Page 42 of Light Magic

When they saw me approaching, everyone stopped what they were doing.

“Ariella!” Maggie hurried to me and gave me a big hug. “Are you all right?” She pulled back quickly. “Damn, I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

With a small smile, I shook my head. “No. Thanks to Lacey, I don’t feel anything.” I looked at Lacey. “Thank you.”

She pressed a hand to her chest. “My pleasure.”

I cleared my throat. “I need to say something. I’m the one to blame for last evening, and I’m so sorry. Everyone here was in danger because of me, and I will understand if you prefer I leave. I just ask you to let me continue the research somehow?—”

“That’s nonsense!” Maggie exclaimed.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Abbie said.

“But they tricked you, me, they could have?—”

“But they didn’t.” Abbie sounded so much older than she was. “For the time being, we aren’t allowing visitors.”

“Again, because of me.”

“Well, it has been proven to us again and again that it might not be safe to allow visitors,” Abbie said. “We’ll need to rethink that, but for now, we have work to do.” She pointed to a chair across from the desk. “Now sit down and help me or it’ll take us two years to recover your magic.”

Hiding a smile, I walked to the chair, sat down, and grabbed a book from the pile.

Another thought came into my mind. “Wait, doesn’t the Grand Eternity Hall have security or wards? How did those two lion shifters manage to disarm you with a necklace?” If this place was so special as everyone said, that should have been impossible.

“It turns out the wards and spells around the hall have to be replenished every couple of years, or they become less effective,” Abbie said. “I learned about that last night when I picked up one of my mother’s diaries.” Her lips pressed tight. “I’m glad she took note of everything in her diaries, because she didn’t have time to teach me everything herself.”

I almost crossed the table and gave her a hug, but she looked like she was trying to hold on, so I followed her lead. “And you spent the night redoing those?”

She nodded. “I need some special ingredients for some, and a few potions I started brewing, but later this week, we’ll be all good again.”

I scoffed. “They were lucky, then.”

Maggie leaned closer and whispered to me, “Lucky, or they knew about it.”

“Maggie!” Abbie snapped. “None of us knew about this. How could someone have told them? And no one here would have done that.”

“I know, I know, but it’s strange,” she muttered before returning her attention to the books in front of her.

“Anyway, it’s solved now,” Abbie continued. “We’re all safe and sound.” She turned the page of her book. “And we should get back to work.”

Silence reigned in the library, except for the occasional voices coming from upstairs, when one of the kids answered about their lessons.

First, I tried getting a good bearing of what was right in front of me. Abbie had separated the books about magic absorption and transference to one side of the table, the dragon books to the other, and she had lots of open notebooks and handwritten notes in between.

I read a few of her notes.

Some dark witches can absorb magic. Most of the time, it’s partial and doesn’t last.

Some kinds of witches can lend magic to other supernaturals for a brief period of time.

Some higher demons can absorb a supernatural’s power and have it for as long as they live. But Paimon was Prince of the Underworld, he probably could do that and more.

Dragons are the most powerful supernaturals. They can absorb and return magic at will. Some dragon shifters can do something similar but on a much smaller scale.

Some fated mates can transfer magic to each other, or they can combine their magics to be stronger.

Pixies and sprites can absorb nature’s magic.

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