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The council hadn’t even assembled yet and already Alice could feel a tension headache brewing behind her eyes.
Why did I ever agree to this? she asked herself, for the hundredth time.
When the High Priestesses first offered her a seat on the council as their Faction’s representative, Alice had slammed the door in their faces. The idea of a former Blade, the very Witch responsible for the fall of their old regime, taking up the mantel of leader was borderline psychotic. But they’d been persistent, and bit by bit they’d managed to wear her down and convince her she really was their best choice.
Their only choice, really, after Princess Amalia had abdicated her role. The Priestesses had bickered amongst themselves for weeks over whether one of them could be the singular representative, before deciding it simply wasn’t possible. As leaders of their own covens, loyal to their members above all else, they couldn’t be trusted to remain impartial.
No, the representative of the Witch Faction had to be someone who could uphold not just the well-being of every Witch in the realm, but the well-being of members of all four Factions. It had to be someonewith no loyalty to the old leaders, someone with a history of putting the common good above their own needs.
Someone like Alice, the dead Queen’s Blade. The Witch who had taken down an empire.
That had been the impassioned plea Sana had made to her, at least. And, finally, Alice had agreed on the condition the High Priestesses continued their role as advisors.
It was a condition that—less than two years later—they were consistently failing to meet.
Alice pinched the corners of her eyes, trying to ignore the pulsing pain in her head. Ten minutes past the time they were meant to begin, and she, the Water Coven High Priestess Sana, and the Vampire Faction representative Cassiel Salvatore deSanguine were the only members of the council who had bothered to show up.
It really shouldn’t have surprised her. Leandra was busy helping Fey with her classes nearly every morning, and Linh, the High Priestess of the Air Coven, had been very clear in her distaste for the council and everything it stood for. She barely bothered to show up anymore, and when she did, she did nothing but scowl and complain. And Claudia...
Claudia was simply gone.
Something had changed in her, after the Queen’s death. The High Priestess of the Earth Coven had grown weaker and more wane with each passing day. She’d lost weight, disappearing into herself so suddenly that her skin was hanging off her frail body. Then one day she’d taken to her bed and simply not gotten back up. She had finally passed away, just a few weeks ago, plagued by an extended illness that no healers seemed capable of treating. From what Sana had told her, it would be a long time before the Earth temple picked a new High Priestess. They were in mourning, and of all the temples, they were perhaps the slowest in enacting change.
It could take years for them to elect another Coven leader. Years before another Earth High Priestess sat at this table with them.
Shifting in his seat, Cassiel Salvatore deSanguine sniffed loudly and looked pointedly at the clock on the wall, then to the empty chair at his side. As always, he immaculately dressed himself in a rich black suit witha dark red lining—the colors of his Faction’s house. “I see our council woman from the Demon Faction has once again not deigned to attend.”
“Oh, she’s here,” Alice said, gesturing at the room around them with one hand while continuing to pinch the bridge of her nose with the other. It hadn’t taken long for Alice to recognize the telltale signs of the Demon’s presence. The shadows along the walls were a darker shade than usual, stretching far beyond where they should, given the light of the room. And they flickered, ever so slightly, when you weren’t looking directly at them. “She’s just not…here, here.”
Cassiel rolled his eyes and sat straighter in his seat. “Kallista,” he called into the room, amusement echoing in his dark voice. “If you could be a dear?”
There was a pulse from the shadows, barely noticeable, before they withdrew. A moment later, the rear door of the throne room opened, and Kallista entered, head held high.
“So nice of you to join us,” Cassiel said with just the barest hint of a sneer in his voice. “I do hope we are not inconveniencing you terribly by asking that you attend in person.”
Kallista shot him a disdainful look as she took her seat. The Demon was devastatingly beautiful, even as her blood-red lips curled with distaste.
“I was not aware my physical presence was a necessity,” she said. She and the Vampire glared at each other for a long moment. He was the first to look away. “After all, Kellos hasn’t been present for the last… what is it now? Three meetings?”
“Two,” Alice corrected. “And he will send a proxy representative today, apparently.”
“Oh?” Kallista asked. She looked around the room, pointedly. “And where, pray tell, is this proxy now? Did he send us a little mouse to hide in the corners? A bat, for the rafters?”
“Not a mouse, no,” came a breathless voice from the main entrance, farthest from the council table. “I’m here! Sorry for the wait!”
The Shifter who entered, hurrying across the long room to where the rest of them sat, was nothing at all like the Lion Shifter Kellos who usually represented their Faction. He was young and fit, pale-skinned to Kellos’s golden-brown hues, and wore his long brown hair tied up away from his face. His eyes were a metallic grey, and they darted over each council member in turn, as though he couldn’t quite settle on where to look.
“A Hawk?” the deSanguine said, dismissively. His dark eyes raked down the Shifter’s body, sizing him up and clearly unimpressed. “The Shifters have sent us aHawklingto replace Kellos?”
“Not a replacement,” the Shifter said, seating himself in Kellos’s chair and scooting it closer to the table. It dragged across the floor noisily. He ignored the hostile tone in Cassiel’s voice, which Alice suspected either made him very brave or incredibly stupid. “And not a Hawk, either. A Falcon.”
He gave them a wild smile in greeting. “I’m Silas. Kellos is, regrettably, still detained. I’m just here for this meeting, maybe two, to make sure our Faction is suitably represented in his absence.”
“Kellos has been regrettably detained for quite a few meetings now,” Kallista mused. “Should we be worried?”
“Is the old cat finally ready to croak?” the deSanguine added.
Alice couldn’t help but think of Claudia, stuck in bed and slowly fading away until death finally took her in her sleep. It felt like the whole city was growing weaker by the day.
