I finish the spell, activating Low Earth’s first anchor.
Magic flares all around me as Stonehenge takes in a flood of power all at once, like it should have held for centuries.
I hear Seamus swear, and even my own vision goes white for a minute, standing as I am in the epicenter.
I finally turn to Nariel and say, “I’m not them. And I won’t let myself be.”
He dissolves into shadows before my eyes.
But then I hear—or feel—the whisper of them at my ear.
Good.
Chapter 7
When we get settled in the tiny car, Nariel in the backseat keeping an eye out, Seamus turns to me fiercely. “All right then. Let’s have it.”
Unlike in High Earth, or even at my grove, there’s no feeling of ceremony to this.
“Is this what teenagers dealing drugs in the school parking lot feel like?” I mutter as I pull out both sticks.
Seamus snorts. “You have got to get out more, girl.”
“I get out plenty,” I protest. I’ve traveled to more places than many people have even heard of.
“Withpeople, I mean.“ He looks to Nariel as if for backup, but the spirit just raises his eyebrows and puts his cap back on. My heart is inexplicably lighter at the sight.
Seamus shakes his head and mutters something to himself that I don’t catch and holds out his hand.
It only takes me a minute. Gather the magic of Stonehenge, key it to my wand so I can pull from it. Feel the rush of magic like a rush of warmth leaving my skin tingling, breathe, don’t justrelax into the sensation that I never thought I’d have again, that still I can’t quite believe.
Gather it again, key it to the new wand, link the wand to Seamus’ magic. It ought to feel practically bureaucratic, like I’m just knocking some chores off my to-do list in rapid succession.
It doesn’t. Even cramped in his car, it feels sacred. Maybe more so, because of the taste of the forbidden.
Unreasonably, that makes my thoughts flash to Nariel, who is somehow managing to lounge in the cramped back seat. Quietly watching, interested—interested!—but never interfering.
I’d never realized that my type is a man who can appreciate how competent I am and is dedicated to helping me achieve what I’m capable of without trying to overshadow me.
Not to mention, you know, being the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. I guess that helps.
I do know Nariel’s in this for his own reasons, no matter how much it might feel like I’ve made an actual connection with someone for the first time in... a really long time.
Take that, Seamus! Getting out more with, uh, sort of people.
Hmm.
Nariel isn’t exactly forbidden, either—maybeuninterested, but I’m not exactly trying to send interested signals myself. There’s too much to do, too fast, and too much that can go wrong if I lose focus.
So I carefully do not look at Nariel as, once Seamus’ eyes are no longer rolled back into his skull with the sudden sensation of magical access, I explain what he can do with the magic for the time being.
No big spells while we’re operating under the radar, but then, Seamus never learned any big spells anyway. I’m about the only wizard here who did.
But Seamus is sharp, and I run through some of the things I figured out on the plane, and he asks about some of thespells I used in actual combat with Destien, with Nariel chiming in occasionally with comments on other ways we might get different use out of the same spells.
Seamus is all-business at first, but as we talk his palpable anger wanes under the possibilities of what he can now do. I sketch out a couple other big spells for him to teach himself for future reference, and before he leaves us at the airport, he performs a restricted version of a lantern spell: lighting a tiny glowing white bulb off the tip of his wand like a candle.
It’s a small light in the darkness, outmatched by how fierce I feel watching someone else in this world do even a tiny piece of magic. My eyes mist.
