North touched the locket at Sierra’s throat. “You didn’t have a chance to use it when you confronted Larissa Whittier.”
They were back at the Abyss. It was four in the morning. North had poured a glass of brandy for Sierra and one for himself. They were relaxing on the crimson velvet sofa, their feet propped on a couple of gold-tasseled hassocks. Victor Arganbright and Lucas Pine had taken charge of Larissa Whittier, who had yet to awaken.
“She made me take it off,” Sierra said. “She threatened to shoot Kimberly if I didn’t. Larissa assumed I needed the crystal to access my talent. But the truth is I can work with any kind of reflective surface. There are always plenty of mirrors in a women’s room.”
North smiled a little. “I get it. You just use the crystal to help you focus your talent.”
“Right. Otherwise things tend to get out of hand very quickly.”
North thought about the cracked and shattered mirrors in the restroom at the Fogg. When he had gone through the door he had been hit with a wave of wild storm energy—and that was just the aftermath of the forces that Sierra had unleashed.
“I noticed,” he said.
“When I first came into my talent, my parents realized things were going to get complicated. But Harmony helped me get control.”
“I think Victor Arganbright and Lucas Pine would like very much to recruit the Oracle of Fogg Lake. The Foundation could use her talent.”
“I doubt if they’ll be successful.” Sierra smiled a knowing smile. “You saw her. It’s obvious she has found her true calling. For now, at least, she needs to be in Fogg Lake.”
“Speaking of callings, did you mean it when you said you found yours in the women’s room at the Fogg Club tonight?”
“Yes.” Sierra glowed. “It was watching Kimberly and Jake that finally made me realize what I want to do with my life.”
“What’s that?”
“Matchmaking. Psychic matchmaking.”
That stopped him cold. Whatever he had been expecting her to say, that wasn’t it.
“Matchmaking?” he repeated cautiously.
“Right. I’ve got a gift for it. I always have. But I never paid much attention to that aspect of my talent. I thought of it as just a parlor trick.”
“How does it work?”
“If I see the reflections of two people together I can usually tell immediately if their auras are harmonious. I can also tell if it’s a hopelessly bad match. I can tell you if two people will be friends or if they will always be in conflict. I can tell if the relationship will be great for a short-term fling but toxic over time, and vice versa.”
“And you know if those two people could be a happy couple?”
“Right. When Kimberly and Grant Tolland stopped at our table I caught their reflections, along with Jake’s, in my mirror locket. I knew Kimberly and Grant were headed for disaster. But I could tell that Jake and Kimberly would be perfect together.”
North cleared his throat. “And now you think you’ve found your calling as a matchmaker.”
“Yep.”
“I hate to break this to you, but I’m not sure how much demand there is for a psychic matchmaker. Most people are doing the online dating thing these days or stumbling into affairs at the office.”
“I’ll go after a niche market—psychic dating for people who have a paranormal vibe. We all know it’s really hard to meet other people who can accept the reality of the paranormal. I’ll build a registry of people of talent. I bet I’ll be booked solid as soon as the word gets out.”
“Sounds like you’ve targeted your demographic.”
Sierra spread her hands wide. It was clear she was energized and excited. North realized how much he liked seeing her happy and determined.
“Normal people spend fortunes on fake psychics and palm readers,” she said. “Why wouldn’t smart people of talent pay for the real deal? I bet all of the singles who work for the Foundation will want to sign up, to say nothing of people who have grown up and moved away from Fogg Lake. Then there are the residents of my hometown, Quest. There’s also the underground market of people who are in the hot artifacts trade. The go-betweens. Collectors. Dealers. The world is waiting for my unique services.”
North smiled. “Spoken like a true entrepreneur.”
“If I don’t have faith in my own ability, no one else will.”
“True. Where do you propose to open your matchmaking business?”
“I can run it from anywhere, but every applicant will have to pass a background check. I’ll hire Lark and LeClair to do that for me. Then I’ll have to have a personal consultation in order to assess the stability of the candidate’s aura and figure out what kind of aura would pair well with it. I’ll need to develop a large but select roster of clients. The more people who sign up, the greater the odds of finding good matches.”
“You’ll need an office for that. You can’t invite strangers into your home.”
“Good point,” Sierra said. “I’ll discuss it with Victor Arganbright. I bet I can convince him to give me space at Foundation headquarters. Clients who don’t live in the area will have to fly to Las Vegas for an appointment, but I don’t think that will stop most people who are serious about finding the right mate.”
