Page 7 of The Music Demon

He was going to say nine, but four was even better. “Four it is.”

“Well then?”

“Well, then, what?”

“You’re going to show me how to get to the Abbey. On March the friggin’ 17th.”

“Okay. What do you do now when you want to find somebody?”

“Well… I’m no’ really to that point yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we’re in trainin’. Rosie said to think of ourselves as student drivers. We’re supposed to have somebody experienced with us.”

“Huh. So I’m like the designated driver?”

“You’re a funny sort of demon, aren’t ye?”

“Well, yes. But telling me I’m funny is not exactly the same as laughing at my jokes. Which is the goal. You laughing, I mean.”

“Huh.”

Lyric snorted softly. “I don’t know if I can stand being with a female who’s funnier than I am.”

“Is there such a person?” Her eyes flashed with her smile.

“You’re a flatterin’ sort of demon, aren’t you?” He repeated her words from earlier back to her and she was charmed, knowing he listened that closely.

She lifted a shoulder in a feminine shrug that drew Lyric’s attention to her clavicle, and her neck, and her lips…

“To answer your question, we’re learnin’ how to go where we want by formin’ a picture of the person in our minds or callin’ their names.”

“But you weren’t aware that if you do that you could be traveling to another time or another dimension?”

Shivaun scowled at that. The expression formed faint lines between her brows that Lyric found hopelessly fetching. Shaking her head slightly, she said, “No.”

“If the person you’re trying to find happens to be in another time, that’s where you’ll go. Maybe this would be considered interfering with your training. Maybe I’ll get in trouble with Rosie.” The smile that accompanied that said that Lyric was not the least concerned about what Rosie thought.

“Do you no’ like Rosie for some reason?”

That brought Lyric up short. He didn’t want to lie to Shivaun. Ever. So he gave it some thought before answering. “I don’t know her really. Maybe I don’t like that I can’t sense what she is. It’s unnerving.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well. She’s not a witch. She’s not a demon. I might call her a wemon or a ditch, but that still doesn’t describe theessenceof what she is. It’s an unknown.”

Shy’s laughter brought Lyric’s head up. “Wemon or ditch? Now that was funny. Do no’ say it to Rosie.”

“Or what?”

“I do no’ want to find out.”

“Because you think she’s more powerful than I?”

“Let’s no’ make it a competition. We’re on the same side.”

“We are?” Lyric looked and sounded amazed by the suggestion that he might be on ‘the same side’.

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