"I hope you don't mind if I regret it a little."

"I'd be annoyed if you didn't." She tossed back her curling flood of dark-red hair. "Ask the professional question that's most on your mind. I'll answer if I can."

"The circle in the woods by the cottage. How did you cast it?"

Surprise had her pursing her lips. She rose to give herself a moment to think. "That's a good one," she said, wandering to the window. "How did you find it?" Before he could answer, she waved a hand. "No, never mind. It's your job. I can't answer a question that involves others who may not wish it."

"I know about Ripley, and Nell."

She glanced back over her shoulder. "Do you?"

"From research, process of elimination, observation." He shrugged his shoulders. "From being good at what I do. I haven't approached Nell because both you and Ripley objected."

"I see. Are you afraid what we'd do if you ignored our objections?"

"No."

"No. Just that simple and quick. A courageous man."

"Not at all. You wouldn't use your gift to punish or harm-not without cause or provocation-and then only to protect. Ripley doesn't have your control or dedication, but she has her own code, possibly more strict than yours."

"You read people well. And you've approached Ripley? You've spoken to her?"

"Yes, I have."

The corners of her mouth bowed up, but there was little humor in the smile. "And you say you're not courageous."

There was enough bite to the words to intrigue. "What happened between the two of you?"

"That's a second question, and I've yet to decide if I'll answer the first. Until Ripley confirms your supposition-"

"It's not a supposition, it's fact. And she has confirmed it."

"Now you surprise me." Puzzling it out, Mia paced to the fireplace, from there to the coffeepot to pour, though she had no desire for coffee.

"You'd protect her, too," Mac said quietly. "She matters to you, a great deal."

"We were friends, as close as friends can be, for most of our lives. Now we're not." She said it simply, though it was anything but simple. "But I haven't forgotten what we were, or what we shared. Even so, Ripley can protect herself. I can't think why she'd have admitted to you, so quickly, what she has. What she is."

"I boxed her in."

He hesitated only a moment, then told Mia of the energy burst, the woman on the beach, the hour he'd spent with Ripley in the cottage.

Mia took his wrist, examined it herself. "Her temper was always a problem. But her conscience is even stronger. She'll suffer for having harmed you. She'd have transferred the burns, you know."

"Pardon?"

"That would have been her way to do penance, to make it right and just again. Taking the burns from your flesh onto her own."

He thought of the heat, the pain. Swore. "Damn it, that wasn't necessary."

"For her, it was. Let it go." She released his wrist, wandered about the room, and settled her mind. "You want her, sexually."

He shifted on the sofa. The blush wanted to creep up his neck. "I'm not entirely comfortable getting into that subject with another woman."

"Men are so often squeamish about sex. Discussing it, not having it. That's all right." She came back, sat again. "Now to answer your question-"

"I'm sorry. Would you object if I recorded your answer?"

"Dr. Booke." Amusement sang in her voice as he took the little tape recorder out of his pocket. "Such a Boy Scout. Always prepared. No, I don't suppose I'd object, but we'll just put it on record as well that this goes into no publication without my written permission."

"You're a Boy Scout yourself. Agreed."

"Nell had taken precautions, and so had I. Legal action was about to begin as further protection. Zack, who is also good at his job and very much in love with Nell, was also protecting her. Yet Evan Remington came to the island, and he found her. He hurt her and terrorized her. He nearly killed Zack and would have killed Nell. Despite everything, he would have taken her life that night. She ran to the woods to keep him from killing Zack, who was already wounded. Ran there knowing he would follow her."

"She's a courageous woman."

"Oh, indeed. She knew the woods, they're hers, and it was the dark of the moon. Yet still he found her, as part of her knew he would. There are fates that nothing can turn-no magic, no intellect, no effort." Her eyes were deep and intense as they met his now. "Do you believe that?"

"Yes, I do."

She nodded as she studied his face. "I thought you would, and on some level, you even understand it. He was meant to find her. This ... test that held her life in the balance was written centuries ago. Her courage, and faith in self, were key."

She paused a moment, gathering herself. "Even knowing that, I was afraid. As a woman is afraid. He held a knife to her throat. Her face was already bruised from his hand. I abhor those who prey on others, who deliberately cause fear and pain in those they see as weaker."

"You're a civilized woman," he said.

"Am I, Dr. Booke? Do you also understand that it was within my power to have caused Evan Remington's heart to stop, to have stopped his life, given him unspeakable pain, in the instant he threatened my sister?"

"A curse of that magnitude, that violence, requires the belief of the one being cursed. And a complex ritual with ..." He trailed off because Mia was sipping coffee and smiling-pure amusement now. "All my research confirms that."

"As you like." She said it lightly, and the back of his neck prickled. "What I could have done is one thing. I'm bound by my own beliefs, my own vows. I can't break faith and be what I am. We stood, the five of us, in that wood. Both Zack and Ripley had weapons. But using them would certainly have ended Nell's life as well as Remington's. There was only one path, one answer. The circle of three. We cast it that night, without the ceremony, the tools, the chants that are most often required. We cast the circle through will."

Fascinating, he thought. Amazing. "I've never seen that done."

"Nor had I, until that night, ever attempted it. Needs must," she murmured. "A link, mind to mind to mind. And power, Dr. Booke, ran in a ring like fire. He couldn't harm her when she wouldnot be harmed. He couldn't stay sane when forced to face what lived inside him."

She spoke quietly, but something-the wordmagic seemed almost too ordinary-shimmered in the room, stroked over his skin. "Ripley told me you closed the circle."

"Ripley is uncharacteristically chatty with you. Yes, we closed the circle."

"The energy's still there. Stronger than any open circle I've documented."

"The three are very strong when linked. I suspect the energy will be there long after we're just memories. Nell found what she needed. The first step toward the balance."

The air cooled again, and she was just a beautiful woman holding a china pot. "More coffee?" she asked.