Page 47 of Captivating Magic

He grinned. “It will be this time.”

“Bullsh—”

Cutting her off with a hard peck, he followed it with a lovebite. “You didn’t react to my declaration of love.”

“Meh. I think it’s because you secretly looked at my naked chest earlier. My girls are always love at first sight for boob men.”

Laughing, he drew out the top of her V-neck and glanced down. “I did my best not to peek, but your girlsarebeautiful.”

“Thank you. Both for properly appreciating my C cups and for loving me.”

“You’re an easy woman to love, Sweet Ebba James.”

“How do you always know the perfect thing to say?”

“Let’s go.” He flung an arm over her shoulders. “I have to save the girl.”

Ebba refusedto entertain the notion of surviving. “Not to be a Patty Pessimist, but what about Spencer? Is he willingly going to move along?”

“First, we have to remove him from your body,” Damian said. “That’s trickier than expected.”

Lo’s head whipped up from the spell he’d been memorizing. “How and why?”

“We’ll need to remove all trace of him from Ebba’s body, memories included, or she could experience an echo of this timeline if she returns.”

“When,” Lo ground out. “When she returns.”

Damian nodded dutifully. “When.”

“Memories? You can do that?” she asked him, not caring for how it sounded. Did that mean she’d recall none of this at all?What about Laszlo’s confession of love? The sweetness of the moment shouldn’t be lost.

“I can, and itisnecessary, Ms. James. I’m sorry.”

“Call me Ebba,” she replied with an absent wave. “What is tricky about the memory removal? I’m assuming that’s the worrisome part since Lo hasn’t seemed all that concerned about ejecting Spencer.”

“I was and still am concerned,” Laszlo protested. “My concerned face obviously needs work.”

She cracked a smile but remained focused on Damian, who obliged her by answering her question.

“Memories aren’t stored in one particular area of the brain. There are multiple, all working together. The hippocampus, neocortex, and amygdala store explicit information, while implicit memories depend on the basal ganglia and cerebellum. The prefrontal cortex is used for short-term storage,” he explained. “I’ll need to go into the temporal lobe and access the hippocampus to remove episodic memories. These are what you’d consider specific and long-term. It’s tricky in how these all exchange information.”

“Did we need the science lesson?” Castor asked, rising from the couch to cross to the liquor cabinet.

“It wouldn’t hurt you to learn how that block you call a brain works,” Lo said.

“Hardy har har. You’re hilarious.” Castor’s tone was anything but amused.

Damian carried on as if the others weren’t behaving like bratty children, and Ebba admired his calm.

“For example, the amygdala stores emotional memories. How something made us feel. The stronger the emotion, the harder it is to forget.” He cast a significant glance between her and Laszlo. “Whatever you’re experiencing together could result in a lasting impression.”

“You’d have to remove my feelings for Lo?”

It seemed inconceivable that he could. She’d loved Laszlo Thorne for what felt like forever.

“Those are woven into my entire life,” she confessed.

Expression soft, Damian shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that to you, Ebba, and I imagine the damage would be significant should I try. No, I’m suggesting eliminating all your memories since the accident. From the moment Spencer wormed his way in onward. One insidious thought left behind can cause eventual madness.”

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