Her stomach growled. She was a lot hungrier than she"d realized.
Blackstone grabbed Dex"s bowl and filled it. Dex watched the movements with scarcely any expression at all, but he was suspicious. Even more than he had been a moment ago.
Blackstone was all about subtlety. Dex was not. Dex preferred open, honest reactions, even though he was hiding his own emotions now. He only did that sort of thing in a group like this one, where his honesty might not be appreciated.
Vivian was astonished that she knew so much about him by just a fleeting touch of their minds. They were winking in and out, but she appreciated even the occasional hint of his emotions.
She hoped he appreciated hers as well, because she knew he was feeling them.
Blackstone was working his way around the table. When the soup was served, he sat down.
"I thought Nora was the only woman who saw me clearly," Blackstone said. "I"m sorry, Vivian. I misjudged you, and I handled this situation incorrectly. I forgot the most important thing about our Fates."
"What"s that?" Vivian asked, mostly because she was supposed to.
"That all of their work is about love."
That sounded like New Age bunk.u.m to her. She started to object when Dex put a hand on her knee. His touch sent a tingle through her.
"He"s right," Dex said. "They give us all prophecies when we"re born and we"re to try to fulfill them."
"Lachesis a.s.signs the prophecies," Atropos said, then shrugged. "You know. Dispenser of Lots."
"Although sometimes they"re pretty misleading," Vari said as he reached for the French bread. "Like the one about Cupid. Calling that fat idiot the G.o.d of Love is like calling Ghengis Khan a linker of Countries."
"Actually, Cupid is one of the reasons we"re here," Clotho said.
"Shhh," Lachesis said, looking alarmed.
Atropos bit her lower lip. "I don"t think you can blame our situation in this restaurant on Cupid."
Vivian frowned. Atropos was lying. Purposefully lying.
Did this Cupid person have something to do with the attacks on the Fates? Or was Atropos lying about something else?
"I thought you took care of Cupid," Vari said.
"He"s serving time again," Clotho said. "But he"s been involved in some pretty nefarious--"
"But ultimately unimportant deeds." Lachesis kicked Clotho under the table. The movement was not subtle; everyone saw it.
"So you think Cupid"s the one who attacked you?" Blackstone asked, spooning some soup from his own bowl.
"Impossible," Atropos said. "He"s imprisoned."
"But you mentioned him," Vivian said. She felt a bit odd accusing a cherub whom she thought of as the G.o.d of Love of attacking the Fates.
Clotho shrugged. "We have many enemies."
She seemed so calm about it.
"We have to figure out who is after you if we"re going to help you," Dex said. He hadn"t removed his hand from Vivian"s knee. She had no desire to slide his hand away either.
"I didn"t hear anyone volunteer to help the Fates," she said.
"I just did." Dex gave her a warm smile. It made her feel as if he had volunteered only because she was involved.
"We"re all going to help," Blackstone said, as if he were the one in charge of the others.
"Nice of you to ask our permission before you volunteered us," Ariel said. "I"m training. I don"t have time for this. I have a race in a week."
Vivian froze. That"s where she recognized Ariel from. Ariel Summers, the marathoner. She had an endors.e.m.e.nt contract with Nike, and her picture was on the side of one of the old brick buildings in downtown Portland.
Ariel was really famous. Which made sense, with all the magic available to her.
"Didn"t realize who she was, huh?" Vari asked. His voice was kind, though. He seemed to have softened since Vivian yelled at him.
"I knew she looked familiar," Vivian said.
"It"s all right," Vari said. "And now it"s my turn to read minds. No one knows about us and the magic. I help her train, but I don"t use my powers. That would be cheating. Ariel has no magic."
"None?" Vivian said.
"She has a sort of sixth sense about it," Nora said. "She can see magical edges of things."
"You tend to glow green when you"re thinking," Ariel said to Vivian. "Or maybe it"s when you"re receiving other people"s thoughts. I haven"t observed long enough."
Vivian"s cheeks grew warm. "I didn"t mean to imply that you were doing something wrong."
"It"s all right," Ariel said. "I would wonder the same thing in your shoes."
"And in case you were wondering," Nora said, "you didn"t breathe a word."
"It was just your expression that gave you away," Vari said with a grin. "Don"t ever play poker."
"Oh, I don"t know." Dex liked to use that I"m-just-an-ignorant-cowboy tone. It made him seem less perceptive than he really was. "I have a hunch she"d be really good at it."
He squeezed her knee. Vivian looked at him and got lost in his blue eyes. They were so stunning, and the lashes were so very long. An intelligence shone through his eyes that gave him a confidence most people didn"t have--couldn"t have, really. Most people weren"t that smart.
"If she played poker," Blackstone was saying, "she would have an unfair advantage."
Vivian turned, breaking her gaze from Dex"s. Blackstone had been talking about her.
Nora hit his arm. "If you"re going to stay this grumpy, you can go back to the kitchen. The rest of us have work to do here."
"I"m sorry," Blackstone said, and this time his apology was completely sincere. He turned to the Fates. "Why don"t you tell us exactly what"s going on?"
As the Fates launched into the story for the third time--at least from Vivian"s perspective--she tuned them out and focused on the soup.
