“Now I can do the bolts," she slurred. "I've been trying to focus enough magic all week."The magic shifted and swirled, finally etching a picture in the air. It was a rough picture of Foaly, and he was laughing.I hate you, centaur!" screamed Opal, lunging toward, and then through, the insubstantial image. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and then she collapsed, snoring, on the floor.Artemis straightened his tie.Freud, he was certain, would have a field day with that.”

“You ask for too much, Iain,” she murmured. “More than I can give.”“Do I?”Movement against her made her pause, made her stiffen as she felt him press forward, felt his body shift until his back and shoulders were pressing indecently against her belly and his head was turned, the curve of his cheek lying on her lap.“Can you give me this, Beth? Just one moment to lie here and close my eyes, and feel you beneath me, soft and curved?”“And what would you find?” she asked, her voice little more than a breathless whisper.“Solace.”Closing her eyes, she bit hard on her lip, trying not to weaken against that one word. There had been no hesitation when he said it. It was as if he’d known it—what he’d desired all along, a feeling of tranquility. Peace. Rightness.Her hand hovered over his head, her fingers itching to touch, to run her fingers through his hair, which would be damp with snow. What picture did they make, seated on this bench, a tempest of white swirling around them as he laid his head in her lap?”

“She briefly wished she did have some sort of magic so she could shoot a bolt of lightning through his head.”

“What are you doing?""What I've wanted to do for a long time."She couldn't move, couldn't think. She was lost in his dark eyes, and as he slowly lowered his head toward hers, she whispered, "Are you going to throttle me, then?"He was laughing when he kissed her.”

“Still, he's Emory. He doesn't have to walk her home, especially considering how snitty she was to him. He didn't have to come in and stop her cruelty to Fay, or watch over her as he has evidently been continuing to do, drawing those pictures on the Reeses' sidewalk. She knew the pictures were for her and her children. She and Emory did not always spell things out, but she knew, when he drew pictures, what they meant.”

“I mean now to try and see her as soon as I can: or perhaps, on second thoughts, I had better not; it is better I should behold her through the eyes of her lover. To my sight, perhaps, she would not appear as she now stands before me; and why should I destroy so sweet a picture?”