A Kiss of Magic: A Kiss of Magic Book One (8 page)

“Let us not play tit for tat. We are not keeping an accounting of things. You do not owe me and I do not owe you. This will be a shared relationship where no one is indebted to the other.”

He stepped out of the tub and held a hand out to her. She took it and he helped her out. He reached for a small table that had towels resting on top of it and grabbed two of the large, thick towels, handing one to her.

“Cover up before I am distracted from my good intentions by the sight of your delectable body.”

She hastened to do so, color staining her cheeks, but he saw her soft lips turn up in a smile. He swathed his hips in his towel, tucking it in securely. Then he took her elbow in hand and guided her to the door. He walked her all the way to her room and urged her inside.

“Dress yourself. And try not to look so…devourable.”

She laughed. “I wouldn’t even begin to know how to do that.”

“Do your best. It will be time for dinner in a few short hours and I would like to show you the rest of the villa and its grounds before then so you are familiar with them. You should be free to roam about as you desire…only I don’t wish for you to get lost your first day here.”

“All right. I’ll get dressed.” She quickly ducked into her room.

Dendri stood outside of her door a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. He had to tread carefully here. It wouldn’t take much of a misstep to lose her trust. She was so open to trusting…but she was also vulnerable. He wanted there to be no opportunity for her to be hurt. The trouble was…his was a dangerous world. He moved in circles with men and women of great power. People like Illa and Orto Desro, her parents. Power meant everything to them. Not only what they had, but what they could gain. And how they measured up against one another. It was often a game of one-upmanship. She wasn’t yet prepared for a world like that. A world that was already eager to devour her. The crowd outside of her apartment was proof of that. So no, he would do nothing to shake her trust in him…for she would need a strong ally in the days and months to come.

He would be that ally.

And outside of the little non, Bess, he would be her only ally. But Bess would not be able to protect her as he could. So, it was essential that he keep her confidence.

Dendri turned and headed to his room.

Chapter Six

The grounds of Dendri’s villa were beyond extensive. He had his own winery and brewery, and his own vast gardens for growing the foods needed for his household. In fact, his home was fully independent of anyone around them, not requiring any supplies from the outside excepting the exotic like silk and rare spices. He had majji come in from the outside for a variety of maintenance issues, but mostly he employed nons to do the work around the grounds. In fact, he had whole families living on the grounds. Farmers and other tenants who worked the land or tended the cattle for him, keeping the house in all its needs and supplying many others in either trade or commerce. From what she could see as they took a buggy ride around the grounds, everyone was happy. Most of them waved to Dendri as they passed by, some even coming up to the buggy to exchange words of greeting or details of information related to whatever farming or trade was being conducted by that person.

It was quite overwhelming. And quite impressive. She was sure she hadn’t even begun to see all of it before they were forced to turn back and return to the house in order to make it back in time for dinner.

When they returned the table was set lavishly, each setting laid precisely with each spoon and fork set for each individual course to come. Yasra was used to such accouterments but Bess was clearly intimidated. Having been seated on either side of Dendri, the table sat between them and she could not lend comfort to her friend. However, when each course was laid, Yasra made sure to make eye contact with Bess and purposefully picked up the appropriate spoon or fork and waited until Bess had mirrored her actions. She gave Yasra a grateful smile each time.

“I barely gave Cook enough time to prepare for all of us, so I am afraid it is nothing too special,” Dendri apologized. “But tomorrow we will have a celebratory supper. My friends Jory, Wil and Tyron will come as well as Jory’s sisters Olla and Myra. You should enjoy their company as I am sure they will enjoy yours.”

At this both Bess’s and Yasra’s faces drained of color. Dendri felt the dread that came over the two women and chuckled.

“Come now…they will not bite you. I can assure you they are all very nice people. I would not set the sharks on you so soon. The bonus of being a twentieth level Aspano is that I can see into the true heart of most people with ease. Will you take my word for it?”

“Yes of course,” Yasra said. She lifted her chin. “I should like to meet these friends. Are they Aspano like you?”

“Olla is a high level Aspano. Fifteenth I believe. It is a challenge for me to read her, but I think I have seen enough to know her well enough. The others are all from the other houses. There is a fair mix of them. Jory and Myra are Vendii and two of the most talented weather majji I’ve seen. Wil is Padoni, and I’ve seen none better with animals and the things of nature than he is and Tyron, it may interest you to know, is Necromay. You can learn a lot from Tyron.”

