I keenly felt that every eye in the room was on me, but I managed to hold my head up as I passed my previous seat and made my way to Killian.
He raised one eyebrow at me, then shifted his dark eyes to the council.
I started to sit with a chair between us, then scoffed to myself.
My allies had abandoned me, and I had figured out the legal system was going to fail me, too. Seriously, what did it matter if everyone saw me sit directly next to him?
At least Killian fed me!
I pressed my lips into a thin line and sat down—in the seat next to Killian—with enough force to make the chair move.
One corner of Killian’s mouth curled in what I recognized as a sign of amusement he was slightly stifling. “Making a point, are you?”
“Yeah—that I don’t care what they think anymore.”
“Good for you.” Killian returned his attention to the council with pointed interest.
Silence covered the room like fog as everyone pointedly looked away from the wizard sitting with the vampires.
A few moments passed, and Adept Luna smiled. “The next request?” she prompted.
“Y-yes. R-right,” the secretary squeaked.
The meeting proceeded, but I only half listened as I fiddled with my folder.
I was triple checking my paperwork when Killian casually stretched his arm across the back of my chair.
What the…?
I peered up at him—carefully studying his expression. There was no way he just happened to put his arm sort of/almost around me. This was calculated.
But who was he trying to swindle, and what was the message he was sending?
No one was stupid enough to mistake it as a romantic gesture—did he mean for it to show I was under his power?
“What is it?” He spoke in a husky whisper and didn’t take his eyes off the meeting.
“I was wondering what your angle was.”
“Aren’t we jaded?”
“You’re a political fiend. There’s a reason behind your every move,” I muttered.
“I’m honored you think so well of me.”
“Killian.”
Killian briefly glanced down at me—his eyes were for once more red than black. “I would at least hope you would know better than to expect me to tell you what the supposed angle is?”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Though I also didn’t really expect you to stay for the whole meeting.”
“I attend the subcommittees whenever possible,” Killian said.
“Why? Nothing they discuss will affect vampires.”
Killian shook his head. “It does, actually. It means they can’t hide anything from me. I am given the opportunity to hear what each race really wants, and it gives me the chance to hear what petty disagreements they are bogged down in—as so beautifully displayed in your request.”
I heaved a sigh and nodded. “Yeah, that’s true.”
The meeting room door creaked open. I turned back to look, and was surprised to see a werewolf Alpha shoulder his way through the door. It took me a moment to recognize him as Alpha Nash from the Flatlands Pack in Illinois.
He sat down next to Mason, his chair creaking in protest at holding his bulk. The two exchanged whispers, and Nash looked at me.
Catching my stare, he smiled—a nasty smirk with stained teeth.
Killian twisted slightly, so his hand fell against my arm. I glanced up at him, but he was watching Mason and Nash.
“It seems a reminder is warranted,” Killian said.
I looked back to Nash, who was now staring at his steel-toed boots and didn’t look nearly so smug.
“Huh?” I said.
“Political maneuverings. Don’t worry your pretty head.”
I purposely shifted so I could “accidentally” jab Killian in the side. “Are you using me as a pawn in a scheme?”
“I would never.” Killian’s deceptively open voice was almost scary in its accuracy. “Although if you gave me an adoring look or two it would be useful.”
I snorted. “Yeah, because having wizards think I’m besotted with you is totally going to convince them to support me.”
“Still holding out hope that as a collective they’ll suddenly pull their heads out of their posteriors? Someone is an optimist.”
I grumbled as I settled back down in my chair for the remainder of the meeting. But as I sat there…it dawned on me that not only did the meeting’s outcome mean I didn’t legally stand a chance…but it was never about my magic power or lack of.
If it had been, favor should have shifted back to me.
Between that, my parents’ sealing me, and Mason even attempting to betray me…all of these were things that never would have happened decades prior. What did that mean? And why was it happening now?
I let my head fall on the leather dashboard of Celestina’s car. “Life sucks.”
Celestina sympathetically patted my shoulder. “I also hate life when I am forced to stand in on the Regional Committee of Magic meetings.”
