Sorceress, Interrupted - By A. J. Menden Page 0,39

the day and found I had a taste for it. I’m lucky the Reincarnist is big on giving people second chances.”

“When he remembers,” I muttered.

Cyrus studied me. “So, when are you going to tell me what’s up with you and him?”

“A quarter after never,” I snapped.

Cyrus eyed me again. “What do you owe him, Fantazia? Did he save you from unspeakable evil? Did he—?”

“I don’t owe him a damn thing!” I crossed my arms over my chest, gritting my teeth, defiance filling every pore of my body just at the mention of my father.

Cyrus stared. “Is he the reason you don’t age? Did he put some sort of spell on you so that you won’t lose your good looks? You asked him to—”

I shook my head. “That’s all you think of me, isn’t it, Cyrus: that I’m so empty-headed I’d purposely do this to myself, put myself through never-ending hell so that I’ll always be pretty.”

To his credit, he flushed. I narrowed my eyes at him. He held up his hands in surrender. “I never said that, Fantazia.”

“You’ve certainly implied it.”

“You know me, I just say whatever’s on my mind, good or bad. I just thought maybe when you were younger, you got it in your head that staying young forever would be cool and went to him for help. Or, hell, I don’t know. Maybe you two were involved and he wanted to preserve your beauty forever.” He held up a hand before I could go off again. “A lot of smart people have tried the ‘fountain of youth’ thing, Fantazia. It’s not a knock against you.”

“It’s definitely nothing like that,” I said, trying to contain my horror at the idea of people thinking I was involved with my father. “I was just born like this. Well, I aged like most people up until my powers kicked in. That was when I was a teenager. By the time I hit twenty, I just stopped aging.”

Cyrus snapped his fingers. “There goes my other theory—that you pissed him off in some way and he put a curse on you.”

I had to laugh. “I’m sure deep down he probably wanted to at some point, but no, he didn’t curse me. Like he’d ever curse anyone. Mr. Do-No-Wrong? Please!”

Cyrus shook his head. “I don’t know, I just have this feeling that the Old One wasn’t always a goody-goody. There’s an edge of something dangerous there, I can just tell.”

“No, you’re way off base,” I argued. “He’s been like this for as long as I’ve known him.”

“Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think. After all,” Cyrus said with a grin, “would you have thought I’d turn out a good guy when you first met me?”

“No,” I admitted. “Not at first. But later, after you came to me for your favor . . .”

He looked uncomfortable. “Let’s not talk about that.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything about her. I just meant that . . . it was a nice thing to do.”

“Yeah, right. Making sure my ex will never see her daughter again? That’s supernice,” he retorted. He looked down and away.

“You were making sure your daughter is safe,” I reminded him.

He looked up when I brushed my fingertips across his arm. His blue gaze locked with mine. My stomach did a strange sort of flip and my pulse quickened. Suddenly, more than anything else in the world, I wanted him to kiss me.

“I don’t get nice requests like that,” I said.

“I don’t get the word ‘nice’ and myself used in conjunction very often,” Cyrus said. “Thanks.” Was it my imagination or did he look like he wanted to kiss me, too? Had to be my imagination; he couldn’t stand me under normal circumstances.

“Well, what do I know?” I teased, stepping ever so slightly closer. “I’m the one you insinuated doesn’t have a brain.”

“I know you have a brain. It’s the most dangerous part of your body.”

“Really?” The edges of my mouth curved up. “What’s another dangerous part?”

He smiled. “Your lips.”

“And, why are my lips dangerous?” I wet them with the tip of my tongue, leaned forward and tilted my head, an open invitation for him to close the space between us. My breath caught in my throat, my body aquiver in anticipation . . .

He didn’t move. All he had to do was inch a bit closer, take advantage of the invitation I was clearly issuing. I wanted it. Oh, how I wanted it. If I could have him, if I