Waiting for Magic (31 page)

Better plan, Kee had to admit. Dangerous for Maggie, though. Kee hesitated. “You sure you want to do this? It … it’s not fair to ask you.”

“Why not?” Maggie asked, lifting her chin. “I knew when I accepted Tris I wanted to be a full member of his family. It’s the only one I’ve ever had, really. So I understand why Devin would want to prove he could be of value. I’d like to be of value too.”

Kee didn’t say that Devin had Merlin’s DNA, or that he had gotten a power because he loved a surfer girl who must have the gene too. That was Devin’s secret to reveal.

“Let me go make sure Tris is gonna sleep
really
sound tonight,” Maggie said, turning.

“Better get a coat too,” Kee whispered at Maggie’s retreating back.

*****

Devin pulled Jane’s Civic into the long drive at the bottom of the elevator. With luck he’d have it back before she even missed it. He’d have to clean it up though. He’d lost his sandwich at the freeway entrance, and about had an accident when he had to pull over to barf on the 110. He knew why. He was leaving Kee. He’d heard the stories from the other couples about how painful that was. He felt physically better now that the bond with Kee had faded with a little distance. Mentally, not so much.

He hunched his shoulders against the rain and slid in under the arch of the elevator tower. The wrought-iron gate opened to his touch. He was expected. He carefully located the stairs. He’d be in a hurry on the way out and Pendragon might lock the  elevator down. Then he called the elevator car.

At the top, the doors opened onto the small deck. Rain spattered the concrete bridge over the downslope between the tower and the Pendragon estate.

If he was successful, he’d be gone from the Breakers tomorrow morning. In the hours he’d waited in Jane’s trunk he had made his plans to leave. That, of course, was when the nausea had first come on. He’d have to tell the family he was going, even if he didn’t tell them why, or they’d search for him. He’d have to go off the grid so they couldn’t change their minds. He had some money saved from his summers as a lifeguard. Part of it had bought a bike off Tris. Tris had found him a reliable classic Harley. The rest he’d been using for college before he got the grant. He’d insisted he contribute, though Brian always wanted to pay for everything. He had enough left that he could pay cash for a plane ticket. Hawaii? They always needed people to teach surfing. Maybe farther away: the Maldives or Fiji, maybe Jeffreys Bay in South Africa. Or maybe he’d best keep moving around. He’d go as far as he could now, work until he got enough money for his next ticket and shipping for the bike. The bike was a sentimental mistake, but it would remind him of the Tremaines’ generosity, the love and the refuge he’d found at the Breakers. He’d found a different kind of love as well, of course. The pain of missing Kee would probably never go away. But she needed to get on with her life with Museum Guy, and he needed the distance just to survive.

That’s all he’d be doing: heart pumping blood, lungs sucking up air. He’d never really
live
again. Not without Kee.

He tore himself away from thoughts of Kee and tried to focus on the task at hand. He had to figure out exactly what the Talisman was. He could only hope his sensitivity to the Talisman was precise enough since he’d made love to Kee to let him know where it was. All his other senses were certainly ramped up to eleven. Or maybe Pendragon would show him, if Devin could get him to bragging. Devin might be able to grab it and run. He did have a power that might let him escape. He’d practiced all morning calling the water, a little too successfully a couple of times. Sheesh. What if he’d flooded Hermosa Beach instead of just crashing that wave up against the Palos Verdes bluffs? But he’d gotten better at it. And he could use that as a weapon or a distraction.

He began the wet trek across the wide lawn up to the house. He was more aware than the last time he’d been this way. He could hear things and see things he’d only been able to sense before. The horrible, wet, snuffling sounds, for instance, that came from the back of the house, or the shadows that moved at the edge of his vision. He couldn’t help but feel a prickle down his neck. This house was something worse than just creepy. It was evil.

He wasn’t surprised when the door to Pendragon’s house seemed to open by itself at his approach. Actually, Mr. Green stood behind it, using the door as a shield against the pounding rain that splattered under the portico.
Don’t let your imagination run away with you, Dev.

“Mr. Pendragon is expecting you,”
Mr. Green boomed in his sonorous baritone.

“Yeah. I bet he is.” Devin scraped his boots on the elaborately patterned doormat and strode into the lion’s den. His senses started that overwhelm thing again. That better mean he was near a Talisman. He counted on that. The feeling was both more pronounced and more manageable this time. Devin pressed his lips together grimly. He’d come into his full power now.

Devin hadn’t dressed up this time. Just jeans and boots, a plain white shirt. He shrugged out of his soaked denim jacket. Green took it between two fingers and hung it on a coat stand. Devin ran his hands through his dripping hair.

“Would our guest like a towel?” Green asked.

“I’m good,” Devin said, trying to turn the overwhelming sense of the Talisman into a focused direction. Maybe in the basement where the collections were? There had been chalices.… He cast about. No luck. He just had a sense of heaviness, of nearness.
Uh-oh.
He might have to get Pendragon to show it to him. That might have a price.

“This way, then.” Mr. Green led the way into the library where Pendragon had received them the last time they were here. The heaviness grew more oppressive. Nausea and faintness washed over him. Not as bad as last time. He took a breath. Okay, better. But the Talisman was near. Devin looked around, trying to figure out if there was a direction to his feeling of heaviness, but he couldn’t discern one. The room was full of stuff. One of Pendragon’s crystal balls sat on a table that looked like it was made for backgammon or chess or something. Mist moved inside the pale green globe. Decanters and glasses sat on the sideboard. Knickknack things were everywhere. Maybe he was imagining the whole Talisman thing and the house was just haunted. If ever there was a candidate for a haunted house, it was this one.

