I catch a barrage of thoughts: me, his worries for my safety, but there’s something deeper and I know it’s what he’s looking for me to find.
“I don’t want to hurt you like I did the last time we tried this,” I murmur.
“Do what you must,” he says sternly. “I’ll suffer anything I have to if it means keeping you safe. Dig, Juniper. Go past my surface thoughts. You don’t need your affinity to know you’re always in my thoughts. Keep going. What am I thinking of?”
I guide my magic forward, but stall just before I envision it entering his thoughts.
“Do it, Juniper. Guide your intention into my thoughts. Envision pushing aside those you’re not looking for until you find what you are.”
I grimace, set my jaw, and push my magic into his mind. He doesn’t wince, only blinks and frowns, but shows no sign of pain.
I look, and it’s like his thoughts surround me in a whirlwind. But there, beneath his passing thoughts, is my prize.
I concentrate, but all I see are lines and lines of sigils.
“I don’t… I don’t understand. All I see are sigils in some form of… of what looks like math?”
His face lights with a beaming smile. “You’re such a quick study, my darling.”
I release my magic, and it floods back into me in a wave. “What is it?”
“Something you wouldn’t understand yet. You may not understand everything you get from Radcliffe, either. What you saw is magical calculus. It’s spellcrafting in its most sophisticated form. It’s highly advanced magic.”
“I want to learn it.”
He favors me with a wry smile. “Of course you do. All right, I’m going to think of a string of sigils. Tell me which.”
“How many?”
He arches a brow. “That’s for you to discover. I can’t make this too easy on you.”
We practice for what feels like an eternity, Ian thinking of sigils and me sifting through his thoughts to uncover them. Eventually, Simon pads downstairs and joins us.
While Ian thinks of sigils, Simon thinks of memories. He thinks of our scavenger hunt across campus last autumn, my pathetic attempt at skateboarding, and stomping on all the crunchiest leaves together. He remembers standing in the temple, wanting to kiss me, and he remembers promising to always try to make me smile.
I smile as I catch the memories he surfaces, something settling deep within my soul.
It’s much harder with Ian. As I progress, he keeps his thoughts quick and fleeting, making me work hard for every string of sigils he thinks of.
I only miss two.
We work past midnight, until my head aches and I’m swaying on my feet.
Finally, Ian presses a kiss to my forehead and scoops me up into his arms. “Enough for tonight, my darling. You were brilliant.”
I sleepily snuggle against him and press a kiss to his neck. “I have a good teacher.”
* * *
I wake to terror,my heart pounding in my chest. I sit up and look around the dim nest in confusion, but all is as it was when I fell asleep between Simon and Ian.
“What is it?” Luca murmurs groggily, reaching out to wrap a hand around my thigh.
Another wave of terror whips through me, and I realize then that it isn’tmyfear that has my heart racing. I brush a quick kiss over Luca’s lips. “It’s nothing. Go back to sleep.”
He pulls me down for a sleepy, languid kiss and then lets me go.
I crawl to the edge of the nest, slip on my thin robe, then tiptoe down the stairs. Motion-sensing lights illuminate my way down, but the lower floor is already awash in the warm, low light from the kitchen.
