Out of Mind

something I’m going to regret?”

“That wasn’t my intent, but yes.”

“Huh.” He shook his head. “Do we need to go somewhere for this? We could use my flat.” He thought some more. “That probably wouldn’t be such a good idea. Can I offer you a step on those stairs over there? We’ve got plenty of them.”

“I just want to get this over with.”

He held back a bush for her to pass and followed her into the courtyard. Poppy went to the fountain and sat on the edge. Sykes almost warned her about the spray, but thought better of it. He perched beside her instead.

She remained silent, examining the backs of her elegant hands.

Sykes found himself at peace just waiting for her to be ready to talk.

The little red dog emerged and came to sit at his feet. Sykes scratched his head absently and closed his eyes for a long moment. They felt blurry. When he opened them, he remained utterly still, allowing a pale, iridescent green haze to waver over the scene before him.

Lightly came the suggestion of chatter. It disguised itself in a breeze, but he heard individual voices. They argued and cajoled by turns, and Sykes’s nerves swelled with excitement. He breathed deeply and turned his head toward the griffon bed. Again and again he was moved to look in that direction.

Clumps of bamboo bent, curled over almost double and straightened, slowly and gently, to stand erect again.

Mario put his head on Sykes’s foot and sighed.

“You are still the one.”

A man’s voice, deep, with some European accent spoke in his mind. Why did Poppy have to choose now to come here?

“Because she has made a mistake that could have cost us dearly. It will be up to you to decide how to deal with her. Think ahead, Sykes. It will not always be today, although you will remember everything you have seen and experienced. Perhaps Poppy has suffered enough.”

Who was it? Was it—

“The Mentor. I am Jude, the one some called Judas, but there were others who went before me. I am their voice, their presence.”

What could this…person, want from him?

“Be ready. Be watchful. Support Willow and Ben, for they are at the heart of this episode. You can expect more to come. So much is at stake—your whole world as you know it.”

Sykes shivered. He looked at the side of Poppy’s face and noted that her eyes were closed, her hands relaxed, as if she slept.

“Here.”

Almost afraid to raise his eyes, Sykes did so and saw a man with long, gray-streaked black hair. At his neck white linen gleamed. His black, cutaway coat had tails and he was a handsome figure. That thought came and immediately the notion followed that this was someone familiar.

“Yes, you look like me, but why shouldn’t you? We are both Millets and we are two of a kind. Listen for me, but do what you know in your heart must be done. The peril is far greater than they know—your authorities as you call them—so much greater. I will not be far away, Sykes, unless an intervention is too powerful even for me to immediately overcome. But trust. We will fight together, all of us.”

He inclined his head, his blue eyes smiling, and the manifestation dissolved.

Gasps, little cries of wonder, blended into a new breeze, and more excited chuckling. And, just as abruptly, all was quiet and still again.

Poppy opened her eyes slowly, looking at him with such concern he almost reached out to touch her.

“I’ve decided I’ll do whatever you say,” she told him. Her long hair flowed around her shoulders, so dark it shone with a blue light. “It’s about Ben.”

“Okay.” His attention remained with the Mentor. He hadn’t wanted the man to go, and now he wanted him to return.

“I did something I’m ashamed of, and I’m afraid it might never be completely corrected. I love my older brother so much. When we were growing up he was my hero. I went everywhere with him that he would let me go. He’s still my hero. I had a very hard time understanding that he grew into a man with a man’s needs and desires— and that he could not remain mine. You see, I thought of him as mine.”

Sykes smiled at her. He picked up one of her hands and held it between both of his. “Brothers and sisters are often very close. And they stay close. Some things change, but the bonds are still there.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “I have broken the bonds with Ben. Once he knows what I did, he will never feel the same about me.”

He thought about what she said. “Are you still doing whatever it was?”

“Oh, no!”

Rubbing the back of her hand, he ducked his head toward her and tried to make her smile at him. He got the faintest tilt of her lips that only served to send huge tears rolling. She quickly brushed them away.

“If this—whatever it is—is behind you now, why mention it to him? Find ways to make up for it.” He laughed. “He loves to eat. Make him food.”

Poppy laughed a little. “Yes. But I think the damage I did may never really mend. I caused doubt and pain. They ran deeper than you can imagine, and even if they seem to have gone away, they could cause distrust and ruin everything in time.”

He shook his head, at a loss.

Poppy turned sideways on the narrow ledge to face him and drew his hands onto her thigh. Her fingers squeezed his. “I was the one who drove Ben and Willow apart,” she said. “I told Willow she was too ordinary for him. I said he would get bored with her, and since she’s a Millet, he’d be bound to her forever, and forever he would hate being with her, and then he would hate her.”

“Why?” He knew the answer, but wanted to hear her say it.

“Because I didn’t want to lose him,” she said, releasing his hands and crossing her arms tightly. “Willow was always the insecure little one. She insisted she didn’t have powers and wouldn’t want them anyway. I really didn’t think she was suitable for him. But I wanted her out of his life, and I was wrong. It could never be my place to do what I did.”

Sykes stood up and looked down on her. He felt cold inside. “And now you think what—as far as the two of them go? You can see they want each other.”

“But Willow is a woman. I understand the doubts she will have. She told me she was setting him free, and no matter what happened in future, she knew they could not be Bonded.”

“You believe this new closeness they’ve found won’t last?”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. Unless I explain to Ben exactly what I did so he and Willow can put it aside.”

The woman looked so utterly miserable that Sykes pitied her, even while he was so angry at the thought of all the misery she had caused.

“Tell me what to do, Sykes,” she said. “I did try to tell Ben once, but give me the word and I’ll go to him again and make him listen to the truth.”

Sykes opened his mouth to respond. He felt the sharp words forming on his tongue and raised his head to calm himself.

Dancing purple mist made up of too many silvery specks to contemplate shifted in front of him, and he saw a page in a book.

The picture was of a carved angel—one that looked similar to some of those in this courtyard. Above the picture was written Bella, and below Angelus.

“She is a very beautiful angel,” the Mentor’s familiar voice said. “She was always beautiful, and wise. Until it’s time for you to know her, you must find your own wisdom. Trust your convictions.”

Alone again, except for Poppy and her large, dark eyes pleading with him, Sykes wanted to throw himself into finding that statue.

“I’m not telling you whether to come clean with Ben about this, or not to talk to him,” he told Poppy. “You’ll