Oh God. He was doing it again. “He used to be,” I said loudly, leaning across the table to pull Professor Anders’s hand from Al and making the woman start. “He disowned me recently for dabbling in elven magic.”

“Dabbling?” Al growled. “You’re covered in it.”

Professor Anders’s eyes widened as she pulled up her second sight. “Holy seraph spit,” she said, blinking fast. “Is that safe?”

David sat up, gaze flicking from Trent’s proudly defiant expression and Al’s disgusted one. “What? What’s wrong with Rachel?”

Vivian’s whistle made me flush. “Ah, that can’t be healthy,” the woman said, and Jenks went to sit on David’s shoulder and fill him in.

“Can we get back to the topic, please?” I said, flushing.

“You look sparkly, Rache,” Jenks said, wings clattering. “You must have gotten some last night, eh? Matalina used to glow for hours after we—”

“Shut up!” I exclaimed, and even Mark, behind the counter, chuckled.

“Fascinating,” Professor Anders said, making me jerk back when she tried to touch my aura, apparently glowing from the mystics. “You practice elf magic, too? This is what happens without formal instruction. Why don’t elves glow?”

Jenks rose up, clearly enjoying being the center of attention. “Because elves don’t have bits of the Goddess bonded to them like Rachel does.”

I scrunched down when the narrow-faced woman pinned me under her stare. “How does this impact your ability to do magic? Can you tap a line?”

The rest of the table was beginning to stir uncomfortably, and I winced.

“I’m sorry, Professor,” Trent said, interrupting. “I’m more than happy to take you and Rachel out to lunch to discuss this in further detail, but we need to come up with a course of action and I still don’t know what was decided.”

I touched his foot with mine in thanks, but I thought it was his desire to get on with this more than anything else. It had been awful watching him fidget this morning, excluded from what was once his domain. I think he missed this more than the money or the notoriety.

Jenks dipped a cup of coffee out of my own cup. “Yeah, we have to save the world first before you can work on your next paper—Professor.”

“Okay.” Trent scooted his chair up, hand touching his breast pocket as if looking for a pen. “Landon is using the situation to try and kill the vampires through their lack of a soul. His method will further remove the source of magic so as to eliminate the threat of demons and witches—all to ensure elf survival. I simply fail to understand how Cormel can still believe Landon has his best interests in mind.”

David pulled himself straight, his smile at my expense gone. “I think everyone is more scared of a world without master vampires than one without magic.”