“So you’re the one who found me,” Maggie said. “I don’t know whether to thank you or…well, not.”
“With this group, I’d say you pegged that right on the mark.” Kyanna grinned impishly. “My mother actually found yours about the time she first got pregnant with you. They met a handful of times. My mother had begun to teach Clarisse some of the incantations to mask your powers so demons and angels wouldn’t be able to locate you. But the last time she went back, Clarisse had disappeared. By the time Mom figured out what had happened to you, you were already in the system. I’m so sorry it took so long for me to find you.”
Maggie shrugged. “It’s okay.”
Kyanna offered her a sympathetic smile. “I found papers in Mom’s things. She filed a petition to have you placed with us, once she’d managed to track you down again that is. Records back then were a nightmare. But you’d already been placed with another family, the Hansen family, and the courts felt it wouldn’t be in your best interest at the time to pull you out of the home.”
Maggie blinked in surprise. “I don’t remember meeting your mother. But that wouldn’t necessarily mean anything. I’d bounced between so many foster homes, one more grown up in the bunch might not have made any impression. I didn’t know that.” Maggie paused for a moment, taking it all in. “About your mom searching for me, I mean.”
Gideon clenched his hands beneath the table to keep from reaching for Maggie. She looked dumbfounded. As if someone had swept the rug out from under her. So she hadn’t been as alone in the world as she’d thought herself all these years.
“Why did your mother never come for me later when I was removed from the Hansens’ care?” Maggie asked in a small voice.
A fleeting look of sadness swept over Kyanna, but she quickly pushed it aside. “You’d slipped through the cracks in the system once more. By the time she found you again, you’d been placed in Stonebridge Academy. You were doing well there, had adjusted to the environment, and hadn’t exhibited any…ah, nonhuman tendencies. She checked on you a couple times, put enchantments on the school itself, but decided to wait. She wanted to let you have a normal life, if possible. She didn’t want to have to disrupt your life to tell you about…well, all of this, not until it was necessary.”
Kyanna paused then, drawing a deep breath. “Mom died before you graduated. She’d already taught me all the enchantments and such, ever since I was old enough to speak. Other kids got fairy tales. I got the Twilight Zone,” Kyanna said, smiling as she shook her head. “I’m kidding! But seriously, while other little kids were reciting Jack and Jill went up the hill, I was reciting angelic incantations and spells. But Mom hadn’t told me about you yet, and then she died. I suppose she thought she’d have more time, to prepare both of us. Xander and I were only recently able to track you through your teaching records.”
Maggie nodded, lost in thought as she absorbed the information. Gideon sat in stoic silence, knowing she would not appreciate any offer of support or comfort coming from his side of the table.
Kyanna glanced from Maggie to Gideon and back, eyeing the distance between them, too perceptive by half. Clearing her throat, she pushed herself from Xander’s lap.
“Maggie, why don’t we go to the den and get comfortable. We can talk a bit more before we get started on the training.”
Gideon pushed to his feet, filled with doubts. “You know, maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”
“You promised,” Maggie said, frowning as she stood.
“That was before.” His gaze dipped to her abdomen, lingering meaningfully before lifting to hers.
Her hands crept forward to shield her stomach. “All the more reason I should learn how to protect myself—protect us.”
Kyanna gasped. Xander reached up and gently clasped her hand to quiet her.
“That’s right, Kyanna,” Gideon said. “We now have another relic. The Chosen One, to be exact.”
Maggie aimed an angry finger his way. “You call my child that one more time, and I’m going to throw something at your head again.”
“Again?” Xander asked, only to be shushed by Kyanna.
“Our child,” Gideon corrected her, ignoring Xander’s snort of laughter.
“Um, come on, Maggie,” Kyanna coaxed as she held out a hand. “I’d say we have a little bit more to discuss now.”
Maggie shot Gideon a fulminating stare, before taking Kyanna’s hand and following her from the room. Xander barely waited until they were out of earshot. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“Obviously, I wasn’t.”
Xander stared at the door the women had just exited through for a long time. “Ah, damn it. Don’t beat yourself up,” he said at last, shocking the hell out of Gideon. He’d been expecting a royal ass chewing. Not wry commiseration. “If she’s anything like Kyanna,” Xander added, shaking his head, “you didn’t stand a chance, brother.”
Chapter Sixteen