A sound from the bedroom made her stop the tumbler halfway to her mouth and listen carefully. Deryn stood up and crossed the living room in five steps. The massive doors to the bedroom were ajar, a tiny light flickering beyond them. Deryn’s hands went warm and then instantly hot, her magic on alert, her entire being tense.
She pushed the doors, and they opened without a sound, revealing a dark room. Deryn opened her fist and whispered the incantation she had carried on her lips since childhood. A bright flame danced on her palm, her fingers holding it safe, ready to let it fly if she needed it to.
The second the flame came alive, the sound Deryn had heard just a minute before was now behind her. She didn’t have the time to even begin to turn toward it before sharp pain slicedfrom temple to jaw, and the last thing Deryn saw before she hit the carpet was the little dancing beam of a flashlight.
19
PALOMA, KNOWN TRUTHS & UNCOVERED SECRETS
Paloma had returned to the resort a little miffed. She had seen Deryn for most of the debate, standing in the wings, her presence warm and comforting. She could tell that Deryn was ready to jump on the stage a few times and maybe throttle Moss, but the rest of the Crowharts proved to be much louder and rowdier. That made Paloma smile. It also made her feel supported: both by Deryn’s faith in her—and the fact that she let her fight her own battles—and the Crowharts’ downright adorable and staunch support of her.
The debate could not have gone better for her. Moss was surely finished. Her phone kept pinging with congratulatory texts and emails. Lachlan called twice to tell her that they had put a new poll in the field to assess the damage she had inflicted on the son of a bitch, but he believed that the election was in the bag.
She felt good about them. Both about his prediction and about the afternoon. Three hours had flown by. She was ready to relax. And she had wanted Deryn to be with her during said relaxing.
No, there would have been no sex under any circumstances. That had been a mistake. Well, many mistakes. Deryn was proving to be irresistible. Impossible to forget. Impossible to move on from.
The frequency and potency of the visions didn’t help either. Finally making the connection between centuries-old Lynnie and Deryn had been a punch to her solar plexus. The woman she had been seeing was almost certainly an ancestor. Crowharts were notorious for reusing their family’s first names.
Lyn and Lynnie. What were the odds?
Her driver opened the door of the car for her in front of the main entrance. She planned to touch base with the day manager. The soft opening was going smoothly despite the reservation hack, but she still tried to keep her finger on the pulse of the resort in which she had invested so much of her time and heart.
But the concierge informed her that Maria had had to leave a few hours before, her son falling sick, and Paloma texted right away to wish the boy well. Maria Calderon had been a gem, a true find, and Paloma cherished her manager and their relationship.
“Send a fruit basket to her home. And some Lego sets, maybe? Send four, and make sure he doesn’t have them already. Ask Lachlan to make all the arrangements. I think I’m going to go to bed early. It’s been a day.”
The concierge smiled.
“Oh, I heard all about your day, ma’am. We all rooted for you. We sent Javi to watch, and he kept sending updates. It was great. Like football. But better.”
Paloma laughed.
“You sent the finance chief to keep you all updated on the debate?”
“Yes, ma’am. He took time off and everything.”
“Jesus, tell him not to bother with that paperwork.” She saw the brown eyes pop open wide and just shook her head. “Just tell me next time. It’s actually really sweet.”
She laughed again.
“Next time?” The concierge shook his head. “I mean, in five years, sure. When you run again as the incumbent.”
Yes, it was very sweet of them all to believe that. And to support her like this. She patted his shoulder as she passed by him and pushed the elevator call button. The mechanism scanned her palm, and she could see the display show the highest floor. Thirteen. She almost asked who had come up to her suite, since the rest of the penthouses were not yet for booking, but then Lachlan texted her again and it distracted her. He kept her busy answering until the doors opened to the empty suite. All the lights were on.
Paloma wondered if housekeeping had forgotten them. That wasn’t like her people. Neither was the bottle of whiskey abandoned on the side of the bar. For a moment, she wondered if she had left it there herself. She had wanted to take a swig before the debate, for courage. Then she reconsidered. She had courage to spare.
The day had taken so much out of her; maybe she was just tired. Imagining things. She took a tumbler and filled it with two fingers of whiskey.
Her phone had been pinging nonstop, and Paloma considered putting it on Do Not Disturb—except she really wanted to be disturbed by one person in particular. One person who had been conspicuously absent for an hour, now.
Paloma unlocked the phone and decided that some initiative was perhaps in order. She brought up the contact and opened the text message chain. All it had was aHi, guess who this is?from Deryn, who somehow found her number first. Paloma remembered rolling her eyes at the silly attempt at flirting.
Deryn could be silly. And flirty. And very charming. And someone whose presence was immediately missed. Paloma found herself missing her.
“Now who’s silly?” she whispered to herself and typed out a quick reply.
Paloma:How many attempts at guessing do I get?
