The Autumn Prince

17. Fairy Dust

Katherine and I sat at the kitchen table talking long after Rachel left. At first we stared at each other, but after a few minutes she broke the silence with the question that was on both our minds.

"What the hell?"

"I know, I was there."

"What did you do to her?"

"What makes you think it was me?" She gave me one of her cut-the-crap looks and I could feel the guilt in my expression. "Okay, yeah, but don't ask me what I did."

"Too late. I felt it, Thomas."

"Felt what?"

"You know how the wind pushes your car when someone passes you at like a thousand miles an hour? A little like that, but sexy."

"Is that supposed to make sense?"

"Shut up. What did it feel like to you?"

I shrugged, thought about it for a few minutes, and described as much of the event as I could recall.

"So some kind of mind control?" Katherine asked.

"Hardly," I scoffed. "Miss Gold said I could influence people but I didn't give her any orders."

"You told her to trust you," she reminded me.

"Yeah I did. Go clean the apartment."

Katherine's eyebrows shot up, "Excuse me?"

"Just testing."

"Smartass." She swiped at me and missed.

"Haven't you been telling me it doesn't work that way? You said you're in full control, did something happen to change your mind?"

"No," she shook her head, "but I know what's going on underneath, Rachel doesn't."

"Are you really suggesting she changed her entire attitude because I touched her for ten seconds and asked nicely?" She couldn't give me a firm answer. If it was true, Katherine would have to admit she had less control than she wanted me to believe, and if not, we were back to square one.

"No, you're right," she admitted, "But something happened, Thomas. Something new."

I sat back in my chair, toying with the glass of water in front of me. "Miss Gold didn't say anything about this. What else did she miss?"

"She couldn't have been wrong about everything." Katherine placed her hand over mine, offering what comfort she could. "She said exactly what would happen with me, and that's been pretty accurate."

"It was different with Glory and Becca."

"The girl at the storage unit? Don't read too much into that." Katherine warned, "A woman's sex drive is usually tied to her emotional state. She could have been aroused but it wasn't enough to break through her insecurities or her guilt over the car. Maybe the comfort it gave her was more important at the time."

I understood the point she was trying to make, but it didn't give me anything to work with.

"At least Rachel won't get the police involved," she added.

"But for how long?"

"What do you mean?"

"If Rachel changed her mind because I touched her, that's going to wear off like it did with you and we'll have a whole new problem."

She mumbled a curse, but after a few seconds her face lit up. "Okay hold on, what if everything Miss Gold told you is true, but it's only part of it. What if there's something else going on?"