Over twenty years.
That fact makes me sad more than anything. It’s such a long time to be stuck in one place.
Deelia points a quivering finger at him. “You owe me ten dollars. They paid for a show, and you never came. They wanted a refund.”
“I’m not a mongrel to be trained,” Rhaz says flatly. “And I owe you nothing.”
Deelia crosses her arms with a huff and a scowl.
I barely contain my laugh. She was running a racket. Sheknewthat she wasn’t contacting people’s loved ones, but Rhazan and whatever other demon might be wandering around the bar.
Deelia is definitely my kind of woman.
“We will return,” Rhaz says.
The air around us clouds with smoke, and suddenly I’m buffeted with hot wind. The smoke collapses against our skin, then explodes off into the dark, obsidian arena behind the bar. I suck down a gasp as I cling to him.
“That astonished look on your face is a radiance I didn’t know I needed,” he says.
His gaze is gentle and amused. I’m half tempted to do something cute—or bratty—to keep all his attention on me in just the way I’m craving it.
But also…
I grin up at him. “Fireballs?”
twenty-eight
Taming the Inner Fire
“So eager to learn from me,” he says as he tucks a pink strand behind my ear.
“Well, if I’m going to go from baby mage to badass mage in a few days, I’ll need a good tutor,” I say.
His face takes on a prideful smirk.
“She’s back at home, but I suppose you’ll do,” I say, teasing him.
He only grins wider, exposing his fangs as he leans down into my space. “Trust me, Firecracker, some things, onlyIcan teach you.”
Oooh, don’t I know it.
A shiver travels the full length of my body and curls my toes. A satisfied rumble vibrates in his chest as he grips the back of my neck.
“Your filthy thoughts will have to wait,” he says, his lips hovering above mine. “I’m going to teach you how to handle my fireballs.”
I can’t help but chuckle. He smiles, and kisses me, hoarding my joy against his lips. When he releases his hold on me, he changes. The laughter I saw in his eyes hardens like a switch has been flipped.
“Wielding fire is dangerous. You must be precise and controlled, or you will cause far more destruction than you intend.”
I grimace. “Definitely don’t want to burn the café down.”
“No, you do not,” he says sternly.
He takes a deep breath and the ground trembles. A few feet away, an obsidian pillar rises from below the glass. It grows until it’s just taller than Rhazan, then the trembling stops and the ground settles.
“Are you going to teach me to do that?” I ask.
“This is for target practice. Something that won’t catch fire and burn my bar down. Moving and shaping the stone is likely beyond your capacity for now. It takes a lot of effort.”
