"I don"t know." Never having experienced anything like this before, Rose was operating on conjecture and slim logic. "I was thinking you could make a wish every hour after my magic stops working until it kicks in again. Then we"ll know."
Brand lifted his gla.s.s to Rose. "That"s actually a good idea."
"You don"t have to sound so surprised." Rose wrinkled her nose at him. "If you"re both willing, we could try it now. My guess is bigger wishes will drain it faster than smaller wishes."
Sequoia frowned. "What"s the difference?"
"A big wish is something like sending that family to Disney World. I felt that power leave me. A small wish is something like ... say, wishing for Aunt Lizzie"s coffee cake."
"Oh, yes." Sequoia practically drooled. "My mom"s coffee cake. I wish for Mom"s coffee cake, fresh from the oven, right here, right now."
Rose barely felt the pull at her magic, but the item appeared on the table, steam rising from the pan. Sequoia didn"t hesitate to dig into it. "Oh, Lord, it"s warm."
Rose didn"t hesitate to follow her cousin"s lead. Her aunt"s coffee cake was exceptional and requested for every family gathering. But Rose had missed many family gatherings in the past few years.
She closed her eyes at the explosion of b.u.t.ter and cinnamon on her tongue. "Oh, my, it"s heaven. Try some, Brand."
As he took a piece, she waved her sticky hand at him. "Your turn."
He shook his head. "I prefer to avoid making wishes."
The tone of his voice made Rose frown, but he didn"t look as if he were angry with her. "Okay, then, Sequoia, go on."
"I wish for a pitcher of cold milk. Two percent. And three gla.s.ses."
As the pitcher and gla.s.ses appeared, Rose sighed. She was hardly feeling the effect of these wishes. "It"s going to take forever at this rate." "Then we"ll count how many small wishes it takes." Sequoia continued to make simple requests, but on her fourth try she only received eight red roses instead of the dozen she"d wished for. Her fifth wish for a vase to put them in resulted in a shapeless lump of gla.s.s, and her sixth wish went unanswered, as Rose expected when she felt absolutely nothing tug at her. "Well, now we know." Rose beamed. It had worked. Six small wishes could deplete the backlog. "Now you can make a wish every hour until it comes true so we know how long it takes to build up again."
"Very clever, Rose."
Brand"s approval warmed Rose. It had been a long time since he"d told her anything like that. "I had to come up with something. It was too dangerous to run around leaking. Who knows what someone could wish for?" "Exactly." Brand met her gaze, the intensity of his reminding her of his concern last night. "Now you should be safe." "As well as everyone around me." She grinned and his answering smile spoke more clearly than words. He understood. He cared.
Her internal alarm went off as something soft weakened her defenses. Danger. Danger. This wouldn"t do.
Lowering her gaze, Rose devoted herself to her plate. "Yum. Good."
With the meal finished and the table cleaned, they all retired to the easy chairs and couch, groaning about how much they"d eaten. "I think Carter has the right idea." Brand stretched out on the couch. "Slug," Rose muttered, envying him the couch. She couldn"t sprawl nearly as comfortably in the chair.
"It"s going to be a long drive to Dallas. Why not sleep through some of it?" With that, he closed his eyes.
"Actually that sounds great." Sequoia was pet.i.te enough to fit in her chair, but even with trying to tuck her feet beneath her, Rose couldn"t relax enough to sleep. "Fine, you guys go ahead and sleep without me," she muttered. Brand cracked open one eye. "Want to share?" He pushed against the back of the couch leaving a sliver of s.p.a.ce beside him.
For a moment Rose was tempted. To feel his hardness against her again, to smell the scent of his aftershave, to touch ... She shook her head vehemently. "I"ll be fine right here."
His crooked smile twisted her gut. "Coward. Suit yourself."
Closing his eyes again, he drifted off into rhythmic breathing, Sequoia only a minute ahead of him. Rose grimaced, set her watch for one hour, then stared out the window, struggling to keep her gaze off Brand"s slumbering form.
Even asleep, he was handsome, with a relaxed innocence that reminded her of the boy he"d once been- loyal, caring, steadfast with a total devotion to the art of illusion. What fates had directed that desire in his life? Had they known she would one day develop the power he longed for?
