Chapter 22
Reyn ran herfingers over the note that had been waiting for her when she went to breakfast that morning. She didn’t see the Geratisi House drawing room. She wasn’t thinking about the empath she waited for. No, she continued to be distracted by the handsome lord who went out of his way to help her—and knew exactly what form such help should take.
After walking her home, Velario had apparently spent the rest of the night in his library, hunting down the answers she needed. He hadn’t found much—which he apologized for, although continuing the search itself was already more than he needed to do—but he had discovered a single mention of sirens in a history book.
He copied down the relevant information for her and urged her to take the day to find answers with Lisca. He didn’t need her at the bank. Such a simple note, and yet it meant so much.
It meant he cared about more than getting under her skirts. It meant he cared even when she wasn’t nearby, influencing him with her magic.
Now if only Reyn still cared more about discovering the secrets of her magic and less about the man who helped her hunt down those secrets. She shook her head. She did care. She’d let Velario do what he needed to do at the bank, and she’d discover if Lisca and her Family’s library had any more information about sirens. Then she could hunt Velario down and tell him what she had learned.
Lisca entered the drawing room where Reyn waited. “Sorry, Marseo did not want to go in his crib. You’d think I was abandoning him, the way he cried, instead of putting him down for a much-needed nap.”
“No need to apologize. I’m grateful for any time you can give me. I know I arrived unannounced.”
“Friends do not need appointments, Reyn.” Lisca sat across from her. “What brings you here, since it is clearly more than a simple social call?”
“I wanted to ask you about sirens.”
Lisca straightened. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“So sirens are real?”
Lisca shook her head in a motion that was neither a yes nor a no. “I’m not certain. The stories of sirens are pretty old, and I’ve never had a reason to wonder if they held any truth. I had always thought they were nothing more than stories, because it goes against what I know of magical bloodlines mixing, but you never know with magic.”
“What do you mean?”
“The stories of sirens always claimed they were a mix of air sprites and succubi, but magical bloodlines don’t mix in that way.”
“Isn’t your empathy a mixture of succubus and human magic?”
“Yes, but human magic is the key. There is no such thing as an incubus or a sprite without power. That’s why they are the magical races. But humans can have magic or not. It can show up in one bloodline, then disappear for generations. That seems to be part of what allows our magic to mix with the other races’. When two sprites of different elements have a child together, their powers do not mix or dilute. Instead, the child is born with the full power of either the mother or the father. It is less common for other magical races to mix outside of the elemental clans, but I thought the same was true when any non-human magical bloodlines mixed.”
“So a half-succubus, half-air sprite child is impossible.”
“Unlikely, maybe, but I wouldn’t say impossible. I have to admit, the stories I’ve heard of sirens do match the oddities of your power. You always have the most success casting your lure not when you focus on your emotions, but when you flirt. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that your lure is tied to your voice.”
“But you don’t know that sirens really existed.”
“No, but I know where to check. The lore is at least a hundred years old, but if anyone would have written down the truth of such a magical combination, it is my ancestors. Come, I’ll show you the Family journals.”
Reyn followed Lisca into a library much like Velario’s. Both Families had extensive collections, and both clearly viewed books as a source of comfort and entertainment, not just scholarship. Reyn had to force herself not to stare at the wingback chair in Lisca’s library. Now was not the time to remember a similar chair. Of course, Lisca would have already sensed Reyn’s emotions the instant they occurred. No need to dwell on them, though.
Lisca led the way to several cases with glass doors protecting the books. “These are my ancestors’ journals. It would be easier if we had a definite time frame to narrow the search, but I think aiming for a hundred fifty to two hundred years ago is probably a good starting point. The stories are all vague enough that it has to be more than a hundred years, I’d think, but well-known enough that it can’t have been too much longer.”
Reyn pulled out the note from Velario. She read his words once more. Then looked up at Lisca. “When was the reign of Queen Petria?”
Lisca made a face and began muttering under her breath. Finally, she shrugged, “One hundred thirty years ago, maybe?”
“Then we should start there. Velario found a very brief, uninformative mention of sirens in a history of Petria’s reign.”
“Velariodid?” Lisca’s right eyebrow lifted, and she put her hands on her hips.
Reyn answered in a rush. “Somebody mentioned sirens at the musicale last night after I sang, and I wanted to come straight here, but Velario followed me out and reminded me how late it was, so instead we went to his library to search for information.”
“So your most recent associations with a library include Velario. That explains it.”
Reyn blushed. Lisca had noticed her reaction to the chair. Of course she had.
