“The square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides of a right-angled triangle,” he chanted, trying to barricade his mind. Simultaneously assessing the situation, he found nothing to measure, only endless twining magical threads making a ring that surrounded Dôlylleuad. A closed system, pointing nowhere.
It’s here,he realized suddenly, his blood chilling.The thaumaturgic deposit we’re looking for is right here in the village.
Just then, Elodie glanced at him, her eyes alight. Gabriel could tell she’d reached the same conclusion he had, and excitement shot between them. He wanted to lift her up and spin her around with that excitement—which must be the most ridiculous, most undignified idea he’d had in years. It certainly showed the degree of disaster that had befallen him. Never mind explosive earth magic; he was completely ensorcelled by his half-wild and exasperatingly beautiful wife.
But as he jogged close to her, Elodie held out her hand with the palm raised in a warding gesture. “Stop!” she shouted.
Her attitude was grave, professional, and Gabriel immediately tried to obey. But momentum kept him going, even as his legs grew oddly heavy, causing him to stumble…
Then he did stop—so fast, and with such a wrench, that he tipped into her arms. Elodie lurched from the force of his weight. Catching her, Gabriel pulled them both into balance, then released her with a murmur of apology. He tried to step back but could not move his legs.
“It’s quirksand,” Elodie told him, well and truly after the nick of time.
“Damn,” he said.
“Bit of a sticky wicket,” Elodie agreed. (Gabriel wondered if she’d been thinking up that joke the whole time he ran toward her.) “I’m awfully sorry for the bother.”
And then the blasted woman went and smiled at him again.
—
Really, the situationwas not funny. It was extremely serious. But Elodie felt herself on the verge of helpless, anxious laughter as Gabriel bristled automatically. “I am not bothered,” he declared.
“No, no, of course not,” she said, nodding fervently. Gabriel scowled, not at all taken in by her supposed agreement, then turned his irritation on the magic underfoot.
“Well?” Elodie prompted.
He looked back at her, his face tighter than the grip of the magic around their legs. “Don’t panic,” he said, much in the same way he might tell a student not to panic about losing all their lecture notes: as if the path forward had not just turned significantly arduous.
“Don’t panic?”Only the constrictive magic prevented Elodie fromstropping offmaking a dignified exit. Did he think her one of his juniors?! Or was he quite simply the most arrogant sod to ever have arroganted?! “Do you see me panicking?” she demanded, setting her hands on her hips.
Gabriel did not reply, only shifted his attention to her left eye, beside which a muscle was twitching.
“Fine, so my spirit is slightly ruffled,” she conceded. “But you feel the same way, I know it.” She pointed a finger at him; he raised one eyebrow. “You’re just as ruffled! After all, there’s only one way to escape quirksand.”
“Hm,” he said.
“Waltzing.”
“Hm,” he said again.
“Walt. Zing.”The dance of romance.The dance they’d have performed at their wedding, had it been genuine. “I did warn you to stop.”
“I would have entered anyway,” he said. “You rescued me from the muddle, now I have the honor of rescuing you.”
As far as charming statements went, this would have been really quite nice indeed, had he not made it in such an offhand tone. Perhaps he did not realize the extent of the situation. “Waltzing,” she reiterated.“Together.”
Gabriel did not reply, exuding such dispassionate calm he might well have been standing in front of a blackboard, about to teach seventy hungover undergraduates how to map the relative gradients of thaumaturgic intensity within the vector of a fey line by employing isothaums. And yet, when Elodie advanced her left hand, he appeared to forget the mechanics of breathing.
“You do know how to waltz?” she asked.
“Every emergency geographer learns how,” he answered stiffly.
“Because I can lead if—”
He silenced her with an affronted look. Taking her hand in his, he gripped it firmly while placing his other against her upper back. A delightful frisson went through Elodie, no doubt due to the surrounding magic. Trying to ignore it, she placed her right hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.
“We can do this,” she said through gritted teeth. “Slow, steady movements.”
