Natural Dual-Mage (Magical Mayhem 3)

“That’s probably because you didn’t do the spell right. I bet nobody does the spell right. Saying words isn’t enough. You have to feel it. Put emphasis on the sparkly parts.”

His eyebrows lowered. “The sparkly parts?”

“Turtle turds, that’s not normal, is it?” I blew out a breath. I explained what I saw when I looked at the directions, knowing the spell would wait. The cauldron still bubbled away, no explanation as to why. And it would keep bubbling, I knew, until we tore down the magical bubble we were working in.

“And when you changed those witches into zombies?” he asked, not teasing this time.

“I felt the pull to do the potion, but there weren’t any sparkly or emphasized words. But I didn’t have an Emery and a magical bubble when I was in that church.”

“Hmm.” He turned back to the spell, and we started again, effortlessly working through it with a depth and complexity I doubted most mages knew was possible. The warmth inside me increased, and the tug was back, building until it ended in a stronger yanking sensation.

More magic gushed out, and memories flitted through me again, this time the good ones. Emery’s presence filled in holes there, too, and he shared in all my accomplishments, rooting for me.

Buffeted by his own memories, he found my hips with his hands and leaned against me, his lips grazing my bare neck. I closed my eyes and lost myself in him, knowing we were buffered from the outside world. Wanting to ride the feeling. It felt right. We probably could’ve skipped it and the spell would’ve been fine, but…well…

I turned in a rush of passion, unbuttoning his pants and shoving them down. He didn’t waste any time, crashing his lips onto mine and sliding my jeans down my thighs. His warm skin and bumpy muscles delighted me as I lowered to the ground, knowing he’d get there first. I straddled his hips, nothing in the way, and my eyes fluttered as I sank down onto him.

“I love you,” he murmured against my lips, his fingers twisted in my hair.

I rose and fell with abandon, my desire surging as the cauldron bubbled behind me, echoed in the magic bubbling inside of me. Magic swirled and danced around us, no longer contained within our energy bubble. Not even contained in the concealment spell. It poured out into the world and flitted around, prancing and soaring among the trees like a live creature.

The yanking sensation peaked as I did, and my whole world blasted apart, the universe opening up and swallowing me whole. Pleasure filled every part of my body and I vibrated in ecstasy. Emery shuddered under me, crushing me to him tightly, his arms circled around me.

We panted for a moment in the aftermath, catching our breath.

“I’m going to need more of that,” he said, running his lips across mine.

“After,” I said with a smile, pushing myself up and pulling him up after me. “Later.”

“It was a good idea to be outside. The garage would’ve been no place for this.”

“Making love?” I stepped into my pants, bringing a few leaves with me.

He chuckled. “This spell. You were right, as you often are when it comes to natural things. This spell was made to be outside. Also, I like how I can point out you were right about something, and you don’t gloat.”

“Reagan gloats enough for the whole world.”

He laughed harder, clearly because he knew I was also right about that.

Both of us turned to look at the spell. There were three lines left. I read the first, expectation overcoming me. He stepped up behind me and, holding me tightly, read the second. As a pair, we picked up the lavender, the last ingredient save our blood, and put it in the cauldron together, the whole thing rocking in place.

“That can’t be normal,” I heard Emery mutter, but he wrapped his hands around mine on the spoon and helped me mix it all together.

Like a dam bursting, a rush of magic blasted through me, sucking me under. I sputtered as I tried to make sense of it, rolling on the huge waves at high seas. It felt like the storm of the century. Like tornados whipping around within me, battering me from the inside out.

Emery’s magic was nuts. It was crazy. It whipped and tore at me, punching and pulling me before turning me end over end and throwing me against a rock. All of this happened internally, and I reached out to find something to hold on to, some way to get my bearings.

No wonder the guy was wild and unruly, with this volatile magic roaring through him.

My hand hit empty air and I turned, seeking him out.

He lay flat on his back, his hands around his throat, gasping for air.

20

“Oh no—Emery?” I fell to my knees beside him, shoving the effects of his magic to the back of my consciousness. My temples throbbed with the effort, but I pushed past it, my gaze roaming his face.

He pounded on his chest. Held his throat.

He couldn’t get any air.

The goblin’s magic. It had to be.

“Reagan.” I jumped up and ran for the edge of the concealment spell before realizing I was an idiot and tearing it down. “Reagan!” I screamed into the night. “Reagan, help!”

Would she be in the house, or out in the trees?

Trees. She wouldn’t sit idle if there was even a remote possibility someone might ambush us.

But where in the trees?

“Reagan!” I screamed, moving elements through my fingers into a harried weave. Putting the magic to my mouth, I shouted, “Reagan!”

Sound amplified, blasting out like a loudspeaker. The neighbors a mile away probably heard that. She would come running, I knew she would.

No time to lose, I spun around. Someone zoomed out of the trees—a vampire and, given that he didn’t try to kill me, one of ours.

“Go find Reagan,” I yelled, falling to my knees next to Emery. “Hurry!”

Emery’s feet kicked and he scratched at his throat. Panic welled up inside me.

We shared magic. It was fused.

Wasn’t that what he’d said? Maybe I could fix this from my side.

I closed my eyes, yanking his magic back to the forefront. Raw power pushed and shoved at me. I’d need to come to grips with this, then mix it with mine.

I hope that’s right.

Half falling, I straddled Emery, knowing I was running out of time. I dropped my head to his chest, opened up, and let our combined power consume me, leveling out as I did so. The electricity I’d always felt around him vibrated through my body and tingled my hair follicles. It stretched my skin and made my heart thump, but it wasn’t the right magic. It wasn’t what was causing this!

Sifting through our combined magic, I focused on how it flowed, on its balance, its life, and tried to isolate the new element. The eternal power trying to find a home within his body. Within mine.

Time pressing on me, panic barely kept at bay, I was still searching for the foreign power when a familiar magic came into my scope. Awesomely complex in a way I barely understood, light and dark and fire and ice, the universe stretched out before me.

Reagan was here.

Before I could borrow her power to help Emery, he gasped, sucking in a breath, before coughing and bucking, throwing me off.

“What happened?” Reagan asked anxiously.

“Didn’t…assimilate…magic,” Emery choked out between lungfuls of air.

“Come again?” Reagan bent and put her ear closer to him. “You sound like you’re dying. I can’t understand you.”

I tuned them out. Flares lit up the dark night, putting a rainbow glare on everything. Time and space seemed to stretch around me. When I put a hand up, it felt like I could reach through the clouds, past the stars, and to eternity beyond.

The soft patter of rain took on a different tone in my brain, combining with the subtle movement of branches and the wind worrying the leaves. It became a symphony, living in my blood and expressed through my magic.

Wide-eyed, I glanced up at Reagan, leaning down over us. A pitch-black halo surrounded her, the exact opposite of the bleach-white light pulsing from me. Emery had a mix hovering around his body, his black survival magic muddying the white of this new magic, blending the two anti-colors together and bringing out the rainbow hidden therein.

“There, see?” I said, and my voice seemed muffled, as though I were speaking through fabric or fog. “No more black survival magic for you—now you’re colorful, like a unicorn.”