Stolen Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress Book 3) Read Free Page A

 
    Though now that I looked at it from his perspective, disappearing hadn’t been great either.
    “I’m sorry. That was bad of me. I’ve got a good reason.” I cringed. “Maybe not a good reason, but one that has nothing to do with you. It was all me. Being weird. I’m sorry.”
    “I like you weird. But I’d like you better if you talked to me.”
    “Fair enough. But later? I’m headed somewhere.”
    “Where to?” Aidan asked.
    “Dr. Garriso wants to see me about the Chalice of Youth.” My heart pounded at the idea of finally figuring out what it was. “So I’ve got to run. Meet you later tonight?”
    “Why don’t I come with?”
    “Uhhh.” I’d gotten used to having him at my side, but were we going to make it a regular thing? Would I like that?  
    There was only one way to find out. “Yeah, all right. Let’s go. But I’m driving.”
      “Fine by me.”
    I turned to cross the street toward my old junker, but Aidan’s hand caught my arm. I shivered. Gently, he pulled me back.  
    “Hang on.” His voice sounded rough. “I haven’t had a chance to do this yet.”
    My eyes darted up, meeting his dark gaze. Heat flared in its depths, igniting the same within me. He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine, stealing my breath. My head swam as his mouth moved against mine.  
    He was the best kisser—his lips soft and skilled and his taste divine. My heart threatened to break my ribs. Just as I clenched my fists in his shirt, he pulled away.
    “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go find out about that chalice. You seemed excited.”
    What I was excited about was kissing him. Tension had raged between us for almost a month now, but between running for our lives and being called away by work, we hadn’t had a chance to actually act on anything yet.  
    It was getting to be about damned time, if my heart rate was any indication.
      “Yeah, let’s go,” I said. “Were getting rained on anyway.”
    “Oh, I could ignore the rain.”  
    I grinned and punched him in the shoulder, then turned away.  
    We crossed the street quickly, heading toward the park on the other side. Ancient Magic and P & P were located on Factory Row, the recently revitalized old factory district of Magic’s Bend. Rent was low and the company was weird, but that’s what I liked about it.  
    We climbed into Cecelia, my old junker with chipped paint and a spotty engine. It sputtered and coughed as I cranked it, but when the engine finally turned over, I wanted to cheer.
    “You know, you could afford a new car with your take from your last job,” Aidan said.
    I pulled onto the street. “Yeah, but I don’t care about cars. Cecelia here will do me just fine.”
    The four million I’d made on my last job—a record haul even for me—was going toward increased concealment charms for myself and my deirfiúr and protection spells for our apartments and shop. Not to mention my trove.  
    FireSouls were said to share the soul of a dragon, though no one had seen a dragon in centuries. Considering the fact that my deirfiúr and I were as covetous as dragons eyeing a pile of gold, I believed it. We thought it was the dragon’s covetousness that gave us our special sense for finding treasure. The rest of that four million would go towards padding my trove—a collection of leather jackets, boots, and weapons. It might be weird treasure, but it was mine.
      It didn’t take long to drive through Magic’s Bend, a medium-sized city of supernaturals. We chatted about Aidan’s trip as the tall buildings of the business district passed by in all their sterile glory, giving way to the quirky structures in the historic district where the good bars were located, and then by Darklane, where everybody knew the dark magic practitioners hung out.
      “Here we are,” I said as we pulled into the large parking lot at the Museum of Magical History. The rain had lightened up while we were driving, but I still sprinted towards the back