Heart's Magic by Gail Dayton Page B

liked what he did
and he thought he could tempt her with more. If he could get her
body on his side, eventually her mind would come up with reasons to
accept what the rest of her wanted.
    Which meant that he had to
keep her close and that could be a tricksy dodge, since she wasn't
his apprentice any more. She'd be getting the magister's guild
tithe now, so she didn't have to stay in the rooms out back. She
could go live in Brown's Hotel with Jax and Amanusa. Or, God
forbid, she could even move to the Wizard's Guild Hall.
    He couldn't offer to help
her with guild administration matters, because of that
"appearances" problem, though he could perhaps offer the assistance
of the alchemist's guild secretary. It would have to be the dead
zones that would keep her close. Dealing with the dead zones
required magicians from all four disciplines and with their
shortage of wizards capable of working the magic, she wouldn't be
able to completely hide behind the others. He would start
there.
    Elinor Tavis was his woman.
She just didn't know it yet.
     
     
    All the way out of Harry's
house--by the front door, to preserve her dignity--around to the
garden gate and through the garden to the back gate to the mews
where her flat was, a peculiar, shimmery, sparkly, fizzly feeling
clung to Elinor.
    It wasn't exactly the same
thing she'd felt when Harry--when they had done what they'd done.
Although really, Harry had done it. She'd simply collapsed into a quivering,
brainless heap and--and enjoyed it.
    Elinor shuddered, the
peculiar feeling poking at her again, though it wasn't precisely
pokey. More fizzy. Sparkly, as in sparks, not jewels. She poked
back at the sensation, turning her mind to analyzing it as a way
of, hopefully, controlling it.
    So, no, it didn't feel quite
the same as she'd felt then , but it was similar.
Like... that. Making
love. She made herself think the words. Stupid to shy away from
even thinking them. She'd said them. But that was before she'd done
it.
    Though they hadn't exactly
done it, had they?
Just her part. Which didn't correspond with all the warnings she'd
received over the years, that men were concerned only with their
own desires, their own pleasure. And once they got what they
wanted, they were gone. Harry hadn't taken any. Pleasure, that is.
Unless he was playing a deeper game.
    With a growl of
frustration--no, disgust--Elinor wrenched her mind from thoughts of
Harry back to her analysis of the fizzly sparks following her
around like shiny puppies.
    Elinor shut the door to her
flat and sank into one of the soft chairs in the sitting room. The
sparks clustered round her again and she took another little poke
at them with the part of her that worked magic. The sparks
brightened. Practically bounced with happiness.
    But she didn't-- She
couldn't-- She opened her magic senses, just a tiny sliver, and
slammed them immediately shut.
    That was magic out there in
those sparks, surrounding her, begging her to use it.
    But--but-- Sex magic was
sorcery.
    She wasn't a sorcerer. She
was a wizard. The magister of the wizard's guild. Tip-top of the
bunch. She didn't do sorcery. She'd never been able to even feel it before.
    The sparks closed in
tighter around her. She could feel a faint hum in her teeth, along
her skin, as if the magic was--was getting angry. Which was
absolutely and utterly ridiculous. Magic didn't get angry, or
happy, and it most certainly didn't beg. But she didn't like the
way it felt now.
    "Go away." Elinor flicked
her fingers at it, using just a touch of her magic sense to goose
it along.
    So, of course it had no
effect whatsoever. The magic sank closer, as if it wanted in.
    What was it Amanusa had
said? Sorcery abides in blood and bone and flesh.
    Oh, ick. That did not
appeal to Elinor in the least. But the magic didn't seem inclined
to leave her alone.
    She racked her brain for
anything else Pearl or Amanusa might have said about their magic.
They didn't talk much about it, especially the sex magic,