Taken by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #8)(9)

“Are you sure that’s going to be enough?” I asked dubiously. “If your grandmother is a Tua, and she’s as capricious as you say, she might just decide to crash our wedding.”

Iannis shook his head. “Hardly. My grandmother despises Recca and its inhabitants. She considers us uncouth and beneath her notice—Manuc is the only area she’s been able to tolerate even for short visits. She won’t care to set foot in the Northia Federation, no matter how angry she is at me. That would be too much of an inconvenience.”

“Well that’s a relief.” I wasn’t exactly looking forward to meeting this evil old bat.

“We can always visit Manuc in a century or two,” Iannis suggested, “which is not that long in Tua eyes. By then her dudgeon may have subsided, or she’ll be off-world again, and we’ll have, most unfortunately, missed her.”

“One can hope.” Even if we did have to meet her, by then we’d have a baby in tow. From what I’d always seen, cute little babies were remarkably good at defusing family grudges.

A knock came at the door, and my cousin Rylan strolled in. “Sorry to disturb your morning,” he said, dropping into the chair next to me as I stared at him in surprise. “I ran away from home and have no one to turn to.” He gave me a lopsided grin.

I scoffed. “Nice to see you too,” I said, ruffling his hair. “How’d you get up here?”

“Are you kidding? I know all the guards on a first-name basis thanks to my stint as your bodyguard.” Rylan plucked a grape from the bowl on the table and popped it into his mouth. “You got any more food around here?”

Iannis raised his eyebrows. “I’ll leave you two to catch up,” he said, rising from the table. “Come find me when you’re done, will you?” He leaned down to give me a peck on the cheek. “I’ll be in my office.”

“Love you,” I said as he left. Once the door was closed, I handed Rylan the grape bowl. “You got tired of living with Aunt Mafiela?” I asked. “I’m not exactly surprised.”

“I was this close to ripping every single hair out of her blonde head,” Rylan grumbled as he plucked another grape from the bowl. “I’d forgotten just how bossy Mother can be. It is impossible to please her and keep my self-respect at the same time. I’ve saved up enough money—it’s time for me to find my own place and make my own way in the world again. Where was that apartment complex that you used to rent from in Maintown? Your place was pretty nice.”

I shrugged. “The building caught fire last time I was there, and after the quake, I’ve got no clue if it still exists. You can stay here for a few days, but you’ll have to find something else soon because we’re about to get a whole influx of guests.”

“For the wedding, right?” Rylan shook his head. “I still can’t believe that’s coming up so fast.”

“Not just the wedding,” I said. “Turns out the Minister decided to hold the entire Convention here, the week before.”

“The Convention?” Rylan’s eyes widened. “Oh hell no. I’m sorry, Naya, but I am not going to be here for that, bowing and scraping to self-important Chief Mages and their staff. I’ve got some out-of-town business I’ve been meaning to do, so I’ll make myself scarce until the wedding.”

I laughed. “I never thought I’d say this, but I envy you right now, Rylan. I wish I could just up and disappear. Instead I have to deal with whiny politicians, and now Iannis’s relatives too.”

Rylan raised an eyebrow. “Iannis’s relatives? I didn’t know he had any that were living. Are they coming to the wedding?”

I shook my head. “We invited them, but somehow we didn’t manage to get an invitation to Iannis’s grandmother, and she’s pissed about it.” I gave him an abridged version of the letter, leaving out the part about his grandmother being a Tua. That was a closely guarded secret, and few people knew about Iannis’s mixed heritage.

“Sounds like a bunch of nut jobs,” Rylan said when I’d finished. “Complaining about not being consulted, after being out of touch that long? I wouldn’t worry about it. Obviously, they’re busybodies with nothing better to do.”

“I know.” I scraped my hands through my hair. “It just seems like these issues keep piling up, one after the other. I might lose my mind if I get any more bad news.”

“Hey.” Rylan punched me lightly in the arm. “All that stress isn’t good for you. When’s the last time you sparred?”

I blinked. “Uhh…” I trailed off as I tried to remember, but I came up blank. Had it been a month? Three months?

“Exactly.” Rylan grabbed my elbow and hauled me up. “Come on, cousin. Let’s go find that old training room of yours. Time to get rid of that stress the old-fashioned way. And besides,” he added with a quick jab to my face that I barely ducked, “you’re getting slow. At the rate you’re going, Melantha will be able to knock you on your ass.”

“Shut up,” I growled, jabbing back at him. Melantha was Rylan’s older sister, and she was even prissier than Mafiela. Rylan easily sidestepped my punch, then darted out the door, laughing. I chased him all the way to the training room, my blood already pumping in anticipation. I tackled him the moment we were inside, and we went down in a tangle of limbs, fighting to get inside each other’s guard. Choking out Rylan might not solve my problems, but it would get some of this pent-up aggression out of my system, and I was a big believer in taking whatever I could get out of life.