Totally Spellbound (17 page)

“Because we’re not doing anything,”
Tiffany said. “They made him mad because they did
stuff.”

“Which makes sense for us not doing
stuff,” Crystal said.

“Y’know, like, duh,” Brittany
said.

Megan felt that same swirling,
head-turning momentum she’d felt when she’d first encountered the
three adult Fates.

She had to work at returning to her
own centered place. The key to therapy was listening. And it was
hard to listen to these girls because of the way they
spoke.

“So,” she said gently, “you have to
speak in the same order. You can’t break that?”

“Would you sound this stupid on
purpose?” Tiffany asked.

“You sound quite intelligent to me,”
Megan said.

“Because she’s the brainy one,”
Crystal said.

“And she’s mad at us for making her
read all the books,” Brittany said.

“I’m mad at you guys for a bunch of
reasons,” Tiffany said. “And you screwed up the order.”

“What order?” Megan asked.

“The speech order,” Crystal said. “We
tried a spell out of one of the books so we could talk, like, when
we wanted to.”

“And all it did was make Crystal talk
first,” Brittany said. “I used to do that.”

“Which is really annoying,” Tiffany
said. “I always start to say something after Crystal, but I can’t
say anything until Brittany covers us all with her bubblegum
breath.”

“You used to like bubblegum,” Crystal
said.

“So did you,” Brittany reminded
her.

Megan was starting to get a headache.
They spoke that way involuntarily? Did they go on tangents
involuntarily too? Or was that simply the way these girls
thought?

Rob had moved next to one of the
bookshelves. He leaned on it, watching the entire interaction. His
gaze kept meeting Megan’s, sending her warnings that she pretended
she wasn’t receiving.

“Let’s focus,” Megan said. “You’re all
angry. Tell me about that as best you can.”

“We’re supposed to be doing this
together,” Tiffany said. “Together doesn’t mean I do all the
work.”

“We make decisions,” Crystal
said.

“We do?” Brittany asked.

Tiffany closed the book with a bang.
She looked directly at Megan. The girl’s eyes were so full of fury
that Megan could feel it as if it were her own.

“Daddy made this sound like fun, but
it’s not. It’s hard, and no one else is trying, except me. And I
don’t want to try.” She spoke really fast, as if she were working
to get each word out before the others had to speak for
her.

“He said we’d just grow into the job,”
Crystal said.

“He said all we had to do was what he
said,” Brittany said. “But he’s not saying anything except how come
we’re not doing our job.”

“Does your father live here?” Megan
asked.

“Meg,” Rob said. “Their father is
Zeus.”

And you’re the King
of France
, she almost said, because she
would have if he’d been some Los Angeles parent who was interfering
with her work. But he wasn’t the King of France, he was Robin Hood,
and the father of these three young, confused girls could possibly
be Zeus.

If the girls were the Interim
Fates.

And the other three were the real
Fates.

Who had given up their magic to
understand their job better, and then realized that Zeus had
cheated them in a power broker takeover.

And if all of that was the case, then
Rob was right: Megan was out of her league.

“No,” Tiffany said as if Rob hadn’t
spoken. “Daddy doesn’t live here. He can’t. Technically, the Powers
That Be aren’t supposed to interfere with the Fates.”

“Who told you that?” Crystal
asked.

“She read it somewhere, I bet.”
Brittany’s voice was filled with disapproval.

“I’ve been reading because I’m trying
to get us out of this mess. It’d be a lot easier if you guys would
help,” Tiffany said.

Megan’s stomach lurched. She looked at
Rob. He had the same expression, wary and filled with concern. He
hadn’t noticed what Tiffany just said.

“Are you serious about that?” Megan
asked.

“About what?” Crystal
asked.

“About getting out of this mess,”
Megan said.

“Yes!!!
” All three girls answered at
once, their voices so loud they almost—almost—matched the intensity
of Kyle’s broadcast.

The concerned line on Rob’s face grew
deeper. He made those funny little movements with his hands
again.

“Well,” Megan said, “I know how you
can get out of this.”

Rob’s movements became more
pronounced. This time, she didn’t even make eye contact.

“See?” Brittany said to the others, “I
told you this was a test from Daddy.”

“No test,” Megan said.

“How do we know that?” Tiffany
asked.

“Do you have magic?” Megan
asked.

“Well, duh!” Crystal said. “What good
are Fates without magic?”

Rob rolled his eyes, but Crystal had a
point. The three Fates that were with Kyle right now seemed
completely out of place. Perhaps they wouldn’t be so out of place
if they had a little more control.

“But it doesn’t do us a lot of good,”
Brittany said. “There’s a lot of rules, and we didn’t know
that.”

“Even though we’re supposed to enforce
them.” Tiffany shoved the book off her lap onto the table beside
her. “No one explained that part either.”

The no one in question had to be their
father, Zeus. The man sounded like a real piece of work.

Megan couldn’t deal with him yet.
Maybe she wouldn’t have to at all if this worked right.

“Well,” she said, “like you three, I
don’t completely understand the rules of magic. I assume you know
them better than I do. Can you use your powers to see if I’m being
sincere?”

Crystal and Brittany looked at
Tiffany. She nodded.

“You gotta start the spell, then,”
Crystal said.

“I can do, like, the hand stuff if you
tell me what it is,” Brittany said.

“I’ll just do it.” Tiffany made a
beatific hand movement. A tiny light formed around
Megan.

