No.

Disbelief rushed through Shay’s head. The rush of magic that filled the room was profound and blinding. The entire shop filled with a powerful energy. Shay instinctually closed his eyes against the brightness, but even with his hands cupped hard over his eyes, the light still found a way in.

The flash lingered for a full second before dissipating. Shay didn’t dare wait any longer before opening his eyes. The blast had been strong, but if he had survived it, then chances were so had Marrow and his men.

Sparkles still danced in Shay’s vision as he spun around, looking for the aftermath of the violent display of power…but there was none. Everything was as it should be. The bookshelves were upright. The papers on the counter were undisturbed. Fenrir still stood with his arms wrapped protectively around Emily. Geoffrey Merlin was hunched over, his arm shielding his eyes.

But Marrow and his men were no longer standing in front of them.

They were gone. Just gone.

But only them. There was no sign of destruction. No blood or smoke. No discarded weapons and armor piled on the floor. The windows and doors were intact, strong and sturdy as ever.

The magic had simply removed the threat.

A banishing spell.

Simple, powerful, and effective—brilliant in its simplicity.

She’d done it.

The bottom dropped out of Shay’s stomach. She’d done it.

Nicole.

She wasn’t there.

Without another thought, Shay propelled himself over the top of the counter, his legs knocking over piles of books in his haste. His heart clenched before his boots hit the ground.

She was on the floor, her body limp. Her arms and legs were crumpled beneath her. She hadn’t been able to catch herself when she fell. She hadn’t been conscious.

It was no wonder. That much power was never meant to be funneled through a mortal woman.

Dozens of questions rushed through his mind. What had she been thinking? Why had she used the grimoire? Why did she have it in the first place? Where had she been hiding it? Most importantly, how did she know how to use magic?

She didn’t, Shay realized.

The book had known how to use her.

Shay hadn’t been prepared for the thrum of power the grimoire had given off when Nicole had first slammed it down on the counter. No one had been. As far as they knew, nothing that powerful had ever been smuggled out of the Realm before.

It seemed they were wrong.

That became clear the moment golden beams of light had surged up from the book and into Nicole’s heart.

He’d tried to stop her. He’d called out to her. There was no way a mortal could survive the power of that much magic.

Shay bent down over her limp body. Her chest wasn’t moving. Her face was completely slack.

No.

He slid his arms underneath her back and scooped her off the ground, easily lifting her deadweight. She didn’t stir. Not even a whisper of breath drifted out of her open mouth.

No.

Cradling her against his body, Shay swept his arm across the counter, tossing aside the books and papers.

“Oh my God. Nicole.”

Shay glanced up to see Emily struggling against Fenrir’s hold. Shay nodded and the wolf let her break free. Emily rushed to her friend’s side. “What the hell happened to her?”

Shay shook his head. The specifics didn’t matter. Explanations could wait until later. All that mattered now were the effects.

“She’s not breathing.” A cold sensation seeped into his blood. He placed his hand over the center of her chest and felt the faintest of flutters. “Her heart is fading fast.”

“Not if I can help it.” Emily pulled herself up on the counter and straddled Nicole’s chest. Placing one hand over the other, she began to rhythmically pound against Nicole’s breastbone.

“What are you doing?” Shay demanded.

“CPR,” she said, exertion filling her words. “I’m trying to keep her heart going until we can get her to a hospital.”

Shay shook his head. “Your doctors won’t be able to help her.”

“Then find somebody who can,” Emily shouted, obviously not willing to give up on her friend.

Shay shot his gaze over to Merlin. They shared a tense look. Both of them knew what had to be done. Just like they knew Merlin was the only one who could do it.

Shay ground his teeth. As much as he hated the idea of giving Merlin access to all the unchained magic floating through Nicole’s body, he hated the idea of losing her even more.

Shay nodded toward the magician. “Do it.”

Geoffrey Merlin nodded back, and began rolling up his sleeves.

Shay didn’t dwell on the decision. He’d made his choice. Maybe it was mistake; maybe it wasn’t. The only thing that mattered now was keeping Nicole alive long enough for the magician to do his job.

