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“Really, no problem,” I repeated. “And anyway, I’d better get to work. Enjoy your flight.”
I moved away briskly, doing my best to channelbusy beeinstead offleeing dog. Because, shit. Now I knew who Harlon reminded me of.
Smooth-talker. Hot-looker. Man-magnet with just the right touch. Amagictouch, one might even say.
Warlock.
Just like my dad.
Chapter Seven
NASH
I hadn’t known Erin long, but I could tell something was off. She’d spent a few minutes talking to Madden and the guests, then hurried back to the balloon with a pale hue to her deeply tanned skin. Normally, her focus on the details of the rig was laser-sharp, but today, her eyes kept flitting to the guests.
“Don’t make her madder,” Chico whispered, as if I hadn’t figured that out for myself. “She’s already pissed off about not being able to copilot.”
Whoosh!Erin let the burner blast, creating a long, angry lick of fire.
She’d make a great dragon, my inner beast decided.
She would, and woe be the man — or beast — who crossed her.
I could picture it now — the flashing eyes, the hard set of her jaw. Then I sighed, because that anger would probably be aimed at me.
“Load tapes. Cables. Pilot light.” She grunted her way through the preflight checklist in staccato, machine-gun bursts. “Fuel pressure…”
“Check,” Chico murmured in his usual calm, steady manner.
Most days, guests would cluster around us, fascinated by the spectacle of a launch. But this gang was more self-absorbed than the giggly newlyweds we got from time to time.
Or rather, totally fixated on their leader, a tall, fit, silver-haired man. All five women hung on his every word like repentant sinners at a sermon. They did a lot of touching too, touching him as well as hip-butting one another out of the way as they vied for pole position closest to his side.
The second guy — some kind of businessman with a briefcase — wasn’t much better, imitating the leader’s gestures and laughing too loudly at his own jokes, then cutting himself off self-consciously when they fell flat. If that was a bromance, it was one-way at best.
I was too busy with the balloon to study the guy, and Madden blocked my view the few times I peeked.
What was with that mystery man? And what had he said or done to put Erin off?
Maybe he warned her away from her father,my dragon grumbled.
I jutted my jaw.Do you have to rub that in?
When the balloon was ready, Erin signaled, then called to Madden several times. Nothing. No response. Finally, she stuck her fingers in her mouth and whistled, making the whole group turn.
“All aboard.”
Madden didn’t lead the group over. The head honcho did. The rising sun was high enough now to backlight them all, so I couldn’t make out his face. I was more interested in the space around his shoulders anyway.
I held my breath, wondering. Worrying.
Then my body went stiff. There it was — the telltale shimmer hanging over the man’s shoulders like a fur coat.
No wonder his guests seemed so enthralled. They were — literally. Because that was another warlock. The second one I’d spotted in three days.
More like the tenth,my dragon muttered.
I snorted.Those other ones don’t count.