“Oh!” Crystal said. “I know what
you’re doing.”

“Me, too,” Brittany said. “All you
have to do, lady, is tell us something.”

“Tell us again that you know how to
get us out of this,” Tiffany said.

Megan nodded. “I do know. But it would
require secrecy and trust on your part. Can you do
that?”

The light around her remained white.
She had no idea of that was a good or bad thing.

“Sure,” Crystal said.

“Yep,” Brittany said.

“Of course,” Tiffany said.

Megan smiled. Apparently,
the whiteness had been a good thing.

“All right,” she said. “Here’s what I
think you need to do.”

Rob leaned against the bookshelf, his
arms crossed. Megan had no idea who these girls were. She probably
had a vague understanding—from classic mythology—who Zeus was. But
she didn’t know his incredible power in the world of the
mages.

“Meg,” Rob said before she could go
any further. “We may not be able to trust these girls.”

Megan, who had been deliberately
ignoring him for the past five minutes, finally met his gaze. “Can
you do the same spell over them that they just did over
me?”

He could do that and a dozen more
powerful ones. But that wasn’t the point.

“They might be sincere right now,” he
said, “but their father has a lot more control than you realize. He
might be able to warp that sincerity and use it against
us.”

Megan bit her lower lip. Crystal, the
pretty redhead, teared up. Brittany, the scrawny blonde, bowed her
head. Only Tiffany, the one who seemed to have a brain, didn’t
move.

“Daddy can be pretty persuasive,”
Crystal said in a watery voice.

“Your hottie is right. You probably
shouldn’t help us,” Brittany said.

Tiffany sighed, then nodded. “If Daddy
wants to, he can pretty much get us to do anything.”

Rob kept his gaze on Megan. He wished
he had the abilities her nephew Kyle did, because he would send her
a message: Don’t mess with Zeus.

Zeus was one of the Powers
That Be. He might actually be the Head Power. There were a bunch of
them, almost all of them known as the main Greek Gods. They’d been
around so long and had accumulated so much power that they were
almost like gods.

And for some reason,
a reason Rob didn’t understand, the rules didn’t apply to them.
They
made
the
rules, and let the Fates enforce them.

Only the Fates were locked
in his office, and these little girls were supposed to enforce the
rules, and they were under Zeus’ thumb.

Zeus. Rob couldn’t imagine what that
man was like as a father. Zeus had hundreds—maybe thousands—of
children, breaking yet another rule. When a mage came into his
magic, his reproductive capabilities went away.

Rumors were that Zeus had arranged for
men to come into their magic young—around the age of 20 or so—and
women to come into theirs after menopause. Ostensibly, the argument
was that the hormonal activity made it hard to control the magic,
but Rob had always wondered if it wasn’t a ploy by the old sexist
to keep women under his thumb as long as possible.

Except his teenage
daughters. Who had magic. And who now had waaay too much power. And
obviously had no idea how—or even when—to use it.

“So you’re telling me not to trust you
as well,” Megan said gently.

Crystal’s tears spilled
over her lower lashes. One tear caught on her nose ring, making her
look (rather disgustingly) like she had forgotten to blow her
nose.

Brittany glanced at her, then blinked
hard, as if she felt the need to cry after seeing her sister
cry.

But Tiffany just nodded.

“You feel that you can’t stand up to
your father,” Megan said.

All three girls nodded.

“I understand that,” Megan
said.

But she didn’t. She really couldn’t.
Only there was no way Rob could explain that to her. No way at all.
She was thinking of Zeus as some human father with a little too
much control of his daughters.

Zeus was the closest thing Rob’s
people had to a god, and he had control over everyone.

Except the other Powers That Be, of
course.

Which had to be why this scheme had
even come into existence.

Rob crossed his arms even tighter,
almost so that he was hugging himself, and frowned. Something else
was going on here, something sinister.

Something that had to do
with power, and a lot of it. Zoe had tried to warn him, telling him
that Zeus was making a power play, but Rob had ignored that,
thinking who cared what Zeus was doing.

Which had to be why Zoe had sent him
here, to see the true repercussions.

He loathed the original
Fates, but they had kept the systems going. People got their
familiars; they learned how to handle their nascent powers; they
got their wrists slapped when they called attention to themselves
in the mortal world.

What would happen if all that petty
stuff got ignored? Magic would go haywire without familiars;
mortals would notice out-of-control mages; and the press would
learn that half the actors in the business didn’t age because they
didn’t age, not because they had fantastic plastic
surgeons.

Rob sighed, and tuned back into the
discussion. The girls were complaining about Zeus, and to hear them
tell it, he did sound like the average father—if the average father
had five hundred lovers, a jealous magical wife, and more children
than he could count.

“We thought we were his favorites,”
Crystal said.

“But we’re starting to think he hates
us,” Brittany said.

“Why else would he stick us with all
this work when he knows we’re bad at it?” Tiffany said.

Megan nodded. She seemed interested.
Rob wasn’t sure how she maintained that sympathetic expression in
the face of all this whining. He was having trouble just standing
here.

“Maybe,” Megan said, “he knew you were
bad at it when he brought you in.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Crystal
said.

“Wouldn’t he want us to do a good
job?” Brittany asked.

“No.” Tiffany’s voice was flat. “He
told that superman guy that we were going to change the way
everything got done, remember?”

“I just remember that Daddy always
comes here when there’s tough stuff to be done, and does it,”
Crystal said.