She yawned, smothering it with her palm. Had the fates ordained that she would lose her best friend over something neither of them could control?
Stupid fates.
She yawned again, then slept.
Her watch alarm woke her up, jarring her from the fringes of a dream she wanted to rediscover. Jabbing the alarm into silence, she went to shake Sequoia.
"Hey, Tree. Time for a wish."
"Go "way," her cousin mumbled.
"Come on. Just one quick wish."
"I wish Ewan was here." Sequoia rolled onto her side and retreated into a slumber again while Rose stared at her.
Thank goodness that wish hadn"t come true. They were better off without t.i.tania"s messenger in their midst. No doubt he was off conjuring up some sort of spell to trick Rose to return with him.
Or he was planning to use Sequoia to force Rose into compliance.
Rose narrowed her eyes. Tonight she"d have a long talk with her cousin and clear up this infatuation. Ewan was bad news and Sequoia needed to realize that.
After a couple of hours Brand and Sequoia awakened, though Carter continued to snooze away. As the bus covered the miles to their destination, Brand, Sequoia, and Rose reminisced over their childhood days, pausing each hour to let Sequoia make some crazy wish.
At six hours and counting since last magic, nothing yet had happened, which thrilled Rose. The longer, the better. She"d be able to attend Brand"s show now without fear of her magic being used. Sequoia sighed and gazed out the window at the pa.s.sing scenery. "I"m already getting tired of being on this bus. Can we stop for dinner, Brand?"
"Definitely. I expect we"ll reach Dallas about midday tomorrow. We"ll pull in somewhere tonight for a rest."
Rose stood and stretched. "At least the bus is comfy. It could be worse."
"Oh, I know." Sequoia gave a wry grin. "I just don"t like the riding part of it. I want to be where I"m going now."
Brand chuckled. "Some things never change."
"Hey, I used to get car sick, you know. I"ve never enjoyed driving." She sighed. "I just wish we were there now instead of having to drive for another day."
Rose felt the pull on her magic even before the driver cried out, "What the h.e.l.l?"
They all turned toward him. "What is it, Gary?" Brand asked.
"Last sign I saw said Dallas six hundred twenty-seven miles. This one says ten miles. That can"t be."
Brand and Rose exchanged glances. It could very well be. As one mey focused on Sequoia.
She grimaced. "Oh, c.r.a.p."
Eleven.
"I guess six hours is the time limit, then," Rose muttered. A simpler wish would have worked better, but at least now she knew. "You"d better wish us back to where we were, Tree, or Gary is going to discover he really is that close to Dallas."
"I"m sorry. I didn"t think." Sequoia grimaced. "I wish we were back on the highway where we were when I wished us here."
Rose knew without looking that the wish hadn"t worked. She hadn"t felt even a tiny pull and that const.i.tuted a major wish. "We"re in trouble. You used all the magic that had built up with that one wish."
"I don"t even want to try to explain this," Brand said.
"I don"t think you can." For once, Rose wished she had more magic leaking. "But we"d better come up with something. A rift in s.p.a.ce, perhaps?" Brand sent her a dry look and she shrugged. There was no rational explanation for covering over six hundred miles in a minute.
"Now what"s going on?" Gary exclaimed.
"What?" Brand went up to stand by the driver.
"Looks like I"m where I was a minute ago. Sign says six hundred twenty-seven miles."
Rose glanced out the window. The tall buildings of Dallas had disappeared from the distance and the mile markers were more what she expected to see. They"d reverted back to their original position. But how? She hadn"t felt any pull on her magic.
When Brand glanced at her, she shrugged. She hadn"t done this. Who had?
"Must have been a practical joke, Gary." Brand patted the driver"s shoulder, then came back to join Sequoia and Rose. "What happened?"
"I happened."
Rose gasped as Ewan appeared beside Sequoia. "Was this not the solution you sought?"
Sequoia beamed a radiant smile at him. "It is. Thank you, Ewan."
