"I don't know." She skimmed my arm with her fingertips, not quite touching the dragon, but close enough to rustle the fine hairs on my arm. "It's powerful. Extremely powerful. But I've never felt anything like this before."
"That'll teach me to open strange fucking parcels," I muttered, then blew out a breath. It didn't do much to calm the trembling. "So it's powerful, and it's attached itself to my arm. I'm thinking this can't be a good thing."
"The charm hasn't reacted to it." Her green eyes rose to mine. "And it doesn't feel evil. Whatever it is, I don't think it was sent here to harm you."
"Well, that's a relief." Not. I mean, the thing had attached itself to me. How could that be good? "There was some weird sort of writing in the book, but the only word I could make out was Dušan. Does that mean anything to you?"
She shook her head and sat back on her heels. "I can ask around, but I've never seen anything like this. Not even in the old texts at the Brindle."
The Brindle was the witch repository, and few outside the covens even knew of its existence. Ilianna's mother was one of the custodians—a fact I knew only because they'd once needed my help to evict a ghost who'd taken up residence.
"Do you think your mom would be able to look it up for us?"
She wrinkled her nose. "That would no doubt involve accepting that goddamn dinner invitation she's been on about."
"The one with the potential mate in tow?"
"Yeah." Amusement touched her lips as her gaze met mine again. "Apparently his name is Carwyn, and he's a prime from the Western Districts."
"Which doesn't mean a lot to me."
She sighed. "The Western Districts are a key agricultural area. His family owns one of the larger farms, but he's keen to start his own herd."
"So he's a catch, in other words."
"Yes. And it's not the first time Mom's tried to foist him onto me. But despite my repeated refusals to go anywhere near him, he's quite persistent." She snorted softly and half shrugged. "But for you, I shall walk into the den of pressure and useless hope."
I smiled. "If you were just honest with your parents—"