He's A Magic Man (The Children of Merlin) Read online

  He’s A Magic Man

  Critical Acclaim For New York Times Bestselling Author Susan Squires

  “Superb writing, vivid narrative combined with complex plotting, and intricate characterization make each novel by Ms. Squires an azbsolute winner.” Romantic Times BOOKreviews

  “Susan Squires has a fascinating, unique voice:[she] is a rare talent.” New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan

  “Few writers combine a sensual romance within a supernatural thriller as well as Susan Squires consistently does.” Midwest Book Review

  “Full of colorful characters, romantic locales and vivid details of 1820’s life [One With The Shadows] has a delicious pace and plenty of thrills...” Publisher’s Weekly (A Best Book of the Year)

  “Do You Believe In Magic? is an entertaining and exciting paranormal romance that will leave fans desperate for more. This novel features a great couple introduces a charismatic family and sets up what should be a very fascinating series.” (Four Stars) The Romance Review

  “...action, adventure, magic fighting, loving and more. Since it is the first of a series, there are enough threads left dangling that you know it’s going to continue yet the story gives a satisfying ending. Recommended for anyone who likes paranormal romance...” (Four Stars) Nightowlreviews on Do You Believe In Magic?

  He’s A Magic Man

  A Children of Merlin Novel (2)

  by

  Susan Squires

  Version 1.0, September 2012

  Copyright 2012 by Susan Squires

  Discover other titles by Susan Squires at http://www.susansquires.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  CHAPTER ONE

  The old woman wheezed, gasping for breath. Time was running out. “Jason,” she whispered. “Come closer.”

  Jason obeyed, though she knew he thought her decaying body distasteful. Even she could smell the scent of subtle rot that permeated the hospital room. She was beyond even a Healer now. They couldn’t fight age. But she could. She just needed the sword.

  “Ma’am?” Jason asked. He was frightened of her, big hard man that he was. The minute he wasn’t, she’d feel his hands around her throat. He thought he’d hidden his burning desire to lead the Clan. But he couldn’t hide it from her. She’d seen everything at her age.

  “Has Hardwick called?” she rasped.

  She saw Jason’s look of dismay turn to relief as his cellphone chattered.

  Jason snapped her a look of confirmation with a forced smile. “Hardwick.” He listened. She raised her hand off the bed an inch or so, an impatient command. “Just a minute.” Jason took the phone away from his ear. “He thinks it’s in the Caribbean.” Surprising. “A queen gave it to some pirate named Drake to hide it from the Spanish Armada.” He looked puzzled then put the phone to his ear. “What’s an armada? Oh. Okay.”

  It obviously didn’t take education to have the gene. But Hardwick’s theory made sense. Elizabeth couldn’t have let the sword’s power fall into her archenemy’s hands. “Where in the Caribbean?” Her voice felt like leaves rustling in dry wind.

  Jason listened again then got an anxious look. “Don’t know.”

  How many islands in the Caribbean? She didn’t have time for an extended search. There was now only one sure way to get what she wanted.

  “What about the Finder?” She’d been looking for years. She’d almost given up hope. But Prentice had gotten a lead before the Tremaine spawn killed him.

  Jason answered eagerly. “I followed up on the notes Prentice left. They say the guy can find anything anywhere. Got a salvage business.”

  “Where?”

  “Florida Keys.”

  Right neighborhood. Things might finally be going her way.

  “I’ll head out.” He saw her expression. “I know—no publicity.”

  “Don’t ... trust you with this,” she breathed.

  His eyes got a haunted expression. He must be remembering the punishment for his last failure. “Who do you want to assign?”

  *****

  Drew Tremaine took a glass of champagne from the tray held by the tuxedoed server and another for her friend Jane. “Knowing your destiny is really a good feeling.” They made their way through the elegantly dressed crowd to the next lighted display case. Hard to get excited about fifth century Anglo-Saxon cloak pins. Drew searched the room. He wasn’t here yet.

