Page 125 of The Sea Witch
Suspicious looks were aimed in Ben’s direction, but they gave way to admiration and, in several cases, pure lust.
Who could blame someone for desiring Ben? He was in every way delicious. Like a knife coated in honey. You wanted a lick, and it didn’t matter if you cut yourself in the process.
Yet she was the captain, damn it. The responsible one.
“Magic’s going to surround whatever Little George has hidden here,” she said for Ben’s ears alone. “I’ll call to it, using my own power.”
“Lambert seemed disinclined to any displays of your magic,”Ben answered lowly. “And mages surround us. Surely, they’ll know if supernatural power is afoot.”
“Hard as it may be to believe,” she answered with a smirk, “Icanbe subtle when I have to.”
“No one else here is subtle,” he added when a tankard flew past his head. Ben snatched it from the air, and then held it out for a passing servant to fill with ale.
Alys slipped behind one of the large potted palms that dotted the edge of the chamber. Ben stood in front of her, sipping from his tankard as he watched the room.
Alys closed her eyes to block out any distraction from the wild feast. She searched out the blazing spark of magic within herself. It always burned, and now she encouraged its flame to rise higher. Once it gleamed more brightly inside her, she urged it to locate all other sources of magic that dwelled on Lambert’s estate.
At once, her magic quivered with awareness, finding each of the mages carousing both within the manor house and elsewhere on the grounds. It was a sprawling estate, abounding with frolicking mages such as Braga and Moreau. She had to play a careful game, locating the mages without alerting their supernatural senses to her own magic, but she let her power dance as lightly and loosely as a spark on the breeze.
She exhaled when none of the magic users became aware of her. That, at least, she could manage.
But what of the fail-safe? Or was something else here that would lead her and Ben on to another step of their quest?
She searched for more of the magic that had encircled both the clue at the Weeping Princess waterfall as well as the magic that lingered in the parish register at Domingo. It shivered and shone, just at the edge of her awareness.
Yet when she reached for it, her senses glanced away, like light reflecting off a mirror, unable to find purchase. Again and again, it happened. She grasped it, but then it slipped away. Shepushed against whatever shielded it from her, only to fall back, repelled.
“Damn and hell.” She opened her eyes.
“Not here?” Ben asked.
“It’s here. But Little George placed a barrier around it. A strong one.” Frustration tightened her voice. “I don’t have enough power on my own to break it.”
His brow furrowed. “We can bring someone from theSea Witchhere, add their magic to yours.”
“One witch is the limit for Lambert. Can’t ask a mage, either. They’d find out what we’re after. But... there’s another way.” She placed her hand on his chest. “You.”
A startled laugh escaped him. “Surely you’ve better sources of magic than my carcass.”
“Your markings. There’s more to them than either of us truly fathom. I’ve seen illustrations of them in two magic books. That Redthorn, he recognized the markings when they appeared on your skin.”
“Before I killed him.” Ben exhaled. “If my markings were in mages’ books...”
“They’ve got to be magical, somehow.” She peered at him when a crease appeared between his brows. “Disgusted?”
“Confused...” He shook his head. “It’s as though I’ve heard other people sing but never carried a single note. And then suddenly, I’m on stage at the opera. But I don’t know the song.”
“Magic can be a gift,” she said softly. “If you let it. I’d be half the person I am without my magic.”
“Even if you were stripped of your magical ability, you would still be extraordinary.”
She’d been in the midst of a pirate feast before, and had seen every kind of outrageous behavior, shamelessness and immorality in abundance. There wasn’t a single human act she hadn’t witnessed and grown jaded to.
For all that, her cheeks heated.
“We’ve got to bring forward whatever magic you possess,” she pressed on. “And that happens...”
“When you and I are... close.”
