Night Seeker by Yasmine Galenorn Page A

taken it hard, but she was soldiering on.
    “You made certain to warn him to make sure he’s not followed, right?” The last thing we needed was for the vampires or the Shadow Hunters to track us down by following him.
    “He’s not stupid.” Peyton gave me a sharp look, then grimaced. “I’m sorry. Yeah, we talked about it. He’s being careful. He’ll be here tomorrow morning. This is the first time I’ll have seen my father in…over twenty years.” She looked like she was going to cry but then grabbed the dishes from the table, carrying them off to the utility sink in order to wash them.
    “There’s another thing we need to discuss before we track down the heartstone. We did a hasty ritual to band the Moon Spinners together, but if we’re going to ask for help from the Consortium, we’ll have to do things by the book. They don’t cotton to people trying to buck the trends.”
    Rhiannon tapped her fingers on the table. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
    I frowned. “I don’t think so.”
    “What about the fact that you told Ysandra Petros that you and Kaylin are married? It was Kaylin’s dumb idea at the time—and though I see what he was getting at, things didn’t work out the way we thought they would. She’s going to expect to see a marriage license. She pretty much said so before we left.”
    We didn’t know a lot about them, but the Consortium served as an international organization to which a good share of the magic-born—at least those in high places and with any public notoriety—belonged. They laid down rules of conduct and enforced them. Heavily. They also backed up members who ran afoul of the law—as long as it was a blatant frame-up—or afoul of enemies. They were an impressive association, and their membership was daunting. The real
Who’s Who
of the magical set.
    And since Peyton and I had started magical businesses together without realizing that all such enterprises needed to be registered with the Consortium, we were on the hook for becoming members. Ysandra Petros, a high-ranking member of the organization, had dropped in for a visit when we opened the doors of the Veil House to customers for Wind Charms and Peyton’s endeavor—Magical Eye Investigations.
    When Marta, the town witch for New Forest, left me herbusiness and her position as the official leader of the now-defunct Thirteen Moons Society, I’d apparently earned a place in the ranks of the Consortium. Marta had been Peyton’s grandmother and Anadey’s mother—but Anadey and her mother were at odds. Because of a vision, Marta had named me as her heir before Myst killed her. But now, I had to come up with a magical society to replace hers—and so the Moon Spinners were born.
    I’d been leery at first, but now with Geoffrey taking a trip into La-La land and Lainule ignoring us—we needed the Consortium’s help. When in danger, any help is usually better than no help at all.
    “Oh. That.” I turned to see Kaylin laughing. “And just what do we do about this? I’m not about to marry you just to back up your lie, especially now, with the situation so out of hand. I don’t know what possessed you to encourage me to tell her that or why I even listened to you.”
    “We were trying to keep the whole matter with Myst quiet, and with Heather in Myst’s grasp…well…we needed a ruse as to why we were all living there, and we needed it quick. Rhiannon—and you—yeah, she would have bought that. But I didn’t think she’d believe that Leo and I were just dropping by. Chalk it up to stupidity, but then we’ve all done some stupid things, haven’t we? You were just as flustered as the rest of us.” He gave me a
whatever
shrug and went back to sorting out the stuff we’d purloined from the house.
    “Oh, for Pete’s sake. I’m just going to tell her everything. At this point, they’re bound to find out at some point, and if I admit I lied, she might be more apt to forgive me rather than if she