Page 71 of Ancient Magic

“I’ll find you.” He turned to leave, but Skye impulsively reached out to grasp his arm. “Micha.”

He glanced back, his brows arched. “Yes?”

“You still didn’t explain why you live alone.”

A slow, devastating smile curved his lips. “I hadn’t met you.”

The breath was knocked from Skye’s lungs as he turned and smugly sauntered away.

I hadn’t met you.

Such simple words, but they had the potential to change Skye’s life forever. Always assuming they’d survive long enough to discover if they had a future together, she wryly reminded herself.

Grabbing one of the robes, Skye headed into the bathroom and closed the door. Then, stripping off her dress that was torn and filthy, she tossed it in the trash and stepped into the shower. It was an hour before she forced herself to switch off the hot water and dry off. Not only had the pounding water eased her aching muscles, but it was the first decent shower she’d had in years. As much as she loved the Witch’s Brew, it wasn’t blessed with water pressure.

Leaving her damp curls to bounce freely down to her shoulders, she returned to the bedroom to discover a pair of jeans and a fuzzy yellow sweater folded neatly on the bed along with a tray that was filled with gumbo, dirty rice, shrimp scampi, and a platter of beignets.

Her mouth watered at the scent of garlic and butter and rich spices. Micha must have sent the helicopter to pick up the food to have it there so quickly. Not about to let his generosity go to waste, she perched on the edge of the bed and ate her way through enough food to feed a football player. She didn’t have Peri and Maya’s ability to absorb the magic that leaked from the auras of demons. She needed a more ordinary burst of energy.

With an effort, she managed not to lick the plates, although she did stick her fingers into her mouth to clean off the powdered sugar from the beignets. It would be a sin to wipe away that ooey goodness. Then, dressing in the jeans and sweater, she went in search of Micha.

Not that it was much of a search. She could have closed her eyes and easily looped her way through the complicated tunnel system. His power pulsated through the air like the steady beat of a drum.

Strolling the short distance down the corridor, she stepped into his private library and came to an abrupt halt. Her mouth fell open as she allowed her gaze to roam over the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that consumed three of the walls. They towered high enough that it would take a ladder to reach the top and were lit by spotlights hidden in the bedrock overhead.

She turned in a slow circle, thoroughly enchanted. There had to be thousands of leather-bound books. Many of them so old the bindings would no doubt have crumbled to dust if the climate in the cavern wasn’t carefully controlled. Like a museum for knowledge. And on the far wall a glass case displayed ancient maps. Many of them revealing a world that was barely recognizable.

A deep sigh escaped her parted lips and without warning a cool wash of power spilled through the room.

“Is everything okay?”

Skye glanced over her shoulder as Micha entered the room behind her wearing a black cashmere sweater that clung to his broad chest and a pair of silk slacks. His hair was damp as if he’d just stepped out of the shower, and his eyes glowed like molten gold.

She blinked, and then blinked again.

Oh no. She most definitely wasn’t okay.

Every time she caught sight of this male, his beauty set off an explosion of awareness. And that didn’t even include the thunderous impact of his power that made the earth tremble beneath her feet.

Still, now wasn’t the time to share her struggle to concentrate on anything but the awareness scraping her nerves raw. Once the passion between them was ignited, she had no doubt it was going to burn out of control.

They had other fires to fight first.

“I’m drowning in envy,” she instead murmured, waving her hand toward the nearby shelves. “When you said you had a library, I had no idea it would be this.”

“These are the books that I share with interested researchers,” he said.

Skye blinked in shock. “There’s more?”

Micha nodded toward the opening on the far side of the library. “Through there.”

Skye eagerly crossed the floor to enter the inner chamber, instantly feeling the thick layers of protection that had been laid over the cupboards that lined the walls.

“Inside the cabinets are the scrolls and manuscripts that are too rare or too fragile to be handled by anyone but an expert, as well as the more dangerous artifacts I’ve collected,” he told her, not bothering to give a tour as he headed toward an opening on the other side of the space. “And through there—”

“Magic,” she whispered, lured through the open doorway like a bee to honey.

It was a smaller space than the other rooms, with a low ceiling and an atmosphere thick enough to choke her. Maya had a vault beneath the Witch’s Brew where they kept the spell books and artifacts that were too powerful to leave lying around. And it felt just like this when she entered it.

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