The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) by Brad Magnarella (best business books of all time txt) 📕

from her shoulders. Light from the townhouse shone through her golden, brushed-down hair, but it seemed longer than Caroline’s. She stepped forward until she stood at the top of the steps.

“Caroline, is that you?”

I pushed myself off Angelus and climbed the steps cautiously. Fae power glimmered around the woman, something I had definitely never sensed around Caroline.

I came to within two steps of her and stopped. It was Caroline. And yet … it wasn’t.

She regarded me with blue-green eyes, almost too intense to meet.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“You shouldn’t be here, Everson.”

“What’s happened? What have they done to you?”

“I’m fulfilling an agreement made on my behalf.”

“Agreement? By who?”

“My mother.”

She had never mentioned her mother before. And what connection would her mother have had with the faeries? Unless…

“She was a fae? Your mother?”

“Is a fae, Everson.”

“So you’re, what, half-fae?”

“Yes, but I relinquished that part of my heritage as a girl.”

I grappled with the seismic revelation. “I … I had no idea.”

“Just as I had no idea the power you wield. But I can see it around you now, a living force.”

“I meant to tell you.”

“As I meant to tell you.” Her voice carried a hint of sorrow, as though something had been lost.

I glanced back at Angelus, who remained down on the sidewalk.

“What was the agreement?” I asked Caroline.

“Not now, Everson. You should leave.”

“Please. I’ve been worried sick about you.”

She studied my eyes before dropping her gaze with a sigh. “My mother is royalty. She rules a kingdom parallel to New York. She met my father when the fae were active in human politics. They fell in love, they had me. But the fae can be whimsical. She left my father without his knowing what she was. As a part-fae, I had a choice—to embrace my fae nature or become fully human. I chose the second, severing all connections with that world. For years I had no contact with my mother.”

“What changed?”

“My father’s sick. He was diagnosed with cancer this summer. He’d been undergoing aggressive treatment, but the cancer wouldn’t budge. Angelus told me my mother was willing to heal him, but on the condition that I honor the agreement she made before I chose mortality.”

A cold shadow moved through me. “What agreement?”

Caroline’s eyes shifted past me. Angelus joined her on the top step, his glamour restored. “That we be wed,” Angelus said, slipping an arm around her waist, “as it was decided.”

I moved my gaze between them. “Wait, you’re married?”

Caroline tilted her head and touched my arm, which was answer enough. That was what Angelus must have meant at the gala by “a fair exchange.”

“How?” My heart felt as though it had been punched numb. “When?”

“I made the decision after you left the party. To reclaim my fae nature and accede to the arrangement my mother had made. I wanted to tell you, but the window was closing. The ceremony had to be performed before the full moon, and there were days of preparation involved.”

“Days? But the gala was last night.”

“The wheels of time rotate differently in our worlds. A day here could be a week there. I thought I would be able to complete the ceremonies and return before anyone knew I’d been gone.”

“Well, why the deception?” I demanded. “Why did pretty boy here assume my form? What in the hell was that about?” I wasn’t sure whether I was more angry at Angelus now or Caroline.

“That was my idea,” she said. “Angelus has advised the opposition, and I didn’t want word getting back to Mayor Lowder or my father that I’d been seen leaving with him. I hope that didn’t create any problems for you.”

“Problems? Oh, just a few.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Can I talk to you alone for a minute?” I asked.

Caroline looked over at Angelus—her frigging husband—and nodded that it was all right. I bristled as he kissed the side of her head and then walked into the townhouse, closing the door behind him. Without the backlighting, Caroline seemed almost mortal again.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“It wasn’t an easy decision, of course. But yes.”

“I don’t know a lot about the fae,” I said, “but they have a reputation as manipulators. How do you know they didn’t give your father his illness? I mean, maybe your mother’s taken a fresh interest in New York politics. If so, I can’t think of a more valuable asset than you.”

“Believe me, Everson, I thought about all of that.” She lowered herself to sit, her gown spilling down the steps like mist. “But it wouldn’t have changed the fact that my father was dying.”

I sat beside her and gazed out over the still street. We could have been back on the balcony overlooking Central Park the night before, all of this talk of the faerie realm and arranged marriages a distant dream—or nightmare.

“Do you love him?” I asked.

“I told you, it was arranged.”

“Why Angelus?”

“His father has a small kingdom in a realm parallel to upper Manhattan.”

“Two kingdoms on Manhattan Island?”

“Several kingdoms, in fact. The island is much larger in the faerie realm, more like a small continent. But the societies are feudal, arranged marriages between ruling families common. Angelus may seem cold and formal, but he’s … he’s decent.”

“I bet he is,” I grumbled. “So now what?”

“I’ll have duties in the faerie realm as well as here.” She turned up her palms. “This is all new to me, Everson. I guess I’ll just take it a day at a time.”

“And your job at the college?”

“I’ll keep that for the time being.”

I swallowed. “And us?”

When she looked over at me, her eyes glimmered with emotion. “I’m married now.”

I nodded vaguely and dropped my gaze to my hands. Figures. The only woman I really loved as an adult.

The pager went off, Vega signaling she was ready.

“Well…” I slapped my thighs and rose. “I guess that’s that.” As incredible as it seemed, I had forgotten about Floyd and Whitey until their fallen bodies entered my peripheral vision. “Just do me a