Page 51 of The Chaosweaver's Daughter
“You’re sure about that?”
Her eyebrows popped, and it was his turn to dunk beneath the surface.
When he came up, Kas took a stabilizing breath under the guise of requiring oxygen. She didn’t need to know he’d inadvertently spied on her. “What else can you make?”
“What can you dream up?” she asked. Sunlight dappled her face, glittering across her starry freckles and drops of water that were far luckier than him as they trailed down across her pillowy lips.
“Lots of things. But I don’t think most of them are... appropriate for the children in our company.” He winked.Fuck it,she put him on edge.
“Oh!” Her startled gasp let him know he’d been successful. If that hadn’t given it away, the scarlet hue climbing her neck certainly did the trick.
He gave her a moment to calm down—himself too, if he was being honest. “In the library...”
“Yes?”
“When we were”—he cleared his throat—“arguing, I felt my magic pull into yours, I realize that now. And the candles, they—”
“Froze?” she offered, nodding at the former part of his assessment.
“Yes. Why did that happen? The stream’s not frozen, but you’re using your magic now, on your—” He gestured to her bathing dress, trying not to imagine what she was wearing beneath it, and failing. What would happen if he grasped her about the waist and lifted her onto the shore? Would the action startle her enough to make her release the illusion? Would her nipples be hard pebbles poking through her thin shift? He dipped low in the water again, ensuring it waswellabove his waist.
Kas watched, entranced, as her gaze dropped from his face to chest, and trailed down farther, following the line of his body hair as it disappeared beneath the water.She can’t—his hand flew down to ensure his manhood was safely tucked away, hidden beneath the ripples—good.
“It all depends on how much chaos I draw in. I pulled on... a lot in the library that day.”
“And you used it all to create a fun little hedge maze for me to navigate?” He laughed, enjoying the way her blush hung around.
“I did not, actually. I used a bit and released most of it back whence it came.”
“You craftedallof those shrubberies, and still releasedmostof the chaos, unused?” Kas eyed her curiously. She must have beenexceptionallypowerful. To make an equivalent sized wall of air would have taxed his well considerably, and he waswellendowed, magically speaking... and otherwise.
“Weren’t you listening during our lesson today?” With a raised finger, she nearly prodded his chest, but snapped her hand back at the last second, looking shocked.
“Not well,” he admitted, omitting the reason for that.
“When we create things with our magic, it’s an outer shell, the inside is hollow. The level ofdetail can vary.”
“I believe I understand. Those shrubs were complex though, with leaves and branches, not like... a child’s drawing.” He skirted the dragon-incident on the palace lawn.
“Yes, but each leaf is an approximation, almost like... a drained eggshell.”
“Fantastic visual.”
She scrunched her shoulders and his heart thundered, making him drop lower in the water, lest she see his chest hair start quivering.
“What’s the biggest thing you can make?” he asked.
She didn’t answer for a moment, busy thinking. In front of him, across the pool, the twins stopped shrieking at one another, entranced by something. Kas followed their eyes upstream to where water typically cascaded down over the man-made barrier. Nothing but a trickle flowed.
A massive shadow fell over him, blocking out the warm afternoon sun. His eyes flicked to Ataht and Della, who looked past him and up, up, up, into the sky.
Kas spun, his ripples the only movement in the stream, and slowly raised his eyes, half expecting to see a dragon bearing down, a larger version of the one the twins created at the palace, or something like that. It was the biggest thinghecould think of at that moment.
What he didn’t expect to find was an enormous, stationary mountain that looked like it had always been there, where the woods and hislenedhome stood moments before. He followed the craggy outcrops up, and up, and up to the snowcapped peak, high in the sky, before turning his wide-eyed gaze on the woman to his left.
It was his turn to be speechless. She was extraordinary. Powerful beyond measure, and so ridiculously humble about it. “My house better be under there.”
She laughed.
