"How pretty," she said. She moved to the giant stainless steel fridge and pulled out a carton of milk. "Wasn't there a famous story about an Isolde? Something beautiful and tragic?"
"Tristan and Isolde," Dex said before I could answer. "And quite frankly, I'm hoping the romance of Dexter and Isolde ends up with a lower body count."
Nana tittered, and I brushed stray crumbs of cookie from my mouth. "There is not a romance of Dexter and Isolde," I said, but I caught myself smiling anyway. Then I remembered. Dex was not just some boy, and I was not just some girl sitting in his Nana's kitchen, eating the most wonderful cookies ever created by woman. He was some kind of Prodigium, and I was here to find out what.
And even if there hadn't been that, romance between me and Dex was totally out of the question. I tried to imagine taking him home to Mom, introducing him as my boyfriend. Brannick women were always very careful about the men they chose. They had the bloodline to think about, after all, which was why they tended to pick warriors. Soldiers, Navy SEALS. My grandfather had even been a Green Beret.
Whenever Mom had talked about Finley's and my dad, the one word that always came up was "strong." Dex couldn't even jog around the football field without his asthma flaring up.
And it wasn't just that. How would Mom react to a boy who was so purely...decorative? Sure, Dex had salted a grave, but he'd taken his nice coat off first.
I shook those thoughts off. They were unproductive and pointless. Instead, I smiled at Nana and said, "So you and Dex moved here from New York?" I thought as far as questions went, it was fairly harmless. But I didn't miss the way Nana stiffened slightly. "We've lived a little bit of everywhere. And I've told Dex that the important thing is the future, not the past."
She stroked his hair. "He's here now, and that's all that matters."
Dex smiled at her, but there was something kind of puzzled about it. Maybe he thought her answer was as weird as I did, but it almost seemed like more than that. It was the same look Finn used to get when she couldn't remember where she'd put her crossbow. (That happened a lot more often than it should have, if you asked me. You should always know where you've left deadly weapons.)
"Nana's right," Dex finally said, slapping a hand on the counter. "As Shakespeare said, 'Don't look back, you should never look back.'"
"That was a Don Henley song, dear, but it's an excellent sentiment nonetheless," Nana said, patting his hand. Weirdness passed, she smiled at me again. "Izzy, will you be staying for dinner?"
If the rest of her food was as good as her cookies, I'd be an idiot not to.
Dex answered for me. "She will be. And then we're going to go out for a while, if that's okay with you.
Nana's face creased into a frown. "Are you sure that's a good idea, sweetie? Your asthma has been so bad lately-"
But Dex just waved that off. "I'm fine. It's the time of year or something. Asthma season. But I have my trusty inhaler"-he pulled it out of his coat pocket, shaking it-"and the Fair Isolde to protect me if need be."
When Nana didn't stop frowning, Dex dropped the act, leaning in closer to her. "I'll be fine, Nana," he said, his voice softer. He laid a hand over hers, and his bracelet caught the light. "You worry too much."
She touched the silver links around his wrist. "I'm your grandmother," she said. "It's allowed."
Watching them together made me smile, and started this kind of warm, blooming feeling in my chest. Not only was Dex cute and smart and funny, but he loved his Nana-
And that's when something occurred to me. Dex's Nana. She was related to him by blood. That meant if he was Prodigium, then so was she. That's how that worked; there was no skipping generations, no freak human kid born to Prodigium parents.
There were no vibes coming off of Nana, and she'd hugged me. Touched my cheek. I hadn't felt anything. Not even the slightest hint that she was Prodigium. Still, just to be sure, I leaned forward and said, "That's a pretty ring."
Just as I'd hoped, she pushed her hand toward me so that I could get a better look. As she did, I caught her fingers.
Nothing. Not even the slightest tingle.
"Thank you, sweetheart," she said. "I got it from one of those home-shopping shows. You know, the ones that come on late at night and make silly old ladies like me spend more than they should."
I laughed harder than necessary, trying to cover my confusion. Nana wasn't Prodigium, so Dex couldn't be one either. But if that was true, what the heck was I feeling? No matter what everyone kept saying, I knew that little hum of magic when I touched him wasn't just hormones.
I turned my head and looked at him grinning at his Nana, his silver bracelet winking in the sun, his coat just impossibly, stupidly purple.
Or did I just want Dex to be Prodigium because the idea of liking him was a lot scarier?
CHAPTER 25
Dex and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing video games. I'd never done that before, but it turned out all those years of training paid off in wicked hand-eye coordination. So while I couldn't beat Dex at Dragon Slayer IV, I didn't get totally embarrassed either. Once we'd slain dragons, we ate with Nana. Like her cookies, her spaghetti recipe clearly came from heaven, and by the time we left for the cave, I felt happier-and fuller-than I had in weeks.
Okay, so maybe Dex's Nana seemed a little overly protective. But Dex was her only grandkid and all the family she had. That was probably normal. And Dex was normal, I reminded myself as we drove to the outskirts of town. In the dim blue lights of the dash, I studied his profile. Normal. I'd never thought that word could sound so appealing.
