CHAPTER ELEVEN #2
I grin after them, then turn back to the bookshelf, my fingertips tracing over the spines as I look for a book title that seems promising.
Alone in the stacks for the first time, a faint awareness fills me.
I close my eyes and reach for my magic. It sparks to life, filling my chest before extending outward.
Tiny impressions form in my mind’s eye, taking the shapes of books.
Each is a different “color,” some widely opposite one another, like red versus blue.
Others are faint variations of difference, like a set all in bright green, with only the tiniest changes in the amount of yellow visible from left to right.
Princess Buttercup gives a triumphant meow from somewhere close, and my eyes fly open, all sense of my magic disappearing with the abruptness of a finger snap.
Luke walks back into view, my cat now cradled on his arm, her little legs hanging down on each side like he’s a tree branch she’s draped along.
My cat gives me the slow blink of a kitty smile. “Good play.” Then she yawns, her little pink tongue curling.
“You’re worn out so soon?” I laugh and scratch around her ears.
“We were gone a good half hour,” Luke rumbles as he leans over to lay Princess Buttercup on one of the many cat beds that now dot the aisles.
She immediately curls into a ball, bushy tail covering her eyes like a sleep mask like the little diva she is, and goes to sleep.
“What?” A jolt of shock goes through me. “It felt like… I don’t know, five minutes tops.”
His gaze sharpens. “What were you doing?”
“I tried to use my magic. And I did! But in a new way.” I describe the feeling of “seeing” the books. “Only the colors I saw don’t match their covers or anything like that.” I tap one of them. “Like this one. It’s bound in brown leather, but in my mind’s eye, it was red.”
“Then the colors you’re seeing have some other meaning. Use your magic again and tell me what you see.”
“Okay.” I close my eyes and try to reach for my magic. Luke holds so perfectly still that I can’t hear even the tiniest rustle of his wings, but I can feel him beside me, my body tingling with an awareness that makes it impossible to concentrate.
Fudge me. I’m a grown-ass woman. Standing beside a man should not short-circuit my brain!
Letting out a frustrated breath, I square my shoulders and try again.
My magic fizzes to life slowly, like a small spark of potential. The more I focus on it, the more powerful it becomes, until my chest feels swirly and light, filled with movement and potential.
Colors appear, growing sharper until they form into books. “Okay,” I breathe in the faintest of whispers. “I’m seeing the special colors again.”
“Very good,” Luke murmurs. “I want you to pick one color and point out those books to me.”
With a nod, I squeeze my eyes more tightly shut and reach out. Only to gasp when a ghostly version of my hand appears.
“What is it?” he asks.
“I can see my hand.” I glance down, eyes still shut. “Scratch that, I can see all of me.” Hoo, boy, and how! Using my magical vision, I’m completely naked as if my clothes don’t exist, even though I can still feel them against my skin. “I’m the same gold as the sparkles of my spell.”
He gives his “that’s interesting” grunt.
So of course I do the thing I shouldn’t do—I turn to look at Luke. I’m screaming inside my head the whole time not to do it, but I can’t stop my head from swiveling. I just can’t! Really. It’s impossible.
Oh. Oh, god. He’s…
I swallow, mouth dry. He’s definitely naked, but his form is shadowy and undefined.
Fire flares in the center of Luke’s chest, pulsing regularly, and it takes me a moment to realize it’s timed to the beat of his heart.
The fire inside of him doesn’t feel like the books—my magic isn’t reacting to it in the same way.
But there’s something there, something I can sense even if I don’t understand what it is.
Each pulse of his power lights the rest of him just enough to show that yes, he really does have two dicks.
“What do you see?”
I jerk my head back to the front. “Nothing!” My tightened throat makes it come out as a squeak.
“Let’s get back on track,” he growls. “Point out the red books.”
I touch the three I can see, and he pulls them out and sets them aside.
“Next color.”
“Blue.” I tap at the spines, one by one, so he can separate them out. Then I move on to the next color. “Yellow.”
We continue until I’ve done the entire shelf, and Luke says, “That’s a large enough sample to assess.”
When I open my eyes, I find piles of books surrounding us, some shorter than others. I crouch down and read the spines of one of the stacks. “All of these books are about witch familiars!”
“These detail weather spells.” Luke places his hand on the stack to his right, then the one on the left. “These document known cases of divination.”
I meet his gaze, delight skipping through me. “So my magic can sense the topic of a book?”
“It would appear so.” He stands and waves me toward the closest portal crystal. As soon as we’re back in the reading room, he says, “I want you to try another thing.”
“Of course.” Anything that helps me figure out my magic!
“I want you to think of a very specific subject and call the book to you.”
“Any subject I want?”
“No, it should be a subject my library will have. We’re trying to see if you can call books to you. Calling for a book that’s not here won’t prove anything.”
“Good point.” I nibble on my lip. “Okay, I’ve got one.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yep!” With an entire wing on dragons, there’d better be a book on their fire magic, is all I’m saying.
I close my eyes. My magic rises a little more quickly this time, but as soon as it does, my senses start to buzz. Dance with Desire flares in my mind’s eye, a bright gold that pulses with power and promise, the gold of my magic. I suck in a shocked breath, completely captivated.
Warm hands wrap my shoulders, spinning me around. My head swivels as far as it can to keep the floating romance book in view. I can’t tear my eyes away. Luke bellows my name, the sound tinny and distant, but nothing is as important as the burning gold of the book, gleaming so very, very brightly—