Roar of Magic Read Online Free Page B

was, she finished her bookkeeping and looked at the list of her clients. They were all doing well enough now to hire actual accountants to work on their books. Some were even doing exceptionally well. Perhaps it was time to let them go.
    She wanted to travel; she wanted to be somewhere else and out of a city. It was a new impulse, but she had enough money to start over and buy a small house elsewhere. She could find something to do for a living outside the city, she always did.
    Just like that, she decided to jump. All her clients’ books were up to date for the month, so it was the perfect time to hand them off.
    It wasn’t a pleasant evening, but she told them that she was in desperate need of a vacation and that she didn’t know if she was coming back. She recommended local accountants and promised to return all outstanding receipts the following day so that their records could be kept together.
    The moment she finished her calls, she felt lighter. With a happy sigh, she made up the envelopes with the receipts and a CD copy of the current accounts. The stack of envelopes was ready to take with her in the morning and her life was markedly simpler already.
    It was a good feeling when she headed to bed and one less thing was hanging over her.
     
    With all of her books handed off to their respective businesses, she did an inventory of the shop. There was a bit of shrinkage on the fur, but she thought that Evan might just be parcelling out too much without measuring.
    It was either that or he was handing it over to friends and not recording it. That had happened before.
    She made note of it and then went on to housekeeping. She swept up a large amount of fine dust, and she paused. Kneeling, she touched the dust and rubbed it through her fingers. She knew that texture. Leroc had been here.
    She gathered the dust in the dustpan and dumped it out the front door to disperse it through the air.
    A familiar presence was behind her. She put the broom and dustpan down, turning toward him. “Good afternoon, Leroc.”
    He inclined his head. “Good afternoon, Anessa. I see you have completed your training.”
    “I have. I have access to her and as much control as she would let me have. And by she, I mean my beast.”
    “A lioness. A large, lovely lioness. Well done.”
    She chuckled and started to wipe the counter. “It was not a choice.”
    “Well, you inhabit her very naturally.”
    She smiled. “I cannot think that you are here just to compliment me on my agility-course work.”
    “I am not. I would like to invite you to the Crossroads.”
    She blinked at the words out of his mouth. “The Crossroads?”
    “Yes. I have been told that my match is going to be there, and so, I would like you to make your way so that the seers’ prediction will come true.” He smiled slightly.
    The thought was bright and tempting, but she said, “I don’t know about that. I mean, we spark when we touch.”
    “That would be mitigated by the spells they have access to.”
    “Mitigated?”
    “They call it balancing. Half my magic to you and half of yours to me.” His smile was coaxing. “All who saw you from that point on would think you an elf.”
    “And what would they think of you?”
    He bowed low. “That I was the most fortunate of men to have won the heart of so fair a lady.”
    Anessa smirked. “Very nicely done. I am the queen of normal, and I know it.”
    Her very nature embraced the fact that she was normal. Brown hair, brown eyes and normally beige skin. Nothing about her was exceptional, not her body, not her mind. She was the poster girl for normal. The only thing odd about her was her discovery in a hospital with no trace of where she had come from or who she had come from.
    Her origin was the only exceptional thing about her.
    “You consider yourself normal?” He raised his brows.
    “I do. By human standards, I am very normal.”
    He grinned. “You are working in a spell-supply shop.”
    She shrugged. “I would have