“You will sign a duplicate if this works? You promise?”
“Yes,” he said, adding “I promise” when she did not seem reassured.“Formeltanon three—one, two?—”
This time when they cast, the contracts scorched, shriveled, disappeared.
Miss Harper leaned against the table, taking in gulps of air like a woman just saved from drowning. His relief, he knew, was nothing to that. But he could feel only his own. She looked nearly about to faint from the strength of her emotions.
He held out a hand that he told himself was only to steady her, not because he wanted to touch her. “Come into the receiving room and sit down.”
“No!” She laughed. “Oh—that is the mostbeautifulword. I cannot properly express how wonderful it is to have free will again after having lost it.”
This was the moment to say he never should have done that to her. To ask how he might earn her forgiveness. To get down on his knees.
She stepped into the nearest demarcation circle, all business. “We’d better do this immediately, Omnimancer, before I’m inclined to run.”
She clearly expected no apology. Not because it wasn’tnecessary, but because she assumed he would not behave properly.
The fact that he was now lusting after her only bolstered that point of view.
He bent to adjust the new contract, centering it at the point where the circles overlapped, and stood in his designated spot, trying not to look at her or think about her or breathe her in.
“Ic gehate,” she said.
Like a moth to flame, he couldn’t help but watch as she put the pips in her mouth. Her lips glistened. With great effort, he made himself stare at the contract instead. The second it stopped glowing, he leapt from the circle and grabbed the pomegranate. He had to get this over with and get her out of the house. Temporary madness, that was all this was.
“I’ll rewrite the other contract,” she said, sounding completely unaware of what he was going through, and thank goodness for that. Now, at least, she would have no way of knowing, as long as he wasn’t obvious about it.
Then a horrible thought struck him.
“Wait,” he said. “We shouldn’t do this tonight.”
“What?” The word was sharp, her eyes sharper.
“We don’t want our Vows interpreted as a pair. If I take mine tonight ...”
“We might end up sharing dreams and feelings? Still?”
“It’s possible,” he said, and that possibility was a lump of cold dread in his throat.
“Couldn’t we just reset the demarcation circles? Move them to another room, even?”
He shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I’d really rather not take the risk.”
“Well,” she said, voice rising,“Ican’t risk having you outside the bounds of a Vow, particularly this weekend!”
When she had said he made her afraid, that was bad enough. Untrue, he’d thought, but at least not unreasonable. But this—this was a knife in the gut.
“Youcan’tthink I have any intention of making life difficult for your sister,” he snapped. “Why for God’s sake would I have helped you tonight?”
Her glare was so icy he could practically feel it. “To maneuver me to this point.”
So, nothing he’d done this evening mattered in her eyes. He’d cast himself as the evil wizard and would never be allowed to play a different role. Not even occasional ally.
He opened the eyes he’d shut reflexively, too wounded to think of a reply, and found her looking at him with unexpected regret.
“I’m sorry, Omnimancer,” she murmured. He watched the tense rigidity leach out of her, rounding her shoulders. “I’m sorry for what I said this afternoon about your father, and I’m sorry for assuming the worst—that was unfair. It’s just ... you can’t expect me to have much faith in you, after everything that’s happened.”
“No.” He extracted pomegranate pips, steeling himself for the repercussions of another Vow. “I can’t.”