“That’s not what I meant.” I twisted my neck so I could see her, but let my head stay on her dashboard.
The meetings were over. They had gone so late, in fact, that the sky had lightened from the black of night to a deep shade of purple—pretty soon the horizon was going to glow with the rising sun. And still the Drake motorcade waited—because Killian was chatting with the supernatural elite. (I had opted to escape to the car rather than let him pull me into his politics.)
On the upside, Mason hadn’t filed an appeal as Momoko said he planned to. But somehow I didn’t think it was because he had abandoned the idea, and more likely because he had made other arrangements. Or maybe he was just afraid of Killian?
I sighed. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“I assume you are referring to the situation with Tutu’s?” Celestina asked.
“Yeah.”
The back door opened. “You’ll open your lockbox of course, one way or another.”
Chapter Six
Hazel
Killian hunched over so he could slide into the car.
I peered around my headrest. “You never ride in the car.”
“If you had gotten into one of the SUVs like I told you to, I wouldn’t have to.” Killian momentarily wrinkled his nose with disgust before he nodded to Celestina. “Home.”
“Yes, Your Eminence.” Celestina turned on her car, which purred like a big cat, and pulled out into the street, joining the rest of the Drake motorcade.
“I didn’t hear you tell me to get into one of the SUVs,” I said. “You should have texted me if you wanted to chat.”
“I’ll remember that next time,” Killian said in a dark voice that didn’t bode well for me.
“Anyway, I don’t know how I’m supposed to get into my lockbox. Re-registering is going to be a major pain. I don’t even know if it’s possible—if you ever have to register again as an adult you’re supposed to have a few wizards from your House come with to vouch for you. That obviously won’t be happening.”
“Forget the paperwork,” Killian ordered. “I’ll make some calls.”
“You have connections with wizard registration? You really do have victims everywhere.”
“I have contacts, not victims.” Killian smirked at me from the back seat. “And no, even I don’t have anyone who owes me favors in wizard registration—not in the Midwest, anyway.”
“That’s shocking,” I said with real honesty.
“I never saw a point in it before. You are—historically speaking—such a weak and pathetic race,” Killian said, as if to explain the oversight. “I do, however, have contacts with a few dragon shifters.”
I was forced to twist around in my seat so my seatbelt uncomfortably dug into my neck—I was starting to regret that I hadn’t sat in the back with him, because this would have been a much easier conversation to hold. “You know Tutu?”
“We’ve been introduced.” Killian stretched his arms across the back seat. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“…Thank you.”
Killian shrugged—a small shift of his shoulders that I almost missed—then looked out the window at the brightening sky.
“Did the Night Court cause any trouble tonight?” I directed my comment to Celestina, this time. “I didn’t notice anything personally, but I also skipped several of the meetings.”
Celestina offered me a smile. “No. Tonight they were silent.”
“Which very likely means they are planning something,” Killian added, his tone bored.
I yawned as I thought of Mason and the other Houses I’d cross in the future if I wanted to get House Medeis back. “Was it worth it?”
Killian’s gaze shifted from the window to me. “What are you referring to?”
“Making the Night Court your enemy to use the chaos amongst the fae to push a law through,” I said. “Was it worth it?”
“At the time it was.” Killian sighed and ran a hand through his artfully mussed hair. “I might have been a little more vicious and pushed to get the Night Queen deposed rather than fined if I had known what a pain Queen Nyte would be. But I thought she’d be a weak link I could press in the future—which she is. She’s just an indescribably annoying weak link.”
A question burned on the tip of my tongue—one that was rude enough it might tug on Killian’s temper.
But besides getting snarly at me for facing off with the serial killer vampire, he hadn’t really ever been mad at me. So I blurted out the question without stopping to reword it. “Why are you so politically pushy?”
Killian had been resting his head on his hand with his elbow propped up on the window. At my question both of his eyebrows rose. “Excuse me?”
“You’re the Eminence. Most regional leaders are occupied with their specific people. But you keep an eye on everyone, and you manipulate and push when everyone else doesn’t actually care what the others are up to as long as they are following all the regional laws. I want to know why.”