Read Online The Wizard's Daughters: Twin Magic: Book 1 by Michael Dalton - Free Book Online Page A

cube.
    There was a shot down her back like a bolt of lightning.
    The resonance cube. Of course!
    Just as it had shown how she and Astrid shared the same flow, could it show her Erich was their match? Surely? If her flow, and Erich’s, were compatible, wouldn’t the cube be able to show her?
    Whatever chance of sleep she had that night had now fled.
    She hoped Erich was still awake, because she was going to have to wake him for this.
    Rising as quietly as she could, so as not to wake Astrid, she left her bed and slipped out of their room. As she descended the stairs to the first floor, she could hear Father snoring away. That was good. She needed to get in there and find the resonance cube.
    Tip-toeing down the hallway, she approached Father’s workshop. He had not moved since she left. If she knew him—and she had been through this too many times—he would sleep until tomorrow afternoon, if not later. She just needed to avoid waking him.
    Where was it? The workshop looked as if Temperance had exploded in here rather than the entry hall. Father kept the resonance cube in the far corner, but that was now buried under brass bits of this and that. As carefully as she could, she moved things aside, looking for the familiar outlines of the cube. After several tense moments during which the whole pile threatened to collapse in a crescendo of brass, she decided it was no longer here.
    Ariel stepped back, looking around. She was not certain now she would be able to spot the thing under the current mess if it was somewhere else. Fuming in frustration, she wondered if perhaps if was no longer even in the workshop. Father valued the resonance cube, unlike some of his other inventions. Would he risk ruining it by letting it get tangled up with Temperance’s broken innards?
    In a flash of insight, she left the workshop and went across the hall to his sitting room. Along one wall there was a sideboard where he often stored things he was done building, but no longer needed.
    Behind the third door, she found the resonance cube.
    Fighting the thrill of success, she lifted it out and set it on the table between the two upholstered chairs. Now she was lacking only one thing: Erich.
    As she approached his room beyond the kitchen, it suddenly occurred to her that she wore nothing but a thin nightdress. No man, other than Father—who paid it no mind—had ever seen her in such a state of undress. Her breasts were quite apparent, and the rest of her was only a little more concealed.
    She paused, gathering her courage. No matter, she thought—he would be her husband soon, and she could let him see everything then.
    There was a light in his room. She stepped up to it and tapped softly.
    There was no response, and she tapped again, more firmly.
    “Yes?”
    She pushed the door open. He was lying on his bed, dressed only in his smallclothes, reading a book. His eyes widened when he saw her, and even more so when he got a better look at her.
    Seeing in him wearing so little made her body suddenly hot all over. He was not quite as large as Stefan, but he had none of Stefan’s baker’s-boy softness. She could see nearly every muscle in his body.
    “Ariel?”
    “Yes.” She knew he would know it was her, somehow.
    “What do you need?”
    “Can you come with me?”
    “Where?”
    “Just come. I’ll explain.”
    He rose from his bed, though warily, pausing to pull on his breeches. He followed her, and she led him back to the study. His face wrinkled in confusion when he saw the resonance cube.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I need to test you.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Please, just let me. It’s important.”
    He sighed.
    “You don’t need this. What do you want to know? I have told you what I can tell you, and what I cannot will not be drawn out of me by this thing.”
    “I don’t need to test you that way. Just sit down.”
    He glared at her a moment, but sat down.
    Ariel was not completely sure how the resonance cube worked. She