Around me, six arms immediately shot up in the air, and I flinched in shock.

The professor smiled at the girls with raised brows. “Okay, let’s have it nice and in order.”

“Is it true that you’re only twenty-eight years old, Professor Tiberius?” the blonde in the minidress next to Penny asked. “I mean... when did you graduate?”

Now, I raised my eyebrows.

Tiberius?

Confused, I turned back to my laptop and typed Tiberius into the server of Vanderwood University. Indeed, results popped up.

Quentin Tiberius. Professor of molecular biology and... mythology?

Curious, I clicked on his professor profile and went through the information on his background. Astonished, I read that he had already started his first studies here at the age of sixteen.

“I got my PhD here two years ago,” the professor confirmed the information on his profile.

“Is it true that you are part of the Vanderwood football team?”

While the girls around me bombarded the professor with more irrelevant questions, I somehow ended up on the website of DLSC, the DeLoughrey Science Center, where he apparently had a research position and was working on a genetics experiment with a certain Dr. Diana Adams.

The name Adams rang a bell, and the woman also looked familiar, however I was missing some pieces of the puzzle.

I clicked through to the DLSC website, but nothing more about him could be found there, as the DLSC website was very discreet with information about its collaborators.

I clicked back to the publications by the professor.

Molecular biology and ancient myths: A bridge between past and present;

Mythology reinterpreted: Reviving Ancient Stories through Molecular Insights;

Mythological Biotechnology: Genetic Manipulations in Ancient Legends.

What the...? First, he had studied molecular biology and minored in history. After graduating, he had completed a second degree: antiquity, ancient history and mythology with a minor in archaeology.

I looked up, startled again at how handsome this strange professor was, and regarded him thoughtfully.

He was leaning there, arms folded as his biceps pressed against his shirt.

I tried to feel any supernatural signs.

We Quatura sensed elemental energies from other Quatura. And while a certain darkness radiated from Ruisangors, a different kind of vibration could be felt near Senseque.

This man was human. There was nothing supernatural about him. But then why were all the alarm bells ringing at his combination of disciplines?

Professor Tiberius nodded to another girl. Kelly.

“Why didn’t you become a model?”

Amber next to her took a deep breath like she was annoyed, and a few other girls laughed, however they all looked forward eagerly to the poor guy who certainly wasn’t here to be Vanderwood’s sex object.

He laughed and put a hand on the back of his neck, which emphasized his trained upper arms way too well.

Goddamn, he was hot. Not to mention tall, way too tall compared to a small and delicate girl like me.

“I’m committed to science.” He smiled. “But I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Which I’m sure the guy was showered with.

I couldn’t help it as my arm shot up in the air.

And by the time the professor looked at me, it was too late to change my mind.

“What gave you the idea to combine molecular biology and mythology?”

I looked at him skeptically, perhaps a little too skeptically, because his gaze lingered on me and his smile disappeared for a split second.

Had I said something wrong? What did that expression on his face mean?

“I mean, a natural science based on principles combined with a cultural science centered on invented myths...” I continued as his warm green eyes began to inspect me. “Isn’t that a bit abstract?”

The professor leaned further back. He smirked, and a damn dimple appeared on his right cheek.

“Aren’t all scientific concepts abstract?”

He was right. But it felt like he was avoiding the core of my question.

“But what exactly motivated you to write your publications on the interdisciplinary level of these two subjects?”

The smirk did not disappear. And he continued to look at me. Thoughtfully.

I was getting warm.

“What’s your name?”

I got even warmer. I just hoped I didn’t have red spots on my face again.

“Julie,” I said quickly, my gaze lingering on the champagne-colored strands in front of his forehead that made him look more cunning. “...Blair.”

Something flickered in his gaze.

“A Blair,” it escaped him in surprise, and he raised his brows. An uneasy feeling spread through my stomach, as if I’d given away too much of myself. “What a surprise.”

Great. What did that mean now? Did he have an opinion about the mayor’s family or was he just trying to make me feel insecure?

In any case, the girls around me were having fun with it or looking at me strangely.

“Miss Blair,” he continued, pushing himself away from the table. “Do you know that there are actually a lot of interesting overlaps in quite a few disciplines that, at first glance, seem like they have nothing to do with each other?” He began pacing the room without breaking eye contact and goosebumps spread up my arms. “Poetry and math. Two creative, structured, and aesthetic forms of expression. Religion and biology each deal with the origin of matter in which we coexist with other living things. And there are by far more overlaps.” He stopped in front of my table. And when I realized that I had not broken eye contact until now either, my goosebumps intensified. “What distinguishes these sciences is the approach. And, among other things, credibility.”