy,” Clotho said.

“Not easy, exactly,” Lachesis
corrected.

“But understandable,” Atropos
said.

“All we have to do is find the wheel,”
Clotho said.

“What wheel?” Zoe asked.

Travers was watching all of them
speak, moving his head to track woman to woman to woman. He was
getting tennis neck.

“Our spinning wheel,”
Lachesis said, as if that explained everything.

“Spinning wheel?” Zoe
asked.

“I thought you knew all about our
history,” Atropos said rather bitterly.

“Apparently I don’t.” Zoe sighed and
sat down. She crossed her legs and tugged her skirt closer to her
knee. She looked lovely, even though she was clearly
tired.

“Um.” Travers raised his free hand
slightly, feeling like a recalcitrant school child. “Before we get
too far off topic, can I ask one question?”

“You mean two questions,” Clotho
said.

“No,” Travers said. “I mean
one.”

“But you already asked one,” Lachesis
said. “So you need permission for two.”

He was getting a headache. He wanted
to blame the lingering smell of stinky cheese, but he suspected it
was caused by the heat and an entire day of conversation with the
Fates.

“Okay,” he said, as if he were
humoring a three-year-old, “two questions.”

“You may ask one question,” Atropos
said.

“Then he can’t ask anything,” Kyle
said. “Be fair!”

“We
are
being fair,” Clotho
said. “He wasted one question. Only one is left.”

Okay. There was a circular logic to
that, but not one Travers wanted to explore.

Zoe gave him a sympathetic glance, and
he wondered if she realized that he had just saved her from finding
out what the case was. He wondered if she appreciated his efforts,
or if she had changed her mind again.

“I was wondering,” he said slowly,
“how long you would mentor Kyle?”

“Until Zoe’s done with you, of
course,” Lachesis said.

“Like hell,” Zoe said. “I told you.
I’m not taking on a baby magician.”

Travers felt his cheeks heat. What was
it about this woman that made him feel at turns like a desirable
man and a teenage boy?

“Train him, Zanthia,” Atropos said.
“You won’t regret it.”

“Just like I won’t regret going into
Faerie?” Zoe asked.

“We’re not sure you have to go into
Faerie, dear,” Clotho said. “That’s just where you
start.”

“Huh?” Zoe asked.

“Looking for the wheel,” Lachesis
said.

“Perhaps you two could do it
together,” Atropos said with a smile.

“So that’s it,” Zoe said, as if she
had made a realization. She threw the pizza crust down like it was
a weapon she no longer wanted. “He’s not my true love. You can’t
manipulate something like that. When are you going to
learn?”

“What?” That word came out of Travers’
mouth, and he didn’t recall thinking it, let alone sending the
signal from his brain to his lips. No one had mentioned love
before, let alone true love.

Except Zoe. In the context of never
having any.

Travers’ cheeks heated. “This is some
kind of joke, isn’t it?”

All of the women looked at him. Kyle
pressed closer.

“The magic, the tricks—you
got me to believe those. But you—” Travers pointed at the Fates
“—you lied. You and my sister did collude, didn’t you? On getting
me ‘trained’ and getting me married at the same time. She’s happy
so she wants me to be happy.”

“That’s not a bad thing,” Kyle
whispered.

“I
am
happy!” Travers
shouted, which, even to him, didn’t sound happy at all. He lowered
his voice. “I mean, I
was
happy. I have a great kid and a great life, and I
don’t really want to change that. I’ve been dragged to this city
against my will. I’ve stayed, I’ve done my part, but I’m not
falling in love on command.”

He had to force
himself not to look at Zoe. He hadn’t fallen in love with her.
He
hadn’t
. He
knew he hadn’t. It wasn’t possible. Love at first sight or, at
least, love during the first day—only happened in fairy
tales.

Kyle elbowed him.

Travers frowned. Kyle
overheard that thought and had a point. Or might have a point, if
Travers was exactly sure what Kyle was thinking. (It wasn’t fair
that his own kid had an advantage in this area.) They were in a
place with Faeries—real Faeries, with magic, and everything. And
three women who used to have magic powers, and one woman who still
did.

Maybe this was a Faerie
tale.

“Bingo, Dad,” Kyle
whispered.

“I don’t care,” Travers whispered
back.

“What?” Clotho asked.

Travers sat up straighter.
Zoe was staring at him, her beautiful eyes wide. She apparently
hadn’t expected him to object to being in love with her. And he
wasn’t, really. He was objecting to losing control over his life,
to being manipulated and forced out of his rut and being commanded
to change.

He didn’t want to change.
He liked himself. He liked Kyle. He even liked L.A.

“Dad,” Kyle whispered, nodding toward
the Fates.

They were still staring at him, as if
they expected him to say something.

“I don’t care what you all want,”
Travers said. “I’m my own man. I make my own choices. And if you’re
trying to manipulate me into spending time with Zoe, then that’s
the worst way of getting me to do it.”

“Me, too,” Zoe said, crossing her
arms.

“Stubborn,” Lachesis said.

“Usually that would be the basis of a
relationship,” Atropos said. “Look how much they have in
common.”

It was clear that the Fates were no
longer talking to Travers or Zoe. The Fates were talking to each
other.

“Strong personalities,” Clotho
said.

“Similar belief systems,” Lachesis
said.

“All lost,” Atropos said with a
sigh.

“Lost?” Kyle sat up,
pushing away from his dad. “What do you mean
lost?”

“It’s clear,” Clotho said, “that the
laws of romance are already breaking down.”

“Zeus wants love out of the equation,
and somehow those children of his, through their incompetence, are
making that possible,” Lachesis said.

“Otherwise, the two of you would fall
into each other’s arms,” Atropos said.

“Or maybe,” Zoe said, raising her chin
slightly, “we’re not meant to have a relationship.”

Travers felt his stomach
twist. He didn’t want to be forced into a relationship with anyone;
then again, Zoe was the first person who had interested him in a
long time.

That feeling couldn’t be wrong, could
it? It couldn’t be magically applied, like paint to a wall, could
it? Feelings had to come from the inside, didn’t they?

“Perhaps you’re right,” Clotho said to
Zoe.

“Perhaps we made a mistake,” Lachesis
said.

“It could be us, after
all,” Atropos said.

“We’ve been without magic for so long
now that we might be making errors that we’re unaware of,” Clotho
said.

Then all three Fates
sighed.

“Maybe we’re the only ones who want
the world the way it was,” Lachesis said.

“Now wait a minute,” Zoe said. “I met
those Interim Fates. They’re a disaster.”

“Then at least help us locate the
wheel,” Atropos said.

“And then you’ll take this problem to
someone else?” Zoe asked.

“We’ll take ourselves along with it,”
Clotho said. “Isn’t that what you want?”

Zoe glanced at Travers, and quickly
looked away. Not before he saw something vulnerable in her eyes,
something almost fearful.

“Our lives would be our own again,”
Travers said to her.

“And you can make your own decisions,”
Lachesis said.

“About life,” Atropos said.