Totally Spellbound (14 page)

“If there is,” she repeated, “then it
sounds to me like something major is going on in your government.
The Fates are part of your government, right?”

“Right.” Rob didn’t like
them or what they stood for, but they were part of the ruling
class.

Of course, he’d always had his issues
with the ruling class.

“Then,” she said just as slowly, just
as gently, “you might want to talk to them and intervene. Not to
help them, but to help your people.”

“My people.” His gaze met John’s. John
closed his eyes and shook his head. Megan didn’t know—she couldn’t
know—how that phrase had backfired on him over the
years.

First, his people had been the
peasants in Nottingham, and he had done his best to save them. His
men, they too were his people, and it had taken all his cunning to
keep them alive.

When it became clear that he couldn’t,
he joined Richard the Lionhearted in his crusade against the
infidels, only to learn that there weren’t infidels, only different
systems of belief, and that the people he’d always thought of as
his people were really very different from him.

They had no magic, and he
did.

He was part of a special class after
all.

And, as he had always done, he
eventually rejected that class, and used his powers to help those
less fortunate without resorting to ruling them, directing them, or
controlling them.

His people.

He had no people. He wanted no people.
He only wanted to live his life his way.

“Good argument, Aunt Megan,” Kyle
whispered. “But it probably wasn’t the most effective.”

She shrugged and smiled at the boy.
Her love for him was so obvious that it made Rob’s heart twist. So
many children didn’t have that kind of love.

“Then what would be effective?” she
whispered back, even though she glanced sideways at Rob, and
clearly knew he was listening.

The boy squared his shoulders and
turned to Rob. “The Fates say that true love is at stake. For some
people, love is all they get. They don’t get money, they don’t get
superpowers, they just get love. You want to make that go away?
Because the Fates say that’s what’ll happen if you don’t help
them.”

Rob felt that heat rise in his face
again.

“I’d hear them out, boss,” John said,
putting the sarcastic emphasis on “boss” that he’d been using for
the last century or so.

“You hear them out,” Rob said, “and
then send them back home, wherever home is.”

“What’re you gonna do?” John
asked.

“A little research of my own,” Rob
said. He extended a hand to Megan. “You want to help
me?”

He wasn’t exactly sure why he offered,
except that he didn’t want to leave her presence. Maybe that was
enough.

“I guess,” she said. “So long as I can
bring Kyle.”

“No,” Kyle said. “I want to stay with
the Fates and Mr. Little.”

Megan looked at the boy with surprise.
“We don’t know Mr. Little.”

“I do. He’s really nice. C’mon, Aunt
Meg. You can tell that. Besides, the Fates’ll be here.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good thing,”
she said, glancing at Rob.

“John can handle them,” Rob said to
her, softly, knowing that her fears were more about the Fates now
that he’d scared her with them.

“I know.” She bit a cuticle. The
movement was clearly a nervous habit. “It’s just that Travers left
Kyle in my charge…”

“I got to get back to let Fang out
anyway,” Kyle said. “I don’t want to go on a mission.”

Rob started. He hadn’t realized that
he had been thinking that word, but he had, deep down. He felt like
he had a mission.

“Besides,” Kyle said. “Mr. Little
thinks the two of you need time alone. He thinks you’re the best
thing—”

“Kid!” John snapped. “Enough
already.”

Megan glanced at her nephew, then
glanced at John. She was obviously intrigued.

So was Rob.

“Why don’t you tell us what you think,
Mr. Little?” Megan asked.

John looked trapped. Rob
would have laughed if he hadn’t recognized the expression. John
always had this look when he was afraid he’d offend
someone.

John shook his head. “I
can’t.”

“It’s okay,” Rob said, wondering if he
wasn’t making a mistake. “Tell her what you think, Little
John.”

Megan’s stomach clenched. Something in
Rob’s tone told her that she might not like what John was going to
say.

She looked at John, mostly so that she
wouldn’t have to look at Rob. She could get lost in Rob’s eyes,
forget where she was, forget what she was doing.

She couldn’t afford that at the
moment. She was slow on the uptake, but she was beginning to
realize that she had stumbled into something momentous, and she
would have to act accordingly.

Kyle took her hand and squeezed it.
The door kept banging against the wall. Those poor women, locked in
there, unable to get out. They must be panicked.

Even if they did deserve that
imprisonment, at least from Rob’s point of view.

John looked at Megan sideways, his
expression sheepish. He was such a large man. She finally
understood all the jokes that had filtered down through history;
John Little was anything but.

Although he was a gentle giant. She
had probably hurt his feelings by implying that Kyle couldn’t stay
with him because she didn’t know him.

“I think, Miss,” John Little said to
Megan, his tone oddly courtly, “that you’re the best thing that’s
ever happened to Robin.”

Meg’s stomach clenched worse than it
had a moment ago. How could she be the best thing? She’d only just
met the man.

Then she caught a glimpse of him out
of the corner of her eye. He had stiffened, his body posture so
formal that it looked as if he might break if she touched
him.

There was a shadow of the expression
she had seen on his face in that old memory which he had played for
her like a movie when they’d been in her condo. He had looked so
shattered. She had never seen a man so shattered.

And the remnants of that emotion were
with him still.

“I can’t be.” She made sure she was
facing John Little instead of Rob. “I haven’t happened to him at
all.”

John Little bowed slightly. “But you
have, Miss. You’ve already seen his magic, and he’s taken care of
you.”