He turned toward Emily, who was still pumping away on Nicole’s chest. “What can I do?”

“Breathe for her.”

Shay’s brows pulled together. “What?”

Emily made a frustrated sound, but the rhythm of her hands over Nicole’s heart stayed steady.

“Open her mouth,” she said as though speaking to a child. “Put yours over it. And breathe for her.”

Shay looked down at Nicole’s slack face. The color of her lips had already begun to turn ashen. The life was draining out of her. Shay pulled down her chin. Her lips parted. He hadn’t been able to stop her from throwing her life away, but he could do this. He could breathe for her.

Nicole was floating. Up and away. Like nothing was holding her down. Like she’d left her body behind.

She wasn’t asleep. She knew that much. What was happening to her now was different. Like nothing she’d ever experienced.

She’d felt like she was taking a journey. Going to a wonderful place filled with love and familiar faces. Somewhere both peaceful and profound. Somewhere that felt like home.

Except she couldn’t get there.

There was a block. A wall. Something keeping her on this side of oblivion. It wouldn’t let her through. No matter how badly she wanted to go.

Not yet.

Nicole didn’t hear the voice as much as she felt it. Something…someone was communicating with her, and it didn’t want her to cross over. Whoever it was, he had the power to keep her perched on the edge of no return.

So she stayed there, hovering between the real and unreal, until she felt a pull. It was sudden, as if a rope had been looped around her chest. Now it was tugging her out of the dark seas of the beyond. With each passing moment the pull became stronger. Faster.

For a moment Nicole fought against the force dragging her back to the light. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to go back. The place she’d been about to fall into felt like the pinnacle of serenity. Where she was headed now was anything but.

With every pull the unpleasant sensations grew—the aching, the throbbing, the burns that stung every inch of her body.

Her body.

She was back in her broken body, and it screamed in pain.

Nicole’s eyes flew open, but she saw nothing. She instinctively tried to suck in a breath, but her lungs were already full.

A heartbeat later, her vision cleared. Shay’s face pulling away from her own, a look of relief shining clearly in his eyes.

“It’s working,” he said loudly. “She’s coming back to us.”

Nicole glanced down to see Emily straddling her on the counter, but that wasn’t the weirdest thing. No, that would be the blond guy, Geoffrey, looming over her, catching the stream of golden light that flowed up from the center of her chest.

It took Nicole another couple of seconds to realize exactly what she was seeing. It was the same golden light that had come out of the book. The power she had used against the fae. The magic her family had dedicated their lives to protecting. And now this strange man was trying to take it for himself.

“No,” Nicole said, but her voice was too frail to be heard, so she tried to lift her hands to stop him instead. She shouldn’t have bothered. She barely had the strength to wiggle her fingers. But she was alive. They were all alive.

Her grandfather had been right. The book had known what to do.

And she needed its power to be around the next time her friends or her store needed saving.

“Stop.” Nicole tried as hard as she could to get the word out. This time she managed a whisper.

“Ignore her.” The unmistakable timbre of Shay’s voice filled her ears. “Keep going.”

Nicole wanted to fight back, but she simply didn’t have the strength. Not yet anyway…and that was the catch. The more of the magic Geoffrey drew out of her, the stronger she became, but at this rate there was no way she’d be able to stop him until he’d already drawn out every last drop.

With every passing second more and more of Nicole’s strength returned. Once she could move her arms and legs, she started to twist and thrash. It didn’t matter that they were screaming with pain, Nicole was determined to fight.

But the struggle didn’t last long.

“Steady her.” Shay’s strong hands clasped her shoulders, pinning her to the counter. A half-second later, another pair of equally powerful hands wrapped around her ankles. Nicole lifted her head and saw Emily’s bodyguard standing at her feet.

She tilted her chin back, ready to plead with Shay to let her go. She found his dark eyes already fixed on hers. Though his expression was flat, Nicole swore she saw a hint of apology in his gaze.

“It’s okay, Nicole,” he told her. “It’s almost over.”

His jaw tightened as he shot a questioning look at the man drawing the magic from her chest.

“Only a few seconds more,” Geoffrey said.

