“Good to hear. I’m fine, but…” I lean close to his ear, and we walk away from the dancing. “Tully lied about the moonpetals, and honestly, I’m just embarrassed we, um…”
He takes my hand and tucks it into the crook of his big arm. “I feel intoxicated every moment I’m with you, Laini. We don’t need magical plants to improve the spark between us.”
“It’s true,” I say. “But I’m still angry with Tully.”
“Me too.”
I ease my head against his arm as we walk toward the cider cart. Tiny lanterns shaped like stars hang from the open window.
A slow clapping sounds to our right, and Leo walks up. My stomach drops to my knees, but I force my chin up. I look right into his stupid eyes.
“Leo, don’t ruin your father’s lovely party. Just leave us alone.”
Rom covers my hand with his, and he squeezes my fingers in support.
Leo snorts. “I’m not the one mating like wild animals just a few feet from a public gathering.”
My head goes light, and I grip Rom’s arm tightly. “It’s none of your business, Leo.”
“Fuck off, Leo,” Rom says.
A thrill shoots through my body at the sound of Rom’s menacing tone.
“This is my family’s manor, gargoyle. You are our employee. If anyone is fucking off, it’ll be youand your slut.”
The ground trembles and stones burst from the soil. Leo is suddenly wrapped in rock-like lines of heavy rope. He gasps and is pressed to the earth by the stone magic.
I can’t stop staring. Finally, I’m seeing Rom’s stone magic.
“Rom?”
His gaze is wide, panicked. I keep hold of his arm. “It’s all right. Just breathe.”
Rom swears, leaves me, and approaches Leo. He waves his taloned hand over Leo and whispers some barely audible words in a language I don’t know.
“He’s killing me!” Leo shouts as the stones shake and hold him fast. “Someone stop him?—”
A band of solid rock covers Leo’s mouth. The whites of his eyes show all around his tawny irises. His body shimmers, and then he shifts into his lion form, fur rolling down his arms and legs to replace clothing. Fully shifted, he is larger now, and he is even more tightly stuck in the stone magic formation.
The crowd rushes over to see, and the silence is horrible, broken only by Leo’s snarls. Several of us eye Tully because she is the most powerful magic worker in town.
Tully puts a hand on her hip and studies Leo. “Don’t look at me, everyone. I’m glad you shut his gob, Romulus.”
A spot between my breasts tingles, and a scent like the sandalwood incense the spice merchant burns at her cart rises into my nose. I look around, my fingers going to my chest, but I don’t have time to wonder what it is because Rom makes one last hand movement, and the rock trapping Leo breaks into dust.
The crowd gasps as one, and I reach for him.
“Rom, it’s all right.”
“Meet me at my tower,” he says, then he takes off like an arrow shot into the night sky.
My heart stammers and squeezes. Magic glimmers over Leo, and he is in his human form again, his face flushed a dark red.
“He is a danger,” Leo spews. “We must drive him out of town.” He looks up where Rom disappeared into a cloud bank, and then he brushes debris from his tunic sleeves.
Harton runs a hand over his black and white head of hair. “Agreed.”
“A menace to Leafshire, certainly,” Tam agrees.
