“I’m aware of that. I married one.”
He seemed to be making all the wrong conversational moves tonight. “I didn’t mean to bring up a sore subject.”
“I know.”
He turned his head to look at her. She often had the air of a woman who preferred to observe others from a cautious distance. But now, tonight, bathed in the light that streamed through the window, she looked as if she believed herself to be in an entirely separate dimension. Hewondered how to tell her that she was wrong. From the moment he had begun to build a psi profile on her, he had suspected that there would be a lot of fierce heat and energy beneath the surface. When he had encountered her in person in that damned hotel, his theory had been confirmed. Beneath the serene, controlled surface was a smoldering fire.
A thought occurred to him.
“You’re afraid of your core talent, aren’t you?” he said before he could stop himself.
She tensed and seemed to take a step back even though she hadn’t moved off the bed. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Sebastian chose that moment to chortle in a demanding way. He scratched at the window.
Distracted, Alice jumped to her feet.
“He wants out,” she said. “I’ll get dressed and take him downstairs.”
“We took him to the pet relief area on the rooftop garden before we went to bed. You said that would do until morning.”
“I think he just wants to go out for a while. During normal times he loves to party with his pals down in the tunnels. I guess he assumes that as long as you’re here, he can go off duty for a while. He deserves a break.”
“I don’t think we’ll have to get dressed and ride the elevator downstairs to give him his social break.”
Alice paused in the act of reaching into the closet. “Why not?”
He waved a hand at the window. “Take a look.”
She hurried across the room and stared in shock at the two dust bunnies perched on the balcony railing. “We’re on the eighth floor. How in the world did they get up here?”
“Six paws and, apparently, no fear of heights,” Owen said. “The more interesting question is, how did they know Sebastian was in this particular room?”
“The same way they find each other down in the Underworld, I suppose,” Alice said. “You might as well open the door.”
He unlocked the sliding door. Sebastian chortled and zipped out onto the balcony. He hopped up onto the railing and greeted his buddies. A moment later all three vanished over the side.
“I hope he has a good time,” Alice said. “He deserves it. He risked his life for me at the Hotel of Dreams.”
“Three dust bunnies out for a night on the town. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Don’t worry, they’ll probably head straight down into the tunnels to hunt in the Rainforest.” Alice turned around. “By the way, just so you know, I’m not afraid of my psychic senses. I control my talent. It doesn’t control me.”
“I thought you said you didn’t understand my question.”
“I just pretended not to understand it because I was a little shocked. Asking someone if they are afraid of their core talent is a very rude question.”
“Yes, it is,” he said. “I apologize. I assume your talent is the reason you’ve never registered with a matchmaking agency?”
“Yes. But shortly before it was forced to close, the Ballantine Academy was preparing to set up its own matchmaking service. It was going to focus on people with complex or high-rez talents, the kind that regular matchmaking agencies don’t handle well. I was looking forward to registering, but Cadence Ballantine died, and that was the end of the plan, the Academy…everything.”
The end of everything. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and…and what? Remind her to think positive? No. What he really wanted to do was kiss her. Strip off her robe and take her to bed. But sex was out of the question. Wasn’t it?
“There are other agencies that focus on difficult-to-match talents,” he said instead. “The Arcane Society operates one. My family has been pushing me to register.”
“What’s the Arcane Society?”
“An organization for those with psychic talents. It was founded back on the Old World. The Marches have had a connection to it for generations. There’s nothing new about paranormal abilities. They have run strong in my family for generations, long before the Curtain opened. The Society kept a low profile on the home planet, but here on Harmony, no one pays any attention to the organization, because everyone accepts the reality of the paranormal.”
