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“Well, you know I can cast spells pretty much anywhere,” I said. “But this room is the ideal environment. The walls are insulated so no outside sounds can distract me—and so anything I say won’t carry out where the unsparked staff can hear. The colors are all neutral so I can focus on my internal purpose. And the floor is built for ease of movement while I’m moving through the forms. There’s a smaller private one that’s technically mine now as head of the family, but this is where I did most of my practicing growing up. I thought it’d be better to have the extra space.”
“All those blank walls make me want to get painting,” Jin said with a wink. “But I can see why you’d prefer them like this.I’mnever going to be able to do any magicking, though, right? It’s only ever the women, even in your witching families.”
I nodded. “But there are joint forms for couples—they’re supposed to help open the mind and emotions, to encourage an even deeper trust, so that the energy we create between us is even stronger. I figured… The Frankfords and their faction are so powerful. We know they’ve been using those demons to give them even more power.” Though the files weren’t completely clear onhowthe effects worked.
“So, the stronger your magic is, the better,” Jin said. “Makes sense. How has it gone with the other guys?”
He asked the question so nonchalantly, taking it for granted that I’d tried this with at least a couple of my other consorts before him, that my heart pinched. Had I acted as if I relied on the others more than him?
“It hasn’t,” I said. “This is my first try. It seemed like you’d probably pick up the movements faster than anyone else—I saw how you danced at my little birthday celebration.”
He turned to me with that slow flirty smile that always made my insides melt. “It’s an honor to be the first, then, Briar Rose. Shall we dance?”
Suddenly I felt awkward. “I’ve never actually done this withanyonebefore. I mean, they’re adapted from the single-person forms, and I read everything I could find on the dual forms in the library, but it’s not quite the same…”
Jin took my hand and squeezed it. “We’ll figure it out. Gotta start somewhere. How do we begin?”
My heart settled a little. Of course this would be okay. Jin didn’t care if I looked a little silly. “The first form is the simplest. What do you say we go through it slowly and then chain it all together in a smoother flow once we have the hang of it?”
“Ready when you are.”
The room might have been designed to minimize distractions, but there wasn’t much that could have been more distracting than moving Jin through this sort-of dance. My fingers skimmed up and down his forearms as I showed him how to place his arms: around my waist now, across my shoulders next, his hand on my side, my hip, the small of my back. I leaned into him and then tugged him into me, supporting each other’s weight in a symbolic way, and a totally non-symbolic heat kindled between us.
Jin’s lips grazed the side of my neck as he bowed his head next to mine at the end of the form. I curled my fingers into my palms, fighting the urge to grab his jaw and pull those lips right to mine.
“You’re picking it up fast,” I said, knowing I sounded breathless. “Just like I figured.”
“You know me well,” Jin said with that same flirty smile. “I think I’ve got the shape of it down. Should we try speeding things up?”
“Let’s,” I said. An eager flush tickled over my skin.
We slipped around each other, bending and swaying and spinning together, like an expanded version of the forms I used on my own. After the first few movements, as those movements flowed together seamlessly now, I almost felt as if I had two sets of limbs, two torsos, moving in perfect symmetry. Jin and I hadn’t done anything really intimate yet, but the spark of my magic flickered up in my chest, quivering eagerly. Each time our bodies connected, the warmth between us grew a little more.
“I can feel it,” Jin murmured. “That’s… That’s amazing. Like we really are linked together with this sort of harmony…”
He trailed off as we launched into the final sequence. I dipped low, and he caught my shoulders. With a whirl of his arm, he swiveled me back toward him. Our feet stepped together, our legs twining and releasing and twining again. The quiver spread all through my muscles. I couldn’t take my eyes off Jin’s face.
When we finished, Jin pulled me into an embrace. He hugged me close. “That was fantastic,” he said. “I felt the consort bond when we did the ceremony, but I’d never gotten this strong a sense of it since then.”
The connection between us thrummed through my veins alongside that giddy quiver. I hugged him back, not wanting to let him go. “That’s the point of the forms. To strengthen that bond. It won’t feel like that all the time when we’re not doing them, but it will stay stronger the more we practice the forms.”
“And here I thought that bond couldn’t get any stronger than it already was.” He chuckled, his breath tickling over my hair. “You can call me in to practice any time.”
“That’s just the first one,” I said. “You want to try something a little more complex?” I paused. “I’ll need to use a little of my magic on you for the next one.”
“Magic away,” Jin said, so easily any anxiety I might have had about that component left me. I squeezed him tight before forcing myself to let go.
We started slowly again, trying out each movement and seeing how they joined together. At one point, in the middle of the form, I boosted Jin’s feet several inches off the ground with a burst of magical energy. Then, at the end, I lifted us both in a quick spiral.
Jin was grinning when we touched down. “This is a fun one.”
His confidence trickled into me, pushing back the looming fears about the Frankfords and whatever they might be planning. “Are you ready to try it faster?”
He clapped his hands. “Let’s do this.”
We moved through the flowing pattern, each touch and momentary hold spreading fresh heat over my skin. My heart swelled with the emotion coursing between us until I wasn’t sure I could even hold it all. Jin’s eyes shone as he gazed back at me.
The magical wind whipped around us into that final whirl. The second our feet hit the ground, I couldn’t help myself. I reached for my consort’s face, and he was already leaning in to claim my mouth.
