Colors appear, growing sharper until they form into books. “Okay,” I breathe in the faintest of whispers. “I’m seeing the special colors again.”
“Very good,” Luke murmurs. “I want you to pick one color and point out those books to me.”
With a nod, I squeeze my eyes more tightly shut and reach out. Only to gasp when a ghostly version of my hand appears.
“What is it?” he asks.
“I can see my hand.” I glance down, eyes still shut. “Scratch that, I can see all of me.” Hoo, boy, and how! Usingmy magical vision, I’m completely naked as if my clothes don’t exist, even though I can still feel them against my skin. “I’m the same gold as the sparkles of my spell.”
He gives his “that’s interesting” grunt.
So of course I do the thing I shouldn’t do—I turn to look at Luke. I’m screaming inside my head the whole time not to do it, but I can’t stop my head from swiveling. I justcan’t! Really. It’s impossible.
Oh. Oh, god. He’s…
I swallow, mouth dry. He’s definitely naked, but his form is shadowy and undefined. Fire flares in the center of Luke’s chest, pulsing regularly, and it takes me a moment to realize it’s timed to the beat of his heart. The fire inside of him doesn’t feel like the books—my magic isn’t reacting to it in the same way. But there’ssomethingthere, something I can sense even if I don’t understand what it is.
Each pulse of his power lights the rest of him just enough to show that yes, he really does have two dicks.
“What do you see?”
I jerk my head back to the front. “Nothing!” My tightened throat makes it come out as a squeak.
“Let’s get back on track,” he growls. “Point out the red books.”
I touch the three I can see, and he pulls them out and sets them aside.
“Next color.”
“Blue.” I tap at the spines, one by one, so he can separate them out. Then I move on to the next color. “Yellow.”
We continue until I’ve done the entire shelf, and Luke says, “That’s a large enough sample to assess.”
When I open my eyes, I find piles of books surrounding us, some shorter than others. I crouch down and read the spines of one of the stacks. “All of these books are about witch familiars!”
“These detail weather spells.” Luke places his hand on the stack to his right, then the one on the left. “These document known cases of divination.”
I meet his gaze, delight skipping through me. “So my magic can sense the topic of a book?”
“It would appear so.” He stands and waves me toward the closest portal crystal. As soon as we’re back in the reading room, he says, “I want you to try another thing.”
“Of course.” Anything that helps me figure out my magic!
“I want you to think of a very specific subject and call the book to you.”
“Any subject I want?”
“No, it should be a subject my library will have. We’re trying to see if you can call books to you. Calling for a book that’s not here won’t prove anything.”
“Good point.” I nibble on my lip. “Okay, I’ve got one.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yep!” With an entire wing on dragons, there’d better be a book on their fire magic, is all I’m saying.
I close my eyes. My magic rises a little more quickly this time, but as soon as it does, my senses start to buzz.Dance with Desireflares in my mind’s eye, a bright gold that pulses with power and promise, the gold of my magic. I suck in a shocked breath, completely captivated.
Warm hands wrap my shoulders, spinning me around.My head swivels as far as it can to keep the floating romance book in view. I can’t tear my eyes away. Luke bellows my name, the sound tinny and distant, but nothing is as important as the burning gold of the book, gleaming so very, very brightly—