Shay’s hands tensed, and Nicole knew it wasn’t just to keep her from fighting. Tight lines around his eyes showed his conflicting emotions.

He was conflicted? How the hell did he think she felt?

“You have to stop.” Her voice was stronger now. Much stronger than before. “You have to stop now.”

“He can’t,” Emily said. She reached around Geoffrey’s hand and cupped Nicole’s cheek, trying to soothe her. “If he doesn’t get every last bit of this magic out of you, you’ll die. I just about lost my damned mind thinking we’d lost you a few minutes ago. I won’t let that happen again.”

She’d almost died? Really? So that’s where she’d been.

Damn. Sure, she didn’t want to die, but she had a responsibility to protect the boo—

“Done,” Geoffrey said, rubbing his hands together.

Shay exhaled a long, slow breath above her. His hands relaxed around her arms, and the big guy at her feet followed suit. Emily slid off her legs and down to the floor.

She was free—free to scream, and thrash, and punch to her heart’s content.

The only problem was now that Nicole was back at full strength, there was no fight left in her. Only pain. Searing agony that stabbed into her chest with every breath. She didn’t dare to draw anything deeper than a shallow hiss. It felt as if her chest might cave in completely if she tried.

“Hur—Hurts to brea—” she sputtered. She looked over pleadingly at Emily, who thankfully seemed to know what she was trying to say.

“We need to call ambulance,” she said. “I must have broken her ribs while I was doing chest compressions.”

Chest compressions? Emily had been giving her CPR?

Crap. She really had been close to death. But they’d pulled her back.

“That won’t be necessary,” Geoffrey said. He placed his palm in the center of his chest and briefly closed his eyes. A tiny golden spark briefly lit up his cupped hand, and in an instant, all the pain vanished. Gone in a heartbeat.

The bands around her chest loosened. The burning in her fingers cooled. Even the pounding of that morning’s headache dissipated in the time it took the spark in Geoffrey’s hand to burn away.

Nicole sucked in a huge gulp of air. Relief spread through her body in an instant. Relief, and awe.

Geoffrey had taken all her broken parts and stitched them back together with just a touch of his hand. All because he knew how to use the magic inside him.

Suddenly, she knew exactly what he was. She knew what was going on. She understood everything.

Nicole sat up and pivoted, so that her bent legs hung loose over the side of the counter. She stared at Geoffrey with her mouth hanging open.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered in awe.

A satisfied smile lifted his lips. “Not a god,” he laughed. “I’m just a humble—”

“Magician,” she finished for him. “And a damned good one too. A court magician or maybe even the King’s Own at one time, I’m guessing.”

It was all real. All of it. All of her grandfather’s tales. All the lore her dad had shared as bedtime stories growing up. All the bits and pieces she’d read in her ancestors’ diaries. Even the outrageous parts she’d always figured they’d embellished. All of it was true.

“What’s your name?” she demanded.

“Geoffrey Merlin.”

Merlin? The Merlin? Oh, this was too good.

She should have known. Sure, she’d figured out what he was the moment she’d seen him literally working his magic over her. That cocky self-assuredness was unmistakable. But never in a thousand years would she have guessed that she was dealing with the single most famous magician ever.

A bubble of laughter escaped Nicole’s lips. Apparently, the great Merlin didn’t like that though. The far from humble smile fell away from his face in an instant.

“How do you know all this?” he asked.

Nicole ignored his question and shifted her attention over to Emily’s massive bodyguard, Fenrir. “And you really are a Wolf, aren’t you? An actual beast.”

Now that she looked at Fenrir—really looked at him—there was no doubt what he was. The man was the embodiment of the wolf spirit. She could see that now. See it so clearly, she almost wanted to smack herself for not picking up on it right away. Huge and massive, and brimming with an animal energy that poured out from his body.

Fenrir’s gaze sharpened as he pulled back his shoulders. “I am.”

“So cool.” Nicole couldn’t help but smile. “Except it’s a little funny that you got the job of Emily’s bodyguard since she’s always been more of a cat person.”

