Page 79 of Happily Ever Witch
He absently rubbed his chin against her head, like a panther marking his territory. “To do that --over such a long distance and without even knowing each other-- our powers would need to be fully melded.”
“So?”
“So fully melding powers is impossible. Did you pay no attention at all in school?”
“Not really.” She’d been a terrible student. None of the magic lessons ever seemed to make sense forhermagic, so it was all just theoretical bullshit. “Honestly, I learn best from documentaries. But you co-opted my ginger-mutant spell easy enough. That worked.”
“There is the potential for magic connecting, if the colors are close. Ours are almost identical, which is very… stimulating.” His voice was dark and lustful. “But they still can’tfullymeld. No one’s can.”
The rules of magic never much interested Esmeralda. No rules did. As a little girl, she’d been scared and he’d felt it. Young as they’d both been, they’d connected. That was just fact. The hows and whys were immaterial to what she knew had happened.
“Besides,” Trevelyan continued on, sure he was right, “if I’d have felt you, anywhere in the entire universe, I’d have come for you.”
That surprised her. “You would’ve?”
“I chose you as a mate. Idecided. No one else will ever take what’s mine and hide her away in some leaky shack. Not without a fight.”
She smiled a bit. “You’d fight Auntie Hazel, the half-blind proprietor of the orphanage for me?”
“Why not? I’d win.”
“You’d win againstanyone. I doubt an old lady with level two powers would be much of a challenge for you.”
He made a pleased sound. “All the better.”
That made her snicker.
“You are the only person who never bores me, Esmeralda. So, I intend to ensure you’re alive and unmelted, for the foreseeable future. Even if old witches and rainstorms attack you.”
She snorted. “Careful. You’re inching towards agreeing to keep me safe.”
“Well, I wouldn’t gothatfar.”
“Didn’t think so.”
“I just enjoy the novelty of having a mate.” He lazily shrugged. “If I ever change my mind about keeping you, I’ll leave you a note before I run off. I promise.”
“I’ll do the same.” She snuggled closer to his naked body. He was aroused, but he wouldn’t push for more than she was willing to give. She trusted him in that, at least. “Tell me something true, Trev.”
“I know why the Queen of Clubs wanted me awake.”
Esmeralda’s eyebrows compressed. “You do?”
“There’s a spell I was working on, many years ago. No one else had ever been able to get it right. I thought it would be a challenge.” She felt the tension return to his muscles, as he thought about it. “It’s why Snow White targeted me in the WUB Club. Her stepmother wanted me to cast it. I think she still wants it.”
“Her stepmother is the Queen of Clubs?”
“That would be my guess. William mentioned a daughter with amnesia. And I imagine the woman is none too pleased that I escaped without giving Snow White the key to the spell.” He made a sound of dragon-y superiority. “The idiot wizard who wrote it was a terrible speller. There’s a typo. That’s the whole mystery.”
“You solved a spell that no one else could solve?” She smiled up at him. Nobody could match Trevelyan’s magical talents. “That’s amazing!”
“It almost got me killed.” His tone went far away, like he was recalling something he’d prefer to forget. “IhatedSnow White. I didn’t want to touch her. I swear to you, I didnotwant to do that, Ez.”
Her lips firmed and she rubbed his arm in commiseration. “I know.”
She was going to kill that abusive bitch, whether Snow White lost her memory or not.No onehurt her True Love. Esmeralda was pissed at his damn algebra teacher for taking advantage of him when he was a kid and Snow White was just as horrible.
“Everything I did, Ihadto do.” He insisted, like she’d been arguing otherwise. “Even that damn bomb that Marrok refused to help me set off… What other option did I have? Just sit there and die? Snow White would havemurderedme. She did the last time through. Marion warned me to get out of prison anyway I could. It was freedom or death. Do you believe me?”
