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followed Lizzy to the upper deck. Cloud cover, drizzle, and fog did not stop Lizzy Deane from staying outdoors, rather than comfortably inside. Where anyone else in their right mind would be on a morning such as this.
    She went to the damp railing, grasping it for support, and watched the big boat push off the landing with a loud toot of its horn. The sound rippled out across the bay in warning of its departure.
    Lucas took a seat nearby on a long wooden bench, pulling his jacket tightly around himself. Everything was damp. The benches. His hair. His jacket. His skin. It had a way of seeping deep inside and chilling him straight through.
    He was going back to a place he’d rather not be.
    No matter what Lizzy claimed about him needing to embrace his witchy heritage, he hated magic and the strife it brought his family; a curse he was damned to live with, forever, seeing as Deane blood coursed through his veins.
    Riley was old enough to look after himself, but he’d never been on his own before and had never gone through an ordeal similar to the one they’d just survived. Lucas feared it had changed his brother, for good. That he might not recover and be the same Riley he’d been before.
    Lucas had watched his brother change enough already after their parent’s deaths. And after his magical feeling gift had kicked in, he’d pulled into himself a little, no longer the outgoing, having fun, always the popular guy at the party, type. Dated woman who treated him like a stop at a highway rest area… quick in, quick out, nothing worth sticking around for… until meeting Melinda Howard. Lucas recalled that first day his brother came home after spending the afternoon with her… lazily meandering into the manor, a faraway dazed grin on his face.
    “What happened to you?” he’d asked Riley. “You’re keeping a low profile, right? We just landed a couple days ago and I do not want to stir up trouble.”
    “Yeah. Yeah. Low profile. Not bugging anyone.”
    “Then why the I just found heaven grin?”
    Riley got red and blotchy all over, but didn’t answer.
    Lucas worked it out fast. “You met a girl, didn’t you? Wow, that was fast work of it.” Lucas’ instant concern, she’d be just like the rest of his recent dates, or much worse, his last girlfriend. She’d cheated on him and played it off as no big thing. It had hurt Riley to the point that Lucas wasn’t sure his brother would even date again. And here he was, chick magnet…
    “I know what you’re worried about,” Riley told him after a bit. “It’s not like that. She’s not like that. We even talked a little about past relationships. It’s so weird, I don’t know this woman at all and yet I feel like I’ve known her for years. She’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met before. She’s been hurt too… I think. Actually, I’d bet my life on it. I can’t imagine the twat who’d have the heart to. She’s…” he had trailed off, that dumb grin returning.
    “Wow. Well… if it makes you less pissed at me for dragging you here.”
    Riley had laughed a little. Then got quiet.
    “What it is?” Lucas prodded, knowing there was something more.
    “My a, feeling, brought me to her. At least, that’s how I first ran into her and officially met her. And then earlier today it hit me again and I had to take this road and wouldn’t you know it, came across her again. She was upset. She didn’t fully explain why, family troubles. My God, though, she was about the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, even upset.”
    Lucas had no reply to that. He’d always encouraged Riley to follow his gift, even though he despised the use of magic. The Demon Isle, the last place he expected to find himself. But Riley’s gift as a dating service? That was a new one.
    “Just um, you know, keep things on the down low a few more days, okay. I’ve got it in my mind to visit the Howard’s and introduce myself. Before they find out through the small town grapevine that we’re