“Oh yes! I should like to meet a high level Necromay. I can learn how to channel spirits and send messages and stave off death from the ill. Oh there’s so much!”

“Easy now. One step at a time. Seeing spirit is enough for a beginner. Do you still see my mother?”

“No.” She frowned. “Is that bad?”

“No. It only means you have to focus and concentrate very hard to see spirit. It will come with more ease as you go. Also spirit is not always there. They have better things to do then hang around us all day.” He winked. “They have to give us our privacy.”

Yasra blushed as she thought about what kind of spirits might have seen them in the bath earlier.

“Oh! I wish you had not told me that! Now I will be worried I am being watched all the time.” She frowned. “Can I see if there are spirits around me?”

“There are always spirits around a Necromay. How else can you conduct messages? You will find spirits will seek you out now in order to get you to find their loved ones and bring them messages. But you can control what you see and hear and you must ignore them when you don’t want them to intrude on your life.”

“Oh dear,” she whispered.

“You mustn’t let it inhibit you,” he said firmly. “You have a life to live in the physical world that will have nothing to do with death.”

“All right. I’ll try.”

“And you will succeed. I have faith in you.”

“At least someone does,” she muttered.

He smiled at that. “It seems we’re done eating. Let’s go into the library. I should like you to see all of my books again. They pleased you well enough the first time. Although I forbid you to remove any more copies just now. You have already taken with you more than you can read in a week and I should like to think I will garner at least some of your attention during that week.”

A week? Did he really intend for her to stay that long? Yasra felt a confusion of excitement, delight and trepidation. She didn’t want him to think she was moving in with him. She would need her own space if she was going to wrap her mind around all that had happened. Besides, surely he wouldn’t want her intruding on his life for that long. He had a very busy life by the look of it. Running his estate alone would take up most of a week, never mind the majic he was hired to perform.

She wondered how much it would cost to hire a man like Dendri Adiron to perform majic for them. He must be beyond expensive, only the wealthiest of families being able to afford such power. Families of power and position would require Dendri for all manner of things…mostly reading the minds and intents of others in a business arrangement or perhaps even a governmental negotiation.

What would a person pay her one day? For the first time Yas realized she had a marketable skill now. Sure, she was only a novice, barely able to call herself 1
st
level Necromay, but she was also Gestalt. It would be like a one stop shopping trip for people to come to her and Dendri. Come one come all, all your majical needs taken care of by two majji instead of five. One of whom was the infamous Dendri Adiron.

“With your skill level,” she said aloud, “you will master the other houses quickly and easily.”

Dendri turned to her with a raised brow and she realized she had spoken aloud what should have been part of a conversation with herself.

“It is true that I am well- schooled in focus and tapping power, but trust me when I say I will be just as raw as you are with each house I am learning anew.”

“Really?” Yasra took comfort in that. Suddenly she didn’t feel as if she were the only one who would have to make large adjustments. That she would not be the only one feeling out of their depth. Still, Dendri had a confidence and way of carrying himself that she would never be able to achieve. She was too…too unsure of herself. That wasn’t likely to change just because she could suddenly use majic. Oh, she was confident in her book smarts…and she had grown up in a wealthy household so was familiar with what it was like to be around people of power, but she had always felt like others had looked at her and found her wanting. She wasn’t so sure that was going to change.

They moved into the library and Dendri sat down. A footman appeared and poured out three glasses of port for them, placing them on a tray, he held it out to each of the ladies and then the gentleman. Bess sipped at the red wine timidly and Yasra put her glass down on the table next to the settee she and Bess were perched upon.

“Tomorrow I shall show you more of the estate. I want both of you ladies to be familiar with it,” Dendri said.

“I don’t see why,” Yasra blurted out. “We’re not staying overly long.”

Dendri absorbed this statement quietly a moment.

“I am hoping you will stay at least long enough for the furor to die down. There will be a great deal of pandemonium around the fact that we are Gestalt.”

She knew he was right, but she didn’t want to wear out her welcome.

“Yasra, you will be safest here,” he said then. “The estate is surrounded by a very high wall and is gated off. That will discourage many from thinking they can simply waltz up to the front door and bang on it hoping to catch a glimpse of us. I will hire a series of guards to patrol the grounds around the main house just the same. A wall is not enough to prevent someone truly determined to get in.” He frowned. “Do you understand what I’m saying? There are those who would rather not see a Gestalt couple exist at all. They know the best time to strike will be while our abilities are still nascent.”

