Page 116 of My Pleasure

Kendrick pinched the bridge of his nose. “Daia, did you hear what she said?”

Daia’s excitement over new data faded. “We’re possibly being manipulated to the point where even we don’t know that we’re lying?”

Meryn pounded the table. “That was a way better explanation than I could have articulated.”

The councilwoman sat back. “Why did you trust me?”

“Because you wanted a coffee shop,” Meryn replied.

“Because I like coffee?”

“No, because you wanted what a coffee shop meant to you. You wanted that for everyone. Someplace warm, cozy and safe. A place with delicious drinks and soft music to meet with friends. Someone who can still enjoy small things are rarely dragged around by the big things like power and money.”

“I love magic,” Daia admitted.

Meryn shrugged. “What’s that have to do with power?”

Daia really looked at Meryn. “You’re way more dangerous than you look.”

“I know.”

Daia turned to Kendrick and Caiden. “What was your overall goal by bringing me here?”

Caiden pointed to Meryn. “She said you weren’t bad. But, recent actions had us believing otherwise. We wanted to feel you out for ourselves.”

Daia looked confused.

Meryn pushed the brownie box back toward her. “Can I make a few guesses?”

Daia nodded and took a brownie.

“Someone on the Witches’ Council is tightly interwoven with the Academy, my guess is that Karl douche.”

Daia just gave a nod. “He has been our point of contact with them for decades.”

Meryn went to spin in her chair, only to realize she was in a dining room chair. Looking positively disgruntled, she sat back. “Karl probably made these seemingly innocent suggestions in an offhanded manner that probably didn’t register with any of you. For example. ‘Hey, the unit warriors are stretched thin enough watching over the city, let’s put some Academy graduates out there for experience.’ It was probably done months ago. The graduates would walk around and talk to people. Then the net began closing. The graduates wanting experience were now enforcers. And the unit warriors going against them seemed ungrateful, because the enforcers were there helping warriors, right? And wow, without most of the traffic coming in through the portals, population control has been a nightmare. Let’s have any new matings be announced so we know who belongs here.”

Daia pursed her lips, then spoke. “Not quite word for word, but close enough. How on earth did you know that? Most of that happened before you even got here.”

“Because it’s what I would have done.”

“But why?”

Meryn pointed to Aiden. “The Witches’ Council can order stuff all you want, unless you have men to ‘enforce’ what you say, it means nothing, right?”

“They were only supposed to connect with the citizens, see what was needed,” Daia countered.

“And what did they tell you about what happened to Genevieve?” Meryn asked.

“She was asked to go with them. They escorted her to their building so they could investigate her claim. Then they were attacked,” Daia said.

Genevieve snorted. “If by escorted you mean beaten and dragged yeah. Investigate my claim? They threatened me with a mind wipe, and threw me in a prison cell. Let me be clear, they knew exactly what they were doing. Unless the entire lot of them went rogue, they were never really reporting to the full Witches’ Council to begin with,” she said, rubbing her arms.

Caiden pulled her close. “When I asked them to release her, they refused.”

Aiden nodded. “We gave them multiple chances to turn her over.”

Daia’s hand, holding the brownie, was shaking. “That’s not what they reported.”