Page 40 of The Librarian’s Familiar

“A little, but no more than you’re worried about having a polar bear as a familiar.”

Charlie lifted his eyebrows in agreement and took a couple of bites of breakfast. Cold porridge wasn’t something he enjoyed eating. For a few minutes, they ate in silence, considering the situation. Or at least Charlie was—maybe August had done all his thinking while he was chopping wood.

Maybe he should’ve done some more thinking instead of doomscrolling, but he’d wanted a distraction, so he didn’t have to face reality.

“You don’t want to wait until it’s dissolved entirely to see if it can be remade? That would be safer. If it can’t be remade, then we’re in the clear.” It meant there was no risk of being mates if they fucked.

“I thought about that too but figured that could be the second experiment.”

“The second?” How many experiments had August come up with?

“The first is we kiss and see what happens. If it doesn’t get stronger, that will still tell us something.”

“Sure, but there’s the risk that it will strengthen and that it will be permanent.”

August took a drink of coffee. “Do you really think that’s a possibility? And that it’s an outcome so terrible it’s best avoided.”

Charlie heard the words August didn’t say out loud. That being mates with me would be the worst thing you can imagine?

He shook his head. “I think it’s a small risk, mostly because my magic undoes things, it doesn’t create.”

“It creates chaos out of order…and chaos allows new things to be created.”

Charlie stared at him. “Have you been reading about the creation of the universe?”

August grinned. “Without chaos, there can be no order.”

“No shit. I’ve read a lot of theories to try and make peace with my magic, so I could say it’s something other than a destructive force or something best contained.”

“I imagine that trying to contain magic is like putting off a shift…painful and impossible.”

“Pretty much.” It was much safer to let it out a bit at a time.

“Much like sitting here trying not to think about kissing you,” August said softly.

All Charlie could do was nod in agreement. Sure, kissing August again while the bond still existed between them was a bad idea, but on the global scale of bad ideas, it was insignificant. Even on his own personal list of bad ideas involving magic, it wasn’t that high up. A solid five out of ten.

Whereas unraveling his ex’s entire wardrobe at twenty-one was more of a seven out of ten, and making sure the elastic broke on every pair of shorts his high school bully wore was more of a one out of ten. Some things created bigger ripples than others, and those bigger ripples were often very hard to explain.

He doubted August was going to change his mind and report him to the Coven for trapping him as a familiar. Though that was always a risk unless the witch and shifter involved met at a mate-finding event, where everyone was hoping that magic would spark. On the surface, it looked like witch said/shifter said situation, but a mind reader usually stepped in to find the truth.

“Why did you leave last night only to return this morning?”

“I needed to think, and I couldn’t do that lying next to you. I would’ve been breathing you in and listening to your heart, and feeling you against my skin, and craving more. Leaving allowed my senses to clear, so I wasn’t drowning in desire. I didn’t do it to hurt you.”

Charlie gave a one-shouldered shrug. It sucked that he understood the reasons and agreed with them, yet at the same time, it still hurt. “You get why I lie about my magic? People get scared when they find out.”

But August wasn’t scared.

“Because you might unravel their clothes?” August smiled.

Charlie didn’t. He drew in a breath, needing August to see exactly what kind of witch he was dealing with. “It’s not only clothes, August. I can unravel them.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

August blinked a couple of times, his gaze firmly on the witch in front of him. He heard the words, he understood the words, but it felt like he couldn’t process what that meant. “Unravel people?”

“I use the word unravel because it’s easy for everyone to understand, and to me, that is how it feels. Most witches describe their magic in words that make sense to them. So two witches with the same ability won’t describe it in the same way. My magic unravels bonds.”