"I didn't mean for us to go there," he said, trying to recover.
Zoe kept looking down the street, her eyes squinted and resigned. The sun turned their gray to silver: old soul eyes, temporarily tired of life.
"I don't think so," she said. "I think today I'm going to see if Teresa's free."
Something uncomfortable twisted in Magnus's chest, something he didn't think he'd ever felt before. It was more than hurt at being turned down. It was… insecurity. It was, just maybe, a little loss of hope.
"Sure," he said, trying to swallow the feeling down. "It's not as if we had definite plans. Perhaps tomorrow."
Zoe wriggled her feet in her flat leather thong sandals. Her toes were painted cherry-red, a fashion choice that seemed to fascinate her now.
"Sure," she said. "Tomorrow would be fine."
The listlessness in her voice didn't make him feel better. Always when they were together, Zoe gave him her attention. Always he sensed her enjoyment of his company. Sometimes, when he didn't do what a human would, she thought him funny, but she always looked at him fondly. He hadn't known how much he relied on that. It was, truth be told, a big part of the reason he was happy here.
Bored with his long life in Fairy, and increasingly leery of his mother's plans for him, Magnus had tricked his way into the human realm in search of new adventures. He'd loved the challenge of doing magic in a place where it took focus, where the things he wanted didn't fall into his lap with a thought. Every day he'd been here, he'd embraced the drama of human life, and every power he'd managed to recover was a thrill singing through his veins.
In that moment, though, watching Zoe walk away and not look at him, he'd have sacrificed every one of those pleasures to see her smile at him.
By the time they pulled into the Desert Spa Hotel two miles outside Fairyville, Alex's laughter had worn off. It was too hard to forget how much he didn't want to be here, nor did his old hometown waste time reminding him. Charlene had booked their rooms without a hitch, but it came as no surprise—at least not to Alex—that no trace of their reservation could be found.
"I know our secretary didn't screw this up," Bryan said in the gruff, menacing tone he used to make lowlifes sweat. With his thick New Jersey accent, he sounded more like a mob enforcer than a licensed dick.
The young male desk clerk in the light pink golf shirt did him the courtesy of going pale. "I'm sorry, Mr. McCallum, but every place in Fairyville is booked up with this 'Meet Your Animal Guide' conference."
Bryan looked ready to introduce the clerk to his animal guide.
Before he could do more than snarl, Alex took his elbow and pulled him aside. "Forget it, Bry, it's not his fault. It's just more Fairyville shit."
"Towns don't lose reservations. People do."
"Let it go. I know an inn on Canyon Way that almost always has an extra room."
As soon as he said it, Alex rubbed his face, adrenaline surging through him unpleasantly. He'd been counting on a little distance in this swank new place where the staff barely knew each other, much less who'd lived in Fairyville fifteen years ago.
"You're sure about this?" Bryan asked in an undertone. " 'Cause I'm willing to bet if I leaned on that desk clerk, I could make him cry."
Alex laughed dryly. "I'll keep that in mind in case we have to come back."
He knew they wouldn't, though every parking slot behind the Vista Inn was full.
"This is nice," Bryan said, taking in the lobby's antique log-cabin atmosphere. "Comfortable."
"Glad you think so," Alex muttered and braced himself to handle the woman behind the reception desk. She was about his mother's age, stocky and silver haired. Her soft beige sweater declared her as noneccentric as Fairyvillers got. Alex didn't recognize her, but that was no guarantee that she wouldn't know him.
He'd been this town's hero once upon a time.
The woman greeted them with a friendly smile.
"We'd like a room," Alex said, doing his best to smooth out the distinctive rock-star rasp of his voice.
"Oh, honey." The woman flattened one hand on her trussed up bosom. "I'm afraid we're all booked up."
"We'll take four-ten," he said curtly.
Her brows went up. "Adventure seekers, are you?"
"We read about it in the guide book," he said before she could ask how he knew about the Vista's special attraction. "We were curious."
"Well, it's available," she said, reaching behind her for the key. "But I have to tell you, nobody stays there more than a night."
Alex said nothing, just took the old-fashioned metal key and handed her his credit card. It was the firm's card, with Good-body & McCallum imprinted on the front. His own name was on it, too, of course, and her motions slowed as she ran it through her machine, the tumblers in her head beginning to fall into place.
Alex scrawled his signature on the credit slip as illegibly as he could.
"Enjoy your stay," she called with a definite lilt of question as he stepped away. "Let me know if I can help you find your way around."
Alex ignored that minefield, already striding up the broad, carpeted stairs. His face was hot, his breath coming in too-short rushes. He knew he couldn't run away from facing this, but his body sure as hell wanted him to try.
Bryan caught up to him at the first landing. "You want to tell me what that was about?"
Alex set his jaw and kept climbing.
"At least tell me why she called us adventure seekers. I have to admit, right at this moment, I'm kind of hoping for a mirror on the ceiling and a big, round bed."
Alex stopped, his palm on the peeled log handrail, his heart wishing he could respond to Bryan's humor with the appreciation it deserved.
"We're not staying in the room with the big, round bed," he said. "We're staying in the room with the ghost."
"Oh," Bryan responded… and said not another word after that.
Despite his annoyance at the change of plans, Alex enjoyed watching Bryan's wide-eyed scan of their perfectly ordinary-looking haunted room. To judge by the way his head was swiveling, he expected some grisly specter to jump out of a corner in broad daylight.
The only object that seemed to fascinate him more was the room's king-size bed, which he was trying not to eyeball too obviously. Alex wondered if Bryan realized there was no chance in hell he wasn't getting laid tonight. The lid was off that particular Pandora's box and, for better or worse, Alex had no intention of forgoing his favorite method of stress relief.