Beguiled by Maureen Child

house. A suite of rooms in a shimmering crystal tower in the middle of the great city, the walls of Leanna’s home sparkled and shone iridescently in the afternoon sunshine. The walls were curved, the windows were wide and afforded a view of the far-off sea. A floral scent perfumed the air and soft music that sounded like harps and flutes drifted through the room like a caress.
    It was fabulous and beautiful and the woman who lived here had been nothing but welcoming, but Nora really wanted to be back in her quirky but completely cozy little house. At least there, when she felt hurly, she knew where to go.
    Leanna shifted in her chair, drawing Nora’s attention. Really, was every Fae woman gorgeous? Leanna was tall, mostly leg, with waist-length, pale yellow hair that fell in froths of curls around her shoulders. Her wide, silvery eyes shone in the light of the two suns slanting through the windows. She had a figure that most women would kill for and knowing that she had given birth twice only made Nora more jealous. But she was being helpful and right about now, Nora needed all the help she could get.
    “Is the child female?” Leanna asked, sliding a glance to Quinn.
    “Why’re you asking him?” Nora wondered aloud, shooting her lover a quick, quizzical glance.
    Leanna answered. “Because the males of our race decide the gender of the child.”
    “Oh.” Nora let her breath slide out. “It’s that way for us, too.”
    “Really?” Leanna leaned forward, curiosity stamped on her features. “Human men can choose the gender of their children?”
    “Choose?” Nora looked at Quinn again. “No, they don’t choose , they just . . . you mean,” she narrowed her eyes on the huge male beside her, “Fae males can actually decide on a boy or girl?”
    “Of course,” Leanna said. “So I ask again, which is your child?”
    Quinn shifted uncomfortably, but said, “Male. He will be a warrior.”
    “Of course,” Leanna said with a sigh that sounded bell-like. “The warrior class do prefer their own sort.”
    “A boy?” Nora wasn’t listening right then. Instead, she was focused on the child within. A boy. She was having a little boy. She smiled to herself. If Quinn had bothered to ask her, she thought, she too would have chosen to have a son. After all, she had a daughter. What fun it would be to have one of each. To experience all of the different things a little boy would find fascinating and—“A warrior ?”
    Quinn nodded, laid one huge hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “He will be proud and strong and will one day take his place at the Conclave.”
    “He’s not even born yet and you’re handing him a sword?”
    Nora squirmed and shoved and finally managed to push herself out of the woman-eating couch. When she was standing on her own two feet, she turned her back on Leanna, glared at Quinn and said, “I sooo don’t think so.”

Chapter Four

    “So anyway,” Eileen said a half hour later as she slid into a seat at the pedestal table in the kitchen, “all of the old myths and legends about Faeries are so far-off what Culhane and Quinn talk about, it’s funny.”
    “Big surprise,” Bezel quipped from his post on a stool at the counter. He shifted position on his wide feet, then waved his long, skeletal fingers, producing a white china platter with magic. “Humans getting something wrong. Wow. Alert the media.”
    Why she’d been so eager to get home, Maggie couldn’t remember. Used to be, she’d walk into the house where she and Nora were raised and instantly feel soothed, comforted. Especially this room. The only room in the house where her grandfather hadn’t been allowed to “tinker” with anything.
    Grandpa had been a man who liked to keep busy, so he’d whiled away his retirement by turning the Donovan family home into a mini-Winchester Mystery House. There were doors that opened onto nothing. And a front door that had been paneled over on the inside. A set of stairs—more