Free A Kiss of Magic: A Kiss of Magic Book One by Jacquelyn Frank

she was. The more familiar she became with her new abilities, the more she made friends with them, the better off she would be. The more comfortable she would be. The more accepting she would be of her new life…and of him. And he wanted her to accept him. He breathed for the opportunity.
    The water began to grow hot around them again, the heat soothing and sultry. Once it was sufficiently hot, he brushed a hand over her concentrating face.
    “That’s enough. What a fine job you’ve done.”
    “I did do a fine job,” she said, preening proudly.
    “You are a natural to this, Yasra. You were born for majic.”
    “So my parents insisted,” she said with a frown.
    “Do not think of those odious people. They try to take credit for what you yourself have done. You do not need them in your life.”
    “That was one of the blessings of being a non. I knew my parents would want nothing to do with me.”
    “They are cruel and selfish beings. They do not deserve you.”
    “Well, they will get a lot of mileage out of the claim to fame of being the parents that gave birth to the Gestalt child.”
    “Let them,” he said. “And then forget them.”
    “I will. As long as Bess is with me…we have been together a long while. She is not merely a servant to me.”
    “That much was quite obvious to me. She is a good friend to you, and therefore is a good friend to me. She will be treated as an equal. You’ll find all the nons in this house are treated with kindness and respect.”
    “But they are all servants.”
    “Yes. Would you rather they didn’t have jobs? My servants are paid fair wages and they live in the small house at the rear of the property. Each has their own room. They live more comfortably here than they would elsewhere and I do not charge them rent. In exchange I ask that they do their jobs well and be available to me any time of the day or night. But I do try to respect their private time. They are given one day a week off for them to do whatever they like. I am a fair master, Yasra.”
    “I’m sure you are,” she said softly. “It’s just that our world is so very unfair to nons. The most they can hope for is wealth in trade. There are some very great scholars, but because they are nons they are not deemed good enough to teach majji. And even if they were allowed, the majji would not be likely to show them any respect. I have seen majji be creatively cruel to nons in the past.”
    “Were they cruel to you?” he asked, his jaw tightening.
    “Yes,” she said softly. “But they were merely wounds of ego and pride. I have seen nons physically wounded by majji as part of a joke against them.”
    “Who? Who would do such a thing? There are laws against majji harming nons!”
    “I know. But the laws are enforced by majji and they rarely side on the side of the nons.”
    Dendri frowned darkly. He had not realized the unfairness of the life around him. As a being of power he had never given thought to the fact that all their laws were enforced by majji. It had always seemed fair to him. He had never looked at it from the side of a non trying to seek justice against a majji.
    “Then this is something that must change. Why does no one make protest about it?”
    “Against beings more powerful than you are? Nons live in fear of reprisals.”
    “We are not a dictatorial society,” he argued. “We do not harm others for speaking their minds.”
    “Are you sure? Have you ever been a non trying to speak in the face of so much power? It seems as though those who have been brave enough have simply disappeared or in some way been silenced.”
    “I cannot believe this is true,” he ejected. But even as he said it he knew it was true. That she had had a unique perspective into the worlds both majical and not. “I do not wish to believe this is true,” he amended himself.
    “But it is,” she said gently.
    He frowned darkly. “Then you and I…we must work together to make changes in our world. As a Gestalt