Page 80 of A Dusk Of Stars

At that, the bastardlaughsat me.

Blood rushing to my face, I snap, “Instead of acting all superior, why don’t you use your mouth and your brain to explain yourself?”

His lips tug into a smile before he turns serious again. “Imagine being a criminal with expertise in Divine Magic.”

“Fine,” I say flatly, still a little butthurt.

He lowers himself back onto one elbow. “Divine and Nature Magic are a lot alike, right? Of course, it’s usually easy to tell them apart once you start investigating, but the results… they can look exactly the same.”

“What’s your point?”

“Let’s say you want to kill someone without getting caught. If you get good enough to pass the Authority tests, all of a sudden you havetwooptions.”

I’m intrigued against my will.

“You have the option to stab them, rip them to shreds, drain them and so on and so forth, and pray the Authority never gathers enough evidence to figure it out,” he continues. “Or, for example, you have the option to drain them without it looking like a living being was involved.” He shrugs. “And without a living being involved, is there even a case to gather evidence for?”

I nod pensively.

“Exactly,” he says with a smirk. “It’s the perfect crime.” He leans a little forward to pin me with his stare. “That’s exactly what they did with those Norwegian deaths, and you’re just letting yourself fall for it.”

I roll my eyes, but I get what he’s saying. Still, I just keep looking at him in silence, because there’s this daring thought rising to the surface of my mind.

I guess you could say he’s smart and strong and powerful…

He raises his eyebrows at me, making me snap out of it.

“Fine,” I finally say, “I’ll think about looking into that.” I pause to muster determination, but then I just go for it. “In the meantime,” I ask with a slightly awkward, hopeful smile, “help mebreakinto the Restricted Section?“

***

I watch him sit up, his eyebrows pulling down as something flashes through his eyes, something I can’t quite put my finger on.

I just keep looking at him, hoping.

He lets out a scoff, averting his gaze for a second. “You do know that’s illegal, don’t you?” he asks with a squint.

Damn it. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” I rush to say, my smile turning out tight-lipped. I push myself off the floor. “Just… Forget about it, alright?”

I don’t wait for a reaction. I grab my tote and move for the door, breathing a sigh of relief when I realize he’s remained right where he was sitting.

It’s with disappointment making my shoulders slump that I walk over to the door.

I open it, only to have it closed shut again. There’s his hand, palm pressed against the wood.

I turn to look at him, his arm and his body crowding me. He doesn’t look pleased.

“Fine,” he says through gritted teeth, making my eyebrows shoot up. “I’ll buy the book, and in return, you’ll get ideas like those out of your head. Understood?”

It’s with a lot of determination that I shake my head. “These kinds of books aren’t for sale. Even if they were, if you want to help me, you’ll have to do itwithoutthe dirty money. It’ll have to be the two of us just happening to find ourselves in the right place at the right time.”

“No,” he snaps. “If anyone’s going, it’ll beme.Alone.”

“Not a chance in hell,” I insist, signaling for him to get out of my face and folding my arms. “I was the one chosen by the book, it needs to bemein there.”

He runs a hand along his jaw, blowing out a frustrated breath. “If I do this,” he says, lowering his head so his eyes are at the same level as mine, “you’re coming to Norway with me, so you can see for yourself what an idiot you’re being about the ‘Nature Magic misfiring’.”

I ignore the mocking way in which he says those last words. “You got yourself a deal,” I say with the widest grin.

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