than a children’s reference story with pretty pictures and flowery text in a flowing font. She hadn’t seen an actual book outside of her ship for a while. She had about a dozen stashed away in
“I borrowed it from our library,” he said with a shrug.
“A kid’s story isn’t going to answer your questions.”
“It’s the only book I could find mentioning the terms Goddess
She raised an eyebrow. Maybe Aleena didn’t want any of them to know the truth, but what could the truth be? It had to be something pretty important for her to do such a petty thing as control their library. “Did it help you, or did it confuse the issue?”
“Everything’s been confusing since you arrived.” His fingertips were causing havoc inside her body. Almost as if his touch was reigniting everything still rushing around within her. How long would the aftereffects last?
She didn’t know what to say. Instead, she tried another question, one that might piss him off even more. “I don’t want to offend you, but there’s something I’ve been wondering about since I entered your
He laughed. “You’ve called me a liar since the moment we met, because I believe in using the arcane. You’ve accused our leader of keeping things from us, and refuse to answer a direct question…now you’re worried about offending me? Just ask your question, Alex.”
“Okay, then. Why don’t you look like everyone else?” As soon as she blurted it out, she felt like a total idiot and held her breath. Did she sound prejudiced?
Damon’s eyes looked a little sad. “Your question doesn’t offend me, but I don’t know the reason. I never thought it to be important before, but I think it might have something to do with my use of magic.”
She stopped herself from rolling her eyes. The last thing she wanted to do was upset him. Instead, she said, “Wait a second.” Alex jumped off the bed and headed for her bag. She quickly grabbed the photo tucked into the front and rummaged inside until she found a few energy bars and two bottles of water. She carried everything back to the bed and threw one of the bars at Damon before rolling one of the bottles along the bed until it hit his thigh.
He caught the bar but ignored the water. “What’s this?”
“It’s a VEB.”
“Which is?” He inspected the foil wrapper suspiciously.
“It’s a vitamin and energy bar.” She shrugged. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”
“I’m sorry. I should have arranged for food to be-”
“Don’t worry about it. Just take a look at this. It’s a picture of my father and me. I was about ten when this was taken.” As soon as he took it, she split open the packaging and scarfed down most of the energy bar in less than a minute. Then, she washed it down with the water.
Damon scanned the photo with curious eyes. “You were a cute kid.”
He lifted the photo a little closer. “He has darker skin than you and green eyes, so you must take after your mother. It looks like you got his curly, dark hair, though.”
“Exactly! My father has green eyes and dark skin…just like
“What are you saying?”
“I don’t know what I’m saying, except that the first time I saw you, I remembered the color of his skin. When I looked at his photo again, I couldn’t help but wonder how much your skin and eyes resembled his. I think you might be from the same race as my father.”
He shook his head. “No, that can’t be. I was born here, on Eden.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Where was your father from?”
“See, that’s the problem.” She sat down on the bed, not caring about both of them being completely naked while having this conversation. “He never spoke about his home planet or people. He never liked to talk about it. The only thing he ever told me was that he came from a place where everything was pure…and magical.”
“Magical?” Damon echoed.
“I’m sure he didn’t mean-”
“How can you be sure? He actually used the word?”
Alex thought back to the memory, and nodded. “Yeah, he did. I always assumed he meant it was a lovely place, though. Not magical in any literal way.”
They were both silent for a moment.
“Are you going to eat that?”
Damon shook his head. “No, here. You have it.”
She took the foiled energy bar from him and ate it as fast as she had the first one. They might not taste as good as real food, but she was famished.
Damon continued to stare at the picture as if he was looking for some sort of answer.
Alex decided to put the choker back on. Things always made more sense and felt better when it was around her neck. She secured it and let the key dangle down her breastbone. Suddenly, all the fuzzy sensations rushing around her body stopped.
“Whoa.”
Damon’s brow furrowed. He winced.
“What’s the matter?”
“I can’t feel it.”
“You can’t feel what?” she asked, confused.
“I can’t feel your magic, anymore.” He stared at the key. “Can you remove the key from around your neck?”
“I just put it on!”
“Please, Alex.”
“All right, all right,” she said, untying it. As soon as it was off, the rush of warmth hit her hard. She dropped it and fell back against the pillows. Something very close to an orgasm began between her legs and intensified as it spread, leaving her breathless. “Wha…what was that?”
He’d closed his eyes, too, and an erection had lengthened between his legs. “I can feel your well of magic, again, but when you put the key on, I couldn’t. I think that might be…”
“Might be what?” Her nipples were so hard, they hurt. All she could think about was crawling over to him so they could get it on, again. When she felt the same response from him, she nearly rushed him.
He sounded breathless when he answered. “I think your father might have put a protection spell on the key to keep others from feeling your magic. By doing that, even
Her heart sped up. Her father had told her to keep the key on her at all times, claimed it would protect her. She’d always assumed he meant because of
Wondrous William had shown her a lot of tricks, and while they fascinated and excited her, none had ever had
Damon looked down at the photo. “Your father might not have told you about it, because he wanted to keep you safe, maybe even hide you from someone. Is that possible?”
