“All of the above,” Iannis confirmed.
I blinked. “Huh? Were…were you reading my mind?”
“It wasn’t necessary. You were talking out loud.”
“Oh.” A blush rose to my cheeks, and I pressed a hand to my lips, then picked up my mug again. I took another drink – though the coffee didn’t actually work on me, just like other drugs, I still liked the taste, and the morning ritual helped wake me up. As my head finally began to clear, another question popped into my head, one I’d been meaning to ask but hadn’t had the opportunity yet.
“When we were escaping from the Coazi, how is it that you were able to run so fast and for so long?” I asked. “Unless I’m mistaken, you can’t just spell yourself that way, and you didn’t have any charms that would boost your speed or energy.”
Iannis went still beneath my gaze, and if I didn’t know better I would have thought he was nervous. “It’s not something I like to discuss,” he said carefully.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” My gaze narrowed. “Back on the Firegate Bridge, when you did that weird thing where you slipped inside my body with me.” Chills still vibrated through me whenever I relived that moment – it had been truly unreal. “You’re only going to be able to get away with that for so long before I start investigating.”
Iannis scowled. “You’ve no right to go digging into my past,” he snapped. “My business is just that, mine.”
I folded my arms across my chest and scowled right back. “This may come as a surprise to you, but you’re not a one-man show anymore, buddy. Especially not since you decided to bind us together by giving me a charm that, apparently, is usually exchanged by couples who are married or who intend to get married.” I tugged the serapha charm from beneath the fluffy collar of my robe and held it up. “Were you ever gonna tell me about that one?”
Iannis frowned. “It wasn’t intended as a wedding gift at the time I gave it to you. Who told you that?”
“Comenius and Elania, his witch girlfriend.” I tried to ignore the little jab to my heart at his rejection. “They’re not even mages, so that means this sort of thing is public knowledge.”
Iannis sighed, running his long fingers through his cherrywood locks. They gleamed in the morning sunlight streaming through the picture window to his left, the rays highlighting the notes of red and making his violet eyes glow.
“You said that you wanted me to trust you more, right?” I persisted. “Well that means you’ve got to do some trusting yourself. Whatever secret you’re sitting on, I promise it will never leave this room. And it would really help, the next time you rope me into some kind of magical spell, if you told me all the fine print.”
Iannis cracked a smile. “Very well. I will endeavor to do so, although I doubt such a situation will come up very often. As to my abilities…they come from a part of my heritage that is only known to a select few.”
My ears perked right up at that. “And that would be…?”
“My mother. She is half-Tua.”
“What?” I nearly dropped my coffee cup. Dark liquid sloshed over the side, and I yelped as the hot liquid splattered across my hand and stained the sleeve of my shirt. Setting the cup down on the table, I hastily grabbed the sponge sitting near the kitchen sink and used it to mop up the spill as best I could. I grimaced as I dabbed at the dark stain across my pristine robe – that wasn’t going to be easy to get out.
“Here, let me help you.” Iannis was at my side, gently taking the sponge from my hand. My breath caught as I felt the heat radiating from his body, and I bit my lower lip as his fingers gently grasped the wrist of the hand I’d burned.
“Are you alright?” he asked. I hissed as he stroked his thumb over my skin.
“I’ll live.” The skin had been bright red, but the color was already fading thanks to my superhuman healing abilities. “Not the first time I’ve burned myself.”
“And probably not the last, either.” Iannis’s lips twitched as he stretched out the cloth of the robe and briskly rubbed the sponge over it. “You know, this isn’t really necessary. The hotel staff will launder the robe and provide you with another. All you have to do is toss this into the hamper.”
“You’re trying to change the subject,” I managed, fighting against the heat spreading through my body. I didn’t point out that if I tossed my robe in the hamper, I would be left without a stitch of clothing on – the right side of my robe had slipped from my shoulder, and Iannis’s gaze was fixed on the patch of bare skin I’d inadvertently revealed. “You were telling me about how your mother is half-Tua.” Something I was still having trouble wrapping my head around. The Tua were an ancient, near-mythical race that dwelled in a world that was anchored to our own world, Recca. When they did cross over to our world, they were commonly sighted in Manuc, which I understood to be Iannis’s homeland. The lore surrounding them suggested that they predated human life.
“Yes.” With a little sigh, Iannis dropped my arm and tossed the sponge over his shoulder. It landed in the sink with a wet plop, and I arched my eyebrow at the effortlessly perfect aim. “My grandmother on my mother’s side is Tua, and so my mother is half. As you may know, the Tua are near-immortal, and have powerful abilities beyond the scope of human comprehension. If not for the fact that they generally enjoy their own world more than ours, I shudder to think what would become of us.”