It was delicious. The flavor was robust, the vegetables crisp, and the broth just thick enough to give the meal the right texture.
"You know," Dex said softly, his voice sending a pleasurable shiver down her spine, "Blackstone is something of a legend."
Lachesis"s voice rose indignantly as she described the Interim Fates.
"I"ve heard of him," Vivian said.
"No, no," Dex said. "He"s not that Blackstone. From what I"ve heard, that Blackstone stole his name--"
"He"s not a chef, then, after all?" Vivian asked. "I mean, this stuff is good."
Atropos had taken up the story now. She held knives in both hands and brandished them like shears as she described her last few days at the job.
Dex frowned. "Of course he"s a chef. He"s just not the--you"ve never heard of William Blackstone, have you?"
"Vaguely," Vivian said.
Clotho was standing now, waving her arms in big circles, talking about their arrival in Portland.
Vivian listened for half a moment and realized the Fates were telling the same story in the same way using the same language. She wondered how they did that, then decided she didn"t want to know.
Dex scooted his chair closer to hers. "You"re amazing, you know," he whispered.
Vivian flushed, flattered by his compliment. Then she smiled at herself. Part of her felt like she had known him forever, and another part felt like a giggly schoolgirl on a first date. She kind of liked the combination. It didn"t take the uncertainty from the flirting--the what-kind-of-future-would-we-have feeling-- but it added a level of trust that Vivian had never had with anyone outside her family before.
Dex leaned closer. Their heads were almost touching. "You are. They say Blackstone can charm a snake. In fact, they say he has."
"Oh." Vivian wasn"t impressed with Blackstone. Some of this stuff sounded like myths the man had made up for himself. Suddenly a pain flared through her neck. She put her hand on it, rubbed it absently, and the pain died away.
"People don"t stand up to him," Dex said.
"Well, they should." Vivian finished her soup. It was the best vegetable soup she"d ever had. "He can"t always be right."
"That"s what I"m saying." Dex"s shoulder brushed hers. She was so aware of his touch, of the scent of him, of his warmth through his shirt. When he was this close, he made her breathless. "What you did took guts."
"No." She turned her head toward his so that their eyes met. His were open and honest and full of admiration. Hers were probably the same way. She hoped they were. "What "you" did took guts."
He blinked, then broke the eye contact. "I didn"t do anything."
"Oh, let me see." She set her spoon down. "You saved my life this morning. Then you saved the Fates from being roped into oblivion, probably saving their lives. Yeah. You"re right. That wasn"t anything."
He shrugged, the color in his cheeks high. "It"s not the same."
"You"re right, it"s not," she said. "It"s much more important."
"No," he said. "Ultimately what you"ve done is. It shows so much courage--"
"Excuse me," Andrew Vari said. "This mutual admiration society is nice and all, but we"re through with the history lesson. You can start paying attention in cla.s.s again."
Both Vivian and Dex jumped at the same time. The entire table was looking at them. They hadn"t realized that the Fates had stopped speaking.
"Who"s your yenta these days?" Vari asked the Fates.
"I don"t think they need one," Nora said, putting her hand on Blackstone"s.
"Sometimes these things work without divine intervention," Clotho said.
"What?" Vivian and Dex asked in unison.
"Long story," Vari said. "Mostly involving me, a garden gnome, a man in a diaper, and lots of arrows. Not something worth repeating over the lunch table."
"Do you get the feeling we walked in on act three?" Dex said to Vivian.
"It"s not act three." Nora b.u.t.tered a slice of French bread. "This is a whole new play and it"s about the Fates. Ladies, I didn"t hear anything in your story that tells me who is after you."
She directed this last to the Fates, all of whom were on their second bowl of soup.
Vivian took a deep breath. The fluttery, flirty feeling was wonderful, but she had to concentrate now on the task at hand: saving the Fates.
Still, Dex remained close to her, brushing against her side. She leaned into him and listened.
"I think our behavior shows it could be anyone," Blackstone said.
"Or a lot of anyones," Vari said.
"It"s just one person," Vivian said. The pain rose again in the back of her neck. She rubbed it absently.
"How do you know?" Ariel asked.
Vivian shrugged. "I just know. I never get the sense of diverse actors in this campaign. Just one person, focusing on the Fates."
"I saw several different people," Clotho said.
"There was a man watching us when we arrived," Lachesis said.
"And I thought I saw a woman at the end of that rope," Atropos said.
"Ah, the rope." Dex turned around in his chair and grabbed it. Vivian felt the loss of his heat as if a cold breeze had struck her.
Dex didn"t seem to notice. He was focused on the rope. It was made of thick, heavy jute, but he moved it as if it weighed nothing. He didn"t just have magic; he had strength and speed as well. He put the rope on his lap. "Let"s see what it tells us."
Everyone leaned forward, except Vivian, who leaned back. She wasn"t sure what was going to happen, and she was half afraid the rope was going to burst into flame.
Dex ran his fingers along the woven strands. "There"s no glamour left in it."
"I might be able to find it," Blackstone said, holding out his hand.
But Dex ignored him. "But there is something..."