Yasra paled. “Surely you don’t think that someone will try to hurt us?”

“I do think it. In fact, I know it.”

“But why?”

“Jealousy. Feeling threatened. Political, business or some other kind of rivalry.”

“Oh Yas,” Bess said in a small voice.

“Now Bess. It’s not as bad as all that,” Yasra reassured her even though she herself was in need of reassurance. Dendri looked as though he wanted to argue with her for a moment, but then let the matter slide for the time being.

“Just the same, it would put my mind at ease if I could keep a close eye on you…at least for the beginning of all this. Until you are stronger,” he said.

“But that could take weeks. Months even!”

“Have you somewhere else to be?” he asked her.

“Well…no. Not exactly.”

She had been focused so much on what she would do once she failed to test out, that she had no plans for what she would do should she succeed. She and Bess lived such a quiet, simple life. Now all of that would change. She looked over to Bess and could see by her friend’s quietly anxious expression that she was realizing the same thing. She was wondering, no doubt, where her place in Yasra’s future would be.

“Whatever we do, we’ll do it together,” she said, reaching out to cover one of Bess’s cold hands with her own. Bess gave her a wan smile and took a deep swallow of her port. She coughed, clearly unused to a wine that was meant to be savored in small doses.

“You are both welcome here as long as it takes for us to ride out these beginning trials,” Dendri said.

He couldn’t have known how much it meant to Yasra that he was making Bess feel included and important, but surely he had not been planning on being saddled with two unexpected women in his life? He lived the life of a bachelor. He was no doubt used to the freedoms such a life afforded. Just because he had shown some interest in a physical relationship with Yasra did not mean he intended for it to last for any length of time. It did not mean there was a promise of exclusivity.

And there was the sticking point. Yasra was not the type of woman to give herself casually to any man that paid her attention. True, not many had paid attention to her in the first place, but still. She flushed when she thought of the liberties she had allowed him already. He certainly wouldn’t have known that by her behavior to date. She had practically stripped and jumped into bed with him from the moment she had met him. Their sex majic had been so powerful, so unlike anything she had ever experienced. The real life sexual play had been just as extraordinary. She flushed warmly from head to toe as she thought of the way he had brought her to orgasm so easily. She glanced his way and could swear the smile he shot her was positively wolfish. Did he know what she was thinking? Of course he did! He was Aspano!

A flush tinged her cheeks and she looked away from him. She couldn’t look at his handsome visage for too long without feeling overwhelmed.

“It’s been a long day,” Dendri said then, setting aside his empty glass. It was quickly swept away by the footman, the servant moving like a barely seen ghost. “Perhaps it would be best for all of us to head to bed. Yasra, you have expended a great deal of majic for a beginner. You must be tired.”

She hadn’t realized she was until he said as much. But she was concerned that he would try to come to her bed that night. She didn’t think she was ready for that.

“You’re right. Come Bess,” she said, reaching to yank her friend to her feet by a hand. “We shall sleep together tonight. Then I won’t feel so alone in this big house.”

Bess dropped her glass on a table as she was swept past it. Yasra dared a look at Dendri, only to find his eyes shining with amusement. She turned her attention away and drew Bess at a clip down the halls.

“Yas! Slow down!” Bess cried.

Yasra immediately slowed her pace as they neared the bedroom she was staying in. She hurried Bess in and shut the door. Leaning back against it once it was shut, Yasra exhaled a relieved sigh.

“What’s wrong with you?” Bess asked, honestly perplexed by her friend’s behavior.

Yasra thought for a moment about keeping everything to herself, but it was only a moment. Then suddenly she was rushing to tell Bess everything that had happened once they had separated company earlier that day.

Bess giggled. “Oh Yas, you goose! There’s nothing wrong with a man finding you attractive! In fact, I think it is well overdue.”

Yasra bustled across the room and went to her satchel. She began to hunt for her nightgown, refusing to meet Bess’s eyes.

“You’re supposed to advise me to be cautious,” Yasra said with a frown. “You’re supposed to tell me how unwise it would be for me to get involved with a man I know almost nothing about!”

“Well then you are going to need to tell a different friend, for I am not about to do so. Not a physical involvement. However, I will warn you not to invest anything in him emotionally.”