  “It must be,” Jane said.

  Drew realized she’d just been an ass. Jane knew the Tremaine secret, of course. She practically lived at the Breakers since her mother was such a witch (figurative, not literal). But it must be hard to know she wasn’t special like Drew and her siblings. “Apologies, Jane. You know how unthinking I can be,” she said.

  “You can’t help what’s in your DNA.” Jane was forgiving. Drew could count on that. She wasn’t sure why Jane put up with her. Drew couldn’t help but outshine her shy friend. Most girls would have found a more comfortable BFF or gotten outlandish in some ill-conceived attempt to garner attention. But Jane was terminally loyal, even when it was difficult. Drew had to love her for that. And Jane still wore gray and taupe and sensible shoes, in spite of Drew’s periodic offers of a makeover weekend. Jane was just Jane. That was her destiny.

  “Mrs. Lindstrom, how nice to see you,” Drew said smoothly, as a sleek older woman approached. They exchanged pecks on the cheek and a mock hug careful of their sequins. Mrs. Lindstrom’s copper dress was Stella McCartney if Drew wasn’t mistaken. Nice. “You know Jane Walker?” Mrs. Lindstrom greeted Jane politely. She was on the museum’s board. Not very effectual, according to Father, but well meaning.

  “They’ve just done a wonderful job with the exhibition, haven’t they?” she gushed.

  “Yes. It was so nice of you and the board to arrange this opening as a benefit for Mother’s favorite charity.” Drew’s parents were in the reception room, making sure the well shod of the LA scene and the Hollywood crowd were ponying up the dough.

  “Oh, yes, well, we couldn’t have acquired many of these pieces without your father’s largesse. And who doesn’t like supporting Children’s Hospital? They do such fabulous work.”

  “Who, indeed?” Drew drawled. She didn’t think she could bear an extended conversation. The older woman was eyeing her dress. In a minute she’d be asking whose design it was. Boring. And Drew had more important things on her mind. “Have you seen the coins with the porcupine engravings?”

  Mrs. Lindstrom looked around. “No … I can’t say I…”

  “They’re over in case thirty-four,” Jane said, gesturing. Mrs. Lindstrom smiled, not quite certain she’d been dismissed, and went off in search of porcupines.

  When she’d gone, Drew gave the room a quick scan. Nothing yet. “Knowing my destiny kept me from suicide after Father refused to let me go back to Brown,” she said to Jane as they found a corner out of direct circulation. “But living at home is driving me mad. Not to mention our constant ‘companions’ back there.” Three hulking members of her security detail were trying vainly to look interested in Anglo-Saxon artifacts about twenty feet behind them.

  “Your father is only thinking of your safety.”

  Drew heaved a sigh. “I know.” She smiled and shrugged. “I suppose I just hate being told what to do.”

  Jane suppressed a chuckle. “No! Really? You?”

  “But if I
hadn’t left Brown, I never would have met Roger. Destiny will win out.”

  “You’re only twenty-four,” Jane said. “You have plenty of time to find true love.”

  Jane just wouldn’t believe that Roger was the One. “I knew immediately, just as the Parents said we would. Roger walked into the seminar and that was it. Maybe that’s my … uh, talent. Matchmaking. Remember Melissa and John? And I knew Maggie was made for Tris long before he did. Now I’m making a great match for myself. If you’d only let me work on you.…”

  “Oh, no. Not on your life.”

  “You never let me do anything for you.”

  “You are the most generous person I know, Drew. But no matchmaking.” Jane seemed to have given up on men. They’d spent a year in France without Jane falling in love, for God’s sake. Who could do that?

  Jane’s brow creased. “Have you had any sign of ... you know?” She stepped into the shadows at the very periphery of the room.

  “No. But that doesn’t bother me.” Except it did. It was the only ant at her very perfect destiny picnic. She’d been dating Roger since March and she had been sure, after they’d been intimate … but nothing. “Maybe I just don’t recognize it yet. Tris took a while to get his … his … talent. And I have a plan.”