As he presented an egotistical bow, Rose noted he"d changed his clothing yet again, but to something far more normal than a gangster"s zoot suit. He now wore typical blue jeans, T-shirt, and tennis shoes, the ordinary clothing only enhancing his Faeness even more. He radiated magic and sensuality that even she noticed. No wonder Sequoia was infatuated with him.
"Yes, thank you, Ewan," Rose added, succeeding in diverting his gaze from her cousin.
"Experimenting with your magic, eh?" he asked as he lowered himself into a nearby chair.
"Something like that."
"Not a bad idea. I doubt t.i.tania expected you to handle it this way."
Rose sank onto the couch and leaned forward. "That"s because t.i.tania doesn"t have the first idea of who I am. She snaps her fingers and all you minions leap to obey, never questioning whether she"s right or not." Ewan tensed. "I am not a minion. I am Fae." "Same thing." Sparks lit Ewan"s eyes and Rose drew back. Okay, maybe she"d gone a bit too far. Before the faery could speak, Brand sat beside Rose and reached out to clasp Ewan"s hand.
"I forgot to thank you for what you did for Rose," Brand said. "It means a lot to me."
"It was important to Sequoia." Ewan locked gazes with Rose. "Which is the only reason you are now alive. Have you no sense? Even foolish pixies know not to give away their life force."
She winced. "I didn"t know I could give it away. I missed Faery 101."
"If you would come to the magical realm, you would learn many things you do not know."
"No." Rose drew in a breath and tried again in a calmer voice. "It"s not that I don"t appreciate what you did for me, Ewan, but I don"t want to go. There is nothing there for me."
"Yet there is here?"
Rose waved her hand at Sequoia and Brand. "I have my family, my friends, my work. Those are all important to me."
"And in a millenium when they are all gone, what then?"
Pain pierced Rose"s heart. She didn"t want to think about a future in which all those she cared about aged and died. Part of being Fae was being immortal. Even Robin Goodfellow had been gifted with it, despite being half-human, before he gave up all his magic to be with Brand"s mother.
"I"ll deal with that then," she said, hating how her voice shook slightly.
Brand took Rose"s hand and squeezed it-a simple gesture that chased away the chills of the future while Sequoia touched Ewan"s shoulder. "We have a deal, remember, Ewan?" Sequoia asked. His eyes gleamed. "I remember and await my next lesson. Tonight, perhaps?" His tone alluded to horizontal ac tivities that had Rose ready to slap him, but her cousin lifted her chin defiantly.
"Definitely tonight. I"m taking you on a walk through town."
Ewan frowned. "How will that teach me about love?"
"You"ll see." Sequoia settled into the chair beside him with a smug grin.
"Are you sure you want to do that, Tree?" Rose didn"t trust Ewan alone with her cousin.
"Very sure." The sparkle in Sequoia"s eyes promised a dire fate for Ewan, easing Rose"s fears. Perhaps Sequoia wasn"t as affected as Rose had a.s.sumed. "I can handle Ewan. Don"t worry about me."
"What, me, worry?" Rose responded.
"I didn"t say not to worry at all." A wicked grin crossed Sequoia"s face. "You"ll be stuck with Brand, after all."
Rose made a flippant gesture with her hand to disguise the sudden drop in her belly. "Oh, that"s not a problem."
"You sure about that?" Brand asked, his voice rough, a hint of a smile on his lips.
Meeting his mischievous gaze, Rose forced a brilliant smile. "Of course."
But suddenly she wasn"t so sure at all.
Perfect. Sequoia surveyed the tree-lined streets of the small town where they"d taken rooms for the night. With luck, she"d find good examples here to show Ewan. She glanced at him, standing beside her, too good-looking to be true. Mostly because he wasn"t true, not in her world. He belonged in fairy tales and dreams.
Especially her dreams, where he"d played a major role lately.
"Come on. Let"s walk." She nudged him into movement, leading the way toward the small park she"d spotted as the bus pa.s.sed through town.
Evening crept through the trees, the light fading, the air garnering the slight chill that hinted at an approaching winter. Leaves of gold and brown still clung to the trees, slowly losing their battle to remain a while longer. Those that had already fallen crunched beneath her feet as she and Ewan walked along the sidewalk, adding to the unique scent and sounds of autumn.
"What am I supposed to see?" Ewan asked.