Read Online Sympathetic Magic (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 4) by Christine Pope - Free Book Online Page A

eyes. She hadn’t chosen it — perhaps the Goddess had chosen it for her, but the strength of her gift wasn’t something Margot had precisely achieved on her own.
    “So that’s why? Just because you were the strongest witch?”
    “One of them.” Damn it, she’d tried so hard not to think about that time in her life, what the consequences of her elevation to elder had actually been. She picked up her wine and drank, attempting to focus on the dark, rich sweep of it over her tongue, and not the day all those years ago when Bryce and Allegra had come to her and said, It is your time to serve. Her voice hardened. “But since Allegra Moss and Bryce McAllister were already appointed elder, there really wasn’t anyone else.”
    “Seems kind of rough, giving you that responsibility when you were so young.” His tone was obviously sympathetic, but she didn’t want to acknowledge that. Feeling sorry for herself, for what had happened, wouldn’t change anything.
    She shrugged. “It was what it was.”
    The waiter came back with their salads, so once again they fell silent until he was safely away. Funny how, despite their being from two such very different clans, they both followed the same unspoken rule, which was never to discuss witch business when a civilian was around. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so odd. All the various clans had survived to this day because they’d learned how to be discreet.
    Margot decided maybe it was time to go on the attack. “And what about the Wilcoxes? I find it kind of strange that you don’t even have clan elders.”
    “No need, with the way the primuses always ran things.” He speared a few pieces of radicchio with his fork but didn’t lift them to his mouth. “We were more of a monarchy, I guess.” His tone was almost amused, but Margot thought that note of amusement didn’t ring entirely true.
    “Even now, with Connor in charge?”
    This time he did eat, and drank some water before he replied. “No, I’d say things are sort of in flux. It’s pretty clear he has no intention of running things the way Damon, or his father before him, did. I guess in a way you could call Marie and Andre and me the unofficial Wilcox elders, since we’re the ones he seems to go to for advice most of the time. At least, for Wilcox matters,” he added quickly. “Obviously, he and Angela talk pretty much everything over, but she doesn’t want to be seen as interfering in our family’s business.”
    Wise of her, Margot thought. I really wouldn’t want to get embroiled in any of that, either. “And you don’t mind?”
    “Why would I? I’m glad Connor feels he can rely on me.” A lift of the shoulders, and he said, “I used to be Damon’s sounding board, too.”
    “Indeed? I had no idea Damon Wilcox ever took anyone’s advice but his own.”
    “Well,” Lucas replied, after sipping some wine, “just because he used me as a sounding board doesn’t mean he actually ever did anything I advised.”
    This was said in such a self-deprecating tone that Margot let out a reluctant laugh. In general, the mere mention of the late primus was enough to make her skin prickle, even now, when he was certainly no danger to anyone. But the way Lucas spoke of his late cousin told her that they’d had at least a friendly relationship, something she had a hard time wrapping her head around.
    “Do you miss him?” she asked abruptly.
    He paused a long time before answering. “Sometimes. That is, I can’t excuse the things he did, because there is no excuse for them. And I can’t fault for Angela doing what she had to do, because there really was no alternative. But….” The word seemed to hang in the air, even as he shook his head and ate another bite of his salad.
    “But?” she prompted, then returned to her own neglected plate of field greens.
    “We were friends,” Lucas said simply. “I have a lot of friends, but he didn’t. I think that’s why he liked talking with me, even if he