“Thank you,” he said solemnly.

“No problem,” she said lightly, and started to turn away, but then paused and swung back to warn, “Don’t let her see the passion life mates enjoy until she agrees to be your life mate and turns.”

“Why?” Magnus asked with surprise.

“Because she would run,” Stephanie said abruptly and with certainty. “Once she has promised to be your life mate and taken the vows, she will keep that promise, but if you let her experience life mate passion before she does . . .” She shook her head. “It would scare her silly. She would take Liam with her and flee. If that happens, she will be dead within a matter of hours, and Liam will be left to Abaddon’s mercies.”

Turning abruptly away, Stephanie moved around the counter and through the dining room, murmuring, “I have a headache. I’m going back up to bed to lie down for a while.”

Everyone remained still and silent as they listened to her mount the stairs, and remained that way until they heard a door close and the muffled sound of her mounting the stairs to the attic rooms. Only then did they lower their gazes to exchange worried glances.

“She has the sight,” Magnus said quietly.

“No,” Elvi said tightly. “She just can’t shut out the thoughts of everyone around her. Immortal or mortal, our thoughts bombard her constantly unless she’s in her room. Harper fitted it out special with several different linings to help block our thoughts and it seems to work. But it means she spends a lot of time alone, which is worrisome.”

Magnus hesitated, but then decided to let it go. He was quite sure Stephanie had the sight, that she could see the possible futures of those around her. But these people were already worried about the young woman and he didn’t want to add to it. Turning back to the sink, he finished rinsing the coffee cups, but his mind was on what Stephanie had said. If he showed Allie the passion life mates enjoyed, she would run . . . apparently to her death. Unless he got her to promise to be his life mate first. And wooing would not work. He needed to use her love for Liam to do that.

But how? Magnus wondered over that briefly as he finished washing and then drying the coffee cups. By the time he’d returned them to the open shelf on the wall, he’d decided he needed to get away to think for a bit and come up with a plan. Hanging the dish towel over the oven handle where he’d got it from, he glanced to the people now talking quietly at the table and announced, “I need to nip out and pick up a few things. Is there a vehicle I could use?”

Ten

“Mom? Do you have a seven?”

Allie looked over the cards in her hand and then smiled evilly. “Go fish.”