  Jane smiled. “What now? And what exactly is my role in said plan?”

  “I’ve had a breakthrough in my research on the history of the tarot. I reveal it tomorrow night. Which means my reward is at hand. Mother said you and I can have a whole week alone at the Ritz-Carlton. Father promised no security other than what the hotel normally provides.”

  “See what I mean? That’s very generous.” Jane cocked her head. She knew there was a catch. “Is there something I can do in return?”

  Drew was a little embarrassed. “If Roger just happens to check in at the same time…”

  “I’m the cover for a summer romance.” Jane sighed.

  “I’ll just have to get my …” Drew looked around to see who might be listening. “My … you know … then.” She wasn’t above pleading.

  “Drew,” a young man called.

  Darn. Everett. He’d had a crush on her for years. She waved languidly, giving him a smile, and drew Jane off toward the ladies’ room. There was no way she was dealing with Everett now.

  “If you don’t want to do it, I understand,” Drew whispered. “I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

  “There’s nothing I’d like more than to help you get a week away from your family, dear as they are. And I’m always up for time away from Mom. It’s just … well, Roger is so much older than you are and he’s your professor.”

  Drew chuckled. Jane was so straitlaced sometimes. “Modern relationships aren’t defined by ages or societal roles.” They ducked into the ladies’ room. The outer lounge area was quiet. And it had overstuffed chairs. Drew’s Jimmy Choos were killing her.

  Jane tried to smile. “I just think he’s a little full of himself. I’d like to see the relationship on a more equal footing.”

  Wow. She really wasn’t a Roger fan. But how could she be? If Drew found her one true love, where did that leave Jane? So Drew refused to take offense. “He can be … supercilious. But I’ll change that.”

  Jane looked an apology. She seemed about to say something else, but thought better of it. “I guess time will sort things out.”

  By the time they felt able to circulate again, Drew was getting worried. Where was he? He’d let slip that he’d gotten an invitation to the opening of the exhibit, but he didn’t seem to know her family’s role at the museum, or guess that she’d had her mother put him on the guest list. He’d be so surprised when he saw Drew. Her mother always said that little surprises were the key to keeping a relationship fresh.

  There was Roger now. Drew could hardly wait to tell him about the plan. That was one good-looking man: shaggy blond hair, dreamy brown eyes. He was smart. Drew needed someone as smart as she was or she’d run all over him. She loved the way he wore a corduroy jacket to class, even in early summer. The leather elbow patches and the pipe really made him look like a professor. Tonight he was wearing an endearingly rumpled tux.

  Girls did fawn on him of course. Understandable. There was one now, earnestly discussing bronze belt fittings, gaze glued to his face. The girl was stuttering something.

  And Roger’s expression went soft.

  Drew sucked in a breath. The exhibit seemed to recede. She knew Jane was standing beside her. But it all seemed distant. Because she knew what was going to happen. And it didn’t take a magic power to see it.

  Roger lifted a hand and pushed a strand of the girl’s blond hair behind her ear.

  Drew stopped like she’d bumped up against an invisible wall.

  “You’re a very talented student,” Roger was saying.

  No, no, no. You can’t say that. Her breath had gone ragged.

  “Drew?” Jane asked. Drew couldn’t look away from the disaster unfolding before her.

  “Thanks, Dr. Jessop,” the girl said shyly.

  “Have you thought more about your dissertation subject?”

  Drew clenched her teeth. She swallowed. Can’t do this. She turned around where she stood. “Let’s go, Jane, before he invites her to a coaching session over coffee.”

  Jane took one look at her face and turned too. “I never really wanted to come tonight.”

  As they strode away, Drew could hear him say, “I’d be glad to help you narrow down your choices. Why don’t we meet at the student union for coffee tomorrow?”

  Drew broke into a run.

