“Come, join us,” Claire said. “Want a beer or a whiskey?”
Aidan glanced at me. Clearly he was here to talk about the scroll, but I wasn’t ready to lie again. So I said nothing. We’d talk, but it’d be better if it were after a drink and some chatting with my friends. If we were all normal and charming, then he’d be more likely to trust me when I lied, right?
Even the thought turned my stomach.
“Whiskey, thanks,” Aidan said. He took the seat next to me.
“You all right?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I glanced at him quickly, then away.
“So, they sprung you from the hospital, eh?” Connor asked.
“Clean bill of health,” Aidan said.
Claire brought him the whiskey and he thanked her. We chatted about the shop being up and running again.
At first, I was uncomfortable. But Aidan fit right in with my friends. I was genuinely wishing I didn’t have to blow him off later tonight.
But I had to. Severing contact with him was safest for us all.
“Hey,” Aidan’s husky voice was soft near my ear. “Can we talk?”
I glanced at him. Better now than later, I figured. Like a band aid. “Yeah.”
“Thanks for the drink, Claire and Connor.” He set his empty glass on the table. A twenty was tucked beneath it. “It’s been good talking to you all, but I’ve got to run.”
“I’m going to walk him out,” I said, not making eye contact with anyone.
I followed him to the door. He held it open and I walked through.
“Can we talk at your place?” he asked as he followed me out.
I looked around at the darkened street. I didn’t really want to talk about the scroll out here. “Sure. Come on.”
“How are you doing?” he asked as we climbed the stairs to my apartment.
“Fine. You know, getting the shop back together.” I hated this awkwardness. But I was about to lie to him, so there was really no avoiding it. I let us into my apartment and asked, “You?”
“Great, now that I’ve recovered from being a lightning rod.”
I swallowed hard at the reminder. “You threw yourself in front of that for me.” That made it even harder to lie. And much harder to push him away.
“Yeah, seems that I did.”
“Why?”
“Felt like a better option than watching you get lit up.” His dark gaze met mine, intense enough to burn.
My heart pounded and my breathing stuttered. This was going to be so much more difficult than I’d thought.
“And I knew you wouldn’t use your magic to protect yourself,” he added.
He was right about that. “Um, thanks for saving me. I’m sorry I didn’t get the scroll.”
“You’re a bad liar.”
“No, I’m not.” I was a great liar, even when I didn’t want to be. “I really am sorry I couldn’t get it. It was destroyed by the lightning.”
“You don’t have to lie to me, Cass.”
I really did. I had to lie to everyone who wasn’t Nix or Del, no matter how much it exhausted me. “I’m not lying. I am sorry I didn’t get it.”
“You are lying. And I know why. I know what you are.”
My stomach lurched. “A treasure hunting Mirror Mage? Yeah, I told you that.”
“No. You’re a FireSoul.” His gaze was solemn.
The floor felt like it dropped out from under me. Somehow I stayed upright. I even managed an incredulous laugh. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”
My heart pounded as I searched his gaze. Serious and sincere, but I couldn’t risk it. “There’s nothing to tell. I’m a Mirror Mage. Nothing too exciting there.”
“You’re exciting, Cass. But not because you’re a Mirror Mage. Or even because you’re a FireSoul.”
“I’m not a FireSoul!”
“I can feel it, Cass. I’m the Origin and a multi-gift Magica. You can’t hide something like that from someone as strong as me. At least not for long.”
His tone was so certain, his gaze so steady.
“How?” I asked, dread curdling in my stomach.
“I didn’t figure it out right away. Your magic felt strong and strange, but I couldn’t place it. When you agreed so quickly to help me—without even discussing payment—I was suspicious. It made me wonder if you thought there was something in the scroll about you. I thought you might just be the ArchMage of Mirror Mages. But it didn’t feel right.”
The ArchMage was the strongest of that particular gift. “I might be. I don’t know.”
“I’d say it’s likely, especially if you practice. But I figured out you were a FireSoul when I saw you right before they put me in the ambulance. I could feel the lightning in you. You took his power.”
“I could have borrowed it as a Mirror Mage and not yet released it.”
“Maybe, but I knew that wasn’t it. You killed him and took his power.”
My throat tightened and my eyes blurred. “I didn’t want to. I had to.”
His gaze softened. “I know. It’s why I haven’t told anyone what you are. If you intended to steal powers, you’d have done so by now. You’d be full of them. Why was this time different? Why did you have to take his power?”