“Do I look awful?” she asked.
He shook his head, then nodded judiciously. “It’s a bit ragged. It could use some trimming.”
She brushed away the single lock of black hair falling into his eyes. “I suspect likewise for you. Something else for tomorrow.” She slid her hands into his silking curls, pulling him down to kiss her. “Take, Gabriel,” she said for the third time. “Have.”
He followed her down to stretch beside her on the floor. “Here?”
“It’s good for the arcanium. Sex magic will infiltrate the spells laid into the walls, refreshing and reenergizing them.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good thing, given what my ancestors may have been like.” His gaze strayed to the silver bed.
She caressed his jaw, drawing his eyes back to hers. “Good and evil lies in our intentions and actions, not in the tools we use. You and I will need all the tools—and power—we can muster if we’re going to fight the Convocation.”
He closed a big hand over her breast, enfolding it and teasing her taut nipple with a rough palm so that she arched her spine with a gasp. “Is that what we’re going to do?” He said it more musingly than asking the question, his mouth drawing on her other nipple, wrenching a strangled cry of longing from her.
“The wages of breaking the laws,” she panted. “You made your bed, wizard. Now you must lie in it.”
“So long as I’m not chained to it,” he said with a half smile, watching her face as he trailed his hand down her body, tracing her curves, then sliding up the inside of her thigh as she spread her legs for him. Beyond willing. Desperate for his touch.
“Not unless we’re enjoying being chained to it,” she corrected, losing her saucy attitude as his silvery touch caressed her slick folds. “Oh, Gabriel,” she sighed with needy pleasure.
He levered himself between her thighs, slipping a hand beneath her hips to position her. “I’d rather lie on you,” he murmured with a wicked smile that went tight as he pressed into her.
She moaned, low and long as he filled and stretched her. It felt like yesterday and forever since he’d been inside her. So long since he’d marked her with his magic, so indelibly that it had settled into her bones and blood, forever calling her back to him.
And him to her.
Her hips lifted as she welcomed him in, bringing him home, wrapping him in her magic as his flowed into and out of her, surging with a silvery tide that eroded all her doubts and fears.
This was right. This was meant.
Back and forth.
Water and fire.
Silver and crimson.
Wizard and familiar.
A long timelater, Nic lay on her back, head pillowed on Gabriel’s arm as she gazed up at the silvery light sifting through the lake water and flowing through the moon window. “There’s something you should know,” she said, hating to ruin the moment, but knowing Gabriel wouldn’t appreciate that she’d kept mum even this long.
“What?” he asked sleepily, reaching over to stroke her with a long caress that made her want to purr.
“You won’t like it,” she warned him.
“Tell me,” he prompted, not unconcerned but… trusting. He trusted her, she realized, to tell him what he needed to know, like it or not.
“Seliah is a familiar.”
He stayed quiet so long that she might’ve thought him asleep except for the sharp brightness of his magic, stirring restlessly. “I won’t ask if you’re sure,” he finally said, “because you would know. Did you sense it the moment you met her?”
“Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t say so sooner, but…”
“But we had things to work out.” He pulled her tighter against his side, sighing heavily. “After all these years, I can’t imagine a few hours or a day will change much.”
“No, but we will have to help her, or she’ll continue to decline mentally.”
“It explains so much,” he murmured, almost to himself. “She was always so bright, so talented. All the way into her late teens, and then… it was like a shadow fell over her.”
Nic nodded, understanding the metaphor exactly. “I know you don’t trust the Convocation, but they can help her.”
“No.” He relaxed his tightened arm. “Only as a last resort,” he amended. “You and I will try to help her first.”
“All right,” she agreed, surprised at herself, snuggling closer against him. “Something else for tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.” He kissed her forehead, and they lay like that long enough that it began to feel like forever. Perhaps, like happiness.