The cave was easier to find than I'd thought it would be. There were signs and everything. Granted, they didn't mention Mary Evans or ghosts, but according to the legend, this had been where Mary and Jasper-the teacher-had met, and done...whatever. And, more important, where Mary had died.
Once we got there, Dex opened my door for me, holding out his hand. "Milady."
The night was cold enough that I wished I'd brought a heavier jacket. Dex was decked out in a new purple jacket, a thick green scarf knotted at his throat. He looked warm and cozy, and I wondered if his jacket was as soft as it seemed.
Dex must've picked up on my longing, because he went to unbutton his coat. "Cold? You can have it."
"No," I said quickly. "It's just...purple suits you. Which is good since you wear so much of it."
Preening, Dex raised his head and pushed his shoulders back. "It brings out the color of my eyes."
I didn't giggle this time, but I did give him a playful shove as I moved past him and into the cave. Once we were inside, we turned our flashlights on.
"Well, this is..."
"Creepy," I finished.
"I was actually going to go with 'pants-wettingly terrifying,' but, sure."
"You really think Mary and Jasper used this place to get all...romantic?" Running a hand over the damp walls of the cave, I shuddered a little. "Because seriously, I wouldn't even take my hat off in here."
"Their relationship was already pretty gross. Maybe they were going for some kind of grossness record."
"Lovely," I muttered, walking farther back into the cave. As I did, I had to crouch slightly. Dex had to practically fold in half. "Whoever used to hang out here, they must have been pretty tiny," I joked.
Dex turned his flashlight on me. "Um, Iz, pretty sure they weren't standing up," he said, and I blushed.
"Right," I said, trying to sound extra brusque so that he wouldn't notice my discomfort. "Okay, so. Proof of the supernatural. Let's find some."
Kneeling down, Dex yanked a melted candle off a little shelf carved in the rock. "You think this was supposed to be sexy or spooky?"
I was never going to stop blushing. I was actually going to die of blood loss because there wasn't any left to pump through my heart. It was all in my face.
"Nothing in this place is sexy," I told him, and he laughed.
"Oh, come on, Izzy. Even you, Miss Anti-Romance, can admit there's something just a little bit appealing about making out in a candlelit cave."
"Bats live in caves," I reminded him. "And where there are bats, there's bat poop. Lots of it. Did you know there's a cave in Mexico where they have a whole mountain made of guano?"
Dex leveled a fake-sultry gaze at me. "Are you coming on to me?"
I shined my flashlight at him, making him throw up a hand to guard his eyes. "Hey, watch it! You want me to actually see the ghost stuff, right?'
"Just...start looking, okay?"
"Fine," he grumbled, and we made our way deeper into the cave. The ceiling got lower and we both had to drop to our knees and crawl.
"Salting graves, crawling underground...you really are the most fun date ever," Dex mused. I bumped him with my shoulder and kept crawling. After a few feet, the cave opened up again, the ceiling soaring at least twelve feet overhead. Dex stood up and stretched with a happy groan, but all I could focus on was the magic bouncing off the rocks, filling the air, making my hair nearly stand on end. "This is it."
Frowning, Dex spun in a circle. "What, this? This is where the ghost stuff went down? How can you tell?"
"I just...can." It was maybe not the greatest answer ever, but I couldn't think of any other way to explain to Dex how I could sense magic.
Luckily, he didn't question it. "Whoa!" he cried.
"What?" Had he felt it? Was it just a delayed reaction? But Dex wasn't exclaiming over all the magic radiating inside the cave. He was walking forward to another little alcove carved in the rock.
"Aha," he said, poking around on the ground. "You're right, this is it."
I knelt next to him, turning my beam of light onto the cave floor. There was another melty candle and a few scraps of charred paper. Rooting around a little more, he uncovered a tiny golden charm. I leaned in closer as he laid it in his palm and shined the flashlight on it.
"A heart," he murmured.
I was suddenly aware that our heads were very close together, and took a deep breath. "Yeah."
His eyes dropped to my mouth. "That's both sexy and spooky, don't you think?"
"Depends on how you look at it, I guess," I said.
Now I was watching his mouth. Like his hands and eyes, Dex's lips were pretty. Beautiful, even. And suddenly I wanted them on mine more than I had ever wanted anything. Even as we moved closer together, some tiny part of my brain that was still a Brannick and not a silly girl losing her head over a cute boy registered what the magic in this cave must be. No ordinary spell had happened here. This was different. This was a love spell.
And now here Dex and I were, soaking in all this love spell energy. That was why he was staring at me like he wanted to devour me. Why I wanted him to devour me. It was residual energy from the spell, nothing else. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to get to my feet and back away from him.
Clearing my throat, I started shining my flashlight around the rest of the cave. "There might be more stuff. I mean, that's definitely magiclike, and-"
"I've never kissed anyone in a cave," Dex mused. When I turned around, he was still on his knees, watching me. "Or in any kind of underground structure, really. Cave, bomb shelter, secret government bunker..." His light was on me again. "What about you? You seem like the kind of girl whose romantic life is full of thrills and danger."