Torn.

I almost laughed. "A friend."

"And the purse?"

"I was a little buzzed. I forgot it."

Colin shook his head as he pulled into my driveway.

"I"m sorry, okay?" I touched the thin cotton of his sleeve for a moment, felt the muscle like granite underneath. "Honestly, I am. It was a stupid thing to do."

"Yeah, it was."

"Are you going to tell my uncle? Or my mom?"

"I"m supposed to protect you," Colin said. "I can"t do that when you lie to me and pull a bunch of rebellious teen bulls.h.i.t."

I was surprised by how much his words hurt. I reached for the door handle, trying to gather up a few shreds of dignity. "In case you"ve forgotten, I am a teenager. And I wouldn"t have to pull rebellious bulls.h.i.t if you would stop making such stupid rules."

Startled at my own boldness, I hopped out of the truck, bag in tow, and stomped toward the back porch.

He followed me, footsteps thudding on the driveway. Great. I was hoping my dramatic exit would have been enough to end the discussion. The cranky, silent Colin of old suddenly appealed a lot more.

Halfway in the door, I turned around to find him inches away from me, jaw working angrily. "You"re not telling me everything."

"Neither are you." I was sick to death of people keeping secrets. Everyone knew more than I did. Besides, Colin wouldn"t believe me if I explained about the magic. He"d tell my uncle to have me committed.

"I am trying to keep you safe." He bit off the words. "That"s all you need to know."

"The h.e.l.l it is! Was Jill right?"

He threw up his hands. "Who"s Jill?"

"The girl at the party. She said Uncle Billy was in the Mob, and they were actually coming after me, but they got Verity instead."

"Inside," he said, nudging me through the door.

"Is it true?" I dropped my bag on the kitchen floor. I"d always clung to the notion that my father was the only criminal in the family tree, no matter what people had whispered at church or in the hallways. But if Jill was right, Uncle Billy and my mom had been lying all these years, letting my father take the blame and holding my uncle up as some kind of saint. Which didn"t make me less angry at my dad. There was plenty of mad to go around.

Colin leaned against the countertop, folding his arms. "We don"t know who killed your friend. Until we do, your uncle figures better safe than sorry."

That wasn"t the denial I was hoping for. "Safe from what?"

"Your uncle has . . . compet.i.tors. If they"re looking for leverage, you and your mom are easy targets-you"re the only family he has."

"Which is where you come in."

"Pretty much."

I chose an apple from the fruit bowl, to keep my hands busy. "What if you"re wrong? What if it had nothing to do with Uncle Billy?"

He took out a gla.s.s and went to the fridge for iced tea, as familiar as if he"d always been here. "Probably it didn"t. If someone was trying to send a message to him, they would have gone after you, and they"d have gotten it right."

I started to respond, but he held up a hand. "Which does not mean you get to sneak out to a party, or whatever it is you were up to Sat.u.r.day night."

"You said Uncle Billy wasn"t involved!"

"I told you my opinion. I could be wrong. It could be that somebody"s worried about leaving a witness. It could be lots of things, or nothing at all. Regardless, it"s your uncle"s call."

"You do whatever he says?" I leaned back against the wall, eyeing him over the apple. It was hard to imagine Colin playing by anyone"s rules but his own.

"Billy"s been good to me," he said simply. "And he pays me well."

"Are you going to tell him?"

He looked at me sourly. "I should."

"But wouldn"t you get in trouble, too? How hard can it be to keep track of one girl? Doesn"t that sort of thing get you kicked out of the bodyguard union?"

He scowled and focused on his iced tea, probably so that he didn"t throttle me. "I won"t tell Billy. This time."

I sagged against the wall a bit, relief flooding through me.

"But if you pull a stunt like this again, I"ll not only tell him and your mom, I will move in."

"Oh, please." I waved a hand dismissively.

He set the gla.s.s down with unnerving precision and stalked across the room toward me. I flattened myself farther against the wall as he placed one hand on either side of me, so close I could see the scars and calluses. Not wanting to seem intimidated, I met his gaze. Mistake. Up close, his eyes were dark, dark gray, the color of flint, and I had the feeling they saw more than either of us wanted to admit.

When he spoke, I felt it in the base of my spine. "Kid, I will sleep outside your bedroom door and carry your books to cla.s.s. Whatever it is you"re up to-and I know you"re up to something, so don"t give me the big eyes-now is not the time for it. From here on out, you need to be straight with me. Are we clear?"

I started to give him my most innocent smile, and thought better of it. "Crystal."

"Good." He stepped back, and the oddly tense moment pa.s.sed. After snagging the apple from me, he took a bite, giving me another long, appraising look, this one all business. "The alarm system never showed you coming back in. How"d you manage it?"

Ah, well. He"d wanted me to be straight with him. "Magic," I said, waggling my fingers.

The doorbell rang, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop fifteen degrees. Every muscle in Colin"s body tightened and he tossed me the apple. "You expecting somebody?"

I shook my head.

"Stay here." He moved toward the door, hand at the holster on his back.

I wanted to point out that if someone were coming to kill me, they"d hardly ring the doorbell first. Colin didn"t look like he"d hear a word I said, though, so I finished the apple and waited.

I heard the front door, and Colin, gruff as ever, as he let someone in. I strained to catch the second voice, but all I could hear was Colin summoning me.

"Visitor," he said as I walked into the living room. There was no gun in sight. Standing next to one of the ivory wing chairs, looking poised and slightly amused, was Evangeline.

"How are you, Mo?"

I wiped my hands on my skirt. "Okay, I guess."

