Page 31 of Light Magic

Oh, he wasn’t here, as not in this room, but not in the entire Grand Eternity Hall.

My heart sank at the thought, a little pain snaked through my chest, and I told myself that was this damned bond.

Nothing else.

8

For the next two days, I spent most of my time in the library along with Abbie, Maggie, and Lacey, researching magic absorption.

Abbie was in charge of skimming through the books and selecting the ones we should look into, and Maggie was the one reading the selected ones making sure to leave bookmarks on any passage of interest, while Lacey and I set aside the discarded ones, and brought more books to the table.

This morning, we finally started gathering the books about dragons.

At this rate, I would recover my magic next year, which was much better than never, so I didn’t complain.

In the mornings, Abbie gave lessons to Gwen, Britt, and Trent, and later in the day, she checked on those. In the afternoon, Gwen and Britt sometimes showed up and wanted to help, but Trent spent most of his time with their grandmother.

I had had lunch and dinner with the family a handful of times now, and Magnus continued to puzzle me. He looked at me and Lacey as if we were bugs, but he was kind to his family—most of the time. Sometimes, he complained they were too loud, or too happy, or should change the subject.

So far, I had deduced Magnus was a sensitive warlock.

At night, I stayed in the library and researched about bonds and ways to break them. But I thought the library, or the entire hall, was still playing with me. Abbie had given me a brief list of books about bonds, saying that was enough to get me started, and every time I went to look for a book, I found the half inch to one inch space between other books where it should have been, but there was nothing.

No books.

Once, I asked Maggie about it. She got the list from me and retrieved three books in minutes. “They were all there,” she said. She set down the books on the table and turned back to her task.

I thanked her but when I went to grab the books, they were gone.

“I think the hall is telling you to focus on one thing at a time,” Lacey said.

It seemed that way, though that irritated me even more. Why couldn’t I do both? I was focusing on the most important thing: I spent nine to ten hours of my day researching my magic, and one on the bond. Wasn’t that enough?

I grabbed four other books about dragons from the shelves and stopped by one that supposedly explained the difference between bonds, how they came to be, and if they were breakable or not.

As usual, the book was missing.

With a sigh, I walked to the tables and dropped the heavy books. I sat down beside Maggie as she slid her fingers across the page and picked up a bookmark.

“Something interesting?” I asked.

She nodded, placed the bookmark in the book, and put it on the to-be-studied-later pile. “This book says there are distinct kinds of magic absorption. It can be partial or full, and it also differs according to the type of supernaturals. I’m not sure it’ll explain what happens when a higher demon takes magic from an angel, but there’s only one way to know.”

I knew what happened. The angel became human, weak and useless in her world.

A phone dinged and Lacey grabbed her cell from her pocket. She looked at the screen, then at me, then typed something.

“What is it?” I asked, already annoyed.

“Nothing.” She tucked her phone away.

“Lacey, was that Levi?”

“Yes.” She pouted. “He was just checking in.”

“Asking if I’m all right.” Of course, he wanted me to be all right. If I wasn’t, he would hurt, literally. She nodded. Damn, I would have to have a conversation about boundaries with him. “When is he coming back?”

“He doesn’t know,” she said. “He went out to—” Lacey pressed her lips tight, which made me think of the worst.

---