Page 70 of Shadow's End

He nudged me lightly with his shoulder. I laughed, picked up my burger, and ate. Over dessert—banana bread with cream-cheese frosting for me, a brownie for him—he drank his beer and updated me on the council meeting. Then, when his beer was gone, he offered me his hand and said, “I need a shower.”

I ignored his hand, amusement twitching my lips. “And this concerns me how?”

“I want you in the shower with me.”

My pulse rate leapt in anticipation, but I didn’t move. “Sadly, I’ve already had a shower.”

“On days such as this, one can never have too many showers. Besides, hot sex and cold water is a delicious combination.”

I laughed, placed my hand in his, and let him pull me to my feet. “I thought cold water was detrimental to certain parts of male anatomy?”

“It is unless there happens to be a hot naked female in the near vicinity. Lust will always win out in such a situation.”

“I believe this is a theory we need to check out.”

He grinned, swooped me up into his arms, and carried me into the bathroom, where we did prove that cold water was no impediment to a man’s capabilities of getting an erection, or indeed hot sex.

We spent the rest of the evening snuggled on the couch, watching TV, then went to bed. But as sleep descended, I was once again called onto the astral plane.

Not by Marie.

By Jaqueline.

Once again the summoning followed the same pattern—I walked barefoot through the forest as the wild magic spun around me. Figures I couldn’t see walked either side of me, but once again I was alone when I entered that forest clearing ringed by purple mage fire. In the middle of the clearing lay a body. This time, it wasn’t staked, and it wasn’t Roger. It was just an insubstantial, indistinguishable figure that was neither male nor female. A ghost of what might yet be.

Jaqueline stood on the far side of the clearing, in the same spot that Marie had been.

“Stop,” she said, her voice holding the whip of command backed by magic.

Mymagic stirred in response, and her order skated over my skin with little impact. Mom had been right—they might be able to summon me, but my actions on this plane remained my own. Relief stirred but I clamped down on it, wary of it showing in my expression, and stopped as ordered. There was little point in revealing their lack of control just yet.

“Why have you summoned me, Jaqueline?”

“To pass on a message.”

“I’m not your or Marie’s personal postal service,” I replied evenly. “If you’ve a message for your mother, pass it on yourself.”

“Given she wishes to kill me, that would be unwise.”

“She’s your mother. She does not wish to kill you.” And had indeed almost leapt across a table to rip my throat out when I’d asked why she’d bother leaving her daughter alive. That definitely wasn’t the action of a woman who planned to kill her offspring.

But even as I thought that, doubt stirred.

Jaqueline waved a hand, the movement eloquent. “Perhaps before the madness descended that might have been true.”

“Then why ensure that descent happened?”

“Because disorder is something she abhors, and it is delicious to watch her unravel.”

Maker, mother, daughter—they were all certifiably crazy. “Maelle told me that your doom and your fate were always hers to decide—what did she mean by that?”

A frown flickered across Jaqueline’s almost too-perfect features. “I could not tell you.”

“Then perhaps you had best ask Marie.”

“And perhaps you interfere in business you should not.”

“You fuckers made it my business when you came to this reservation and decided to go to war. I didn’t start this shit, but I will?—”

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