There that phrase was again. She
didn’t like it, but this time, she didn’t say anything.

“He doesn’t take care of just anyone,
Miss.”

If he was Robin Hood—the real Robin
Hood—didn’t that mean he took care of everyone? Or he had at one
time?

Didn’t that mean she was just one of
many?

She bit her lower lip, then started to
chew it. The moment she tasted blood, she stopped.

Old habits. Why in the world were old
habits coming up now?

“I’ll be okay, Aunt Meg,” Kyle said
again. “It’s okay. We need to help the Fates.”

As if the Fates had heard
him, the door that imprisoned them banged so hard that the entire
wall shook.

“Magic’s fading,” John Little said to
Rob.

Rob still had that expression. This
couldn’t be easy for him, poor man. Especially not if those three
women had deliberately destroyed his life.

If Kyle was
right—and why would he be wrong?—then there
was
a lot at stake here. Megan wasn’t
even sure she believed in true love. Friendship, passion, long-term
companionship, and yes, love, but not
true
love, not the Hollywood variety,
not the stuff legends were made of.

Although she had seen Rob’s devastated
face. That love affair was part of a legend. An old, old legend.
His love for a woman whom Megan had originally mistaken for his
mother had been so powerful it had resounded through all of
time.

And now he
needed
her
? She
didn’t believe it.

“Believe it, Aunt Meg,” Kyle
whispered.

His round face was
upturned toward her. He seemed so vulnerable. She was trusting the
judgment of an eleven-year-old. A precocious, psychic one, but an
eleven-year-old nonetheless.

“Aunt Meg…”

Rob wasn’t saying anything. He wasn’t
even looking at her. It was as if John’s words had frozen
him.

Maybe he didn’t want to influence her
decision.

AUNT
MEG!!!!!!!!!!!

Kyle yelled at her so loudly that she
stumbled backward and nearly hit the wall. She covered her ears
with both hands. Her eyes watered.

She blinked at him, trying to catch
her breath. A single tear ran down her face, but it wasn’t a tear
of sadness.

It was a tear of pain.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Me.” Kyle straightened his shoulders.
“The Fates taught me to do that. When I’m in trouble.”

“Do what?” Rob had lost that rigidity.
He had moved toward her as if he were going to help her, but she
raised a single hand, keeping him back.

“Children aren’t supposed to yell like
that,” she said.

“He didn’t yell.” Rob glanced at John
for confirmation.

John shrugged. “I didn’t hear
anything.”

“It’s broadcasting,” Kyle said,
obviously pleased with himself. “Remember? I told you. You were
doing it this morning, only not so loud. And I aimed mine. Yours
was just out there, kinda general.”

Aimed it? He made her ears ring, her
eyes tear up, and her head ache with a single thought?

She wiped her cheek with the back of
her hand.

“Don’t do that again,” she said. Her
tone was a little harsh.

Kyle grinned. “Unless I’m in
trouble.”

“Unless you’re in trouble.” But she
wasn’t even sure about then.

“So, see? It’s okay to leave me here
with Mr. Little and the Fates. I can ask for help if I need it. And
if you don’t come, I can do the same thing to Dad.”

“I’m sure he’d appreciate that,” Meg
mumbled.

“He doesn’t like it any more than you
do,” Kyle said, “but it works. Most of the time.”

Rob came to her side, and pulled her
up. She had been crouching, and she hadn’t even realized
it.

His touch was gentle. He smelled
faintly of leather, even though he wasn’t wearing any.

“John has never hurt a child in his
life,” Rob said. “And we won’t be gone too long, I promise. John
has enough magic to handle the Fates, and your nephew can get home
in time to take care of his dog.”

“Fang! Dang!” Kyle glanced at his
watch. “Aunt Meg, it’s nearly emergency time.”

She frowned at him. There would be
more emergencies, and they were planned? How come no one told her
about that?

“No, Aunt Meg. For Fang. If he makes
too many messes, he’ll cost us extra money, and you know how Dad
hates that.”

She did know, which was why she had
been surprised about the suites in the first place.

She had no idea why the potential dog
emergency convinced her more than all the other arguments had, but
it did.

“All right,” she said. Then she took a
deep breath, and did the responsible thing. “But I want you to dig
another hole in my brain if something goes wrong, all
right?”

Kyle wrinkled his nose. “Gross. I
can’t do that. But I’ll broadcast at you, okay?”

That was what she had
meant. She hadn’t expected him to take it literally.
“Okay.”

“Good.” Rob nodded at her and at John.
“Megan and I will do some preliminary work. John, you get those
Fates out of here, and get the boy back to his dog before there’s a
costly puddle. I’ll meet up with you when we’re done.”

Megan’s stomach had now tied itself
into knots. “How long will we be gone?”

Rob shrugged. “I have no idea, but
I’ll make sure it’s not as long as it seems.”

Rob mentally shook
himself. He hadn’t meant to tell this woman that he’d make the time
with him seem longer than it was, but that was what he said. What
he’d
meant
was
that he would use a bit of magic and move the two of them backward
in time if he had to.

But her knowledge of magic was so
limited, he wasn’t sure she’d understand the explanation even
now.

Everyone in the reception area looked
like they were emotionally drained. Even the reception area itself
seemed out of sorts. The pictures on the wall were crooked, thanks
to the Fates’ incredible effort to get themselves out of the
office. The door looked battered, and the furniture seemed out of
place, even though Rob didn’t think anyone had touched
it.