“Hello, Devin,” Pendragon said, switching his long cigarette holder to offer his hand. He didn’t rise, though his cane was near at hand. He was wearing another black smoking jacket with big gold embroidered flowers that matched his pale hair. His eyes raked Devin’s body and Devin was sorry his shirt was wet and probably transparent. He took the proffered hand and shook it. Pendragon’s grip was firm and warm. But it still made Devin shudder.

“Cold?” Pendragon asked, his eyes never leaving Devin’s body. “Why don’t you get out of those wet clothes?”

Not on your life
. “I’m good, thanks.”

“Well, sidle up to the fire at least.”

That actually sounded good. Devin backed up to it. That way he could keep an eye on Pendragon too. “Thanks.” Was it Pendragon’s cigarette holder? That looked a little like a wand.

“I thought you might bring your so-charming sister,” Pendragon said.

“She was busy tonight.” Devin searched the room with his gaze. No chalice-looking thing, unless you counted Pendragon’s cut-glass whiskey tumbler. Or what about that shallow bowl-looking thing with a base made of nude figures? Nah. Not old enough. Art deco. He could thank Kee for what knowledge he had of artistic styles.

“Well, no matter. I’m sure we’ll have a fine time without her. Or perhaps she’ll join us later.” Pendragon cocked his head. “You seem different.”

Devin’s attention snapped back to Pendragon. Could Pendragon know what had happened with Kee? Well, he’d just take the offense then. “I … I guess I’m just a little nervous. Those things outside, you know. I don’t think they were there the last time we were here.”

Pendragon lifted his brows. “You could see them?”

Devin swallowed. His offense might just have revealed something he didn’t want Pendragon to know. “Almost. And I heard the snuffling around at the back.”

Pendragon’s eyes glowed with intensity. He took a puff from his cigarette. “They
were here last time. Only those with power can sense the Old Ones. You
are
changed since your experience at the river.”

If Pendragon knew what happened at the river, he knew what Devin’s power was. That would take away any advantage of surprise. He cleared his throat. “Old Ones?”

Pendragon laughed. “I told your older brother I had an alternative security system.”

He might have known. “What are … they?”

“The ones who lived here before.” Pendragon waved his cigarette holder blithely, as though he were talking about the family that sold him the house. “I told you this property was located on a church, or rather a cemetery. Or both.” He chuckled. “A gateway really.”

This was bad. The house
was
haunted, in a particularly horrific way. Devin didn’t like that Pendragon was telling him all this so easily either. Pendragon didn’t seem like someone to spread his secrets around. Well, Devin was probably toast anyway. He didn’t have anything to lose. “I figured you used them to protect the Talisman.”

Pendragon’s eyes snapped from the glowing tip of his fancy cigarette to Devin’s face. “Refreshingly direct,” he murmured. He got up, grabbing his cane, and limped over to the fireplace. “Everybody seems to want a Talisman. And what would you do with it?” A small table sat next to a wing chair. Pendragon leaned over to pick up an ornate silver box. A tarot deck was also spread out over the small table. Devin recognized the Magician card, the Wheel of Fortune, and the Ace of Pentacles.

Pendragon was magic, all right. The whatever-they-were outside were proof. And he knew the tarot. So he had a Talisman. Was it a Pentacle? Is that what the Ace of Pentacles was saying? And what the hell was a Pentacle? The card just showed a coin with a star inside it. He hadn’t seen any coins in the basement. But you could hide a coin anywhere.

“I think my family could use it to do good in the world.”

Pendragon chuckled. “Why would I want that? Doing bad in the world has much more potential. That’s why I’ve invited Ms. Le Fay here for later tonight.”

Morgan was coming here?
Shit.
Better get the Talisman and get out quick. “You don’t want to mess with her. She’s bad news,” he said, hoping to cover his dismay.

Pendragon got a wistful look that surprised Devin. “You’re probably right. I’m like a moth to the flame.”

Devin had no idea where this was going, but Pendragon seemed to be in a confessing mood. “Then why get involved with her and the Clan?”

Pendragon tried to rearrange his expression into bored indifference, but a shadow of pain still lingered there. “Boredom. Or loneliness. After a long life, sooner or later one has no peers, no one to understand the powers you wield. I admit I had fallen into a dangerous ennui before I discovered Morgan and her delightful makeshift family.”

“Uh, I don’t think Morgan would make a great BFF.”

“How would you know? What are you, twenty? We both practice dark magic. Perhaps we’re made for each other.”

“You mean a match made in hell?”

Pendragon chuckled. “Something like that.” He offered the open box to Devin. “Snuff?”

Didn’t snuff go out in the eighteenth century or something? “Uh, no thanks.” He wasn’t taking anything off this guy. Not food, not snuff,
nada.

Pendragon shrugged and then did a strange thing. “I never really liked it myself,” he said, and tossed the contents of the box onto the fire.

Devin looked around to the fire in surprise. Smoke billowed up as the snuff caught. Pendragon had moved off. “Too bad you didn’t bring your sister,” he was saying. “I’m sure Ms. Le Fay would have loved to meet her.”

The fire crackled in very pure green and blue colors behind the billowing smoke. The smoke smelled like tobacco, but sweet, and like some strange spice too. It was too much for the flue apparently, because the smoke was rolling into the room. Devin backed up, choking a little.

“What is that stuff?” The green and blue fire glowed. Devin found his movements slowing down. Everything was slowing down, really. He turned his head to locate Pendragon. There he was. Across the room. Pendragon had a red silk handkerchief held to his nose and mouth.
Uh-oh.
He pulled on the old-fashioned bell rope. He was summoning Green.