Page 77 of Birthright

I had to laugh. He was right. “I never said it was smart. I simply present a situation for consideration. If you start meddling with the humans the way you have in centuries past, the human governments will panic and they will destroy the planet itself. I would hazard to guess that’s why Nessum and Bran did not do so, wouldn’t you?” I walked around him again. He studied the image of the nuclear explosion for a moment.

“I’m not sure I believe you,” he finally said.

“Fine. Don’t.” He turned his head but not his body to face me at his side, eyes glowing again. “It is two weeks until All Hallows’. I will be facing Feldema.”

“Still? Even though you have held her prisoner?”

“I still have to follow our laws to succeed Doran. We will still fight. Take the next two weeks to study modern humans. See for yourself if I speak the truth. Return for All Hallows’, and we’ll discuss.”

“If you release Feldema, Nessum may come back to us.” He sounded almost excited.

“You take the next two weeks and study, understand? You may find you no longer need the oppression of Nessum.”

“Nessum has protected and led the Slaugh for all times, Priestess. The turmoil since he left has been…difficult.” He almost spilled something but he was following the path I wanted him to, so I didn’t push to find out what it was. “If he returned, we would welcome his leadership.”

“I think you’re strong enough to lead on your own. You’ve taken out the entire upper ranks of your society and managed to control the lower. You have managed that by might, Trammel. Take some time to learn to lead them with wits as well.”

“I accept the compliment, Priestess, and return it.” He looked back at the image of the explosion. “I suppose we have let those who led us keep us uninformed. I accept. At All Hallows’, we will return for your festivities.”

“Trammel,” I said, as Doran and the others stood and made their show of a bow. “I would request a truce until then. No more assassination attempts against me or mine.”

“I assure you, Priestess, I have ordered no such attempts. If some of mine have done so, I will stop it for the truce.” The Slaugh returned the bows and filed out of the room.

I turned around to face the platform. All of them were staring at me in stunned silence. “Can we eat now? I’m starving.”

Doran raised an eyebrow. “By all means.”

We all sat around a large oval table in one of the dining rooms. Abbey had joined us and there were several other house Imps fussing with the meal. I was famished, so I had already finished my salad as the others regaled her with tales of my performance at the meet.

“Keena,” Bevin said from across the table. “When did your magic get so…”

“Good?” I supplied for her. “A while back.” I took another bite of steak. Cliona sat next to her, twirling a wineglass and looking amused.

Abbey piped up. “She can do much better than just a picture show, Bevin.”

Doran leaned over her plate and put her elbows on either side of it. “Then why do you not display it more often, niece?”

“I didn’t realize I needed to.” It was an honest answer.

“What do you mean?” She really looked perplexed.

“I don’t know. I see Witches do almost everything with magic or spells. I’m just not used to doing things that way. If I need to close a door, I get up and close it. It just doesn’t occur to me to use magic unless I really don’t want to get up and close the damn door.”

“But,” Doran argued, “it would show others your powers if you used them more often.”

“I don’t need to show off. Using my magic for every little thing would be showing off.” She still looked perplexed, and so did most everybody else.

Jordan said, “It’s part of you, Keena. It wouldn’t be showing off.” He put more potatoes on my plate without even realizing what he had done. Cliona laughed. He shot her an evil look.

“Part of me, yes.” I wasn’t sure I could explain it to them. “I was stronger and faster than most human kids in school. But I was clumsy too, so that strength and speed could backfire on me sometimes. My father, my human father, taught me that flaunting things that I was better at would only make other kids resent me. So I didn’t flaunt. It’s the same now. I can use magic, but I choose to do so only when I must. Abbey and I practice in the woods often, but it’s more like playing games.”

Bevin looked at Abbey. “How good is she now?” Abbey looked to me and I shrugged.

She looked around at the others. “If you leave out potions…in my opinion? Better than Doran.”

Cliona spilled her wine and Jordan coughed. Bevin and Doran exchanged a quick glance. Doran tilted her head and gave Abbey a look that said you work for me. “When were you going to let us in on that little secret?”

Abbey straightened. “No one asked my opinion, and I didn’t feel it was my place to report on Keena. She shows everyone around her respect and friendship. I wanted to return that. If you’d asked about her progress, I would have told you.”