Free Rise of the Magi by Jocelyn Adams Page A

and that’s all he was to their family. He and Maeve cared for one another, but they didn’t live together.”
    Judging by the grief twisting Maeve’s features, I guessed she still loved him no matter what had kept them apart. As I drew up some courage and started for them, my Light already beginning to boil blue across my skin, I said, “Okay, but I still don’t get why you want Maeve to come with us.” I just sent Gallagher off to burn her baby’s daddy, for eff sakes. “Haven’t I put them through enough already?”
    “He hasn’t come home yet.” Maeve spoke before I had a chance to rattle an answer out of my aide. “Are you sure?” A giant tear fell out of the corner of her eye, her chin quivering until she stilled it. “Are you sure he’s … gone?”
    Arianne raised her tangerine-haired head, her little pigtails sticking out either side of it, and placed her palm on her mother’s cheek. “Lila help.”
    The mental jolt at my idiocy cracked me on the top of the skull. Arianne was a telepath. I’d just said—and thought of—sending Gallagher to burn her father to death. “Oh, crap, I’m so sorry,” I blurted, fighting off the sting in my eyes by sheer will alone. “My stupid mind won’t shut up, and I forget she can read me so easily now. I shouldn’t have … she heard something she shouldn’t. It’s possible he’s still out there somewhere, alive and unharmed, but …”
    Instead of ripping into me as I expected—as I would have if the situations were reversed—Maeve calmed and produced a sad smile. “You’re doing the best you can; we all know that. I hope you know none of us blame you, because it’s not your fault.”
    I wanted to rant and stomp and insist it was all my fault, but we didn’t have time for me to have an old fashioned Lilaesque-freak-out. The calm Liam had induced in me before we parted might have had something to do with me keeping my cool longer than normal. “He’ll be at peace soon,” I said. “That’s all I can promise you.”
    Arianne leaned out, her little fingers reaching for me. She’d lost some of her pudginess and appeared more like a little person instead of a baby. “I help,” she said.
    Brow creased, I turned to Brígh. “Tell me you didn’t mean Arianne.”
    My young friend rolled her eyes and made a get-on-with-your-crazy-ass-rant gesture with her hand.
    “No!” My gaze swept back to Maeve. “I will not put your daughter in danger, especially after what happened today.”
    “The Overseers have a blind spot where Arianne is concerned.” Brígh took Arianne from her mother and brought her the last few steps to me. “They’ve written her off as not a threat, and nobody can read them, not Gallagher or any of the other telepaths, only …” Brígh swept her hand over the girl in her arms with dramatic flair.
    “Arianne,” I whispered.
    “She’s determined to do this for you.” Maeve’s mouth curved up with pride. “And once she has her mind set on doing something, there’s no deterring her. I think she admires that quality in her queen.”
    I studied Arianne’s rosy cheeks, and arms still outstretched in my direction, wondering how the blue blazes I’d gained such loyalty in a child of nine months old. And how had she gotten so smart? Being able to hear everyone’s thoughts might have had something to do with her level of intelligence. How was it she could be braver than me? The girl put me to shame.
    I straightened my shoulders, claimed Arianne from Brígh and plunked her squishy diaper-covered butt on my hip. As usual, Arianne’s hand went down to my belly, followed by her ear as she leaned down. Since she was a solid little thing, her weight shift threw me off balance for a moment.
    “He happy.” She rubbed her hand on my stomach. “We play soon.”
    Her vocabulary had grown leaps and bounds every day. Another side effect of living in multiple minds at once. “I’m sure Garret will love you to pieces, little one.” I