Page 20 of White Little Lies

I looked down into the jar, trying to figure out how best to put my magic into it. But it wasn’t like I could create things out of nothing, not like Sebastian’s shadows. My magic was just inside me.

“So how do you know Sebastian?” I asked as I quietly racked my brain.

“He came to me for a potion a year or so back.” She continued her aggressive stirring as she spoke. “And I never forget a face. Especially not a face likethat.”

I smelled the liquid in the jar again, more cautiously this time. “What kind of potion?”

“It was for a sick human, if I recall correctly.”

I lifted my brows at her, though with her back to me, she didn’t see it. Sebastian wouldn’t care about a sick human. But maybe he had done it to secure a contract. Still, I stored the information amongst the other intel I had slowly been gathering on him. It wasn’t much, but I would take whatever I could get, because I knew eventually I would need the upper hand. That was how it worked with devils.Always.

I placed my palm over the open jar, trying to summon a bit of my magic. When nothing happened, I added the visual of Gabriel with his shirt off into my mind. It was a nice picture, but it still didn’t spark little stars around my fingertips.

Isadora paused her stirring to glance back at me. “You alright there?”

“Fine,” I muttered, closing my eyes and pressing my palm more firmly over the jar of liquid. Gods, I did not want to owe Sebastiananotherfavor. They were really starting to pile up.

I scrunched up my face, straining. Here I was, able to transport myself to different places, but I couldn’t summon a lick of magic into a jar.

With a heavy sigh, I removed my hand from the opening, then reached into my back pocket, withdrawing Sebastian’s card.

Isadora had turned to watch me, arms crossed and head tilted to one side.

I rubbed my finger across the card, focusing my attention on it. At least this bit of magic was simple enough. The card pulsed with heat, then Isadora gasped as Sebastian appeared just behind me.

“You rang?”

I sighed, turning toward him. I lifted the empty jar, my eyes pleading.

“You’re not going to start whining like a dog again, are you?”

“Maybe?”

He stepped toward me, and I reflexively stepped back. “What are you doing?”

“You asked for help, dear Eva. I’m giving it.”

He wrapped his hand around the jar, trapping my fingers, then slid his other hand around my waist, pulling me against him. Then he kissed me.

8

I stiffened momentarily,then my body melted as Sebastian’s tongue delved into my mouth. He still had one hand gripping mine around the jar, while his other hand kneaded my lower back. I made a small sound in the back of my throat and he gripped me tighter, pressing my hips against him hard enough to lift my heels off the floor.

Magic course through me like electrical currents in my chest, answering his call. It was different with him than with Mistral or Gabriel, my magic like a dark yawning cavern inside me, opening up to swallow us both whole.

My lashes fluttered against my cheeks as he drank me down, reacting to sudden pulsing lights at the edge of my awareness. Sebastian’s hand slipped underneath the edge of my shirt, stroking up my bare back.

The touch made heat pool between my thighs, butat the same time reactivated my only remaining brain cell, reminding me where we were and just who I was kissing. I pulled back, breaking the kiss, but his grip on my bare back kept me against him.

I tried to us my hand that wasn’t wrapped around the jar to shield my eyes from the red and purple aurora emanating from my body, then realized it was coming from my fingers too. I had never seen a true aurora in person, only in pictures, but I knew that’s what I was seeing now. And it was coming fromme.

Sebastian lifted our hands still joined around the jar to show me that the liquid had turned from milky white to a deep, glowing magenta.

Isadora let out a low whistle. “Magicanda show. My, aren’t I a lucky girl?”

I looked up at Sebastian, still holding me against him. There was heat in his eyes, but something else. Something I was uncomfortable seeing in anyone’s eyes but a lover.

Isadora cautiously approached, taking the jar from our hands before screwing a metal lid onto it. She took it back to her shelves, plucking a different bottle from a row of others identical to it.

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