Enchanted Ever After (Mystic Circle) Read Online Free PDF Page A

brush in the corner of the yard and Lathyr sensed they were working magic. They didn’t seem to care that they had humans, including Kiri, in their midst, who might witness such.
    A wave of balanced power pulsed under his feet, flowed through him, pushed into the sky. Princess Jindesfarne and friends sending the great Dark one’s servants away.
    Sunlight became bright and hard and burning in the thin air.
    Lathyr said to Kiri, “We can talk later. May we send the car for you early Thursday morning, so you and I can discuss this before the workday at seven-thirty? I will be in earlier for a meeting and we can talk after that.”
    “You aren’t staying?” Kiri asked.
    It was a warm autumn day and he hadn’t soaked for over twenty-four hours. His skin was drying and he also needed to breathe water and keep his bilungs damp. He’d accomplished his first goal of getting Kiri Palger to agree to the testing game, and evil had faded.
    A line had appeared between her brows as she studied him—perhaps too closely. He shook his head. “I came in to Denver just a few days ago and still have not acclimated.”
    Her expression cleared and she nodded. “Yes, people have trouble with the altitude.” She hesitated. “You aren’t living here on the block?”
    “No, I am near—” what was the name of the park with the lake he was living in? “—near City Park.” Higher-status mers had convinced the old naiader whose lake it was to let Lathyr have a small domicile there. On sufferance, as always.
    Kiri’s eyes widened. “Oh.”
    He raised a brow. “Oh?”
    “I just, uh, thought you’d live somewhere more sophisticated. Cherry Hills or something.”
    “Eight Corp arranged my lodging. It is...sufficient.”
    Now she appeared slightly offended. He tried a smile. “I am used to living near the beach.” Recently off the coast of Spain.
    Kiri laughed. “Not many beaches in Denver.”
    “No. I miss the ocean.” An admission he hadn’t meant to make, and not in public.
    “Only natural.”
    “Would you miss the mountains?” he asked.
    Her smile was quick. “I suppose so. I was born here and spent time with my grandmother, and moved here four years ago, but I’d miss Mystic Circle even more.”
    He nodded gravely. “It is a very special place.”
    Rafe Davail, a human with a magical heritage, crossed to them with a swordsman’s swagger. “And Eight Corp doesn’t own nearly as many of the houses of Mystic Circle as it used to. I think it’s better that the homes remain in private hands.”
    The man meant in human hands like his own, not owned by the Lightfolk royals of Eight Corp. “We still have the Castle,” Lathyr murmured.
    “And Eight Corp owns the other bungalow across from Kiri,” Amber Davail, Rafe’s wife, who was related to a great elf, said. “Number nine.”
    “Really?” Kiri said. “I didn’t know that.”
    Rafe smiled easily, but Lathyr was aware that the man was blowing spume at him for some reason. “Maybe Eight Corp will let you have number nine.”
    Jenni joined them again, shaking her head. “Nope, no pool.”
    Lathyr dipped his head. “Yes, a pool is necessary.”
    Kiri looked puzzled and Rafe laughed.
    “I am weary. I must go,” Lathyr said. “I am sorry that we didn’t speak more, Kiri.”
    “I’ll expect the car at 6:50 a.m. on Thursday morning,” she said.
    Lathyr smiled.
    Princess Jindesfarne’s husband came forward. “I’ll see you out,” Aric said. Lathyr sighed. The Treeman meant that he would take Lathyr home by way of tree. In this dry country it was faster than letting his molecules disperse into water droplets and finding a stream or cloud to take him where he needed to be. But Lathyr found traveling from tree to tree profoundly disturbing. Instead of moving as individual components, he felt solid and trees seemed to move through him. Stressful. “Thank you,” he said politely but with an underwash of resignation.
    Aric laughed, jerked his head toward the