Read Online Absolutely Captivated by Kristine Grayson - Free Book Online

knew,
Mount Olympus could be a new casino concept from the desk of the
ubiquitous Steve Wynn, who had come up with the Mirage and half the
other “wonders” of Las Vegas Boulevard.
    “Um, no, I haven’t,” Zoe said,
deciding that letting her visitors talk was the best
policy.
    “Oh, by the Powers, where do we
start?” the brunette asked.
    But as she said “Powers,”
all three women bowed their heads and spread their arms out in
obeisance.
    Zoe hadn’t seen anyone do that since
the last time she visited the Fates, nearly a hundred years
ago.
    Then she leaned back in her chair, so
shocked that she gasped. These women looked like the Fates. Only
they couldn’t be. The Fates had more magical ability than all the
other mages combined. And these women had none.
    They had walked in. They looked like
normal people and they weren’t toying with their appearance all the
time the way they used to.
    And they had walked in . To
Zoe’s office. In Las Vegas. In Modern America. On
Earth.
    The Fates never
appeared outside the magical realm. Hell, Zoe wasn’t even sure they
left their little judicial post near Mount Olympus. Sure, they
changed its appearance all the time, but they had stayed in the
same place—somewhere near Greece, but not in Greece or anywhere else in the
mortal realm—since the heyday of Athens, thousands of years
ago.
    “No,” Zoe whispered.
    “No?” Kinneally asked. He
had been watching her. She had felt that blue gaze as if it were
fingers on her shoulder. “No what?”
    “Is this some kind of joke?” Zoe
asked.
    The blond smiled. “Finally, some
recognition.”
    “We were beginning to think we looked
too normal,” the redhead said.
    “Yes,” said the brunette, “like Real
People.”
    She said that with just enough of a
mixture of contempt and amusement that Zoe felt the sense of
recognition grow even more. Still, she held her breath.
    “I think,” said the blond.
    “We were all worried,” continued the
redhead.
    “That you had forgotten us,” finished
the brunette.
    Zoe shook her head.
No one forgot the Fates. Especially not when the Fates had treated
that person with a mixture of fondness ( Really, darling, you are such an iconoclast—even for a
mage ) and fury ( We make rules for a reason, child. Order must be
kept ).
    “It’s not possible,” Zoe
said.
    “What’s not?” Kinneally
asked. She met that startling blue gaze. He truly seemed
confused—not just by her, but by everything. She hadn’t noticed
before how he hung back, stayed away from the three women, and
simply observed.
    And what had he
said? You’re not the one we’re looking
for. She’s a detective. Has to be in her—gosh, I don’t
know—eighties by now .
    He had come into his magic within the
last few years, judging by the look of him. How could he not know
that mages were long-lived?
    Zoe crossed her arms and looked away
from him, studying the three women. Zoe wasn’t going to say whom
she thought they were. They would have to admit it. If this was
some sort of magical scam, she wanted them to get it
underway.
    She wasn’t going to be an easy mark,
someone who gave away too much information just by making
assumptions.
    “Ma’am?” The little boy stepped
forward.
    His fair skin was sunburned on the
right side only—obviously he’d been in a car too long, under the
sun—and his round glasses had slid to the edge of his nose, making
him look much more bookish than his athletic brother.
    “I know you don’t trust us,” the boy
said, “but these ladies, they need your help. My dad doesn’t know
how much trouble they’re in. They haven’t told any of us except my
Aunt Vivian, who never told us either, but I know. This is pretty
serious, and these ladies, they’re scared.”
    All three women turned in unison and
stared at the child. If they had stared at Zoe like that, she would
have been afraid of turning into stone.
    But the child seemed
unfazed.
    Then Zoe realized that she wasn’t
unfazed. She