Wedding Bells, Magic Spells by Lisa Shearin Read Free Book Online

“It’s the red, isn’t it?”
    “Yes. My magic’s never been red before. Quite frankly, it scares me.”
    “Red doesn’t only mean dark magic. Kesyn Badru’s magic manifests as red, and so does A’Zahra Nuru. They’re not evil, far from it.”
    I winced and briefly squeezed my eyes shut. I had the mother of all headaches coming on. “I didn’t mean to imply that goblin magic is evil. It’s just that…”
    “Others might.”
    “Others will . When I was bonded to the Saghred, my magic wasn’t red, and now it is. I just want to understand why.” I stopped massaging Mychael’s shoulders, and came around in front of him. I needed to see his face, watch his eyes, for what I was about to say. “I want to understand who I am. I thought once the Saghred was destroyed I’d go back to being myself again, or at least someone I recognized. I don’t know who or what I am anymore.” I felt the sting of tears welling up in my eyes. “Or what I’ll become.”
    Mychael pulled me down onto his lap, his arms gathering me against his chest.
    My throat tightened in response. Oh great, I was going to cry.
    I sniffed loudly. “I don’t want to cry.”
    “Then don’t cry. You don’t have a reason to.”
    I lifted my head and looked at him. The tears that had pooled in my eyes trickled down my face, but no fresh tears joined them.
    Mychael smiled and gently wiped my tears aside with his thumb. “Not what you expected to hear, was it?”
    “No, it’s not. Though I think I like it. At this point I’ll like anything that doesn’t make me cry. I don’t have time for that.”
    “We’ve had this talk before,” he said. “You’re not evil, you never were, and you never will be. And as I believe Tam has told you before, you don’t even qualify for minions.”
    I laughed, though with the half sob that came with it, it sounded more like a hiccup. “I could have minions.”
    “No, you most definitely could not have minions.” The humorous gleam left his eyes. “I’ve met evil face-to-face. You are not it.”
    “Thank you.”
    We sat there in silence, the tension slowly leaving me. Time to push it away and change the subject to something a little less terrifying. I eased myself out of his lap. “Any word on your parents?”
    “Their ship was docked overnight in Mermeia. I’ve ordered two Guardian ships to escort them, but it will take some time for them to rendezvous. They won’t arrive until late tomorrow.”
    “But at least you know they’ll be safe.” I bent and kissed the top of his head, wrapping my arms around his shoulders in a tight hug. “Think I could talk you into losing your uniform tunic? It’s in my way. A real massage—or anything else that might occur to us—would make you feel a whole lot better.”
    Mychael groaned again, but this one wasn’t happy. “You could talk me into anything, but we don’t have time.”
    “We could make time.”
    “You have no idea how tempting that is.”
    I grinned. “Oh, yes, I do. It’d make me feel better, too.”
    “But we have to be at Sirens in two hours.”
    “Sirens?”
    Sirens was the nightclub Tam owned here in Mid. The three times I’d been there I’d barely made it out alive, though to my knowledge none of his clientele had shared my experiences. If they had, Sirens wouldn’t have been the most popular nightspot on the island.
    “When I sent word to Tam and Imala telling them to delay their arrival,” Mychael continued, “I said we were having technical difficulties.”
    I barked a laugh. “I don’t believe that’s what Markus would call it. So you think any telepathic communication could be intercepted?”
    “I don’t know what to think, but until we know what’s happening, I’m being cautious. I included a coded message that hit the high points of what those technical difficulties were.”
    “So Tam knows?”
    “He does.”
    “And we’re going to Sirens because…?”
    “Tam has a warded room in the basement that he’s