“I cant believe it!”Zoe gripped both Malorys and Danas hands and bounced on her toes. “Engaged! Youre both engaged. At the same time. Its like magic. The rings. Theyre so beautiful. Oh, boy.” She dug into her pocket for a tissue.
“Sheesh. Mom, get a grip.”Zoe sent her son a glare. “Ill give you a grip.” He snorted, rolled with a delighted Moe. “Are we getting pizza, or what?”
“Why dont you go back in the kitchen and ask Flynn? Politely,” she added as he scrambled up. “Ive got to show you the kitchen,” Malory remembered. “But first.” She grabbed Danas hand again to admire the ruby. “Its gorgeous. So perfect for you.”
“Soshe. Wait until I tell you how he asked me.” , “I can top it,” Malory claimed. “Were you naked?”
“No.”
Dana licked a finger, swiped it down an imaginary Scoreboard. “I win.”
“Mom!” Simon shouted from the kitchen door. “The guys say if you all want pizza you have to say what kind, or else you have to take what you get.”
“Tell you what.”Zoe draped an arm around her friends shoulders. “When we dont have a bunch of guys cluttering things up, you can tell me, and each other, every detail. Well have a little celebration at Indulgence in the morning.”
“Works for me,” Dana agreed. “Im starved, and I dont want a bunch of onions and mushrooms messing up my pie.”
AN hour later, Dana was polishing off her third piece. She stretched out on the floor beside Simon and Moe and said, “Ugh.”
“On that note,” Flynn began, “lets talk about finding this key.”
“Simon, why dont you take your book upstairs? Thats all right, isnt it?”Zoe asked Flynn.
“Sure. He knows the way.”
“You and Moe can hang out. Ill call you when its time to go.”
“How come we cant hang out here while you talk about the magic stuff?”
“Where do you get that?”Zoe demanded. “Simon, have you been eavesdropping?”
“Jeez, Mom.” He sent her an insulted, sulky frown. “I dont have to go sneaking around, I just have to have ears.” He pinched them between his fingers, wiggled them. “Hey, look! Ive got two of them.”
“Well talk about your ears later. Upstairs, to that horrible prison with a TV and a dog. You can write a letter of complaint to your congressman tomorrow.”
“Man.” Though his lips twitched, he rolled his eyes for form, then they widened and focused on what Brad held in his hand. “Holy Cow! WWFSmackdown !”
“Maybe you want to borrow it, take it for a few rounds.” “Yeah?Smackdown ! It really kicks—”He caught himself, swallowed back the word that would get him in serious hot water with his mother. “Really kicks,” he amended. “Thanks.”
“No problem. This way when we gomano amano and I humiliate you, you wont be able to whine that you didnt get to practice.”
“Yeah, sure, right.” Simon took the video disk. “This is so way cool. Thanks.”
He streaked off, hooking his book bag under one arm and calling for Moe.
Zoefolded her hands in her lap. “That was very nice of you.”
“He may not think so when I trounce him in the upcoming match.”
“I dont want you to feel obligated to—”
“I dont.” Brad cut her off, coolly, firmly, then deliberately looked at Dana. “You want to get this rolling?”
“As long as I can start it from the supine position. As previously discussed, Jordan wrote up the sequence of events.”
“He gave me a copy,” Malory interrupted. “And I made copies for everyone. Ill go get them.”
“Shes something, isnt she?” Dana commented as Malory left the room. “Our own Debbie Detail. SinceMals already read it, and the rest of you will, Ill just say that it puts everything into a comprehensive and cohesive form. Its helpful to see just how everythings unfolded to this point. Malory,Zoe , and I getting the invitation to Warriors Peak, meeting there for the first time. Our first contact with Rowena andPitte , and hearing the story of the Daughters of Glass. Though we didnt know they were called that until Flynn stepped in.”
“Theres the way Flynn met Malory, and became a part of the quest,” Jordan continued. “The fact that each of you was at a crossroads,jobwise .”
“We were in trouble,jobwise ,”Zoe corrected. “And that made the offer of twenty-five thousand dollars for agreeing to look for keys—keys I dont think any of us really believed in—that first night too tempting to pass up.”
“Its more than that.” Malory came back in and distributed manila envelopes, neatly labeled with names. “There was the financial incentive, yes. But there was also a sense of mutual frustration, of being in flux, not knowing what we were going to do next. And that almost instant connection between us. Jordan caught that, very clearly, in writing it out.”
“Add,tothat how those tendrils spread out,” Dana went on. “How they hooked Jordan and Brad in. Connecting them to us, to the quest, to Rowena andPitte , and to the daughters. I think thats an important point. Each of us has a role, each of us has to be here for this thing to go through.” “Then theres Kane.” Malory slid her copy out of the envelope. “The way you describe him, Jordan, its so spooky—and so accurate. As if youd seen him through my eyes.”
“Seeing him through my own was enough. I think we need to look at him as more than the bogeyman, more than a foe. Hes another element to the quest.”
“I agree with that.” Brad nodded. “Hes as essential to this as the rest of us are. In the end, I think, its not going to be just a matter of outwitting him, as Malory did, or twisting his game to our advantage, as Danas done so far. Its going to be a matter of destroying him.”
“How do you destroy a god?”Zoe demanded.
“I dont know, but first Id say by believing you can do it.”
“Maybe. But right now Ill settle for getting my hands on the key.” Dana sat up. “Ive only got a few more days.
And heres what I know. While I may have to find it on my own, Jordan is essential to the search. Kane has tried to separate us or pull us apart, and its not just because he doesnt want us to live happily ever after. What he did, however, was push us closer together. Hes not going to be pleased by that.”
She reached over, peeled a round of pepperoni off a slice of pizza and nibbled; “And he miscalculated by showing me the past. That was one of the steps I had to take, and might not have, at least not as decisively, if he hadnt thrown me back in time. Past, present, and future. Ive resolved and accepted the past, Ive made my peace with the present, and…”
She held up her ring hand. “Im looking toward the future. This is important stuff, not only to me personally but to what Im meant to do. One of the constants in those three time frames is Jordan.”
“Thanks, Stretch.”
“Dont get all puffed up. Some of this is just fate. Now if you read some of this stuff…” She plucked the copy out of Malorys hands. “You start to feel it, see it, even if you werent part of that particular event. You get a good, clear picture. Here—that blue fog that took over Indulgence. The bone marrow chill of it, the oddness of the light, the color, the texture. You start to feel it creeping over your skin.”
“Writers tools,” Jordan said.
“Yeah, and youre damn good with them.”
“Excuse me?” Mildly annoyed with the interruption, she glanced up to see him staring at her with a kind of narrowed intensity that brought heat to her face. “I said you were good. So what?”
“So… theres a first time for everything. Need another drink,” he said and walked out of the room.
Dana shifted, then huffed out a breath. “Short break,” she announced, and followed Jordan to the kitchen.
“Whats the deal?”