Chapter 5
The magic billowed outward around her. She felt it along her skin, in her veins, in her blood and bones: she was a witch, she had this gift, and she was humbled and astounded by the grand and perilous sweep of it every time. Her heartbeat answered the call.
Ribbons of sapphire and topaz and fuchsia and jade made rivers everyplace she looked. People and animals and plants and even skyscrapers bloomed with life, with energy, with someone’s devotion and time and sweat and blood and commitment.
She could not hold it all; she never could. Her own skill lay in gathering up that energy for support, pouring it outward; Sterling thought she was a reservoir, but that was wrong. Her own pools were shallow. She did not mind; she did not think he’d understand.
Lia, she thought, might.
Sh
