“But now we know. We’ll figure it out fromhere.”
“I can’t even prove it! There’s no legitimate way I could bring this to my dad.” I waved at the computer screen. “He’d believe her over you. It’s not like I can explain how you figured itout.”
“So we’ll find more proof. Rose.” He raised his other hand to touch the side of my face, bring my gaze back to his. “We can do this.Youcan do this. Look at how much you’ve been able to unravelalready.”
My breath came a little steadier as I stared back at him. “How can you be sosure?”
He gave me a crooked smile. “Because I know you. And I don’t believe there’s anything youcan’tdo, especially when you’ve got us behindyou.”
The gentle contact of his fingers against my cheek sent a wash of heat through me. The faith and admiration in his expression seared right through to my soul. I’d like to say I couldn’t have helped what happened next, but I probably could have stopped myself. It’s just that right in that moment I didn’t wantto.
I leaned across those last few inches and pressed my lips tohis.
Ky’s breath hitched. His fingers slid back into my hair. His lips were warm and the kiss he offered in return so tenderand—
A jitter of energy shot up from the center of my chest, right behind my rib cage. No, not just a jitter—a spark. A flash of magical electricity, so heady it tingled right up to the roof of mymouth.
I jerked back, my body suddenly shaking. How could that—it wasn’t possible. Ky didn’t have a witching bone in his body. He couldn’t have lit myspark.
And yet I could still feel it, sizzling faintly behind mysternum.
“Rose,” Ky said, his voice rough, and I snapped the rest of the way back to reality. Ky didn’t have a witching bone in his body, no, and I had no business kissing him anyway. I was supposed to be getting married in a month and a half’s time toDerek. If I screwed that up, I might as well kiss my magic good-bye. What thehellhad I beenthinking?
I scrambled to my feet. “Thank you,” I blurted out. “For the—the computer stuff. I have togo.”
I snatched up my phone and bolted for the door before I could do anything even more stupid than I alreadyhad.
Philomena caught up with me at the bottom of the stairs. “You couldn’t have interrupted that?” I asked. “Yelled ‘Fire!’? Thrown something at myhead?”
Her smile was both bright and strained. “I’ve never been one to stand between a woman and what she trulywants.”
“I want my magic,” Isaid.
The tingle of energy inside me had already flickered out. Had I even really feltit?
It didn’t matter whether the sensation had been real or my imagination. I couldn’t do that again. I couldn’t let one kiss distract me. All I could focus on right now was uncovering the rest of my stepmother’s plans before it was toolate.
Chapter Ten
Jin
Rose by mid-morning sunlight was my favorite Rose. The soft glow brought out the pink in her pale cheeks and the gloss in her black hair. Seeing her in it made my fingers itch for a paintbrush or a stick of oilpastel.
Of course, there were other Roses I’d never seen. Rose by twilight. Rose when she first opened her eyes in the morning. Those might be even morearresting.
I’d have liked to see them all. But I’d take what I got, which was mid-morningRose.
“I wish I had something better to offer,” she was saying as we ambled down the street to my studio. She’d just finished visiting with my mother, trying to make up for what her family had done wrong eleven years ago. “If I’d known backthen…”
“It’s fine, Briar Rose,” I said before she could go on. “Like the fairy tale, right? You were asleep, unknowing, and now you’ve woken up. What matters is what you do now. That stuff from the past, you can’t let it drag youdown.”
She groaned. “Easy to say, not so easy todo.”
I knew the shadows in her eyes had as much to do with present concerns as anything way back then. “How have things been going with yourstepmother?”
“Oh, you know…” She made a face at the ground. “I’m still playing along, acting like everything’s fine. That’s all I really can do until I figure out more about what’s going on. I just need something obvious I can take to my dad. Once I have him on my side, I’ll befine.”
“And your fiancé?” Iasked.