The Dragon Heir (16 page)

She stiffened. “Josh, I …”

He  rushed  on. “Since 
I  heard you  were  back,  I've been meaning to call you, but…well, you don't have a
phone. I wondered if you might want to go with me. As friends, I mean. You
could see everyone.”

He thought he was offering her
a gift, a chance to hold her head up and show everybody they didn't drive her
off. But she realized she didn't care what they thought. Not anymore. Madison shook
her head. “I don't think so.” She left him standing behind the
counter, hands hanging at his sides.

Grace and John Robert were ten
minutes late for their rendezvous at the Bluebird. And when they showed up,
Brice Roper was with them.

“Hello, Madison,” he
said, sliding right into a seat at her table. He was wearing jeans and a cotton
sweater and a fleece-lined leather jacket that definitely didn't come from
Robertson's. “I ran into Grace and John Robert at the five-and-dime.”

Madison gripped the arms of
her chair, her heart thumping. Josh Hazelton's revelations were fresh in her
mind. But then, Josh hadn't told her anything about Brice that she didn't
already know.

“I'm surprised you didn't
hustle them off to Child Welfare,” she said. “Being as I left them on
their own in town and all.”

Brice signaled the server.
“Look, I said I was sorry.”

“Actually, I don't think
you did.”

He shrugged. “Well, I
meant to, anyway. So, to make up for it, I invited Grace and John Robert to
come over next week and go riding.”

“Let us go, Maddie,
please?” John Robert was practically
bouncing in place, gripping her hand. The
boy didn't know how to hold a proper grudge.

Grace was different. She
wouldn't have forgiven Brice Roper for putting them in foster care. But she
loved horses with the passion only a ten-year-old girl could muster. She'd
mucked out stalls the summer before in trade for riding lessons. And the Ropers
had the prettiest horses in the county. If there was a way to win Gracie over,
this was it. She reverberated with indecision, vibrating like a plucked string.

Madison didn't want to be
beholden in any way to the Ropers. And she didn't want Grace spending time with
the wizard Brice Roper for reasons of her own.

“Absolutely not,”
Madison said, glaring at Brice. “I can't believe you'd even suggest that.
Your horses are for experienced riders. They're not used to kids.”

“But you know I can ride,
Maddie,” Grace protested. Like usual, if Maddie said no, Grace said yes.
“I took lessons all last summer with Mr. Ragland. He said I was a natural
born horsewoman.”

“There's no better
teacher around than George Ragland,” Brice said. “And J.R.'ll be
fine. We always have kids' horses around for the cousins.”

“Pleeeeease,” John
Robert begged, hanging on Madison's arm.

“I said no, and I mean
it,” Madison said, dislodging John Robert. She looked up at Brice.
“You turn the kids over to the county because Mama couldn't find a
babysitter, and then you want me to let them risk life and limb …”

“No problem,” Brice
cut in, just as she was winding up. “I'll just ask Carlene.”

And   that  shut Madison  up,
like  he  knew it would. Carlene wouldn't hold grudges about court dates and
child welfare. Carlene hadn't had to drop out of school and come back home to
bail out the kids. If Brice asked Carlene, she'd let them go in a New York
minute. She liked cozying up to the Ropers' money.

Madison sat frozen, cheeks
flaming. Even Grace and J.R. knew she'd been outmaneuvered. Grace looked from
Brice to Madison, her brow furrowed. “Don't worry, Maddie,” she said
softly. “We'll be real careful.”

“I know you will,
honey,” Madison said through stiff lips.

“Great,” Brice said.
The server was hovering and he scanned the menu. “We'll start with a
platter of wings and onion rings,” he said. “Root beer for everyone.
And then whatever else they want.” He looked over at Madison as she opened
her mouth to object. “My treat.”

No, she thought. This was
supposed to be my treat.

The server hurried off.

“We've got horses that
you could ride, Maddie,” Brice said, putting his hot hand over hers on the
table. “Why don't you come?”

She ripped her hand free.
“I'm busy all week.”

“How about next
week?”

“I'm busy every
week.” She stood. “Matter of fact, I forgot something at the hardware
store.” She nodded to the kids. “Go ahead and have lunch, if you
want. I'll meet you over there.”

