Page 84 of Enchant the Dawn

“Really? I didn’t see much conversation going on.”

“She wants to make a deal—my blood for her help in defeating the Elder Knight. Oh, and she wants you to release Jasper from whatever spell he’s under.”

“Forget it. We don’t need her. Or him.”

“She said the Knight wants my head in particular. Why?”

“It’s what they do, remember? He doesn’t need any other reason.”

“But there is one, isn’t there?”

Ava’s gaze slid away from his.

“What the hell’s going on?”

“Your father killed the Elder Knight’s father.”

Comprehension dawned in Dominic’s eyes.

“It was in self-defense, and it happened decades ago,” Ava went on. “I recently learned that Gregory’s father, Frederick, was a vampire hunter. To my knowledge, Quill had no idea that Frederick was the Elder Knight’s father. Of course, Gregory 73 wasn’t the Elder Knight back then. Your father still doesn’t know about the relationship between Gregory and Frederick. I don’t know how Gregory found out about Quill.”

“But you knew. That’s why you insisted on coming to the States with me.”

“Indeed. Gregory 73 is powerful, but not as powerful as he thinks. As for Jasper . . .” She shrugged. “Alone, he’s no real threat.”

“And Claret?”

“Trust me, you shouldn’t believe a word she says. If you’re smart, you’ll be on your guard whenever she’s around.”

“I don’t need you to tell me that.”

“But?”

He shrugged. “I don’t trust her, but in spite of everything, I can’t help liking her.”

Ava shook her head in disgust. “I wonder how much you’ll like her when she’s got you locked up again,” she muttered as she returned to the house and slammed the door.

Dominic blew out a sigh. She was right, of course. But then, she usually was.

Chapter 35

Maddy gazed into Ava’s scrying mirror. Try as she might, she couldn’t summon an image of her parents.

“Stop thinking about Dominic and concentrate,” Ava said. “If you want to see your parents, you have to concentrate on them. Maybe it would be easier to focus on just one of them. Try again.”

Maddy shook the image of Dominic from her mind and summoned an image of her mother. She held her breath as shadows moved below the mirror’s surface, writhing and shifting until the ghostly figures cleared and the image of her mother rose to the surface. She was standing at the ship’s rail, and as Maddy watched, her father came up beside her and slipped his arm around her mother’s shoulders. Maddy blinked back a tear when they smiled at each other.

When she heard the sound of a car backfiring out on the street, it broke her concentration, and the image vanished.

“Well done,” Ava said. “I knew you could do it. It will be easier next time.”

Maddy grinned inwardly. If she’d been alone, she would have tried to summon an image of Dominic, sleeping.

“Now,” Ava said, “I think it’s time you tried casting a spell.”

“What kind of spell?”

Ava picked up a water bottle and poured the contents into a cup. “One of my granddaughter’s first spells was turning water into chocolate milk.” Opening her grimoire, she flipped through the pages. “This is the incantation she used.”

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