“How do you do? I’m Tabitha Lowrey.” I hold out my hand.
“Raiden never took me to bed, so you needn’t worry,” Sabelle assures with a smile as she takes my hand. “How do you do?”
I blush a hundred shades of red. “You…you can read my thoughts?”
Her smile deepens. “Quite clearly, so fair warning.” Then she turns to Raiden. “Did you finally pull your head out of your arse? I’m hoping so, and the fact you haven’t Called to her is merely temporary. Ronan knows you love her.”
Precisely what Raiden’s twin told me himself. But his opinion doesn’t make it true.
I swivel my gaze up to the wizard who owns my heart.
His jaw clenches as he glares at Sabelle. “Stifle the matchmaking. We were attacked ten minutes ago by Mathias and his goons while retrieving this. We barely made it out alive. Any bloody idea what this means?”
He shoves the thin page under her nose. Sabelle lifts it with careful fingers and studies it intently, her blue eyes growing wider by the moment. Finally, she peers up at us, suddenly pale. “Where did you get this?”
“It was my father’s, Nigel Lowery.”
“The record keeper?”
“Precisely. Mathias killed my family for this. My father’s last words were to protect the secret tree and?—”
“This is a great secret, indeed.” Sabelle hesitates, as if she searches for the right words to impart momentous news. “I never considered this development until now. But it makes sense. The timing is right and?—”
“For what? What are you on about?” Raiden barks impatiently, but not with anger. This morning’s attack rattled him. He’s worried—about me, about the baby, about magickind.
Just not about my heart, our future, or his own life.
“Sorry. After I recognized some of the names, I got carried away,” Sabelle explains. “What you’ve found is, I believe, the family tree of the Untouchables.”
I gasp. If she’s right, the implications are staggering. “How certain are you?”
“Quite.” She sends me an apologetic grimace.
Beside me, Raiden looks lost. “Why is that bad? What the bloody hell is an Untouchable?”
“So in addition to eschewing manners, you don’t read?” Sabelle raises a teasing brow his way.
Despite this terrifying development, her remark makes me smile. I decide that I very much like her.
Sabelle tilts her head in my direction. “Thank you. Likewise.”
“Stop reading her bloody mind,” he spits at the blonde. “I don’t sit about and stare at dusty tomes. I’m a wizard of action,” he defends.
She sends my belly a sideways glance, then drawls, “Indeed.”
Raiden looks as if he’s at wit’s end. “That’s enough. Explain.”
“The Untouchables are a sacred race,” I say. “Their origins are magical, but their abilities are…different. They separated from magickind long ago, blended in with humans.”
He scowls. “Why?”
It’s the obvious question. Magickind doesn’t typically blend well with human society. People are still afraid of what they don’t understand, and anyone magical is typically weeded out, accused. Destroyed.
Sabelle takes over. “As a way to hide. For centuries, they were systematically hunted. Their bloodline was nearly eliminated.”
His scowl deepens. “Because they’re more powerful than most? More than Mathias?”
I know why he’d wonder that, but… “No. They don’t actually cast magic.”
