Sympathetic Magic(32)
“Why? The other two McAllister elders are married, and it doesn’t seem to have mattered much to them.”
“Because they were already married. Their lives had already been set. There’s no room for courtship for an elder, Lucas. I have to be available to my clan all the time, because I never know when something is going to come up.”
“And how often has anything actually come up over the last few months?” he asked calmly. “I mean, now that you don’t have to worry about the threat from us Wilcoxes.”
Her mouth pursed. “All right, it’s been quiet lately. But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. You can’t predict when a crisis is going to occur. That’s why it’s a crisis — it comes out of the blue, and then you have to drop everything and deal with it.”
Undeterred, he replied, “Well, I say we put that to the test.”
“How?”
“Come stay with me in Flagstaff for a few days.”
Eyes flaring open, she exclaimed, “Are you crazy?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Sorry, Lucas, but despite what I said about casual sex a minute ago, I don’t think I’m quite ready for that.”
Despite the dimness of the room, he could see the blush tinging her fair skin. He fought back a chuckle. “Don’t worry, Margot — I meant you could stay in the guest room.”
She began to shake her head, and he went on,
“Really. Come up for a few days, see the town, and if the world doesn’t end, maybe you can reevaluate your stance on this whole ‘no courtship for an elder’ thing.”
Dead silence. He could see the tension in her jaw, the set of her mouth. It seemed clear enough to him that she hadn’t expected to be challenged quite so openly. Finally she said, “And if something does go wrong — if I’m urgently needed here — you’ll drop this thing once and for all?”
“Of course.” Lucas didn’t have much of a problem making that promise, because he knew nothing was going to go wrong. Margot would come up to Flagstaff, he’d take her around, show her the local sights, wine and dine her, and after two or three days, she’d realize what she’d been missing and fall right into his arms.
Okay, it probably wasn’t going to be quite that easy, but he was fairly certain that Jerome would survive just fine without her for a few days.
She sat, rigid, every tense line of her body revealing how conflicted she was over the whole thing. Lucas hardly dared to breathe until she spoke again.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll go to Flagstaff with you.”
7
Bryce had been less than thrilled by the prospect, but after Margot had tersely informed the other two elders that she would be out of town for two days, three at the very most, Allegra had taken her aside, smiled, and said, “You have a good time, and don’t worry about us.” Her blue eyes took on a sly glint as she added, “I wouldn’t mind spending a few days in Flagstaff with a man who looked like that.”
Margot had, of course, been mortified, and made her escape immediately afterward. Even so, she’d felt perversely pleased that at least one of her peers seemed to be on her side. And although she’d considered calling her mother directly to tell her where she was going, Margot decided that wasn’t necessary. The news had probably started moving through the McAllister grapevine almost as soon as she walked out Allegra’s door.
Now Margot was driving toward Flagstaff, letting Siri guide her in, based on the address Lucas had given her. That was one thing Margot had been adamant about — she might have agreed to stay with the Wilcox warlock for a few days, but she was going to be damn sure she had her own car there in case she needed to make a hasty getaway.
For whatever reason.
It was a beautiful day at least, and she had to remind herself to keep her eyes on the road as she ranged up the interstate into territory she’d never seen before, where the freeway was lined on either side with what seemed like endless miles of ponderosa pines, flashing by so they merged into an unending sea of deep, deep green. Back in Jerome, the other trees still held onto their autumn color, but at this elevation the oaks and sycamores and cottonwoods were already bare. But they were lovely, too, their branches smooth and elegant in the slanting November sunlight.
She pulled off the highway as instructed, and began curving her way through a neighborhood of large, expensive-looking homes, most of them surrounded by their own stands of pine. The road wound around a gentle hill, moving upward until she came to a house at the end of a cul-de-sac. At that point Siri seemed to get confused, telling Margot to make U-turn, and so she switched off the navigation program. Anyway, as she approached the driveway, she spotted a mailbox with “Wilcox” engraved on a neat brass plate on the side, so she knew she was in the right place.