“If anyone can talk Victor Arganbright into setting up a psychic matchmaking service, it’s you.” North pulled her into his arms. “Now let’s get back to us.”
“Okay.” Sierra put her hands on his shoulders and gave him an expectant smile. “What specifically did you want to talk about?”
“I never got an answer to my question this evening. Do you think you could be happy here in the Abyss?”
Her eyes got deeper and more mysterious. She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Yes,” she said. “I could be very happy here.”
“Be honest.” He glanced around. “It’s the mirrors, isn’t it?”
“They are a very nice feature,” she admitted.
He took a deep breath. “I love you, Sierra Raines. I fell in love with you that first night when we met at the Vault. I know you’re afraid that my feelings might be based on gratitude, but I am very sure that isn’t the case. I do know the difference between gratitude and love. I realize it’s too soon to ask you to marry me, but will you move in here with me? Get to know me? Give me a chance to prove that my feelings for you are real?”
“I love you, North. And no, it’s not too soon to ask me to marry you.”
A rush of euphoria flashed through him. He pulled her back into his arms.
“Will you marry me?” he said.
Sierra opened her mouth to respond. Before she could say a word, a strobe light concealed in the recessed ceiling began flashing.
She glanced up and then hastily looked away from the senses-dazzling strobe.
“What in the world?” she said. “Is that an alarm?”
“Well, damn,” North said. “If it isn’t one thing tonight, it’s another.”
He released Sierra, took out his phone and hit the app that controlled the security camera screens. One of the mirrors on the wall slid aside, revealing a series of video screens. The views covered every part of the gardens inside the walls. There was movement in sector two, the pool and fountain area.
Sierra gazed at the screen, startled. “There’s someone out there.”
North glanced at the information that was coming in on the app. “Two people, to be precise.”
Two men wearing baseball caps were prowling around the edge of the fountain pool, pistols in hand. North zoomed in on one of the faces.
“That’s Ralph,” Sierra said. “One of the orderlies from Riverview.”
North got a close-up of the second man. “Joe. So much for hoping the cops back on Bainbridge or the cleaner team in Seattle would pick up the Puppets.”
“Ralph and Joe are probably out for revenge. In their minds we ruined their chances of becoming super psychics armed with untraceable weapons. I doubt if they had to go to a lot of trouble to find us. By now everyone involved in this thing knows you’re Griffin Chastain’s grandson, and this house isn’t exactly hard to identify.”
“True. Luckily, the house can take care of itself.”
He put the phone down and reached for her again. “Now, about my proposal. Will you—?”
“Wait,” Sierra yelped. “You need to call the police. There are two armed intruders out there in the backyard.”
“Don’t worry about them,” North said.
“I’m not worried about them; I’m worried about us. We’re alone out here in the desert and those two creeps probably intend to murder us. Call nine-one-one.”
“That won’t be necessary,” North said. “At least, not immediately. The house can take care of itself. About my question—”
“We can’t discuss marriage while we’re under attack.”
The two men circling the fountain pool abruptly stiffened as if they had touched a live electrical wire. Their mouths opened in soundless horror. Joe collapsed on the concrete pool surround. Ralph, however, managed to fall facedown into the long, shallow fountain pool.
“Damn,” North said. “You can drown in a few inches of water just as easily as you can if you go into the deep end of a pool.” He got to his feet. “Why can’t anything go right tonight?”
“Where are you going?”
“To haul Ralph out of the fountain. If he drowns there will be paperwork. My insurance company will probably have a fit. Go ahead, call nine-one-one. Those two Puppets have managed to kill the mood.”
Sierra yanked out her phone. “Out of curiosity, what just happened to Ralph and Joe?”
“They tripped one of Griffin Chastain’s little home security devices. They walked into the abyss trap that guards the backyard. You can’t see it on the video monitors because they can’t display paranormal energy. The shock temporarily stunned Ralph and Joe. They’ll be out for a while.”
He started down the hallway that led to the back gardens.
“Be careful,” Sierra called after him.
“Will you marry me?” he yelled back.
“Yes.”
“Okay, then.” He smiled. “Okay.”
He opened his senses and went outside to collect the unconscious Puppets. He pulled Ralph out of the shallow pool, made sure he was breathing and then paused for a moment to savor the night.
He jacked up his senses and watched the paranormal auroras shimmer and flow across the vast desert sky.
Sierra was in his house. She loved the Abyss and she loved him. She had just agreed to marry him. He didn’t have to be psychic to know the future looked terrific.