Filling in the holes.

His weave was tight, organized, and uniform, but she worked more magic in between the fibers, creating a beautiful tapestry humming with power. She started messing with his weave as it was rolling out of his fingers, no longer filling in the holes, but working with him to make it stronger.

“A Lego house,” she muttered. “It’s easier to start from the ground up than it is to put a Lego in the hole after the house is built. You’d have to smash it first, and that would make the whole thing less structured.”

The spell draped in front of them, creating a stationary wall and magically sheltering them from the curious eyes on the street. Giving them time to catch their breath.

“And now for one that’ll move with us.” She closed her eyes, magic drifting to her fingertips.

“This isn’t how Guild members create a spell,” he whispered, seeing her patterns and tweaking his to meld better.

The usual hum of their energy bubble intensified, and their joint spell fluxed and pulsed, morphing into something almost alive. The colors wound around and within each other in a breathtaking way, the patterns and textures not something even the finest artist could duplicate. Power vibrated along the weave and around them.

That wasn’t what made him suck in a breath and blink his eyes open to stare at her in surprise.

The still air hung heavy around them, kissing his skin. The rough walls rose on either side of them, sending out a strange sort of pulse that didn’t feel alive, but felt…there. Like he’d sense them even with his eyes closed. The blackened sky looked down on them, nearly ready to reveal the twinkling stars within. Over all of this, a sweet, intoxicating song drifted between and around them, pulling them together and connecting them in a way he’d never experienced before. It felt deep and complex and solid.

His heart swelled, and the ever-waging war within him, fueled by the pain, solitude, and death he’d experienced…calmed.

The corners of her mouth lifted. “This,” she said, riding a sigh. “This feels exactly right. This is what I need. It feels so much better than when I worked with the witches in the cemetery.” Her eyes drifted open, revealing her beautiful blue irises. “I’ve found my other half. My polar opposite.” Her smile drifted higher. “My true balance.”

“It feels…” He couldn’t find the words. Didn’t know if there even were any to describe the completeness he felt in that moment. The oneness.

Her gaze delved into him. In the past, he might’ve flinched away from that searching gaze. Closed himself off. Run. Instead, he wanted to reciprocate…wanted to look down all the way to her soul.

“This is what I feel like when I’m with you,” she said softly, full of feeling. “This is why, no matter how long you stay away, I’ll never forget how good it feels when you’re around.”

37

The spell drifted around us, hugging us in its perfectly balanced hold, in time for his lips to crash down onto mine. For his arms to wrap around me tightly, squeezing me into his hard, warm body.

It wasn’t the time. Not even remotely. And no matter how much I wanted to keep at this until our bodies were as intertwined as our magic, we needed to get out of this part of the city before the enemy finally surrounded us.

I loosened my grip on his waist, wondering if I’d have to zap him to get him to back up—if I’d have to zap myself first to make sure I followed through.

But before I could muster the resolve, he backed off, his palms sliding down my back.

“Sorry. Impulse control,” he said, our breath mingling, heating the air between our lips.

“We need to go,” I said softly, focused on those soft lips.

“I know.”

“We need to get home safely.” My gaze shifted back, taking in the whole of his handsome face.

“I know.” The weight of his hands felt too good on my hips.

My eyes met his. “So we can get to a bed and do this right.”

His fingers dug in and his whole body stiffened. “That isn’t helping, Turdswallop,” he said through clenched teeth.

I chuckled. I couldn’t help it.

I slapped a palm to his pec before roughly pushing him away. His eyes burned down into mine and he sucked air through his teeth. “That is also not helping,” he said with a rough voice.

“Sorry. Impulse control.” I forced myself to turn away, my body painfully wound up, and looked out at the street before us. The air shimmered with a soft violet, and I knew that was the spell working. “Okay, here’s the plan. We can’t hail a cab when invisible, and we can’t step out of invisibility lest they see us. So basically, we need to get to a place they don’t expect us to go, then call a cab to come to us.”

I turned back to make sure he was on the same page.

He stood with his hand on the wall, bent slightly at the waist and leaning forward as if in horrible pain.

He gave me a thumbs-up. “Yup. Good. Just need one moment.”

I shook my head, heat throbbing. “Men. So weak.”

“We just aren’t equipped to take on intoxicating women. Nature made sure you hold the ultimate power.”

“What a poor excuse for your insistence on thinking with your dick.”

He spat out a laugh before straightening up. “Are we running or walking?”

“Don’t know. It depends if any mage worth their salt is out here.” I held out my hand, and he took it. “Ready?”

“I wish we had a different life together.” His voice was dripping with regret and sadness. He obviously meant it.

But if this wasn’t the time to strip down and make this pounding ache go away, it certainly wasn’t the time for us to feel bad for ourselves.

“Then how would we have met? Chin up; let’s go.”

We stalked out of the gap between the houses—well, he stalked, I scooted.

Night swept down from the sky and dusted the sidewalk. The first bold star twinkled above, leading the way for the others. Someone screamed down the way, the sound quickly turning into peals of laughter. A woman chased a man across the street before stopping and turning back the way she’d come, bowing over with laughter.

“This way.” I headed left, dodging and weaving between people coming our way. When the magic slid over their bodies, they frowned and looked around in confusion, some rubbing their arms and others shivering.

“I heard this place was full of ghosts,” one of the people we passed said as she continued down the street.

“Let’s pick up the pace,” Emery whispered.

“Do you hear something?” a guy said, looking around.

Apparently the spell didn’t suppress sound as thoroughly as I had hoped.

A woman wearing an orange sash around her neck stood at the next corner, scanning the way. A cord dropped from her ear and into her shirt. They weren’t doing a great job of hiding what they were, let alone their rank.

Thinking on it, though, I’d only seen a couple of sashes. I wondered if that meant they’d hired out for most of their people.

Cold licked at my spine as I remembered Mary Bell at the bar earlier. How many others in Callie’s camp hung out at bars stuffed with Guild members? How many had accepted promises?

I turned, forgetting to tell Emery. Since he was way heavier, the spell yanked me back toward him and I bounced off him. “Sorry. I wanted to go that way.” I pointed.

“Where are we going?” Emery asked before jolting.

I felt it a second later. A searching-type spell had ballooned over the street before dropping on us like rain.

He swore and zipped off a spell, but it only blew a hole through a small part of the searching spell. The rest didn’t fizzle away, only curled back a little, landing on the edge of our bubble and burning bright red.

“What are the odds that they won’t see that?” I asked as a shock of fear coursed through me.

“Run, Penny! Run!”

With the soundtrack from Forrest Gump rolling through my head, we took off. The Guild woman slapped a hand to her ear and yelled something into her other wrist. People startled and pointed at the flare of red zipping at them, seemingly disconnected to anything else. Some hurried out of the way, and others watched with wide eyes until it washed over their bodies with a ghostlike zing of energy.