Then what is he? A dark mage?
Or god help me, a blood mage? There were no scars on his arms, but then, few blood mages actually used their own blood in their spells.
I do not know.
But you felt his magic?
No more than you. He has, as he said, shields within shields.
Huh.
I will figure it out. Eventually.
Heaven help René, then, because he was about to gain a curious shadow.
“I am—” René paused, then half shrugged. “It is best to say I am a canvas on which color has yet to be painted.”
I raised an eyebrow. “While that’s certainly a lyrical description, every mage—and witch for that matter—has a certain energy to their magic, be it light, dark, or somewhere in between.”
“And yet, here I sit, a man currently free of such influences,” he said. “There is a vast world out there, Hanna, filled with things that are rarely viewed, let alone understood. No one can ever claim to see, let alone comprehend, it all, not even the Society.”
“You’re answering the question without actually answering it again.”
“I find it the best way to cope with unwanted questions coming from people I’ve only just met.”
“Even if you want to bed them?”
“Especially when I want to bed them. Now, can we get this conversation back on track?”
“If I’m being honest, I’d rather not, but I supposed we had better. So, who is this mysterious dark mage your father tried to kill?”
He helped himself to more prosciutto-wrapped cheese. “He’s a blood witch, and he went by the name of Orion.”
“After the god of hunting or the star system?”
“The former. As I warned earlier, he has a hunger for the pure of heart and preys on the innocent. He came into my father’s field of vision when he went after my twin’s daughter.”
“You have a twin?” I said in surprise. “Why has that fact never entered the gossip pages?”
“Because I do not wish it to.” It was flatly said, in a manner that suggested no further questions about his twin’s part in his life would be entertained. “I also had three nieces. Jacy was the eldest, and her death was what caught my father’s attention.”
Which was an extremely odd way of putting it, but again, I didn’t question him—the shadows crowding his eyes suggested it was better not to. But I sure as hell would be asking Ginny. She was, after all, my local expert when it came to gossip.
“I take it your father went after Orion in revenge?”
“Yes.” Another flat statement.
I frowned. “What has Tane got to do with all of this? I gather there must be a connection, given Orion swore revenge on Ashworth rather than your father. Did your father know Tane?”
“Not personally, as far as I’m aware, but Tane and his siblings did have something of a reputation.”
“Not the gentlemanly kind, I’m thinking, given what I’ve seen of the man.”
René’s smile held little warmth. “They had a tendency to take what they wanted, and woe betide anyone who got in the way.”
“Why were they never pulled up by the HCI or even the Society?”
“Lack of evidence and no one left alive to make statements.”