He lifted his chin, as if trying to sniff out if there were a hidden meaning behind her words, but Nicole turned her attention toward Shay before Fenrir could start growling at her.

The moment her gaze met Shay’s, he took a step back and draped himself in the shadows clinging to the walls. Did he really think he could escape her that easily?

“You’re the only one I haven’t figured out yet,” she said. “I saw the sparks in your eyes earlier, so I know you have magic in you, but you don’t carry yourself like a magician.”

There was just enough light for Nicole to see Shay’s thick brows pull together in a question. “And how do they act?”

“Like wielding power and magic is their birthright.”

Shay let out short bark of laughter. There wasn’t a hint of humor in the sound. “You do know magicians.”

“And how did you come to know so much about my kind?” Merlin asked with a huff.

“Or wolves?” Fenrir added.

“Hell,” Emily said, pushing herself to the front. Out of all their faces, hers was the most surprised. “How do you know about any of this?”

“The same way you do.” Nicole shrugged. “My family has been working for an Exile of the Realm for the last one hundred and sixty years.”

“That isn’t possible.” Merlin shook his head. “Before we were sent here no one had been exiled for at least three hundred years.”

Nicole cocked her chin to the side. “That you knew about.”

“Well, there’s a first.” Emily laughed and rolled her eyes. “Something Geoffrey didn’t know.”

“You’re telling me that your family has been in possession of that grimoire for over a century?” Merlin’s voice was thick with skepticism.

“Since 1855.” Nicole let the pride shine through her words. She slid down from the counter and picked the book up off the floor. “And not just in possession. We were entrusted as its protectors.” This time when she placed it back on the counter, she did so gently. “Which is why you’re going to put back every shimmery drop that you took out of me.”

The cocky smile returned to Merlin’s face. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“Can’t? Or won’t?”

“Whichever makes you feel better,” he answered. “The truth is right now we need this magic more than you.”

“For what?”

“To help get us back home,” Merlin said. “Though, once that’s done, I promise to consider doing what you ask.”

“Consider?” Nicole crossed her arms. If he thought he could walk all over her…well, then he was right. He talked over her as though she hadn’t said a thing.

“Besides,” Merlin fixed his gaze longingly on the cover of her family’s grimoire, “there’s still plenty of magic left in that book.”

He was right. There was more than either she or he could ever imagine…but that wasn’t the point.

“And if you don’t do what I’m asking I’ll use its power to force you to do what I want,” Nicole countered.

It was a bluff. A big one, but it looked like he and everyone else was buying it.

Okay, maybe not everyone.

“You’re not going to do that,” Shay said from the shadows. It wasn’t a command. Just an observation. One he sounded certain of.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Nicole raised her chin and doubled down. “I have a duty to protect this book.”

It wasn’t a total lie…but it wasn’t the whole truth either. But going by the knowing smile that shone through the shadows, Shay already knew that.

“Which you can’t fulfill if you’re dead,” he said. “The magic in that book might have agreed that banishing a battalion of Fae soldiers was worth risking your life, but I doubt it will allow you to throw everything away for a scrap.”

Nicole pressed her lips together. She narrowed her eyes on Shay. The man who lived above her shop. The guy she’d been sneaking peeks at any time he walked by. What was he?

There was something strange about the way he talked about magic. She’d always thought of it as a tool, a way to get an unpleasant job done. Geoffrey Merlin obviously thought of it as a possession to be hoarded. But the way Shay talked almost made it sound like he considered it a living thing with a mind of its own.

“I’ve never seen this book before,” Merlin said, pulling Nicole’s attention away from Shay. “Do you know its name?”

Nicole shook her head. She didn’t know books had names. Titles, sure. But names? To her it was just the book.

Merlin let out a frustrated huff. “What about the name of the magician who gave it to your family?”

“Asphodel.”

“That’s not a name. It’s a place.”

“Well, maybe you just didn’t know him,” Nicole tried.

“No.” Merlin raised his gaze but not his head to glare at her. “That’s not how our world works. There aren’t so many magicians that we don’t know each other.”

“Maybe he wanted to hide his true identity,” Emily tried.

