Smoke and Mirrors Read Online Free PDF

find one? Or sell me a map? A book? Something to help me search?”
    Fun was fun, but this was going a bit too far. “Young lady, I would strongly advise you against this search. Dragons are dangerous beasts.”
    A flicker of life returned, her jaw clenching briefly before she responded. “If you can’t help me, just tell me how much I owe you for the herbs and I’ll get out of your hair.”
    “I didn’t say I can’t help you,” he replied, wondering what in the name of the gods possessed him to say so, “and I’ll be damned if I’ll take your money for that blasted bit of leaves and sticks.”
    Her eyes had gone so wide he could see the whites all the way around. The desperation digging tiny crinkles around her eyes and mouth vanished in a cloud of excitement and the sharp scent of herbs. “You can?” He suppressed a smile at how she clung to his words like a limpet, latching on and seeking answers. “How? Please, I’ll do anything.”
    “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he chided, not really meaning it.
    She placed her hand flat on the counter, leaning forward as she met and held his gaze . Her voice was pitched low and deadly calm. “I don’t.”
    He believed her.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    Cormac was deeply troubled by Kimberly’s request. Had she been sent by anyone other than Eleanor Reed, it would have been a suicide mission. The moment she left his shop, he was going to call his old friend to find out what in blazes she thought she was doing by dropping this load of baggage in his lap.
    What bothered him most was that she bought his implication that he could help as a promise that he would . A part of him wanted to help her. Something about her expressiveness—and perhaps a bit more than that, her stubbornness—intrigued him, but he wasn’t about to give anything away for free. Particularly when he knew so little about why she had come to him.
    “If I’m going to be able to do anything to assist you, I think I need a bit more information,” Cormac said.
    He gave her a pointed look as he picked up the now lukewarm coffee and cradled it in both hands, resting his elbows on the counter.
    Her brows knotted before she spoke. He wasn’t certain if it was in reaction to the flicker of magic and sudden temperature change in the air around his hands or due to his request for her to elaborate. Hot steam began drifting up from the hole in his cup lid, and he kept his gaze and metaphysical senses riveted on her as he took a sip. The drink was smooth, rich, and with just enough hazelnut syrup to soothe his sweet tooth. Perfect.
    “Well,” Kimberly said, “I don’t know what Professor Reed told you, but I’m in trouble. School ends in less than a month, and I still can’t summon a planar familiar.”
    “You look a bit young for college.”
    She frowned at him. “I’m not a child, and Blackhollow doesn’t base admissions on age. They take you on as a student as soon as you start showing signs of magical talent. Usually puberty.”
    “Oh? And how old were you when you found out you could cast?”
    Kimberly reddened. “I was thirteen, but didn’t enroll in Blackhollow until I was seventeen. I kept a lid on it since I thought maybe I was imagining things. I didn’t want to tell my mom and end up locked up for being crazy, you know? Seeing stuff that wasn’t there.”
    “Understandable. That makes you… twenty-one, yes? Oldest in your class, I imagine?”
    She shook her head. “There are a few others who enrolled late. Ones like me who didn’t know right away.”
    Cormac took another sip, then flicked his fingers in the direction of one of the bookshelves.
    “I see. Well, there’s a book over there, Familiars For Dummies, that I’ve been told despite its title is rather useful for shoring up any educational gaps that may be giving you difficulties on the subject.”
    She huffed, fingers tightening on the already mangled remains of sage again, sending a puff of herb-scented dust into