Broken Bonds (Lizzie Grace 3)

“Except that, for whatever reason, it apparently does in this reservation.”

He grunted, his expression unconvinced. “I can see why Ira suddenly wants to move here. This reservation is something of a conundrum.”

I blinked. “He what?”

Eli grinned. “Yeah, just imagine, he could come in and chat to you about the wild magic and your relationship with it every single day.”

“Neither of us are that interesting,” I muttered, and shoved a hand through my hair. “Does the fact you’re not getting much of a feel for the heretic’s energy mean you won’t be able to create a spell to track him down?”

“Perhaps.” He hesitated. “I suspect that my chances of success would increase greatly if I have your assistance.”

I frowned. “While I can trace people through psychometry—and I really don’t want to try that with this bastard—I have no idea how to do it through magic—”

“You don’t have to. You just have to be inside the protection circle with me,” he said. “I’ll form a light connection with you, and use that to contain the heretic’s energy.”

“You’re telepathic?” I asked, suddenly uneasy. While I doubted he’d in any way raid my thoughts, a strong enough telepath could pick up things I’d rather keep hidden.

Although he would have to get past Belle first. Thanks to the light connection that was always active between us—the only time she was truly shut off from my thoughts was when she was in her bedroom—she’d feel any such intrusion and retaliate in an instant. And I’d back her against almost any other telepath out there.

He waved a hand dismissively. “Only marginally—”

“Define marginally.”

He smiled. “I can catch the occasional unguarded surface thought but little more than that. But you have nothing to fear, my dear, because I doubt even the Royal Australian Mint is as secure as your mind.”

I grinned. “There are benefits to having a friend who is a strong telepath.”

“Apparently so, but it does make me wonder just what you’re afraid of revealing.”

“Certainly nothing you should be worried about.”

He raised an eyebrow, but all he said was, “At any rate, I won’t be connecting with your mind, but rather drawing on the force of your energy—”

“Like a psychic vampire does? I’m not sure that’s a much better option.”

“I won’t be consuming your energy as they do, but simply connecting with it so that I can see the remnants of the heretic’s output as clearly as you do. It’ll enable me to gather it and then use it to form the basis of a tracking spell.” His smile flashed. “It’s more a brief meshing, nothing else.”

“Any side effects? Possible problems?”

He hesitated. “If the wild magic is responsible for the depth of your awareness of the heretic’s output here, then it might well interfere with my ability to perform the spell.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“Because there are few witches who walk away from contact with the wild magic unscathed. How you’re interacting with it without any sort of blowback is one of the many things that has intrigued Ira.”

“I wouldn’t call what I do interacting.” Not for the most part, anyway. “And in this case, I certainly haven’t made a deliberate attempt to connect with it. It’s just here.”

And given the fact I couldn’t feel Katie’s presence within it, that perhaps meant the energy here came from the main wellspring rather than the one Katie and Gabe were now protecting.

“It’s not only here, but clinging to you like a second skin and enhancing your senses,” he said, and then held up a hand to cut off any reply I might have made. “But right now, the ‘why’ doesn’t matter. Let’s just get this spell done so I can get back to my man.”

“Sounds good to me—what do you want me to do?”

“Help me clear some floor space.”

I stepped into the room and helped shove the bed and the dressing table to one side. He ordered me to sit down in the middle of the cleared area then grabbed his spell stones—which were green amber, a favorite amongst those witches who could actually afford to buy the hard to find, larger stones—and began placing them on the carpet.

Once a large enough circle had been completed, he sat cross-legged in front of me and opened his backpack. “I’ll construct a protection circle and then begin the spell that’ll draw in and contain a portion of the dark energy within this room.”