“She’s proven to me that she’s very capable of taking care of herself. With or without magic.” Don watched the two of them. He wondered if either of them knew how much they looked alike. “I’m going to ask this because if I don’t, it will haunt me. Melisandre, what is CJ to you?”
The smile from the queen was very telling. It was also sort of scary. The connection between the two of them might not be anything at all, but for some reason, Don thought there was a great deal more to it than just one helping the other.
Chapter 2
Fergus needed something to do. If he didn’t find a job of some sort soon, he was going to have to go back west and miss seeing his daughter. Not that they were terribly close, but she was coming to him for things now. However, none of it was keeping his mind or his hands busy. Going to find Don, he sat in his office for several minutes before the man looked up from the device, a computer he was staring at.
“I’m trying to find us a home. All I think about is that I have a mate, and I get sidetracked very easily.” His smile seemed to consume his entire face. Ah, to be in love again. “What can I do for you, Fergus?”
“I can write a check.” That sounded silly even to his own ears. “I’m sorry. I’m very bored. And you know as well as I that being bored is dangerous for men such as us. Do you, by chance, have anything for me to do? Physically would be better, but even a mental challenge is better than I have right now.”
“I have several projects going right now. Two of them are things I’ve been asked by Bancroft and Kelly to do, and one of them is something I’ve been mulling around for the last few days. What do you know about construction?” He told him that several times in his life, he’d been in construction for a time. “Good. Even if it was a while back, it’s more than I have right now. I need to see what sort of work it would take to change out the school that has been sitting idle for decades. Should it be taken down? Can I reuse it the way it is? I need someone that knows more than I do to go there and see if it would be cheaper to rip it to the ground or renovate it into a greenhouse flower shop. I think the need is there, especially for the greenhouse. And I found out recently that my mate is a cousin to Melisandre.”
“I thought she’d been created. I mean, isn’t that the way it is for queens and kings of the other world?” Don explained it to him. “I had no idea that Melisandre was the second queen. So Melisandre’s mother is a sister to the father of CJ. What about her sister?”
“They’re not related. Not by blood anyway. CJ knows, but her sister Pfeiffer doesn’t. Apparently, when there was an upheaval in the other world, CJ was brought here to this world to be safely hidden away in the event she was needed to take over the other world for the queen. If she was hurt or incapacitated in some way, they had someone that could hopefully fill the spot. It turned out all right, but they forgot about CJ being with a human family, and she has been here since.” He asked about the parents. “That’s the thing. When Pfeiffer’s parents were alive, they traveled a great deal. Then one time, when they came home with a baby, no one seemed to be confused or concerned about it. Pfeiffer, just like everyone else, thought CJ was their child and her sister. That’s why there are a lot of years between them.”
“And no one thought to figure this out? No questions were asked about the child, even after the years had gone by?” Don told him apparently not. “That is not only strange, but it seems a little cruel if you ask me. It’s akin to what happened to my daughter. Someone changed Lizzy against her will, and this child was left behind with no one to help her with her magic.” Fergus thought about it for a moment before speaking again. “You know, it must be hidden. Now that I think on it, I’ve never smelled magic on her.”
“Neither have I. You will now. When Melisandre was here earlier this morning, she made sure that anyone around them knew CJ has magic.” Fergus asked him about his portion of magic. “I’ve been marked.”
Standing up, the young man took off his shirt. He had been marked, and it looked as if he was still getting markings put to his skin. His entire right shoulder and arm were marked with symbols and sigils that Fergus had not seen for a very long time. Getting a closer look at them, he could tell that some of it was written in faerie.
“It says you are to be protected at all costs. You are…hang on. It’s been a while since I’ve had an opportunity to read this language. Let me see. You are the mate to the queen’s family. Any children born of you and your mate will be cherished.” Fergus looked at the next line of inked words. “I’m not sure, but it looks like this is telling me of the battles you’ve been in and how they turned out. Is CJ marked as well?”
“Yes. But apparently, she’s had this mark on her back since birth. It was thought they looked like wings, but no one paid it much mind. But now that she’s met me, she’s been inked up as well. She’s not all that happy about it either—the mate part bringing it