  *****

  The tears were in there somewhere, but she wasn’t going to let them out. Jane had insisted on driving. The sound of the Maserati’s grinding gears was like a saw on Drew’s nerves. Jane was only going fifty on the 405, with very little traffic. Drew wanted away from the museum as fast as she could go.

  “How long have you known?” Her words were clipped.

  “A while.” Jane didn’t look at her.

  Just perfect. Her staid little friend knew Roger was doing every girl in his classes and probably just couldn’t bear to disappoint Drew, who was so ridiculously sure of her destiny that she was apparently willing to see Prince Charming in every heel she encountered. Not her image of herself. Drew closed her eyes. “Does everybody know what he is?”

  Jane chewed her lip. “Pretty much.”

  Drew groaned. Worse. “Great. I’m a laughingstock as well as a dupe.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, Drew. He’s a charming snake and he’s been doing this for years, but he’s got tenure and a reputation and nobody dares call him on it. He’s very careful not to seduce anyone under twenty-one.”

  Seduce? That’s what she’d been? Seduced? Worse and worse and worse. “So I’m the only one who’s stupid enough not to see through him.”

  “Well, not the only one. There are the other girls he’s, uh, dated.”

  And dumped. Some talent for matchmaking she had. If Jane was trying to make this better she was failing miserably. Drew felt betrayed. And by someone besides Roger. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Be ... because you were so sure. And there is the family destiny. I thought maybe he’d change his ways when he met you.”

  “No one ever changes, Jane.” But wasn’t that just what she’d been hoping for? That she could change the things she didn’t like about him?

  “I don’t think that’s true,” Jane said softly. “People can change.” Since Jane rarely disagreed with Drew, that was a slightly shocking statement. But Drew couldn’t answer her. Tonight called into question everything Drew had ever believed. She’d been so sure Roger had the DNA with Merlin’s magic in it just as she did, and that their love would unlock magic in both of them. There was a destiny, of course. The Parents were certain proof. And when Tris and Maggie had found each other, they both got a power. Maybe the gene was recessive in Drew or something. Being special would pass her by and she’d be just like Jane.
<
br />   Jane took the Hawthorne Boulevard exit, out toward the coast and the Tremaine estate. The Maserati coughed as she downshifted.

  Uh-oh. The Breakers would be a living hell if anyone there found out about Drew’s humiliation. “You can’t tell anyone what happened.”

  Jane glanced over to her, surprised. “You’re not going to tell your family?”

  “Oh my God, no. Mother will fuss. Kemble will have anyone I ever look at twice checked out by ... by the CIA or something. I’ll have to talk Tris out of putting Roger in the hospital. Lanyon and Tammy will tease me until I’m eighty-five.” Drew sighed. “And Father will have expected nothing better from me, because all girls except Mother are just silly.” Jane was about to protest. “Don’t say that isn’t exactly what would happen.”

  Jane closed her mouth.

  “Promise,” Drew said in her most threatening tone. “Or I won’t invite you over to the house anymore.”

  Jane half-chuckled. “Empty threat. No one ever invites me. And if I disappeared, your mother would worry and send out the troops to find me.”

  Drew clenched her eyes shut. “Just promise, Jane,” she said, her voice flat.

  Jane sighed. “Promise.”

  *****

  “Drew, Drew! Cally did a flying lead change for me today.” Tammy came bursting into the second-floor library, still in her riding boots and breeches.

  “That must be the one where he looks like he’s dancing the tango.” Drew used her best, bored drawl. After a bad night, she’d retreated to the library today to avoid her family and had spent all day moping.

  “Horses can’t tango,” Tammy protested, breathless. She must have run up from the stables. “You’re just being silly. It’s the one where he skips. Hi, Jane,” she added as an aside. Jane was reading in an armchair in the corner, her face in shadows and only the pages of her book illuminated by the afternoon sun coming in from the west. Tammy’s new black kitten, Bagheera, nestled in the crook of one arm. The sound of crashing surf drifted in through the open window.