Page 117 of My Pleasure

Caiden stared. “You honestly thought we were blowing this out of proportion? That we acted that rashly for no reason?”

Meryn looked at Pip, then nodded to Daia. Pip wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “It is okay to say what you feel here. No one holds in against you.”

Daia startled, not even realizing Pip had moved until he spoke. “If that is truly the case, then you don’t know how rare a place this is.”

“Daia, who do the enforcers report to?” Meryn asked.

“Karl.”

“And who wrote that ‘announce matings’ law?”

“Also Karl,” Daia replied, starting to look a bit spooked.

“Thought so, that dude is covered in blood,” Meryn said, half retching. Ryuu rubbed her back.

“Blood?” Daia asked.

“When I saw him and Andrei, I saw rivers of blood. With him, I could smell the blood and hear screams,” Meryn said. Behind her, Ryuu hand glowed blue as he helped keep her calm.

The councilwoman looked up. “I believe you. I believe everything you’ve said. But… what do we do now?”

Caiden looked relieved. “Definitely bury the hatchet…”

“Beep! Beep! Wrong answer,” Meryn said, making loud tonal noises, her forearms coming up to form an ‘X’ over her chest. “You do that and we lose the advantage of having Daia on the inside. Someone went to a lot of trouble to get the Witches’ Council and Elder Council at each other’s throats. That leaves one major group of players unchecked.”

Kendrick looked exhausted. “She’s right, as usual.”

Caiden frowned. “If we could expose Karl’s machinations…” He trailed off as he took in Meryn’s expression. “He’s not the one pulling the strings, is he?”

“No, I don’t think he is,” Meryn admitted.

“Why not?” Caiden asked.

“He’s too arrogant. I think the one we’re really after has been at this a long time and would never put themselves forward the way he has. Karl’s a tool,” Meryn explained.

“What makes him arrogant?” Daia asked.

Meryn snorted. “He walked into my Auntie’s personal chambers in Éire Danu and made demands. A true shadow boss would never act so openly.” Her head tilted. “Daia why did you become a councilwoman with the Witches’ Council?”

Daia smiled. “It was a way to directly help our people. When I saw how hands-on they were with projects for the city, I wanted to do my part.”

“Y’all really were just public works huh?” Meryn said, sounding surprised.

Daia nodded. “I don’t know when things got so muddy. I don’t even know when we started doubting the Elder Council’s intentions.” Her expression grew frightened. “I don’t remember why I thought what I did.”

Pip gave her a squeeze. “It is safe here.”

Meryn turned to Kiera. “Come here for a second.”

Kiera stood and walked over to Meryn. “We’re not doing more tornados, right?”

Meryn tapped her chin. “Can you feel magic better now? Like when I work on my empathy, my images get clearer. How do you feel?”

Kiera took a deep breath and was shocked to realize Meryn was right. When she looked around the room she could see balls of colored twine in front of each witch. “I couldn’t see it before, but after the exercise with Kendrick I can see magic now.”

“What about me?” Meryn asked.

Kiera really looked at the woman seated before her. If she only looked quickly, it would almost seem like Meryn had air magic, but when she looked closer, it was golden, not yellow threads in front of her. It was a dense ball coiled around something.