Sage grinned at Jasper. “I think that’s a brilliant idea. If she says no, I’ll talk her into it,” Sage flashed Jasper a conspiratorial wink before she headed back to the coffee shop.
“Why do I get the feeling you two are playing matchmaker?”
“What makes you say that?” asked Jasper.
“Because you’re acting like Calli and I are pandas in a zoo that need all the help in the world to mate.”
“I don’t know… maybe you do,” Jasper said. He coughed when Malcolm rammed an elbow into his side. “Hey, all I meant to say was that maybe this would be good for you and her. You’ve never dated a witch before, right? It’s always been human women. Maybe this will, I don’t know… help you or something.”
“Sex therapy? Is that the best you can come up with?”
“Couldn’t hurt.”
He wanted to tell Jasper he didn’t need help, but the image of Calli’s burned up garden came to the surface and made him wince. He did need help. He just hated admitting it.
Hades trotted behind Malcolm and Jasper as they headed for Calli’s bookstore, Pages & Potions. The name was scrawled across a large painted sign, with a stack of books and a smoking potion bottle underneath.
Malcolm paused at the glass windows of the shop to peek inside. There were dozens of bookshelves on one side and potions on shelves on the opposite side. Frosted glass light fixtures lit up the room with a golden light.
It was beautiful, possessing that old world charm that reminded him of the antique bookshops he’d visited in London. Jasper opened the door for Malcolm, but the moment he walked in, something latched onto his leg. Something that felt like sharp, little knives dug into his leg. He shouted with surprise and unexpected pain, and before he realized it was happening his magic rushed through him in an instinctive response to danger.
All hell broke loose.
Calli set down the last boxes of the newly delivered books in the stockroom and put a hand on her aching lower back. She probably should have used magic, but ever since her familiar showed up that morning, Calli’s magic had become unpredictable, surging whenever she used it. It reminded her of when her grandmother had been teaching her to drive a car and she had pressed on the gas pedal too hard and the car shot forward. It was going to take time and practice getting used to this new level of her magic. In a way it was like sort of learning how to use her magic all over again. She just had to hope she’d have a grip on her own magic before she started to teach Malcolm or they’d both be struggling.
A bellow from outside the storeroom stopped Calli’s heart. She shoved the stockroom door open, and all she could do was gape at the chaotic scene before her.
Every single book in the store was spinning around in a tornado, their pages whipping and fluttering in the wind. Calli frantically tried to get the hair out of her eyes as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
At the epicenter of the swirling literary storm stood Malcolm. His once green eyes were now a startling bright silver and he hovered a foot off the ground, palms turned up. Magic surged out of his hands in a relentless torrent. Clinging to his leg, mewling in terror, was a fluffy black kitten.
“Persephone!” Calli rushed to rescue her familiar without a second thought. Several books slapped against her as she pushed through the gale and stepped into the eye of Malcolm’s magical storm.
“Malcolm!” she shouted, but he didn’t seem to hear her. He didn’t seem to see her either. He was deep in the grip of his magic, so much so that it had practically overtaken him.
Maybe she could pull him down? Ground him like an electrical wire? It was the best she could think of. She leapt up, locked her legs around his waist and curled her arms around his neck. But instead of bringing him to the ground, she found herself suspended in the air with him.
Okay, now what? What could possibly snap him out of this? Maybe she should just follow her instincts as insane as they were…
She kissed him. Her magic stirred to life and became a storm all its own as she funneled it into her kiss. Strong arms banded tight around her as Malcolm started to kiss her back. The books all dropped to the floor with heavy thuds, but she and Malcolm continued to levitate. Wasn’t her plan, but right now she didn’t care.
Her lips parted as Malcolm’s tongue traced the seam of her lips and then deepened the kiss. Calli clung tighter as they spun in the air, blocking out the rest of the world.
This… It felt like something she had waited for her whole life. A kiss from this man…this stranger… had woken up every cell in her body, sent every dream she’d ever had soaring into the sky. The vibrations of their magic hummed deep, endless, like the drone of a hive of bees. It was a surge of life, power, love, and a thousand other things she couldn’t put into words.
“What the hell?” someone gasped from behind them.
The kissing halted, and Calli slowly pulled her head away from Malcolm’s. A pair of bright green eyes met hers as she stared into his all too handsome face. The heat that had burned at the start of their kiss only grew hotter as he gazed back at her.
“Calli?” He finally spoke, breathing her name like a fervent spell. “What… what happened?”
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m a little dizzy though,” he confessed. His eyes darted around them. “Why are there books all over the floor? What—” Slowly their bodies drifted back down to the ground.
“Just stay calm, okay?” She let her legs drop from around his waist so she could stand, but he didn’t fully release his grip on her hips.
“Mac…?”
