“Do you?” he mused, brushing his lips over hers, tempted to take all that she offered. “I thought you wanted to murder me for it this morning.”

“That, too,” she acknowledged. “Imagine my confusion.”

“How can I help?” he asked, trailing his lips along her swanlike throat, succumbing to temptation and sliding his hand up to her core, so very hot and wet.

She shivered at his touch. “You’re doing it. I need you, Gabriel.”

“Then who am I to refuse my heart when she asks so—”

A knock on the library doors interrupted them, Nic groaning in frustration. “Don’t answer.”

“The doors aren’t locked.”

“Then lock them,” she replied with meaningfully arched brows.

Ah, right. “Later,” he called out to whoever it was, aware of how sexually hoarse his voice sounded as he summoned silver nails to seal the doors.

“Lord Phel!” Asa’s voice sounded both urgent and amused. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but you’re urgently needed in the wizard’s workshop.” He paused. “There’s some sort of monster on the loose.”

~ 10 ~

“Jadren,” Gabriel growled, stepping away from her and tugging down her skirts as he did. Nic allowed herself to whimper a little at the loss. “On my way,” he called to Asa. Taking her by the waist in his big hands, and not how she’d been fantasizing he would, he lifted her off the window seat and set her on her feet. “Will you come with me, in case I need your help?”

“Of course,” she replied without hesitation, giving him her hand and not reminding him that he didn’t need to ask. Gabriel did need to ask, for his own sake, and she was learning to respect that. “Dare I ask what this has to do with Jadren?”

Holding firmly to her hand, Gabriel strode across the library. “I gave him the key to the workshop not a quarter of an hour ago—and expressly warned him away from the pit.” He yanked the door open to a worried-looking Asa, Laryn at his side. “Why are you the messenger?” he demanded of the Refoel wizard.

“I’m told there are injuries,” Asa answered, hastening to catch up, as Gabriel hadn’t paused in his angry strides. “But the door is locked and no one can get in.”

“How did he get a message out, then?” Nic asked over her shoulder, as Gabriel still had ahold of her hand, pulling her along beside him.

“He’d taken a few apprentice wizards inside with him,” Asa explained, “and sent one out to fetch me.”

“Idiots,” Gabriel snarled, circumnavigating the long table in the dining hall and charging through the adjoining receiving room to pass through the open door to the arcade. “Disobedient fool.”

Nic took a depth breath—partly because she needed it with Gabriel rushing her along, her shorter legs no match for his stride—and partly to enjoy the sweet, spring-fresh, and sun-warmed air streaming through the gracious arched open windows of the arcade. She was glad she and Sage had decided not to glass these windows in yet. The glass wizard had pointed out that the deep outer eaves of the windows seemed to be designed to shelter the interior from all but the worst downpours, and that the parquet floors made from the water-resistant tectona trees should withstand damp. In point of fact, they already had survived full immersion, being underwater for decades until just recently. That they’d recovered fully was partially Gabriel’s wizardry at work, but some might be from enchantments embedded in the architecture by his Phel ancestors.