Page 10 of Fateful Reunion

He was slow to reply. There were things he needed to tell Roxanne before the two met, because the hostility Roxanne exhibited toward him could ultimately endanger them all. “I wanted to explain a few things first. While it’s just you and me.”

She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Oh, I get it. You want to make sure that your wife doesn’t find out about our—”

“My wife?”

She bobbed her head in the direction of the doors along the hallway. “Ilaria. No worries, I have no intention of airing our dirty laundry.”

“Ilaria isn’t my wife.”

Roxanne shrugged, clearly not convinced. “Your girlfriend then. Or companion.” She might as well have made air quotes around the last word. “I don’t care what you fucking call her. Plaything maybe? Squeeze of the day?”

“He calls me his niece.”

At the words, Roxanne whirled around and stared at Ilaria, who now stood in the corridor. She was dressed in jeans and a sweater, her lithe figure framed by long hair. Young and vulnerable, but not helpless. Her aura was shimmering in faint red tones, a sign that she was agitated.

“And I call him uncle,” Ilaria added.

“I asked you to stay in your room until I called for you,” Charles admonished, though he kept his voice calm and even, as he always did in her presence, particularly when anger was rising in her, wanting to burst to the surface. Only if he remained calm would he be able to help Ilaria find her equilibrium again.

“You taught me to defend myself. That’s all I’m doing.” She looked back at Roxanne and took a few steps toward her. “You must be Roxanne.”

Roxanne nodded, but her reply was stiff. “Ilaria.” When she turned and looked back at him, he saw confusion in her eyes. “You never told me you had a niece. Or siblings for that matter.”

“I was about to.”

She scoffed. “A little late for that.”

“It’s never too late for the truth,” he contradicted her, searching her eyes, but she turned away, denying him the connection he wanted to establish.

“I need to check the rest of the place.”

Ilaria pointed to the open door, still somewhat upset, though at least the color of her aura hadn’t turned a darker shade. Somehow she was holding it together. “That’s my bedroom. And this is Charles’s. The bathroom is accessible from both bedrooms.”

Roxanne walked to Charles’s bedroom first, opened the door and walked inside. He knew what she’d find: a functional room without any decoration, the few things he possessed neatly hung in the too-large closet, his bed made.

He didn’t follow her when she walked into the bathroom. Instead he walked to the open door of Ilaria’s bedroom and waited until Roxanne entered the room through the connecting door. Surprise registered on her face, because Ilaria’s room was nothing like his. It was decorated with loving care, with all the frills a young woman of twenty-three liked. Colorful and warm. Just like Ilaria herself.

“It’s not real,” he felt compelled to say.

Roxanne looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Everything you see is an illusion.” He turned to Ilaria who’d sidled up to him. “Show Roxanne what the room really looks like.

“Do I have to? I like it like this.”

“Just for a moment,” he said, putting his hand on her forearm in reassurance. He was proud of her skills, though nobody except he ever got to see them.

Sighing, Ilaria made a sweeping gesture with her arm, and the room turned into the same bland and sterile environment as the rest of the apartment.

He could see that the display of witchcraft unnerved Roxanne, though she tried not to show it. Instead she looked at Ilaria, the question already leaving her lips. “Why do you do it?”

Ilaria shrugged and made another sweeping motion with her arm, turning the room back to its former state. “So it feels like home.”

“Just don’t get too comfortable,” a cold male voice coming from the living room warned.

Shit! Ready for combat, Charles spun around, his arms raised to call the elements to help fight off the intruder, when he perceived the man’s aura. Slowly he lowered his arms and squeezed Ilaria’s arm to calm her, because she, too, had assumed a fighting stance, her aura turning darker.

“You must be from Scanguards,” he said to the newcomer.