have no qualms about using her to hurt me if he found out what I was doing. She’d be safer exactly where she was for the time being, which was far away from me.
“And you…” Quilla’s aunt stole my attention as she paused in front of me and trailed a finger up the center of my chest. “I need to thank you properly for taking care of my grandbabies.” Her hand fisted in the cloth of my tunic, and suddenly she was yanking me forward and plastering a kiss to my mouth before I could stop her.
By the time I got over my surprise enough to push her away, she was already letting me go, licking her tongue over her bottom lip, as if to savor the taste, and humming. “Not bad,” she told me with a wink. “Not bad, prince.” Then she turned to Quilla and Indigo. “Ready?”
Blowing out a nervous breath, Indigo nodded and took Quilla’s hand. “We’re ready.”
Melaina grabbed hold of Quilla’s other hand, and together the three of them faced the outer wall of the cottage. When the two women began to chant something in a language I couldn’t understand, I took a step back, then lurched another step further away when a crackling blue light appeared in the center of the side of the building.
From there, it grew, forming a large circle with black darkness in the center of it until it was big enough for a human to step inside.
I glanced around to make sure no one else was about—not even any of my guards who might report everything they’d seen to the king—and then I turned back to watch the phenomenon before me. Indigo glanced over his shoulder and waved goodbye.
I waved in return and watched him, along with the other two, approach the portal and then enter.
Together, they walked into the blackness, just as a woman appeared beside me out of freaking nowhere.
“What the hell?” I cried, jumping away from her.
Tiny and black-haired and wearing nothing but gold, turquoise, rubies, and scarves, she gasped when she spotted the other three already inside the interdimensional tunnel.
“No!” she cried and lifted her hands, aiming her curled fingers at the closing portal.
Gritting her teeth, she strained until two objects came flying out of the darkness at her.
Catching them to her chest, she breathed out a steadying breath and grinned at me. “Oh, thank God. I got them. Just in time too.”
When I realized she was holding two of the three amulets that had just gone to Earth, I shook my head. “Um, I think they really needed to take those with them.”
She blinked in surprise. Then straightened. “Well, I really needed them to stay here,” she countered, dropping the amulets down to her sides. Then she hitched her chin toward me. “You’re the scholarly prince, aren’t you?”
“I am,” I said. “And who are you?”
“I’ve gone by many names,” she answered, eyeing me up and down with a speculative glance. Then she nodded to herself as if she approved of what she saw and flashed me a friendly smile. “But you may call me Nalini.”
My mouth tightened. I’d definitely be searching Indigo’s book after this for any mention of a Nalini. “Why did you steal their amulets?”
“I wouldn’t say I stole them,” she started, frowning over the term. “I merely took back what was already mine. And besides, it turns out they were the couple I was seeking after all. So I couldn’t let them go to Earth permanently. A brief visit…” She shrugged. “I’ll allow. But I need them to return eventually.”
I released a breath. I couldn’t say I was all that upset to learn this. It was nice to know Indigo would be back. But…
“It won’t be safe for them to return here.”
Her lips lifted briefly in sad amusement. “It won’t be safe here for anyone if they don’t.”
Irritated because I had no idea what she meant with all her allusive comments, I stepped toward her. “I’m going to need those amulets back now.”
She merely slipped away with a grin and lifted them just out of my reach. “Ah, ah. I’m afraid I can’t do that, young man. I created these amulets. They belong to me.”
“Young man?” I repeated, snorting as I slowed to a stop and scowled at her. I had to be at least a decade older than her.
“Poor Olivander,” she murmured sympathetically as she looped the amulet necklaces over her head and around her neck. “You’ve felt like an old man