WaterMage Rising

Chapter 10

Adam stood and held out his hand to her. "Come with me. I need you — as a buffer, I mean, of course. To keep the work talk at bay. You'd make a great distraction from their monotony."

Selena's lip tugged downward, and she shook her head, despite the small, hopeful flutter in her stomach.

"Glad to know you think I'm one step above monotonous conversation, but no thanks."

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Father was studying them with a curious look that she didn't like.

How bad was her magic? First she couldn't save Uncle Franklin, now she couldn't even do a stupid glamor charm properly. She was failing, and if she didn't try to be as unlike herself as possible, she'd get caught and never find out who murdered her uncle.

She had to try harder.

Then an idea snagged Selena's attention. Adam, while soft and slightly idiotic, could be useful.

"How boring could shop talk be?" she asked, trying to sound casual while watching her father."I mean, the Bureau has such exciting things in the works, from what I read in the Elemental Gazette."

Luckily, he took the bait, and, Adam's eyes lit up. "So you follow the new Defense Project the department is researching? Now, see, this is the enthusiasm we need there. Everyone else manages to drain the joy and life out of the project when talking about it."

Before Selena could protest, Adam took her hand and pulled her up. "Come on! I'll introduce you!"

What? Introduce her?

She tried to break free, but his grip held fast as he all but dragged her with him toward the Bureau's table.

Of all the nerve!

Not only was he throwing her into the proverbial witches' fire, she couldn't even yell at him for it because that would mean making a scene, and Father would know it was her.

But, if she played her cards right, she might be able to find out more information.

"Fine," she huffed as Olivia might have done in this situation. "At least let me bring my dinner roll."

She snagged the remaining half of her dinner roll a fraction of a second before it would have been out of reach, and bit into it as Adam pulled her inexorably toward her doom.

"And who is this lovely lady?' A man about Father's age, the one who must be Adam's father because of the same auburn hair, facial features, and piercing yet mirth-filled grey eyes leaned back in his chair, surveying her with a pleased grin.

He had better be giving her that grin because he was happy for his son to meet someone he enjoyed spending time with. If it had anything to do with her appearance, Selena had no qualms putting him in his place. Except, she couldn't, or she'd risk giving herself away to Father. She'd have to seethe in silence. For starters, who would ever dare call her lovely? Yes, she'd transformed, but the way this man called her lovely, it was like he could have been talking about a girl like Olivia.

Most likely, he was just being polite. She glanced Adam's way, deciding to let him handle the question. It wasn't as if she had asked for any of this, and she wanted to keep her mouth shut. To emphasize this fact, she continued to chew on her dinner roll to put off having to speak for as long as possible.

"Father, this is..." Adam began, then trailed off, thinking, before turning to Selena. "Wait. I haven't actually gotten your name yet."

Selena swallowed the piece of roll and bit back a sigh. She pasted a smile on her face, not caring whether anyone noticed she was faking it.