Totally Spellbound by Kristine Grayson Page B

start behaving like every other mage and use our magic only
to help ourselves, then we become no better than—”
    “— the kings we used to
fight,” John finished. “Blah-de-blah-de-blah. When was the last
time you used magic for yourself? Hmmm?”
    Then he blanched as he remembered the
answer. Rob had used his magic to try to save Marian’s life, only
to get reprimanded by the Fates.
    He had been summoned in front of the
Fates after working a successful spell to reverse the aging that
had caused Marian’s organs to fail. The Fates had a temple near
Mount Olympus, but the place wasn’t real. The sky was too blue, the
grass too green, and the temple itself too white.
    The women had had an
otherworldly beauty as well, but at the time, he had seen it more
as an abomination than as a blessing. How could they be so
lovely—forever lovely—when his Marian had to wither and decay and
die like a summer flower on a fall day?
    Each life has a
termination point, Mr. Hood , Clotho had
said to him that day.
    You have no right to
violate the workings of destiny, Lachesis
had added.
    He stood before them, a
rough-hewn man who hadn’t even known about the Greek Gods until he
had come back from the Crusades—a campaign that had soured him on
following the lead of other men.
    He had gained respect for other
cultures while away from his own. The other soldiers hadn’t. They
had tried to destroy it.
    We should imprison
you, Atropos said.
    He had felt alarmed at
that. They were going to take away Marian’s magical good health and
then imprison him so that he couldn’t spend the last few days of
her too-short life with her.
    If it were not for
your history of good works, Clotho
said, and for your love of the unfortunate
Marian .
    We are sympathetic to
love , Lachesis said.
    He had let out a small
breath, his hands folded in front of him. He had felt so tiny,
standing there. A single man warring against time and fate and
rules he didn’t entirely understand.
    However, Atropos said, we cannot
allow love to violate the rules of existence.
    Of course they couldn’t. Because every
beloved of every mage would live forever then. As if that were
wrong.
    He wasn’t sure how that was
wrong.
    Much as we would like
to , Clotho said with more gentleness than
was necessary.
    They hadn’t wooed him, exactly, but he
felt a little better. At least he would be with Marian at the
end.
    Besides, Lachesis said, you have
yet to find your soulmate.
    What? he snapped. Marian is my
soulmate. You know that. All of England knows that. I love her more
than life itself.
    And therein lies your
problem, Atropos said. You have given too much too early .
    No, I
haven’t , he said.
    You have a long life
ahead of you, Clotho
said.
    One that will be
lonely if you are not careful, Lachesis
said.
    Of course it will be
lonely, he said. You won’t let Marian live.
    She cannot. She has
lived her life, Atropos
said.
    You knew she was
mortal when you met her , Clotho
said.
    I thought I was
mortal when I met her , Rob
cried.
    Then you should not
have left her to fight in those silly wars, Lachesis said.
    Those silly wars were
where I discovered that I couldn’t die, Rob said. He had learned, just outside Jerusalem, exactly
what his powers were and how deadly they could be. He had turned
away from them then; he’d never been a man to use his abilities to
harm others.
    War had been the exact wrong thing for
him—the greatest mistake of his life.
    He hadn’t needed these Fates to remind
him of that, and all the lost years, the years away from his
beloved.
    You might miss your
love altogether if you do not open your eyes, Atropos said.
    It was hard for him to focus on them.
The sadness that he thought he had put aside when he had tried to
save Marian’s life was beginning to overwhelm him.
    If you do not see how
like follows like , Clotho
said.
    If you do not listen
to the prophecy, Lachesis
said.
    You have never asked
us your birth prophecy. It’s time you hear it .