“What’s the point?” Merlin said. “Why would he hand over his grimoire but not his name?”

“Who knows why people do what they do?” Fenrir said. “James kept his name secret from the day he arrived.”

“James?” Nicole butted in. “Is he another exile?”

The wolf nodded.

“Holy crap. How many of you are there?”

“Five in all,” Merlin said.

Five? Nicole’s eyes went wide. Every exile story she’d heard had them being tossed out one at a time. That’s why the thought of three at once was crazy. But five? That was unheard of.

“What the hell did you guys do?” she asked.

“Didn’t you hear Marrow?” Shay said from the shadows. “We weren’t fans of the king.”

“The real question is why did this Asphodel choose to entrust his grimoire to your family?” Merlin asked, bringing the topic back to the book…the one he still hadn’t taken his eyes off of.

“I always figured it was because we were booksellers.”

“Sure. But why yours in particular?” Merlin glanced up at her. “There had to be other bookshops he could have gone to.”

“Not too many,” Nicole said. “The city was young back then. I also think he also felt a kinship with my family.”

“How so?”

“They were both outcasts,” she said. “I know it wasn’t easy for my family setting up shop here. I can’t imagine it was easy for Asphodel either.”

“It would have been a lot easier with the power inside this book” An avaricious gleam shone in Merlin’s eyes as stared down at the cover.

Nicole couldn’t help but smile. She might not know all the creatures of the Realm by name, but she certainly knew what this one wanted.

“Do you want to look inside?” Nicole asked.

“You trust me with the pages?”

“Sure. Why wouldn’t I?” The instant Nicole pulled her hands away from the edges, Merlin grabbed the book and slid it close. “It’s not like you can access the magic they hold.”

The magician stilled. Only his eyes moved as he looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

Nicole’s smile widened.

“It means that Asphodel was smart,” she said. “He knew someone from the Realm would eventually come looking for what he’d taken. He knew that they’d want that power for themselves. So he didn’t just leave the book with my family. He bound it to us.”

“He bound it to your bloodline?” Fenrir asked.

“Exactly.”

“I don’t understand,” Emily said. “What does that mean?”

A smile tugged at the corner of Shay’s lips.

“It means that only someone with Starling family blood can access the power inside the grimoire,” Merlin said, his voice heavy with disappointment.

“But that’s insane,” Emily said. “You saw what happened to Nicole when she used a tiny sliver of that magic. It almost killed her. ”

“That, I believe, is the point,” Shay replied.

Nicole looked over at him, her eyes wide with appreciation. “You get it.”

Shay gazed at her a long moment. Long enough for a rush of heat to radiate out from the center of her chest and warm every part of her.

There was just something about his eyes. Something that shone through the low light of the corner. That same mysterious glimmer had ensnared her when she’d first laid eyes on him weeks ago. She should have known then he was no ordinary man.

That might be true, but she still hadn’t figured out exactly what he was.

He seemed to notice her curiosity, and turned toward Emily to deflect it.

“Binding the magic to a mortal bloodline means no one who has the ability to safely wield the power can unlock it from the pages.”

“It also means,” Nicole jumped in, “that though my family can use the magic if it’s absolutely necessary, we know that the consequences of doing so are high.”

She’d just never realized how high until she’d been at the literal gates of Heaven.

Emily looked amazed. “And the Starlings have been keeping the book safe all this time?”

“Trapped is a better word.” Merlin frowned. “They’ve kept it locked up and hidden for centuries.”

“It all depends on how you look at it.” Nicole reached out and slid the book back toward her. “All that matters is that people like you can’t touch what’s inside.”

Shay laughed—a real one this time—and the sound was rich and deep enough to fill up the whole store. Despite her best intentions, Nicole couldn’t help letting out a little sigh of pure longing.

It wasn’t her fault. There was just something about the guy. Something that called to her. Something that promised everything she’d ever wanted. Something that promised to make all her dreams come true…for a price.

Nicole’s heart sped. A tight knot formed in the center of her chest.

Of course. It was so obvious. How had she not seen it?

“Holy crap,” she shouted. “You’re a Genie.”