Free Duplicity (Spellbound #2) by Nikki Jefford

Lee tried to twist out of his arms. Adrian tightened his hold on her. “You can get in yourself or I can put you in.” The lamplight overhead caught the whites of Adrian’s teeth when he grinned. “It would be my pleasure to give you a hand.”
    That settled it. Lee pulled out of his grasp and plopped into the passenger’s seat. She glowered through the windshield. Adrian, however, did not walk around the front of the car. He disappeared, then reappeared an instant later in the driver’s seat.
    Lee’s eyelashes fluttered. “You can teleport?”
    Adrian grinned, this time with pride. “One of the many talents the council took away from me.” The car started up without the key.
    Lee turned toward Adrian. “How far can you teleport?” she asked before she could stop herself. “Can you go anywhere in the world?”
    Adrian pulled into the deserted street. “Wouldn’t that be something? No, I have an extremely small radius. I’m limited to one mile.”
    “Oh.” Lee faced forward and stared out the windshield.
    Adrian shifted in his seat. “You might not be impressed, but the audience loved the disappearing magician trick in my performing days.” The wistful tone of the words made Lee look at him again.
    When Lee first met Adrian, he’d made a living as Hedrick the Healer, but it was rumored he’d once been known as Montez the Magician.
    “Why did you stop performing?”
    Adrian flexed his fingers over the top of the steering wheel. “Where do you live?”
    “Why are you changing the subject?”
    “Do I take a right here or left?”
    “Why did you stop performing?” Why did Lee care? The scoundrel had held her hostage and was wiping out her memory. To be fair, he was making sure she got home. That wouldn’t earn him points when she found out he’d cast a spell on her. She had to find a way to leave herself some sort of clue.
    Adrian took a right when Lee didn’t answer, which was the wrong turn. It was the correct route if they were going to her old home. Maybe Adrian would settle on that if she didn’t speak.
    At the next intersection, Lee tried to turn the streetlight red, but without the nazar all three colors ended up lighting at once: red, yellow, green.
    Adrian slowed, then sped up when he saw oncoming traffic halt on either side of the intersection. Laughter erupted from his lips. “See how much fun there is to be had in this town?”
    “I doubt you’d find it amusing if your powers backfired every time you tried to use them.”
    Adrian stopped laughing and nodded. “True.” Then he smiled again. “What sport?”
    “You suck.”
    Adrian laughed again.
    “I want my nazar back.”
    “You’ll get it back once I get you home.”
    “If you give it to me now I can turn all the lights green and we can get there faster.”
    The look Adrian shot her was far too intimate. “Is that what you were doing back there? Trying to make the light green?”
    No, the exact opposite, and they both knew it.
    Lee swallowed. It was time to put Adrian back in the hot seat. “What happened to Montez the Magician?”
    Adrian reached for the knob on the radio and started humming. He could have turned the music on using his powers, but he didn’t. Lee turned it off.
    “I don’t know why you won’t tell me, it’s not like I’m going to remember, anyway.”
    Adrian tapped his fingers lightly against the steering wheel. “I really am going to need that address.”
    “Adrian, you bloody creep. Tell me!”
    Adrian’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel. He slammed his foot on the gas pedal and screeched around a corner. Lee’s shoulder slammed against the door. The car accelerated down a dark road before diving into an alleyway. Lee’s arms flailed as she tried to grip a handlebar—anything to steady herself. She jolted forward when Adrian slammed on the brake.
    Concrete walls boxed them in on either side. Lee’s seatbelt clicked open at the same time as Adrian’s. She met his stare and