"It's not my place to say. I've said more than I should already." He shook his head. "You have this way of making me overstep my bounds. Just know you're special to Monahan, that's all, and not for any of the sinister reasons flitting through your mind right now.”

She glared at him. The man sure did like to play head games.

He rested his forearms on the table and stared at her with his unsettling blue eyes. Warmth became coldness. His light blue eyes seemed to have the strange ability to contain both ice and fire. His expression hardened.

"It's not my place to say," he repeated with finality.

"Fine," she bit off. That would be an argument for another time.

He set his fork down. "You'll be missed at work today if you don't call in. You have to call the diner and tell them you won't be able to come into work for a while.”

"How can you be sure I won't scream bloody murder into the phone to let Mike know I'm in trouble?”

"First of all, you're not in any trouble, not here with me, anyway.”

That was debatable. It depended on what kind of trouble he meant.

"Second of all, I think you're curious enough to stick around for a while of your own free will.”

She let out a short, derisive laugh. "You assume a lot. How am I supposed to survive without going to work? Some of us need our wages to pay the rent.”

"Don't worry about money right now, not when your life is in danger. The Coven has already agreed to pay your bills for a time. Think of this as a paid vacation. Only, it's not.”

"What?”

"You need to be trained.”

Mira stared at him for a moment before replying. "Why?”

"You're a powerful breed of witch who hasn't had a day of instruction in her life. Don't you want to know who you are?”

Mira winced. The comment hit her somewhere tender. She pushed away from the table, stood, and stalked away from him. "I know who I am, and it isn't a witch," she answered with her back to him.

"You think you know who you are, Mira? I see a woman adrift, not one at all sure of her course. I see a woman who has only deluded herself into thinking she knows where she's going.”

Mira closed her eyes, feeling the truth of those words spear through her. Ever since her divorce she'd been fighting so hard to guide her life down a more positive road, but she wasn't sure she'd headed herself in the right direction. Mira had wondered more than once if she might be fooling herself.