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“So I noticed. I also feel I should point out that you didn’t even touch the waterIwaded through, so you don’t know what temperature it was.”
“Yes, I do,” she muttered darkly. “I could feel it even from your towering height. Besides, plenty dripped on me from the tunnel ceiling, and that was so frigid it burned.”
He laughed softly, turning to take in the space, the various cabinets against the walls between the windows. Strange tools hung in orderly rows, the uses opaque. And… “Is that a bed?” He frowned at it.
“Pretty standard for an arcanium,” Nic agreed, strolling to it and examining the posts. They, like the frame of the bed, appeared to be made entirely of silver. “Though this is an extraordinary specimen. Pure silver if I don’t miss my guess. You said moon magic is tied to silver. If you needed quick cash, you could sell this thing for a small fortune—though I doubt we could get it through the tunnel without dismantling it beyond repair. Besides, it’s likely far more valuable here to amplify your incantations. Those will yield enduring income, as opposed to a one-time cash infusion.”
“Amplify my incantations,” he repeated. “I thought maybe it was here for naps, like in between spells.”
Nic slid him a look that was both knowing and pitying. She pointed to the feet of the bed. “Wheels, so it can be rolled beneath the moon window there.” Plucking up a chain he’d taken for a bit of silver decoration, she rattled the attached cuff meaningfully, directing his attention to similar chains on the other posts. “To bind your familiar,” she explained.
He couldn’t quite look at her, aroused by the images that sprang to mind, appalled by the implications. “For sex,” he realized with dull horror. He was like those other wizards, no matter what Nic said, because some deep-buried part of him had come to slavering life at the possibilities.
“Sex and pain are both excellent for building and releasing magic,” she agreed with a nonchalant shrug. “Almost all wizard–familiar relationships are sexual for that reason. Surely you knew that.”
“How can you sound so matter-of-fact about it?” he asked, focusing fully on her. With the dimming light filtering through the shifting water, her vivid beauty was softened, her sharp eyes shadowed and mysterious, her hair like blackest night. The image of her lying naked on a bed of that hair, chained to the silver bed, gripped him even as he tried to banish the thought.
She smiled, knowing and sensual. “Because it’s a fact of Convocation life, Gabriel,” she answered gently. “Wizards receive extensive training in ways to extract maximum power from their familiars, so I don’t know the particulars, but there are always rumors. And novels,” she added.
“So, even your parents—” He cut himself off before following that path to its end.
Her smile widened. “Naturally, one doesn’t like to envision one’s parents engaged in such activities, but it’s another reason the arcanium is private.” She closed the distance between them, sliding her palms up over his chest. “No one will ever know what you do to me in here,” she purred.
He gripped her wrists, hard enough that she blinked in surprise, even as she melted against him. “I don’t understand you,” he whispered. “This isn’t some game. I could hurt, maim, or kill you, and you wouldn’t care?”
“Familiars get hurt all the time,” she replied, “but wizards aren’t going to carelessly maim or kill one of us. We’re far too valuable for that. Besides, Convocation law protects—”
“Don’t quote Convocation law at me,” he snarled. “I’mnevergoing to do anything like that to you.”
She lowered her gaze meaningfully to his grip on her wrists. “You already are.”
He released her as if burned, staggering back a few steps. “I don’t believe it has to be that way.”
“It doesn’t and it does.” She followed, hips swaying, her skin somehow glowing, as if the arcanium infused her with light. “I’ve tried to explain—the flow of power follows certain patterns. Because the wizard uses the familiar’s magic as well as their own, the combined force can be a great deal to control. These are simply tools to help you contain and focus my magic productively.”
“Touseyou effectively,” he bit out.
“I know you don’t like to think of it that way, but yes.”
She reached for him, and he stepped back, warding her off. “Those other suitors… If they’d won you, you would’ve let them dothisto you.” He flicked his gaze to the bed.
Her expression hardened with her habitual exasperation, along with something darker. “There wouldn’t have been any ‘letting’ about it. That’s the life I was born to, Gabriel. Once I received the verdict that I would be a familiar, never a wizard, I knew that what I wanted no longer mattered—with one salient exception.”
“The Betrothal Trials,” he whispered.
“Yes. At least I was able to exercise my summary dismissals there, select my suitors—if only by process of elimination. Believe me, there were applicants that would have been much worse. Unfortunately, the most cruel are often the wealthiest, and if I’d been sold to the highest bidder, I stood a fair chance of belonging to a wizard who would’ve made my life a living nightmare. I know you don’t care for my father, but I’m lucky that Papa didn’t need the money that would come from such a sale—and fortunate that he loves me enough to spare me that fate.”
“Did you…” He cleared his throat, gaze wandering the arcanium and landing reluctantly on the bed. “Did you think I would be cruel to you—was that why you were afraid?”
“No.” She edged closer, and this time he stayed steady for her as she wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her cheek against his chest. Lightly, he folded his arms around her. “No, Gabriel,” she repeated quietly. “I was afraid because I knew I’d give you everything, deny you nothing, and enjoy every moment.” She tipped her head back, chin resting on his chest, eyes glowing as if with moonlight. “No regrets,” she told him firmly.
Unable to resist her, he lowered his head to brush her lips with his, sweet and lingering. “I don’t ever want to hurt you,” he whispered against her mouth, barely audible, even to himself.
“We don’t have to worry about it now. All we have to do tonight is the bonding. And look—the moon is shining down on us. Surely that’s a good omen.”
She was right. The sky above the moon window and the lake surface had darkened. Somehow, they’d ended up in the circle directly beneath the moon window, and the bright moonlight showered over them, argent and potently stirring his magic. Nic’s magic hummed beneath, a wine-red harmony pulsing with his.
“Here in the circle?” he asked.