But Brice just grinned at
Grace and John Robert like they were co-conspirators. “We'll win your big
sister over yet.”

To Brice it was a game he was
destined to win. But he had no idea the danger he was in. If Maddie'd had a
gun, she would have shot him.

“Alicia! Your young man—what's his name again?” Aunt Millisandra pointed
her bejeweled hand at Jason, who tried hard not to duck.

“Jason,” Leesha
said, perched on the edge of her chair as if she were ready to spring.
“His name's Jason, Aunt Milli.”

They were sitting in a stuffy
parlor decorated with highly flammable pine roping and a dried-out Christmas
tree. The only light came from stubs of candles nestled dangerously in the
greens.

“You're sure it's not
Jasper? I used to know a Jasper. Jasper DeVilliers. He was French, a bit
underpowered, if you know what I mean, but quite the ladies' man.” Aunt
Millisandra fixed Jason with her purple-shadowed eyes, as if expecting to
extract a confession.

Jason shook his head.
“Jason,” he said.

“A peculiar name, Jason.
Would you like another cookie, young man?” Millisandra extended a tray of
charred and soggy shortbread. They'd started out okay, but then
she'd set fire to them while trying to heat up the tea and had to extinguish
them with lemonade.

“Um. That's okay. I've
eaten lots already.”

Leesha's Aunt Millisandra
reminded Jason of one of those dried-up insect carcasses you sometimes found—fragile, like she might crack open if you touched
her. She was about a million years old, the richest woman in town—and a wizard
who'd lost some key cards from her mental deck. Spending time with her was
about as chancy as sitting in the middle of a bonfire with a crate of cherry
bombs on your lap.

“More tea, then?”

“No, thanks.” He
looked at his watch. Nine p.m. “Whoa, look at the time. I had no
idea.” He stood. “Thanks for the tea and all.”

“In for a penny, in for a
pound,” Aunt Milli said, waving her hand and shattering glasses all around
the room.

“I'll walk you out,”
Leesha said, jumping to her feet.

In the foyer, she grabbed his
hand. “Sorry. I thought she'd be asleep by now!” she hissed.

“Guess not.”

“I think she likes
you.”

“If only my name was
Jasper.”

“Look, I know she's kind
of—dangerous—now, but she's my favorite
aunt. She used to take me all kinds of places. Whenever my parents didn't want
me around, she'd always take me in.”

“I could've used a
relative like that,” Jason said, forgetting the usual self-edit.

Leesha stood on tiptoes and
brushed her lips across his cheek, nearly missing. “Bye, Jason.”

“Can't you come out?
There must be someplace we can go.”

Leesha glanced over her
shoulder. “I'd better not.” She'd seemed oddly jittery all evening,
as if she'd had too much caffeine or something. It was almost like she was glad
old Aunt Milli was there to serve as chaperone. As she turned back around, he
noticed that her face seemed oddly misshapen.

Jason grasped Leesha's chin
and turned her face up toward the porchlight. She flinched and pulled away.

“What happened to your
face?” One side of it was swollen, and he could see bruises under the
makeup. It hadn't been apparent in the candlelit parlor.

Leesha turned away from the
light. “It was Aunt Milli. She took out a wall in the conservatory. I'm
afraid we're going to have to put her in a home.”

Were there homes for wizards
with dementia? “Seems like you should slip some Weirsbane into her tea.
She'd be easier to handle if she wasn't always setting things on fire.”

“I've tried that. She can
always tell.” She paused. “Maybe tomorrow we could go to Cleveland or
something. Someplace away.”

Jason shrugged.
“Maybe.” There was nothing else to do but leave, so he left.

He walked home through dark
streets. They'd been to the park twice that week already. In really cold
weather, they hung out at matinees, where they were unlikely to be spotted, or
went back to Leesha's house—er—mansion.
Usually Aunt Millisandra went to bed early, but lately she'd had insomnia, or
something.

He hadn't done so much
sneaking around since he lived back at home with his dad and stepmother. That
seemed like a lifetime ago. It was hard to keep a secret in a
small town. He wasn't exactly answerable to Nick or Linda or anyone else,
except maybe Hastings. He'd just prefer to avoid the lecture if he could. Jack,
Will, Fitch, Seph, Ellen—they all hated
and mistrusted Leesha Middleton.

