Conjured

neck. He wrapped his around her waist. She felt her heart beat faster. Or maybe it was his. Both of their hearts beat fast through their shirts, against each other.

She touched her lips to his.

No magic, she thought to herself. Don’t fly.

She breathed with him as they kissed—and then the feel of the floor faded away. His grip around her waist tightened. She broke the kiss and looked down. They were several feet above the pillows.

Floating like feathers, they drifted down. Landing on pillows, they lost their balance and toppled over, clinging to each other. Entangled, they lay silent for a moment.

“Whoa,” Zach said, breathless. “Wow.”

“Wow,” Eve agreed. She hadn’t lost consciousness. She hadn’t had a vision. She hadn’t even felt herself use magic at all. In fact, she’d focused on the opposite.

“Did you know you had magic kisses?”

“Last night Aidan kissed me, and we didn’t fly.” She watched his face as she said it, unsure if he’d be upset that she’d kissed someone else. But she didn’t want to lie to him when she didn’t have to—she already had to lie to him about so much.

His face didn’t change, but she felt his arms stiffen around her. “Who’s Aidan?”

“A boy who thinks I’m supposed to be kissing him.”

Drawing away from her, Zach sat up in the middle of the pillows. “And what do you think?” His voice was careful, measured.

Eve sat up next to him. “I think I’d rather kiss you.”

“Oh. Well, that’s okay, then. But you’ll excuse me if I’m still a little bit jealous. Is this Aidan good looking?”

Eve shrugged. “Yes.”

“Well, this just gets better and better.” Zach pushed away the pillows and stood up. He tossed the pillows toward the chairs. “Buff guy? Likely to beat me up? Not that I wouldn’t fight for you. I totally would. You are completely fight worthy.”

She put her hand on his wrist, stopping him from chucking the next pillow. “Zach?”

“Sorry, but it’s somewhat of a shock to kiss the girl of your dreams and then find out she already has a boyfriend. I kind of wish you’d told me that earlier, except that I probably wouldn’t have kissed you, and there goes fodder for my dreams for the next decade.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Did you mean what you said? You’d rather kiss me?”

She nodded. “You don’t play games.”

“Great. What a rousing endorsement next to Pretty Boy.” He took a deep breath. “Sorry, sorry, sorry. Jealousy is ugly, isn’t it? I’ll stop. You’re here with me. That’s good.” He tried a smile.

She saw him try, and she touched his cheek. “Kiss me again,” she suggested.

A real smile lit up his face. “Yes, ma’am.” He leaned in toward her. As his lips pressed against hers, she heard paper rustle, and she felt wind in her hair. Her feet stayed firmly on the carpet, but she felt something brush against her back. She broke away.

Books flew in circles around them.

Zach grinned wide. “It worked.”

He’d worked this magic … through her? Using her magic? He kissed her again joyfully, and the books flocked to the ceiling.

Breaking the kiss, they watched the books fly. A pair circled and spiraled. A few flew in a line, rising and falling. One flapped closer to another, and a third dove toward them, opening and shutting its pages furiously, as if jealous. Eve laughed out loud. Zach was laughing too. Holding each other, they laughed as the bird-books flew around them.

At last, the books slowed, and they sank one by one toward the floor. They collapsed, strewn around the reading room, fluttering their pages up and down until at last they all lay still at Eve and Zach’s feet.

One of the librarians halted in the doorway to the reading room. “What—”

Books had fallen everywhere, spine up onto pillows, pages bent, upside down.

Eve and Zach leaped apart.

The librarian’s eyes were so wide that the whites were visible in a ring around his irises. He looked like a startled horse, Eve thought—and then she wondered when she’d been near a horse. She could picture one, yoked to a carnival wagon. Its eyes were wild, and it strained against its harness. Distracted by the memory, she didn’t answer. Instead, Zach did.

“I can work magic when I kiss her,” Zach said.

Blood began to rush to the librarian’s face, tinting his neck and cheeks a ruddy pink. His mouth opened and shut, but words didn’t come out.

Quickly, Eve said, “We tried a new shelving technique. It didn’t work well.”

Color faded from the librarian’s cheeks, and he began to breathe again. “Okay. You … uh, clean this up before the patrons come in, or Patti will have your heads.”

Eve nodded.

The librarian retreated, looking back at them several times.

“You lied easily.” Zach bent to pick up the books. She joined him and didn’t know what to say. He was right.

Halfway through cleanup, she saw a hint of movement outside one of the reading-room windows. She looked up to focus on it. Shrouded in shadows, a hooded face was pressed against the glass. Someone watching her. And then the face was gone.

Clutching the books, Eve went to the window. No one was there.

“Eve?”

She retreated from the window. “Nothing. Everything’s fine.” That lie was easy to say too.

Chapter Nine

Safely behind a curtain, Eve studied Aidan through the library lobby window. He was leaning against his car in front of the entrance next to a NO PARKING sign. His hands were loosely in his pockets, his ankles were crossed, and his face, eyes closed, was tilted up toward the sun. He looked entirely at ease, as if he belonged there.

“Is that Pretty Boy?” Zach was behind her. His breath was soft on her neck.

Aidan was Pretty Boy. He looked like an airbrushed model in one of Aunt Nicki’s magazines. Seeing him, though, made her want to run in the opposite direction, which didn’t make sense if she was supposed to be with him. “He’s supposed to take me to lunch with his friends. I think.”

“Are you going?” Zach’s voice was neutral.

Malcolm had said she’d asked for the lunches. But she didn’t remember. How could she be committed when she didn’t remember? She thought of Aidan kissing her, and her fingers touched her lips.

Aidan stretched, pulling his arm across his torso and then over his head. His chest muscles flexed. He rolled his neck as if he were limbering up.

Eve stepped away from the window. She faced Zach. Behind him, she noticed Patti Langley at the circulation desk. Her hands processed books, scanning them, demagnetizing them, and handing them to patrons, but her eyes were glued to Eve, as always.

“No,” Eve said to Zach. “I’m not.”

“Are you going to tell him that you aren’t going?” Zach’s hands were shoved in his pockets, but he didn’t look anywhere near as comfortable as Aidan. In fact, he shifted from foot to foot as if nails poked into the soles of his feet.

“No.” She felt herself smiling, though she couldn’t explain why.

“You can escape through the back door in the staff room,” Zach said. “Get a couple blocks away and then call your aunt to pick you up.”

“I want to go with you.” She didn’t plan to say it, but the words felt right—the same way it felt right not to