“I did. I also saw her eyes momentarily turn black.”
I have no idea if I meant for the second part to slip out but the look on Gunner’s face told me I should have kept it to myself.
“Excuse me?” His eyes went wide. “They turned black? How is that possible?”
“The Archimage,” I stated. “She absorbed it.”
He waited a beat and then let his exasperation take over. “And?”
I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling. “The book was full of magic. Not all of it was dark, though a lot of it was.”
“Does that mean Zoe is evil?”
“No.” I meant that to my very core. “She’s not even remotely evil. The book is ever present inside of her, though. I can’t pretend to understand why she did what she did the day she absorbed the book, but she must’ve thought she had no other choice. I’d heard the story but I kind of forgot about it. Actually, I discarded it. There have been so many stories about this particular mage that I figured, in reality, there had to be three different mages and some idiot simply screwed up and attributed all the stories to one individual.”
“Obviously that’s not the case,” Gunner said dryly.
I shook my head. “Not by a long shot. She’s everything they said she was, and more. On top of the magic, which is impressive, she’s also a wife and mother. Somehow she manages to do it all.”
He was quiet, and when I risked a glance, I found him grinning. Suddenly, I felt self-conscious. “What?”
“You have a total chick crush on her,” he teased, poking my side.
I squirmed and pinned him with a dirty look. “I don’t have a chick crush on her.”
“You do so. It might not be a romantic crush, but you’re totally gaga for her.”
I opened my mouth, prepared to argue, and then sighed. Technically, he wasn’t wrong. “I don’t have a crush on her. I just want to be that together one day.”
“Are you suggesting you’re not together? Because, from where I’m standing — er, laying — you seem pretty together to me. I’ve dated my share of women throughout the years and you’re definitely my favorite.”
I shot him a withering look that didn’t hold. “I don’t want to hear about all the other women you’ve dated.”
He snickered. “I’m just saying that you’re the most together person I know.”
“Except I’m not.” I rolled to a sitting position, keeping my knee pressed to his side to maintain contact. Mornings spent together were my favorite part of our days. “I tend to fly by the seat of my pants. I only come up with a plan at the last second. Zoe always has a plan, and that includes making hard decisions to keep Sami safe.”
“That’s a necessity for them.” He plucked my hand from the bedspread and traced the lines on my palm. “We don’t have kids. We can’t truly understand what they go through on a daily basis, though our lives might become similar down the line.”
My heart skipped a beat. “It’s probably too early to talk about that,” I said. “We’ve only been dating a few months.”
His grin was lightning quick. “Am I freaking you out?”
“Of course not.” That was a lie. I was totally freaked out. “In fact ...” The sound of a vehicle rolling to a stop outside the bedroom window caught my attention and I forgot what I was going to say. I stood to look but Gunner was already on his feet.
“It’s them,” he said ominously.
I peered around his shoulder and saw Aric, Zoe, and Sami jump out of a vehicle. They looked to be arguing, although the glass muted their words.
“There went the neighborhood,” I quipped, going for levity.
Gunner’s frown was prominent. “I don’t want to be the complainer here, but why can’t they give us our morning routine? I’m not ready to face the world.”
“Zoe strikes me as the sort of person who believes everybody should suffer if she has to.”
“Good point.” He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “I guess I should put on some pants.”
“Only if you’re not okay with Sami ogling you.”
He sighed. “She makes me distinctly uncomfortable.”
“It’s going to be worse now that she doesn’t have the vampire to focus on.”
“I hadn’t even considered that.”
I poked his side and gave him a wink. “Be afraid.”
“Oh, I am. I’m very, very afraid.”
“WE BROUGHT BREAKFAST,” ARIC ANNOUNCED, holding out two bags of food and pinning me with an apologetic look. “I thought we should call before showing up but Zoe thought otherwise.”
I could read between the lines of what he was saying. “It’s okay.” I offered him a reassuring smile. “We weren’t doing anything anyway.”
Gunner had managed to pull on a shirt, although it was old and ratty. The look he shot me said he disagreed. “Actually ...”
Aric barreled forward before he could kick out his family. “Zoe might have information.”
“And Sami looks to be having a meltdown.” I folded my arms over my chest and grinned as I watched the teenager verbally attack her normally unflappable mother with gusto in front of Aric’s vehicle.
“It’s beyond a meltdown at this point.” Aric adopted a glazed expression. “When she gets like this, I realize that as much as she looks like me, it’s Zoe fueling that mouth of hers.”
I accepted the bags of food, holding them up to hide my smirk. “It’s okay. If you guys have information, we want to hear it.”
“That’s good,” Zoe announced, a bit of added swagger in her step as she moved away from the truck and toward me. “The information is for you.”
I furrowed my brow. “How?”
“I think the better question should be why,” Gunner countered. “I mean, why is that the focus?”
“Thank you!” Sami threw her hands into the air, glaring at Zoe when the older woman jabbed a quelling finger in her direction. “Oh, don’t look at