So why didn't he? Not that he
totally trusted her, but there was a reckless intensity to their relationship
that appealed to him. She was the only spark in an otherwise dismal existence.
Otherwise, he was going through the motions, marking time, contributing
nothing.

Leesha'd had a hard life, in a
way—she'd been an inconvenience to her
aristocratic wizard parents until her escapades in the Trade made her an
embarrassment. She was a survivor, but still somehow vulnerable, and she never
did anything halfway.

He laughed. You are so out of
your league, he thought. It was the story of his life.

When he arrived home, Linda
Downey was in the kitchen, dishing ice cream into a blender.

“Jason! You're just in
time. I'm making milkshakes.” Linda gripped both his hands, warming him
all the way to his toes.

“Milkshakes,” he
repeated stupidly. “I'm glad I came.”

“You've got lipstick on
your face,” she said, reaching up and rubbing it off with her forefinger.

He liked that about Linda. She
didn't ask hard questions. Then he noticed her suitcase sitting by the door.
“You going someplace?”

She hesitated. “I'm
meeting Leander in Britain.”

“Right. Well.
Great.” His face burned, and the words seemed to stick in his throat.
“Bon voyage, I guess.”

He went to turn away, and she
gripped his arm. “Seph's in the solarium,” she said, looking anxiously up
into his eyes. “He's been waiting for you. He needs help with
something.” She nodded toward the back of the house.

Right. Probably wants me to
shine his shoes. Feeling irritable and uncooperative, Jason went to find Seph.

Seph sat next to the windows
reading in a puddle of light cast by a single table lamp. Past the patio there
was a strip of snowy lawn, then a wall that marked the dropoff to the lake. In
the background, the waves crashed in a northwest wind, claiming and
relinquishing the beach.

Seph looked up and marked his
place with a finger. “Jase! Where've you been?”

Jason shrugged. “Here and
there. What's up?”

No answer. Seph sat
motionless, staring into space, like he'd checked out completely. It was like
talking to someone wearing headphones or reading his e-mail at the same time.
Jason knew Seph must be monitoring the boundary.

“What are you
reading?” Jason asked, trying to break in.

Seph looked up, a little
startled. “AP Physics. We're having another practice test next week.”

Jason dropped into a
wrought-iron chair. “Can you really do both those things at the same
time?” I couldn't do one of those things at the same time, he
thought to himself.

In fact, Seph looked bad, kind
of hollow-cheeked and twitchy, and his eyes glittered and burned. “You
sound like Lin…my mom.”

As if on cue, Linda appeared,
carrying two tall milkshakes on a tray. And a big bowl of trail mix.

She clunked a milkshake down
in front of Seph. “Here. See that you finish this. And you can let go of
the boundary in a few minutes. Iris said she'd take over at ten.”

“I'm okay.” Seph sat
up a little straighter. “I can keep it a while longer. Till I go to bed,
anyway.”

“We've already talked
about pushing yourself, Seph. Don't argue.” It was one of the few times
Jason had seen Seph's mother exerting parental authority.

When she went back into the
house, Jason said, “She acts like you're an invalid or something.”

Seph shrugged and looked away.
“Yeah. Well.”

Seph obviously wasn't going to
tell him what was going on. Jason tried again. “She seems kind of
stressed.”

Seph sucked down some
milkshake and set the glass down. “It's the whole deal with being in
charge while my father's away. She'd like to get some more wizards who could
watch the perimeter, to give us a break, but Snowbeard is worried about
trusting anyone new.”

You could try me, Jason
thought. He didn't bother to say it aloud.

“Nick's really fixated on
that stuff you brought back from Britain,” Seph went on. “Linda's
good at managing the other guilds, but wizards always think they should be
running everything. Some of them aren't used to taking orders from an
enchanter.”

Seph seemed to be avoiding
mention of Linda's travel plans, so Jason said, “And now she's going to
Britain.”

Seph nodded while watching
Jason, as if wary of his reaction. “So she's leaving, and she's worried
about leaving me on my own.” Seph leaned his head back. His mind seemed to
drift again for a moment, then he said, “You still wear the dyrne
sefa?”

In answer, Jason fished the
pendant out from under his shirt.

