“Hmm.” Phil plopped down on the bed across from me. “Then I suppose it’s no surprise you don’t look all that excited about what these potential suitors might offer.”
“No.” WhathadI been expecting? Celestine hadn’t cared whether I was happy. The only real surprise was that there wasn’t more detail on why she’d thought these particular guys would agree to a lifetime of highly illegal magic.
Or maybe she just hadn’t wanted that part of the files to be obvious to anyone who happened across them. I paused and then waved my hand in a gentle circle over the papers, testing the energy of my spark against them.
A tingling tickled over my palm. Ah-ha.
“There’s a spell on them,” I said. “Let me see if I can…”
I curled my fingers, a little tug, a little twist, and… There.
A scrawl I recognized as Celestine’s handwriting shimmered into sight along the margins of the page. She’d magically charged those notes so it took more magic to make them visible. Very clever, but not clever enough.
According to my stepmother, the guy whose file I was looking at—Samson Evandale—had expressed to her in confidence that he felt it was unfair that the witching women held all the magic. She’d also discovered that he’d been covering up a nasty gambling habit. Pride and public image were his pressure points.
I shuddered. So those were the real criteria my stepmother had been looking for. Resentment and weakness.
I shuffled back to Derek’s file. He’d been sore about losing his family estate to his younger sister. Wanting to shame his parents with his success. That was why he’d wanted Celestine to gift them all that money theoretically from his investments, I supposed. Lovely.Ultimately a coward, Celestine had written.Does not handle uncertainty well. Always keep him a little off-balance.
“What a catch my fiancé was,” I muttered.
“I fully approve of continuing to keep him off-balance,” Philomena piped up. “Steal your stepmother’s strategies.”
I wrinkled my nose. So far I wasn’t sure that had worked out so well for me.
The other guys had similar write-ups. One of them, Killian Sorensen, Celestine had noted as an ideal “emergency back-up” if the original engagement fell through.Wants to claim property back from his niece inheriting. Needs a consort who can bring pressure to bear soon. No need to keep promises made once he’s on the hook.
Okay, I was pretty sure I needed to wash my brain out after this glimpse inside her way of thinking.
Feeling queasy, I closed the folders and tucked them away in their hiding spot. “I need to figure out how to pitch my actual consorts to my dad,” I said. “With a minimum of him freaking out over them being unsparked.” My perusal of those files hadn’t helped at all. If anything, they’d made me more uncertain myself.
“Do you evenhaveto tell him?” Phil asked. “Just get rid of that rake of a fiancé and you can take your time with the rest.”
I shook my head. “He knows as well as I do that I need a consort before I turn twenty-five. If he thinks I don’t have anyone other than Derek, he’ll try to find someone else. There’s no getting around it. He’s going to have to know. At least about one of them, to start.”
Phil pursed her lips. “So who is the most eligible of your no-longer-bachelors?”
I flopped back down on the bed beside her, draping my arm over my forehead. For a second my thoughts slipped to the guy who remained a bachelor—and apparently planned to continue that way, given the way he’d reacted to me this afternoon. Gabriel. The look in his eyes when he’d pulled away from me, almost… horrified. A sharp twinge ran through my gut, remembering.
It was fine if he didn’t want me that way. The last thing I wanted was to pull him into this mess unless he was all in. But the way he’d been talking right before, I’d thought we’d been on the exact same wavelength. I’d been so relieved…
But I’d been wrong. So I’d give him his space and let him decide when he was ready to deal with me again. For now, I had the four guys who had committed themselves to me to vouch for.
“I couldn’t start by telling Dad about Damon, that’s for sure,” I said. “Works crazy hours for sketchy people he’s not allowed to talk about. Would probably say something snarky to Dad within ten seconds of being in the same room with him. That… is going to take some work.”
“The others, then,” Phil prompted.
“Let’s see.” I considered. “Jin might come across fairly well. His dad is an established musician. Jin’s making a living with his own art. Contributing to the community by showcasing other local artists in his gallery. Worldly and well-traveled. I’ve got angles there.” If we just forgot about the whole unsparked thing.
“Seth and Kyler… Their dad owns his own business.” Not that my dad was likely to be impressed by a hardware store. I tapped my knuckle against my mouth. “Ky’s the town tech expert. We’ll leave out the hacking stuff. Seth clearly has a strong sense of loyalty, staying with the family business. Um…”
“You’re not inspiring much confidence at the moment,” Phil said.
I groaned. “I know. I’m just trying to see them through Dad’s eyes. What would matter to him—enough to offset the whole ‘not witching folk’ problem.”
They were devoted to me and they loved me. And I loved all of them. They’d protect me. They’d defend this estate if they needed to. They were risking their lives just by being with me.
Not that they had much choice about that now that the ceremony was already done.