Wicked Bad (WIcked 3)(19)

Turning toward the door she lifted her hand, reveling in the blue sparking energy, so familiar, so missed. Touching the wood, she could feel the physical lock as well as its magical counterpart, and easily opened both.

She cloaked herself with invisibility, trying not to marvel at the splendor of the hall and wide balcony. The wooden banisters were carved with mermaids and barren trees, gilded in gold. A monstrous chandelier hovered in the air, each frosted bulb capturing a magical, fluttering light that shone down on the main foyer. Harrison thought of the shower again and hoped the lights weren’t sentient prisoners. Were there no protectors here at all then? No one to monitor the misuse of power?

The walls filled with oil paintings, drew her attention away from the flickering light. Some of them were snowy landscapes, but most were portraits of a single woman as she aged through the years. A woman who, though she may have been attractive in her day, maintained a sour and spoiled countenance that took away from the shining golden ringlets haloed around her head, the rosy cheeks.

That must be the queen. Harrison shook her head, trying not to feel sorry for Jacob, imagining how his mother might react to finding her gone before consummation.

Harrison walked light and swift down the stairs, noticing the servants scrambling back and forth, hands full of trays or linen, some of them close to tears. All of them shivering. It was cold. Unusually so. Magically so. A South American hacienda shouldn’t have an icy breeze, the kind that reminded her of December in Boston. Perhaps it was another charm for comfort. But comfortable was the last thing this was.

How could either of them, Jacob or Ricardo, live here? They were warm and passionate, at least that was how they’d seemed. They had tricked her several times, kidnapped her—not exactly heroic actions—but still, passionate ones.

Unless they’d done it under instructions. Or duress.

Voices coming through the archway on the left distracted her from the main door, from freedom. She had to know more before she left. She moved closer.

“Do stop harassing me, Leah, you know it upsets my appetite.”

“I wouldn’t want to upset your appetite, Mother dear. It may be our last meal, after all.”

Mother? Still cloaked, Harrison stood in the doorway, hesitant to enter until she knew what she was dealing with.

Three Magian females, wearing old-fashioned dresses that looked surprisingly faded against the grandeur surrounding them, sat at a pretentiously long dining table. They were differing shades of blonde, all of them with features that instantly told her they were related to Jacob. Full lips, dark eyes…frowns.

The youngest one, who couldn’t be any older than twenty, was radiant. She was a tiny, feminine version of Jacob. Her golden waves bounced off her shoulders as she shook her head at the older woman seated at the head of the table.

The woman from the portraits. Her face and figure were fuller, her hair the brassy blonde that came from excessive magical coloring, but it was definitely her. She slurped her soup and made a face, waving her hand in the air impatiently until a servant came to take it away before looking back at the younger woman. “Why can’t you be quiet and thoughtful like your sister, Leah? Sara knows I don’t like to be bothered.”

Leah snorted. “You want me to be catatonic? I suppose that would make life perfect for you. You’ve already silenced my father and sister and guilted Jacob into submission. I must be such an inconvenience.”

Sara. She must be the other female at the table. Harrison thought she might be in her early thirties, but her sallow skin and sunken cheeks made her look far, far older. Her white-blonde hair hung in frayed hanks down her back, and she sat at the table, expressionless, unresponsive, hardly breathing. What was wrong with her? And what was Leah saying? Father? Why had she mentioned only one?

“Impertinence. That’s what I should have named you.” Her mother took a sip of her tea. “You should be helping your brother and I. Applauding his ingenuity. After all his screw-ups, he is finally doing something right. In fact, I wish I’d thought of it myself. Kidnapping is so much easier than courting.” She set down her cup and wagged one pudgy finger at her daughter. “You don’t know the kind of favors I had to call in to get him to that Triune without alerting Magian law. What I had to do. The only way you will ever be allowed a chance to find your matches is if he is successful. Until then you are just a drain on this family. Wasting food and wasting my time.”

So the kidnapping hadn’t been planned by his mother. The thought gave Harrison a strange sort of comfort.

Leah pushed back her chair impatiently. “I’m going to inform the Magian authorities myself. Whatever punishment they could mete out would be better than watching this joke of a family self-destruct due to your vanity.”