Magic Rising by Jennifer Cloud Read Free Book Online

been through. “No. It’s just disturbing to have to deal with my childhood. I thought I’d put it behind me.”
    “You never told me about your past. All these years, you’ve kept the pre-Lawrenceton part of your life to yourself.” He leaned back in the large leather chair that was only suitable for a boss. “You know everything about me.”
    “That’s because you won’t shut up.” She grinned and tried the coffee again. This time it went down, although her tongue still stung.
    “Deirdre?”
    “How’s Hannah?”
    “No changing the subject. Now, tell me about yourself. Come on. It’ll make you feel better.” When she didn’t respond, he kept going. “It would do you good to talk to a friend, instead of dealing with this alone. Tell me anything. How about your family, your father?”
    “There’s nothing to deal with. I never knew my father.” As a child she’d been forbidden from asking about him. It wasn’t that big an issue. She hadn’t even addressed her mother in public, except by her Stone House name.
    Chad looked at her, chewing his lip in that absent way that meant he was thinking. She supposed he thought of her as a daughter, so any information about her background, or any problem; he wanted to know about it. He pried for further details.
    “Did you miss not having a father? Did your mom date?”
    She loved him for his attention, but her childhood was impossible to explain. Back then, she’d thought it was normal. How was she supposed to know life didn’t have to involve pain?
    “Mom never remarried.” The answer was simple and would do. “I don’t know of any men that caught her eye.”
    “How’s your mother now?”
    Deirdre closed her eyes and was surprised that the image of fire was there instead of metal and blood. The inferno ate up the walls, lapping against anything it could consume, and Deirdre had stood in the midst of it laughing, wishing to join her mother until self preservation kicked in. Even now she thought she heard her mother’s voice in the flames.
    “She’s dead.” Deirdre felt her eyes tear up. The reaction surprised her and, from the look on Chad’s face, he was shocked too. “Sorry. I didn’t think it would still upset me.”
    “How’d she die?”
    “An accident.” A murder . “There was an accident at a picnic .” There was a killing on the exercise field and Mom never had a chance. “A car came through the crowd, out of control .” But it wasn’t a car, it was a man, and Mom died because Dragonfly had failed . In effect, Dragonfly had killed her mother.
    “Must’ve been tough. How old were you?”
    “Fifteen.” She sniffled, and tried to keep her bottom lip from quivering by biting it. “I got over it.”
    He leaned over and hugged her around the edge of the desk. Chad was the only man she ever let hug her, maybe it was because the contact was always innocent. She never once sensed the lust in him that so many men held for her, and shamefully, she enjoyed the contact. If this was friendship, it was a better gift than anything.
    “This detective guy is digging into her death?”
    “Yes.” She pressed her face against his shoulder. Farmer was digging into more than her mother’s death; he was digging into the deaths of hundreds. Worse, he was finding out her secrets, seeing through to a past Deirdre never wanted revealed. “I didn’t think anybody would bring it up.”
    “You know you have to face this. Putting it to rest is the only way to make it stop.”
    “I know.” Pulling away from him, she stood and turned to the door. This was upsetting her and she couldn’t do this now, not here. The gym was her refuge, not a place to cry it out and wish her problems would vanish. “There’s no better time like the present. I’m going to handle this now.”
    “Be careful. If you need me, call.”
    Deirdre nodded, knowing that a family man had no business involving himself with anything as twisted as her history. She wasn’t crazy about