She straightened, sat up on the bed to look down at him. “Magic is…weird.” Wow, that was a lame way to start. He smiled but didn’t say anything. “I know, I know, really helpful. I’m trying to think how to explain.”
“Start by speaking. I’ll ask questions along the way.”
And there was Esh, pragmatic and straight ahead. “There is no one way magic behaves. There is no one truth. It makes dealing with magic difficult.” He still looked confused. Taking a deep breath, she tried again. “All right, say someone casts a spell to light a fire. The magic is in the spell. The fire, though, the fire isn’t magic, even though it started that way. Right now we’re in an area that doesn’t allow magic, so if someone cast a spell to light a fire, it wouldn’t work. But if someone cast a spell to light a fire outside of this dampening area, and then brought the torch with the fire here, the fire wouldn’t extinguish the moment they crossed into the zone. But even though the fire isn’t magic, if I looked at it, I’d be able to tell the fire was started by a spell instead of a match. It would still carry its beginnings.”
Esh face was open, questioning. “So what do you mean innate?”
“When we call someone innate, it’s because they have powers that are magic, but are not subject to the same rules as straight magic. Their powers can’t be dispelled – at least, usually they can’t – and they could still use them even in a magically dead area.”
“Such as?”
“Such as a werewolf’s ability to shift. It doesn’t matter if that ability came into being because of magic or not, it’s now part of them. Same as a gargoyle’s ability to fly, or a shadow stealer’s ability to blend into shadow, or in theory a dragon’s ability to breathe fire.”
“Too bad there are no dragons to ask if that’s true.” Long experience told her the lines between his brows and the thin lips meant he was rolling her info in his mind, absorbing this new knowledge.
“Innate type magic is more intricate and harder to place. It can get lost in noise pretty easily.” At that, sledgehammer to her face couldn’t have surprised her more, and the ohh fell from her lips without conscious thought.
That’s what she’d been feeling from Esh, this itch that overcame her. It was light and, added to the storm of other feelings being around Esh engendered, near impossible to suss out.
Innate. There was something in him innate – buried, buried deep, so deep he probably didn’t know of its existence. The part of him responsible for his eyes, maybe his superior strength and fighting as well.
“What?” he asked.
She shook her head, continued on. Not until she thought this through would she mention it to him. “I want to make sure I at least try to see if any of the fighters have that advantage. I don’t want you caught off guard.”
“You mean like this?” he asked, and rolled her onto her back, trapping her beneath him.
Chapter Seven
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Those gorgeous dark-brown eyes of hers were wide with surprise as he rolled her under him. No reason why they should be. He told her this was where she was going to be for the duration of the Tour.
“Esh,” she started, and in response he pushed his hips against her pelvis, rubbing hard against her.
Her mouth parted. A long, deep breath met the movement while her eyes went half-lidded. Her hands went to his shoulders, her fingers half digging into the muscle, her arms both pulling him closer and pushing him away.
His Nalah was conflicted? Well, he was going to put an end to that real quick. By the end of the Tour she was going to be back in his bed and standing by his side, where she belonged now, and where she’d belonged these last five years before she’d run away.
To the Guild. Of all fucking people, she had gotten involved with the Guild. He growled, the need to mark her as his and not theirs growing in him, and he lowered his mouth to her throat.
She panted and moaned as his lips and teeth ravaged the sensitive skin below her ear, the sounds tightening his belly and ratcheting up his arousal. He wanted her to make those sounds all night, he wanted her hoarse tomorrow and embarrassed because everyone would give her a knowing look each time she spoke. He sucked the dark skin into his mouth, wishing the small bruise would show.
How had he lived without this these last years? She even smelled the same, summer nights on the beach. He told her that after their first kiss, and she laughed, saying they’d never been near the ocean in their lives.
Didn’t matter. That was what she reminded him of. Her scent was always a mix of citrus and salt while her eyes and skin glowed under moonlight. She was wondrous, his escape from a shitty life, and always had been. Her eyes alight with pride as he fought in the ring, making him a hero and a warrior instead of a thug. Or how she never stopped teaching him or acted like he was too stupid to be bothered with.