Free Black Magic Shadows by Gayla Drummond Page B

kind of fluid about that. Plenty," he said. "You could run for days before you were looped back."
    I raised my eyebrows. "Looped back?"
    "Yes." Logan leaned forward. "The outer boundary is kind of an illusion. It'll look like the land keeps going, but when you hit the boundary, the magic will sort of transition you back to the entrance."
    "Even if you don't go straight?"
    He nodded. "Even then."
    "My brain doesn't want to wrap around that." I'd learned that supes had labeled psychics "natural mages" before the Melding, but still didn't feel like what I did was actual magic. There was no way I could create an entire place out of nothing, or do something like transform other people into dogs.
    Logan chuckled. "It hurts mine too. I'm just happy it works."
    "What about adding new houses?"
    "That's built into the magic." He sat back, took a sip of wine, and tried to explain. "A pocket realm is tuned to its inhabitants. If we need more houses, they'll appear. Everything will move without really moving."
    "Okay, my head's going to start hurting." I wondered why Nick's father had decreed a house would be built. Did their territory differ from other pocket realms? If so, why? Then again, did I really want to know if they did? Probably not. Explanations of magic usually resulted in migraines, because I couldn't grasp the hows and whys of how magic worked.
    Logan didn't mind my call for a subject change. "What would you like to do after dinner?"
    "What are the options?"
    "Dancing, a movie, or there's a carnival in the Barrows. We could go for a walk at a park, or at home..." He smiled. "Entirely up to you."
    "There's a carnival in the Barrows? What's a vampire carnival like?"
    "Weirder side shows, but there's rides."
    "That might be fun. Would you mind if we stopped by to see Tase for a few minutes?" It hadn't been a week yet, but I thought it might be rude to go down there and not stop by.
    "No, don't mind at all."
    Our dinner was served then, dropping conversation down to the food, which was delicious.

    T he vampire carnival was wilder than I expected, and Logan was right about the sideshows being weirder. Human carnivals didn’t offer things like sex shows or vampire feedings. I couldn’t believe people paid to let vampires bite them, no matter how sexy the vamp was. Or, for that matter, to watch them having sex with each other. It was definitely not a family-friendly carnival.
    We avoided those tents, sticking to the rides and midway games. Logan won a dark purple and lavender stuffed bear for me at the dart game. The bear wasn’t small, but large enough to make carrying it awkward. “I’ll put him in the corner of my bedroom, and his name shall be Mr. Pansy.”
    “Pansy?” Logan hefted the bear onto his back, holding onto its arms over his shoulders.
    “It’s logical, I promise. Pansies come in the same shades of purple.” I stroked my new stuffie’s side. “He’s so soft. Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome.” We left the dart game’s front and walked down the midway. “What next?”
    “Ferris wheel?” I hooked my finger through his belt loop, since his hands weren’t free.
    “Sounds like a plan.”
    The loading platform for the Ferris wheel wasn’t crowded. Apparently, humans preferred the kinkier sideshows. Go figure.
    “Do you want to sit with me, or Mr. Pansy?” Logan asked once he’d put the bear on one of the benches inside our cab.
    “With you, of course.”
    “Just checking. He has me beat in the cuddly department.”
    “But he can’t cuddle back. He’s a cuddlee, not a cuddler.” We sat on the other bench, and I pulled Logan’s arm over my shoulders, scooting closer to him. “You can cuddle back. You win.”
    He kissed my temple before saying, “Sorry, Mr. Pansy.”
    The ride began, our cab rocking as it rose. I sighed. “These are supposed to be romantic. Jerky movements aren’t romantic.”
    Logan surveyed the cab. “We’re in a metal cage.”
    “It’s called a cab.”
    “It’s