Hunted by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #3)(67)

As I chewed on a blueberry muffin and studied the mages chatting away at the tables, I noticed that a number of them were also surreptitiously studying me. It occurred to me that these mages probably saw each other at the Convention every other year, but I was a new face, and they weren’t sure what to make of me.

“Have you noticed that Lord Iannis seems a little…different, from the last time we saw him?” a redheaded mage asked her dark-haired companion.

“How so?” the other mage, also a female, asked. She picked up her white china espresso cup between dainty, painted fingernails and sipped at it like she was having coffee with the queen of Sandia instead of sitting around in a coffee shop with a fellow underling.

“He seems distracted, as if his mind isn’t entirely on the Convention.” The redhead traced the rim of her coffee cup with her forefinger. Her expression gave little away, as was the case with most mages, but it almost seemed like she was pouting. “I was in the Great Rotunda this morning before the session started, and watched him talking with the Chief Mage of Nayra. It just seemed like his mind was elsewhere.”

“Well I can’t say I’m that surprised, considering he arrived so late, and that he brought his mistress along.”

“Mistress?” The redhead’s pale blue eyes widened.

“Yes. You know, her.” The brunette looked over her shoulder and met my eyes. I smiled politely and shifted my gaze back down to my papers, pretending that I hadn’t heard what she’d just said – as far as they knew, I was too far away to hear their conversation.

“Really?” I looked back to see that the redhead’s brows had shot up. “Well she’s got a pretty face, but someone like Lord Iannis could do a great deal better.”

“Oh I’m sure it’s just a fling,” the brunette said airily. “I suppose even the most distinguished Chief Mage is bound to let their hair down occasionally like lesser mortals, but she doesn’t look like she’s doing much more than shuffling papers back there. I can’t see that she’ll serve as more than a passing interest for someone like him.”

My jaw clenched at that, and I had to force myself to relax. Yeah, so maybe I was doing little more than shuffling papers over here, but I was definitely more than a piece of ass to Iannis.

“More than” would imply that the two of you are sleeping together, a voice in my head reminded me.

I sighed. I needed to get off this train of thought before I drove myself crazy with it. Ever since we’d kissed back in the mountains I kept expecting something more to happen between Iannis and I. Each time we were alone together we seemed to be teetering on the edge of something, yet it never went anywhere. What was he thinking? Was he regretting the kiss? Had he brushed it off as something that had happened while he was under the influence of magic? Did he want more? I couldn’t figure it out, and worse, I still couldn’t figure out exactly what I wanted. Yes, I was attracted to him, and yes, my body wanted him, but my mind kept telling me it was a bad idea.

“Did you hear about the Minister’s decision to resign?” a mage two tables to my left asked. “I couldn’t believe my ears when I got the news this morning.”

“Quite shocking,” the mage sitting across from him agreed with a solemn nod. “Perhaps he’s older than we realized. Who do you think is going to replace him?”

“I’ve heard that Lord Cedris ar’Tarea is being considered.”

“The Chief Mage of Rhodea?” The other mage sounded incredulous. “That’s one of the smallest states in the Federation! Surely you’re joking.”

“Not at all,” the first mage said. “He seems to have very strong connections with the Minister’s office, and his record, from what I’ve been told, is impeccable. I hear he has a very strong chance.”

“That’s ridiculous. If his record is impeccable, it’s only because he doesn’t have enough things to do to get him into any kind of trouble.”

The conversation quickly devolved into an argument, and I tuned them out, seeking out other bits of conversation. To my surprise, Lord Cedris came up quite a few times in conversation as a popular candidate. I wondered if he really was as well connected to the Minister’s office as some seemed to think, or if perhaps the Benefactor had a hand in increasing his popularity. I would have to ask Iannis about it when I saw him next.

“Excuse me,” a man said, drawing my attention away from the buzz of conversation. “Are you Miss Sernan?”

I looked up from my cup of tea – I’d switched from coffee after cup number three – to see a tall mage standing just in front of my table, dressed in dark, silver-embroidered robes that were a cut above what the other mages in the coffee shop were wearing. He had jaw-length, curly black hair, a square jaw, and a complexion like coffee-tinted cream. I went still as I noticed that his bottle-green eyes were the exact same shade as mine, and a chill went through me – I’d never met someone with my exact eye-coloring before.

Come on, Sunaya. It could just be a coincidence.

Maybe, but I didn’t like coincidences. I couldn’t quite reconcile his youthful face with the fuzzy image of my father that I’d conjured in my head, but this guy had the same curly black hair that I did, too. I tensed as I searched his green eyes for any sign of recognition, but there was none.