"I find myself at loose ends today, and thought I might go downtown to do a little shopping. One of my favorite shops just received a shipment from Paris. I thought it might be worth inspecting. Would you like to accompany me? It"s something Verity and I always did when I visited."

That wasn"t all she"d done. She"d used those visits to train Verity, to get a feel for her powers. She"d groomed her to fulfill some grand destiny, and what good had it done? Evangeline didn"t want to go antique shopping with me. If Colin hadn"t opened the door, she would have interrogated me on the front stoop, those ice blue eyes pinning me as sharply as they were now.

I looked at Colin, who stood near the staircase, and he shrugged. "Fine with me," he said. "Call if you need anything."

Great. The one time I had hoped for an overprotective streak, Colin went all trusting on me. Was Evangeline doing some sort of magic even now? She didn"t look like it, but what did I know about spells? "I"ll get my bag."

"Of course," she said. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. . . ."

"Donnelly."

"Mr. Donnelly. We should be back in a few hours."

"Sounds good." Colin followed me back into the kitchen and bent his head toward mine. "We"re not done chatting," he said, his voice a quiet rumbling I could feel along my spine. "Do me a favor and stay out of trouble for the next little while?"

"I"ll try." I even made it sound sincere.

And then he was gone. I went back out to the living room to face Evangeline.

"It"s best we get under way," she said, leading me to the silver BMW idling in front of the house. "There"s much to discuss."

CHAPTER 14.

"I"ve had several fascinating talks with Lucien recently," Evangeline said as we pulled away. "You"ve been busy."

I double-checked my seat belt, smoothed my skirt over my knees, pushed at my bag with my toes-anything to keep from touching the ring. Luc had implied he and Evangeline were working together, but did she know everything? More than I did, that was for sure. "Lucien? You mean Luc?"

Evangeline frowned, disapproval radiating from her like a cold front. "It"s a pity, really. Lucien comes from a renowned family, one of the most important in our world. The House of DeFoudre wields a tremendous amount of political power along with considerable magic. His father holds a seat on the Quartoren. One would hope Lucien would acknowledge his position by leaving behind such a childish name. Then again, he"s always been an intractable boy."

She glided onto the Dan Ryan, merging seamlessly. "Your Mr. Donnelly is intriguing. A friend of the family?"

"Kind of." A thought struck me. "We are going antique shopping, right? Because he"ll know if we don"t. He"s crazy-good like that."

"Luc mentioned you were under his protection. Inconvenient, but not insurmountable." She looked in the rearview mirror. "Yes, there he is."

I twisted in my seat. Sure enough, the beat-up truck trailed us by a few cars.

"You"re not going to cast some sort of spell, right? Some sort of magical woo-woo to keep him away?"

"Magical woo-woo?" She sounded insulted. "Hardly. We can certainly go look at the shipment, Mo, if it will put you and your keeper at ease."

"He"s not my keeper."

"Oh? Have I misconstrued your relationship? Lucien was under the impression that his role was merely to safeguard you."

I forced myself not to glance back again. For the first time, Colin"s presence made me feel safe instead of annoyed. Once he"d stopped yelling, he actually treated me like a human being, which was nice. But it didn"t change anything. Like the fact Uncle Billy was paying him. Or the fact he was out of my league in every possible way. And there had to be a bodyguard code of honor forbidding him from getting involved with the person being guarded, right?

"There"s nothing going on," I said, staring out the window at the skyline.

"Well, that makes things easier." She braked lightly as the traffic grew heavier. "Do you have the ring with you?"

"Yes."

"May I see it?"

I drew the chain out from underneath my shirt, and the ring swung back and forth, like a pendulum. "What does it do, anyway?"

"A number of things. It serves as a marker, identifying the subject of the Torrent Prophecy. It has belonged to Lucien"s House since time began. As the Heir, he was the one who presented it to Verity."

"Oh." Luc"s earlier words about being attuned to the ring made sense now. I let go of the necklace, feeling stupid.

"According to legend, it was the tool Verity would use to repair the magic-it would let her interact directly with raw magic, which is far too dangerous otherwise."

"Luc said I shouldn"t put it on."

Her eyes drank it in. She lifted a hand as if to touch it, but traffic started up again. "He"s quite right. The Darklings and their masters will be looking for it. They"ll respond much more quickly the next time. But you should be safe so long as you don"t wear it."

"He said they"d come after me anyway." It was something I"d tried not to think too hard about, or else the fear paralyzed me. Daylight helped. Being around people helped. Obsessively checking the dead bolt and alarm helped, even if they wouldn"t do much good.

"It"s a possibility."

"That doesn"t make me feel any better." The air-conditioning kicked up, and I rubbed at my arms.

"There are measures we can take. They won"t conceal you when you"re wearing the ring, but they"ll be sufficient otherwise."

I tilted my head back against the seat. "A spell?"

"Yes. It will hide you, even if a Darkling is as close to you as I am right now."

"I don"t ever want to be that close to a Darkling again."

"A wise approach." She pulled into a parking garage and accepted the ticket. "It"s a bit of a walk from here, but I do enjoy the view of the river. I hope you don"t mind."

She led the way out to the sidewalk, ivory leather heels ringing smartly on the concrete.

"So, you and Luc are working together? To find out who killed Verity?"

She didn"t break stride. "We have similar goals. I am the Matriarch of my House, as Lucien"s father is the Patriarch of his. As such, I also hold a seat on the Quartoren. For the Quartoren-and our society-to survive, we must stop the prophecy. The Torrent will destroy the Arcs. My foremost obligation is to find out if Verity"s destiny might still be fulfilled." Her brows drew together and her voice sounded strained as she continued, "But on a personal level, I very much want to discover who was responsible for my niece"s death."