minute, sitting beside my daughter and catching snatches of the impassioned debate downstairs. Then I kissed Savannah’s forehead and left.
My first urge was to hunt down Kristof and get his take on everything that had happened. Yet if I was going to use him, even just as a sounding board, I had to do something for him in return…even if it wasn’t a favor I could tell him about. I’d checked in on one of his children. Now, time for the other two…
Kristof limited himself to one parental checkup a month. He thought it was better that way. I disagreed, of course, but I tried to see his point and, in the meantime, did more frequent checkups for him.
Kris’s younger son, Bryce, was in California, asleep in his grandfather’s villa. He should have been in college, but he’d dropped out last term. Kristof’s death…well, naturally it affected both his boys, but in different ways; maybe the opposite of what anyone would have expected. Bryce had always been the difficult child, the one who’d started pushing Kris away even before the Great Divide of adolescence. Kris had respected Bryce’s rebellion, stepping back, yet staying close, always there to catch him when he stumbled.
When Kris died, Bryce had been in his first year of college, a music major, having declared that he had no intention of following his father into Cabal corporate life. After Kris’s death, Bryce had dropped out of school and decided to work for the Cabal part-time. Now he was a company AVP, living with his grandfather—the CEO—and planning to return to college in the fall, not to music at Berkeley, but political science at Harvard, with law school to follow—the same path Kristof had taken.
Next I headed to New York, where Sean was finishing his MBA. He shared an apartment with his cousin Austin, but only Austin was there, sitting up watching CNN. I was about to leave when the doorknob turned, so slow I thought I was imagining it. The door eased open and Sean peered around the edge of it.
The sight of Sean always made me smile. He reminded me so much of Kris when we’d first met, tall, lean, and broad-shouldered, with thick blond hair and gorgeous big blue eyes. Kris had lost that lean build, and about half the hair, but there was still no mistaking the resemblance. In personality, Sean and his father couldn’t be more different, but Sean did share his father’s values. He was the only Nast who’d made any effort to contact Savannah—and had not only contacted her, but had become a part of her life, despite his grandfather’s disapproval. That made Kristof prouder than Sean could ever imagine.
As Sean opened the door, he saw the light on in the living room and winced. He was tiptoeing past the living room entrance when Austin turned.
“Hey, Casanova,” Austin called. “I thought you were studying tonight. Library closes at eleven.”
“I went out for a couple of drinks.”
Austin leaned over the back of the sofa, grinning. “A couple, huh? What are their names?”
Sean mumbled something and slid toward the bathroom. Austin zipped through the kitchen and cut off his cousin.
“Oh, come on. You used to tell me everything. What’s happened? Meet someone special? That’s what Grand-dad thinks. He called tonight and when I told him you were out, he said to tell you to bring her home next month.”
Panic shot through Sean’s eyes, but he dowsed it fast and shrugged as he slipped past Austin.
Sean had indeed met someone…and he would never take that someone home to meet his family. For a Cabal son, there was only one thing worse than bringing home a witch—bringing home a lover who was never going to produce that all-important heir.
Even as a teen, Sean had unabashedly looked up to his father as a role model, did whatever he thought Kris wanted, not because Kris demanded it, or even requested it, but because Sean was that kind of kid, good-natured and eager to please. He’d been ready to follow Kris’s example, marry for duty and produce the essential “heir and a spare.” But now Kris was gone, and so was Sean’s reason for fighting his nature. Yet he still hid it, not yet ready to make that commitment and risk being ostracized by his remaining family.
The time would come, though, when he would take that step, and when he did, he’d need help. His father’s help. One more reason I needed to figure out a way for