Page 30 of The Deathless One
He leaned closer, breathing out a low growl in her ear before replying, “I took them so youcouldsee. Did you think magic would come without a price?”
The whimper almost made him feel a little bad for not preparing her. Almost.
As it was, he cupped his hands around her shoulders and squeezed. “Now, remember.”
“I can’t… I can’t see…”
“Jessamine.” He gave her a little shake, her head snapping back and forth before she focused on him again. “Remember.”
Then he dove into her memories with her at his side.
She couldn’tsee! What had that monster done to her?
She knew better than to make deals with creatures like him. She knew he would trick her, try to control her, do something that would ruin all this. And when he whispered in her ear that all magic had a price, she realized she had known that, too. Though he had tricked her, all of this was her fault. If she had known he would take her eyes in return for seeing the past, she would have figured something else out.
But then she felt him touch her shoulders, and all the world fell away. Suddenly she tumbled through her past, seeing the long days she’d been on the streets trying to pull herself together. The sewer. The fall. The wedding, the moment she stood in her laboratory and wondered if she was making a horrible mistake.
“Stop,” she croaked, realizing that at least in her memories she could still see. “Stop, right there.”
There it was, the image of herself in the lab and Callum standing in the doorway. She stood to the side of herself, as though she’d just stepped out of her own body and could waltz around the room.
Eerily, everything else remained frozen. She could see Callum’s foot halfway lifted to stomp on the rat. The bubbles in the glass beakers stayed halfway up the necks, and if she squinted hard, she could even see smoke rising from the candles and the flames that no longer flickered.
It was equally strange and exhilarating. She had gone back in time, with everything else frozen around her. She walked to the door, thenpeered around Callum into a black hallway. Like someone had set up a diorama of what she could remember, and nothing else existed beyond it.
“How… strange,” she muttered, walking back into the room. “This is my memory?”
She didn’t know who she was asking. Certainly not the shadowy figure standing in front of her books. She couldn’t even tell if he was looking at her, although she realized he wasn’t when a dark chuckle filled the room, followed by the soft scrape of his boots as he turned.
“So it’s true you were already researching witchcraft long before you came to me?” His featureless face turned, as if looking at her, before he pointed out her books. “Some of these are quite wicked.”
She lunged forward as he pulled down a particularly devious spell book on sex magic. Grabbing it out of his hands, she glowered at him while putting it back in its place. “Keep your sticky fingers to yourself.”
“Why should I do that? Some of these books you don’t remember at all.” His dark finger trailed over a few of the titles that had only the vague impression of a name. “But you remember this one all too clearly.”
Cheeks flaming bright red, she ground her teeth together before replying, “Can we please get back to my memories?”
“We are in your memories. If you were interested in carnal magic, you should have told me.” He leaned closer, and she suddenly had the distinct realization that he smelled strongly of citrus and mint. “I would be most interested in teaching you that kind of magic.”
Planting her hands hard on his chest, and trying to ignore the muscles that flexed underneath his palm, she gave him a quick shove. At least that created a little more space between them, even if she couldn’t take her eyes off him.
He wasn’t quite the rough charcoal sketch that she was used to. At least not here. There was more of a form to him, a shape that wasn’t what she had expected. Tall, yes. But so very lean.
“I can see you better in this space,” she murmured, furrowing her brows in confusion. “You’re smaller than I thought you’d be.”
He reared back from her. “Not words men usually like to hear.”
“Not… It’s just your hands. You have really big hands. I thought…” She shrugged. “I thought you’d be larger, that’s all.”
“I don’t know whether to be insulted or flattered.”
“That you’re smaller than I thought?” She started toward the door. “Take that however you will, Deathless One.”
“I don’t appreciate the sass, nightmare.”
Trying hard to smother her smile, she stood in front of the door and waved at him. “It needs to go further. To the wedding.”
She could feel his gaze on the back of her head. But time started moving again, shifting and pushing them through the halls, and suddenly she was at the altar, standing in front of Leon as he glared down at her.
