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She was right: he didn’t like it. “I’m not doingthatwith my own sister.”
Nic blew out a breath, and he vividly picturing her dramatic eye roll. “I told you once before that it wouldn’t have to be sexual. Not in this case.”
“If that’s true, then the magic transference doesn’t have to be sexual between us.”
She growled in incoherent frustration. “You are the most stubborn wizard in existence.”
“No.” He set his teeth. “That would be you.”
“Wrong. I’m the most stubborn familiar in existence.”
He wasn’t going to gratify her by laughing, though it took considerable effort. “We’d have to catch Selly again to try that.”
“Or at least prevent her from immediately escaping when she turns up again,” Nic agreed ruefully. “I am sorry that I wasn’t prepared to prevent her from bolting.”
“I should’ve warned you. She’s slipped me more times than I’d like to admit.”
They’d reached the stables, and he dismounted to light a lantern. “I’ll take care of the horses if you want to go in,” he said. “The fires are laid and simply need lighting. The strikers are right there, too.”
“And then what shall we do?” she asked mildly, as if wondering if he’d like to play cards or simply have a glass wine by the fire.
He lifted the saddle off Vale’s high back, the reach and muscle needed for it giving his newly strained injuries a twinge. A good reminder there of how little time had truly passed since he’d found Nic in Wartson. They were still learning each other. Amazing, really, how much they did understand each other already. Most of their arguments stemmed from them not agreeing with what they saw in one another.
Sliding the saddle onto the stand, he studied it as if the worn leather might hold answers. Would he be giving in because he secretly wanted to be convinced to indulge in those darker desires? Either that or Nic had finally convinced him to at least try.
Perhaps both.
“I suppose your first choice would be for the two of us to visit the arcanium and practice building and transferring magic.”
“Yes,” she replied promptly. Her slim arms slid around his waist, and she nestled against his back, embracing him. “I wish you wouldn’t sound like it’s a death march through the marshes.”
He laid his hands over hers. “I worry about what else I’ll discover in myself.”
“Like discovering you could make a wall of water fall from the sky or that a nightmare manifested in reality by covering your bedroom floor in silver,” she murmured, cheek pressed between his shoulders.
He turned in her arms, tipping back the cowled hood so he could see her bright face and knowing eyes. “How did you know it was a nightmare?” He was sure he hadn’t told her that part. He hadn’t told anyone.
“The feeling in your magic when you spoke of it,” she answered somberly. “Your moon magic has a bright face and a dark one, like the moon itself. That dream was all dark side of the moon.”
“I know you laugh at me for it, but Iamafraid,” he confessed. “That dark side frightens me.”
“I only tease you about your fearsbecausethat dark side doesn’t scare me,” she replied, the raw honesty clear in her shining eyes. “Does it help to know that?”
“I don’t know. I think that maybe you are so fearless that you aren’t afraid when you should be.”
“I was afraid today, when those hunters attacked.”
“Self-preservation.”
Her lush mouth tilted in a wry half smile. “I was afraid enough of you and what we might be together that I ran to another country, Gabriel.”
He brushed a loose curl off her forehead, then trailed the finger down her smooth cheek. “Fearlessly throwing yourself into a new life rather than chain yourself to a future you dreaded.”
Breathing a laugh, she shook her head, then leaned her cheek into his palm, eyes emerald in the low light, and very serious. “I trust you. I realize that my assurances are questionable, because yes, I would have submitted to anything my wizard required of me, regardless of who they were.”
“Even Sammael,” he said, the name burning his throat.
“I would havehadto,” she replied. “I would’ve been compelled, with no choice in the matter.Youhave given me the choice, and I choose to give you this. Choose to give it to us both, because I want us to win. Because I want my alternate form.”