Seph smiled. “Remember
when we used to go out in the woods and practice wizardry at the Havens?”

Jason didn't particularly want
to remember his time at the Havens—especially
what had happened to his father. Plus it just highlighted the magical
performance gap that had grown between him and Seph. He found that contrast
more and more oppressive.

“I taught you everything
I knew. Which wasn't much. And now you've gone way beyond me. But Linda says
you want to ask me something.”

“I need to ask you a
favor.”

“Which is … ?”

“Someone broke into
Maddie's room the other night.”

Jason waited, and when Seph
didn't go on, asked, “Did they take anything?”

“We don't know. I looked
around, but I couldn't tell if anything was missing.”

“What's she say?”

“I can't reach her. Their
phone's disconnected and her cell phone doesn't work at her house. I e-mailed
her, but I don't know when she'll get the message.”

Where's this leading? Jason
thought. “Maybe it was someone who knew she was gone and thought they'd
take advantage.”

“They used magic to blow
a hole in her door.” Seph paused long enough to let this sink in.
“Hers was the only room they touched. And she's got nothing to
steal.” He looked out at the lake. “I didn't want her to leave in the
first place. It's bad enough if they go after her because of me. But if they
know what she can do …”

“What do you want me to
do?”

“Go down there and bring
her back. I'd go myself, but Snowbeard wants me here. Besides, they'll be looking
for me to go. You're less likely to lead them to her.” Seph paused and
cleared his throat. “There's something else. There was something left
behind in her room, a painting with a hex in it, targeted at me. It hit me
pretty hard.”

“Whoa.” Jason stared
at him. That explained Seph's haggard appearance, then. But if he was handling
the boundary, he couldn't be too bad off. “Are you okay? Did the…”

“I'm fine,” Seph
snapped. “But it was Madison's painting. So Snowbeard thinks Madison may
be … may have turned.” He muttered this last, as if he didn't want to
honor it by saying it out loud.

Jason considered this. He'd
known there was something off between Seph and Madison, but he still would've
said they were crazy about each other.

Then again, you had to
consider what Seph was competing against. A Claude D'Orsay or Jessamine
Longbranch could make Madison rich beyond her wildest dreams. Rich enough to
attend any art school in the country.

So he chose the safest response.
“What do you think?”

“What do you mean, what
do I think?” Seph leaned forward, practically shedding sparks. “It's
impossible. She wouldn't do that.”

“Okay, okay.” Jason
raised his hands to ward off harm. “I'm not disagreeing. But still, maybe
it isn't a good idea to bring her back here if she may be…”

“Why would she have gone
back home if she was plotting something? That makes no sense.”

“Well. If she left you a
spell-bomb, wouldn't she want to be as far away as possible when it went
off?”

Seph stood, towering over
Jason. Power bled from his skin and ran in rivulets to the floor, where it
scorched a ring into the flagstones. He looked dragged-out tired, but
hyper-juiced at the same time.

“Hey, man, will you
chill?” Jason said. “I'm not disagreeing with you, just asking
questions. Or is that not allowed?”

Seph glared at him a moment,
then subsided back into his chair, trembling.

Gotta tread easy here, Jason
thought. He tried to think of something harmless to say. “So. Um. Does
Snowbeard know you're asking me to do this?”

Seph massaged his forehead as
if to pry loose a reluctant truth. “It was kind of Nick's idea. He wants
you to go to Coalton County and spy on Madison and find out what the story is.
Is she in danger, or is she working for the Roses or what? Is anyone else
hanging around down there who might be behind the attack on me?” He looked
up at Jason. “So you can do both. Check on those things and bring her
back.” He looked away. “Either way. If she's working against us, we
can't… we can't risk letting it continue. If she's not, we can't risk leaving
her out there on her own.”

And what are you going
to do if it turns out she has gone over to the dark side, Jason thought.

“I'm not exactly the
go-to person when it comes to wizardry.” He shook his head when Seph made
as if to disagree. “Just …don't. Why me?”

Seph shrugged, surrendering.
“I can't leave, and neither can Nick. With Madison, it doesn't matter how
powerful you are. It's almost a disadvantage to be juiced.” He smiled
apologetically.

“Why send a wizard,
then?”

“Well. In … in case she's
… in case there are wizards down there. That she's working with.”