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Nix takes a breath and continues unhindered. “Jamie, you smell terrible. Did something happen?” Nix is running his nose up and down Jay’s throat over his mating bite, heedless of their audience. He can’t get at the fragrant pine scent he adores and starts licking it instead, sweet vanilla calling to his alpha—and the rest of them.

“Nix, stop now. I…We can talk about it later, okay? Come with me.” Leo opens his arms, and Nix leaps horizontally like a proboscis monkey and takes up his comfort-licking on Leo’s neck instead.

“Nice to meet you, Luminary. I’ll go see if I can help wrangle Rowan. Give you a minute with Grayson.”

“You have quite an interesting family, Warrior. First, your Scholar and Guardian. Your King and his Healer.” She smiles gently at Luca, who squeaks at the attention and hides his face, before turning and crossing his arms.

Such a tough guy. Gideon chuckles and squeezes him from behind to reward his protective bravery.

“That’s us, Baby.”

“I’m a king?”

Nimue chuckles. “No, Luca, you are a healer. You have always brought care and guidance to your family. Thoughtful and wise.”

“I’m wise? Ha! That’s nice, thank you! Can I go tell Finn?”

“I am sure he already knows, Healer,” Nimue says as Luca runs off so Finn can twirl him around the small kitchen with a warm laugh and introduce him to Emmy, who compliments him on his lilac Uggs.

“And Leo, is it? Your counselor. A different kind of wisdom. A pillar of strength and even-keeled in the face of strife, especially, no?” she asks Jay.

“Very.”

“And Nix. A worthy soulmate and a Lunarch.”

“You called him that in the library. I’ve never heard of it before,” Grayson says, and he seems calmer for having the rest of his pack with him. Perhaps there is strength when they are all together like this; it’s as if his previous tension has ebbed away when he shares it with them.

“Lunarch translates as Moon Ruler. They are of myth and legend. Theyare born of the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth, all at once. I can still see the human in him. Just a little. It’s part of what makes him absolutely stunning, magically speaking. An aura like the sun. A sort of magic of its own.”

“I’m still a little bit human?” Nix pops up beside Grayson, folding one of his hands inside Grayson’s and the other in Jay’s. “That sounds nice. I was human for a long time, and now I’m Were. It’s good that I am still a bit of both, you know?”

“I think so,” Nimue nods.

“What does it all mean, though, how can you ‘see’ anything? Is it something Grayson will be able to do?” Nix asks, gently taking Nimue’s arm to lead her toward the table. The little stinker’s tummy is rumbling, and he’s making sure their host is seated first.

She just pats his hand and chuckles. “Alright, Nix. I’m coming. Let’s eat, and I can tell you a bit about what my magic looks like and what we can do to help your mate.”

Turns out, Nimue is talented in the kitchen in much the same way she is in the arts of magic. The soup is delicious, and she shares that she’d woken early to harvest the vegetables from the garden this morning and to make a huge batch of biscuits as well.

All the while not knowing she’d even have guests. It’s a little like precognition, but nothing concrete or manipulable. It’s not officially an Affinity or her Talent. Even regular humans will tap into something like that without knowing why or what it is and call it intuition.

Talents are learned skills, and not every magic user has the same skill set. Nimue is an expert at practicing nature-oriented and location spells, plus several others.

But it’s the Affinity that is at the core of the magic user’s power. Affinities are exactly what they sound like, and usually, magic users have a single one. Fire Affinities harness flame, where Water Affinities make aquatic magic second nature.

Nimue has two; the first is an Air Affinity. It’s quite common amongst magic users, unlike Earth or Time, which are the rarest of all. She explains further that an Affinity is a natural-born relationship to The Plain—easilyaccessible and therefore more easily trained. She creates a burst of air and opens the back door. She then uses her fingers to snap a bit of lightning into play so she can make it dance, much to Leo’s delight.

Her second Affinity is what elevates her to the rank of Luminary—a master within the Florida Guild which oversees most sanctioned magical education in the state. She is the only one of her kind in the United States and one of just three in the world. This rare gift grants her the ability to perceive a person’s past, present, and future as though all three exist at once.

“We call it Temporal Overlay. I draw on The Plain so I can see some aspects of who you are or have been. Sometimes, even who you will be. Sometimes all at once.”

“Are we always the same in every…er…time?” Luca asks. “How can you tell who we are by how we look?”

“Good question. Most people are different. It’s difficult to explain as they aren’t just periods of history, but sometimes timelines. I call it a weave, although my instructors preferred a spider web analogy.”

“Mom hates spiders,” Emmy whispers.

“I respect them if they respect me, young lady,” Nimue smiles but points to her daughter with her spoon. “Time isn’t linear, it’s true. For example, Emmy is my daughter in this present, but has been a cobbler and a—”