Harrison turned her head from where she’d been gazing sightlessly out the window and smiled sadly. “We were thirteen when we said that. Besides, you seemed a little busy at the time.”
Callie’s face crumpled and she ran toward Harrison, wrapping her arms around her friend and squeezing the breath from her lungs.
Harrison didn’t mind. She’d missed this. Missed her best friend, her family, more than she’d let herself admit.
She’d let everyone down.
Oh, they were happy to see her. Her parents, having rushed home when Jenner discovered her note, were angry and worried, but so relieved she was okay they hadn’t reacted too strongly. Maybe that was because she’d distracted them with the news about Lorie. One runaway daughter home safe and sound wasn’t as urgent as their son and brother trapped in—wherever he was trapped. They’d sent word for Conway, her mother holding her tightly before suggesting she rest in her room until he arrived.
She hadn’t told them about Argentina. About the Gryffins. They had too much on their plates for that. Besides, what could she say? Her matches tried to seduce her, then sent her away. Jacob and Ric had enough to deal with without having to deal with her family’s wrath. Strange how protective she felt about them, now, after everything.
“Who is it?” Callie had leaned back to study her friend’s pensive expression, folding her arms and raising one, slender brow.
“Who is what?” Harrison stood up and started to pace her room. “Don’t use your magic on me, Cal, I knew you before you were a Magian. Before you were matched with my brothers. You poor, poor girl, by the way. And I can still take you.”
Her friend shook her head. “I don’t need any magic, Harry. I’m your best friend. I know when you’re hiding something. Who is it? Or should I say, who did you meet on your adventure and how did you break his heart?”
Harrison started to cry. She couldn’t seem to help herself. The tears began to flow, and they wouldn’t stop.
Callie looked horrified and came to take her back into her arms, both of them collapsing on the edge of the bed as Harrison continued to sob. “Oh, Harry. Hon, I’m so sorry. Whatever I said I didn’t mean it.”
“They broke my heart. They sent me away. I mean, I was running away because they hadn’t asked to take me in the first place, but then I changed my mind. I thought they—” She sucked in a lungful of air, sniffling and feeling miserable and ashamed. “Why am I crying? This is ridiculous.”
Callie stroked her hair soothingly. “They? Took you? Harry, who took you? Magians? Were you taken against your will?”
Harrison felt her scalp tingle with Callie’s compelling touch, but she wasn’t angry. She needed to talk about it. She wanted to tell someone. She poured her heart out to her friend, telling her everything she’d been through from the moment she’d run away. Her experiences as a human, her job, the attack…and Jacob and Ric. When she finished describing how she fell through the portal, watching her brother being carried away to burn, she heard a distinctly masculine growl.
“I’ll kill them. Both of them. And when we find out how to get Lorie back I may just kill him, too, for giving us so much grief.”
“Tucker, sweetheart, ever heard of privacy?” Callie’s tone was sweet, but her eyes were threatening.
Harrison felt her jaw drop as her protective older brother ducked his head guiltily. “Sorry, honey. But I was worried.” His blue eyes focused on his sister. “Why didn’t you tell us, Harry? We’re your family.”
She wiped her face with the back of her hand and chuckled wetly. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s over. I don’t think they’ll want me back.”
Callie shared a meaningful look with her husband, before turning back to Harrison. “Are you kidding, Harry? Did you listen to your own story?” Harrison looked at the tiny compeller in confusion, and Callie sighed. “Jacob was ashamed. He sent you away to protect you from his crazy family. You’re their match and they obviously wanted you, but who could blame them? What was he supposed to say, ‘Please stay with us even though my crazy sister may kill you at any moment and my mother has a tendency to make people disappear.’?”
“That actually makes sense.” Was she right? Did they still want her?
Tucker came further into the bedroom, his hands up. “No. Absolutely not. They opened two portals, took a Magian female against her will without informing her family and who knows what else. Forget the crazy family aspect. They are criminals. And you and I, honey. We’re the law.”
Callie smiled at Harrison. “They had no other choice, did they, Harry? You weren’t about to give in without drastic measures. And you are the most powerful Magian in ages.”
Her brother Tyghe, the final piece of Callie’s triad, came in without knocking and knelt at his wife’s feet. “I love you.” She blushed and he turned to his sister. “She’s right, Harry. You are powerful. Powerful enough to punish them yourself. Powerful enough to pay them back in kind until they give in.”
Her heart was racing as his words formed an idea in her mind. A brilliant idea. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it before. Her mind was reeling with possibilities. “I can gag Jacob, if a siren can’t talk he can’t use his…oh but Ric is a morph, I have no idea how to restrain—”
“So is Jenner.” Tucker sighed. “I’m obviously outgunned here, but you should at least be able to protect yourself. If anyone would know how to restrain her kind, it should be her.”
Harrison’s gray eyes flashed with ire. “I heard. One of these days that woman is going to have a reckoning. Talk about secret keeping.”
Callie snuggled in between her two men, looking more content, more confident than Harrison had ever seen her. “But she loves us, so you’ll forgive her.”
She started out of her room, determined to grill their housekeeper for all she was worth, and she heard Tyghe chuckle nervously. “Anyone else a little scared? A male siren, Gryffin no less, a morph and our sister? Their powers joined? It may be a sign of the apocalypse. With magic like that she could take over the world.”
Harrison smiled. She didn’t want the world. She just wanted Ric and Jacob. Finally admitting that felt good. What she was planning would feel even better.
“Comfy, gentlemen? Feeling good? Nothing going numb?”