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Hopefully Falcon wouldn’t be checking up on me too soon. It was possible Dragonfly reported back to him. I thought I could be convincing, however, that all my work was research into light-emanating objects. Lord knew that sort of shell-game worked with grant agencies.
I set Dragonfly to clearing one end of the tent—while I grabbed something from the breakfast tray she’d brought—piling the pillows into neat columns, removing the broken glass. Some of her fellow worker bees brought in more tables to be my workbenches. While I disliked the helplessness of having to ask for everything I needed, the assistance was definitely a perk.
With the ceiling flaps pinned back, I had good light to work with. I laid the lily in the bright sunbeam and studied it. It lay there, sultry and sweet. I twisted my hair into a knot and studied the treacherous flower. I had always been most myself when working out a problem.
“My lady sorceress, would you like to bathe and dress?”
“Later.”
“But my lady…”
“Dragonfly,” I said, not looking away from the flower. I tried to think of something better than “go away.”
Failed.
“Go away.”
“I don’t understand?”
“Go outside of the tent and don’t bother me until I’m done, okay?”
It must have worked because she stopped talking to me. I examined the lily without touching it. More and more I thought the wise course would be to incinerate the thing. My reluctance to do so was probably part of the magic. But first, there were things I needed to know.
Ironically, the dream had worked me up so much that I had plenty of power to draw from.
I stilled my mind, seeking that quietness that had become my greatest refuge, and dipped into the flower, sinking into the scent, falling through the blues, letting it sweep me up—though I kept my right hand on my left pulse, anchoring to my body, to what was real. Not sure what I was looking for, I drifted through the blossom, feeling the aliveness of it, the magic—oh yes, now that felt like Rogue, the black wings brushing my mind in front of the fire. Not my own light-filled idea-bubbles of magic, this seemed wilder, a beast running beneath the surface.
Sexual, strong, feral and primitive.
Fire with fire, then. I summoned up the arousal he’d cultivated, that desire for him, for the poisonously dark candy he offered. I matched my stride to the beast magic, luring it with my scent, feeling it turn to me as if it was already tuned to me, follow me, follow my lead up into the blaze of light where it suddenly shied. But I had it then, I wrapped it in glass from the bell jar. This one a crystal bubble of magic, unbreakable and pristine. The magic roiled around inside it unhappily, deprived of its quarry.
Bedraggled on my workbench, the lily lay faded and limp, its sweet scent slipping into rot. It was only a flower, long past its bloom, robbed of its sustaining power. I felt as if I’d carelessly plucked it only to let it die out of water. Its beauty gone over to death.
It grieved me to see it dying there and I didn’t understand why.
Next to it was a sphere of glass, like a living marble. It was warm to the touch, the smooth surface flawless. Inside, ebony swirled with midnight highlights, freckles of dusty twilight breaking off only to fall back into the black. Fangs and ravens’ wings.
Probably best not to stare into it too long. When I stood, my body creaked in protest and I realized the sun was now past midday. Hours had passed while the lily and I mesmerized one another.
But I felt more myself than I had since I’d come here. All the feelings of desire and anger were gone now. I felt drained, in a good way, as if I’d bled out a poison.
Digging through my trunks, I found the wooden box Blackbird had given me with my dress and shoes. I wrapped the marble in a piece of silk and tucked it into a corner of the box. A little bargaining chip, should Rogue decide he needed that piece of himself back. Careless of him. Tut tut tut.
Dragonfly slid her tousled head through the flaps of the tent entrance. I wouldn’t have known it if I hadn’t been looking in her direction.
“May I return, my lady sorceress?”
“Sure, come on in.”
She held the flap out and turned diagonally to come through without snagging her wings. Hallelujah, she’d been practicing.
“I stood guard the whole time you were spell casting, my lady sorceress. Both Lord Puck and Lord Falcon came to pay a call, but I told them you were deep in work and had forbidden me to allow anyone to disturb you.”
“You did? Good initiative—thank you.” Okay, I’d been a bitch to her and she hadn’t deserved it. “I’m sorry that I was grumpy to you before.”
She looked a bit puzzled but pleased.
“So,” I asked casually, “did Falcon ask exactly what I was working on?”
