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I quickly drop my gaze with a frown, gripping the pestle and grinding harder to keep myself from saying anything idiotic, like how delicious he looks with a sword.

I’m permitting his use of my family’s weaponry to keep that idiot from using his magic too often. This is about his healing. Anything else is irrelevant.

We’re a temporary team. That’s all. Once Astoria is freed, I’ll likely never see them again.

My chest convulses with the pain of loneliness. My eyes close, and I breathe through my nose.

Stop that now, I scold myself. It doesn’t matter.

Fingers snap in front of my face and my eyes open, my body jerking back. I glare at the magician, who matches my expression.

“What?” I say too sharply.

He rolls his eyes, and the urge to wipe the expression off his face is overwhelming. I shift back a step when unhelpful fantasies about how to accomplish that bloom in my mind’s eye. Suddenly, all I can see is the magician panting up at me from his knees, his aroused body waiting eagerly for whatever I wish to gift him.

Lucas stares at me, and I arch a brow at him in response. He repeats what I missed slowly, “You okay?”

“I’m fine.” I say it too fast and my teeth grit. “Don’t lose your rag, magician.”

This has his lips twitching, his eyes sparking with amusement before seriousness hardens his features. He crosses his arms stubbornly. Fuck, I want to pleasure the brat out of him, just make him beg.

Breath hisses between my teeth. I need my attraction to him to stop. This will only end in my heartbreak.

“Then what did I just say?” he asks.

He’s got me there, but there’s no way in the dark Weave that I’m permitting him deeper access to my inner workings. I muster all the arrogance I can in my retort. “Spare me, magician. We have a job to do.”

He heaves a sigh. “Look, I’m all for doing this right now, but you’re distracted. There is a small army of grimoires waiting for us at the bookshop. I almost became food to many of them last time. If your head isn’t in it…”

“My head is fine.”

He smirks knowingly, and I turn sharply away. Somehow that only makes it worse. He throws his hands toward me. “See? You’re not acting right. Old V wouldn’t be able to resist making a snide little comment.”

“Sorry to disappoint your very tiny knowledge of me. Apparently going to identify my father’s mutilated remains has altered my personality.”

I hover the mortar and pestle before me so I can withdraw a silver blade to nick my thumb. The magician says, “We need to talk,” and I slice too deep with a hiss.

I hold up my hand to keep the blood from pouring too freely and use the tip of my blade to gather a few droplets. I suck at the wound, both to easily get rid of the excess blood and to heal it, my thumb tingling from my magic. Adding my blood to the powdered limestone ensures only I can activate it.

I slide to kneeling, taking the mortar with me and setting the pestle beside my knee. My hand hovers over the bowl, magic pricking my fingertips as it gathers to enhance the chalk. I pause. I should include Lucas as well in case we get separated. I hold out my hand towards the magician. “Thumb. Now.”

His hand slides onto mine and my traitorous heart quickens. I carefully prick the very tip of his thumb, collecting the blood drops into the bowl.

The magician asks, “What are you doing?”

“Blood enhances spells, especially protection ones.” His blood mingles with mine, and my magic gathers the soaked powder to press it into a pink chalk stick. “When I add the last few symbols with this, we will be the only ones who can return to this circle.”

I’m so caught up in mixing one-handed that I mindlessly put his thumb in my mouth to heal it. The copper of his blood is sharp, and I can’t help but flick my tongue over the pad as I seal the tiny cut. Did I need to use my mouth to do the spell? No. I am too knowledgeable to have that be the only way I can heal minor cuts. Is it easier? Yes. Does it make me miss his cock in my throat? Most desperately.

I am so fucked.

I go to pull back, but his hand tightens, gripping my jaw and pressing down on my tongue. My eyes flare as he yanks my face towards him. I’m on one knee, staring up at Lucas as he gazes down at me with his honey eyes. Panic surges with the building heat within me, my muscles clenching as I harden.

Lucas’ even tone sends shivers down my spine. “You may think I don’t know you, but I do, because you’re so much like Tori. You’re trying to push me away just like she would, and I’m not going to allow it.”

My pulse throbs, my body frozen in place, as Lucas speaks low and firmly. “Thank you for saving me from Alasdair and his vile plans last night.”

My breath shivers, and his lips tilt in a small smile. “And thank you for staying after. I’d buried what happened with Dimitar for so long that I didn’t realize how much I needed someone else to understand.”