His attention went from the scar on my wrist to the ceiling. “But you…” he drawled.

I shook my head and sipped my drink, my back to the game. “I told you it was an accident. I’m not a ley line witch. I took a class is all. Well, half of one. The instructor died before the class was finished.”

He blinked in disbelief. “Dr. Anders?” he blurted. “You had a class with Dr. Anders?”

“You knew her?” I pulled myself straighter.

“I’ve heard of her.” He leaned close. “She was the best ley line witch east of the Mississippi. I came out here to take classes from her. She was supposed to be the best.”

“She was,” I said, depressed. She was going to help get Nick unbound as my familiar. Now, not only was the spell book gone, but she was dead and all her knowledge with her. I jerked upright as I realized I had been wool gathering. “So, you’re a student?” I asked.

Lee rested his elbows on the rail, watching the dice skitter and roll behind me. “Road scholar,” he said shortly. “I got my degree years ago from Berkeley.”

“Oh, I’d love to see the coast some time,” I said, playing with my necklace and wondering how much of this conversation had turned into exaggeration. “Doesn’t the salt make everything difficult?”

He shrugged. “Not so much for ley line witches. I feel bad for earth witches, locked into a path that has no power.”

My mouth dropped open. No power? Hardly. Earth magic’s strength stemmed from ley lines as much as ley line witches’ spells. That it was filtered through plants made it more forgiving, and perhaps slower, but no less powerful. There wasn’t a ley line charm written that could physically change a person’s form. Now that was power. Chalking it up to ignorance, I let it slide lest I drive him away before I got a chance to know just how big of a jerk he was, first.

“Look at me,” he said, clearly recognizing that he had stuck his foot so far down his throat that his toes might wiggle out of his ass. “Here I am bothering you, when you probably want to play some before your boyfriend gets back.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said, not as excited as I could be for the subtle inquiry as to my attached status. “I told him he couldn’t take me out on a decent date for sixty dollars, and he accepted the challenge.”

Lee ran his eyes over the casino. “How’s it going?”