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Quinton nudged me with his elbow and gestured toward my plate with his fork. "Eat," he ordered. "Eat and maybe they will stop staring at you."
I hadn't noticed people were staring at me anymore, I’d chosen to ignore them since the moment I sat down.
I shrugged before chugging back the rest of the vile poison Julian was passing off as magical alcohol. When the cup was empty, I slammed it down on the table and picked up my fork.
Adrian clinked his fork against his wine glass and the conversation abruptly stopped.
"There is one more thing I'd like to discuss." He smirked at me.
Of course there was one more thing he wanted to discuss. I shiver ran down my spine and I knew I wasn't going to like what he had to say next.
"The Council has never had a female grace its ranks before, and we feel the time has come to change that. We would like to offer you, Ariel Kimber, a place amongst us, and we would be honored if you joined our coven."
Oh, hell no.
My eyes widened in shock as my fork clattered to my plate.
"She's already a member of my coven," Quinton said in a harsh voice. "If you were going to try and poach from me and mine, then you should have had the decency to let me know before you tried to fuck me."
"This is not why I'm here," Aaron called out from farther down the table. "You promised us the opportunity to get to meet her and woo her to see if we could coax her away from them. Now you're asking her to join the Council? What game are you playing here, Adrian?"
My stomach churned at hearing his words.
"Woo me," I choked out in a strangled voice. "Nobody is wooing me or getting the chance to. I have a coven that I belong to and I have no plans on switching. I'm not going anywhere."
"It is an honor to be asked to join the Council," Daniel spoke in an annoyed tone. "Especially since you're a woman and aren't accustomed to our ways just yet. We felt that given enough time and training you could be amongst the best of us. You should be careful and reassess your answer before you so quickly dismiss us."
"Are you threatening me?" I asked in a low voice. The lights above the table flickered as my rage mounted. "How dare you invite me here just to threaten me."
The outrage at my words didn't come like I thought it would. Instead, a hush fell over the table as people sat back, either staring up at the lights in awe or staring at me in much the same way.
"You see," Adrian cried with glee, "this is exactly what I'm talking about. There’s so much raw power within her. If harnessed correctly, it could be used in so many different ways. It's glorious just to think about. She belongs amongst us, even if we have no idea of her background or what stock she comes from. She's perfect."
What stock I came from? I shouldn't have been surprised but I was, and, oddly enough, I think my feelings were a little hurt.
"Women aren't allowed on the Council for a reason," someone sitting close to Rachel said, and I turned my hostile glare on them.
He was glaringly bald but had a thick, dark goatee that hung down to his chest. His eyes were so dark brown they were almost black. His septum was pierced through with a hoop that had a ball hanging from it. He'd been one of the ones who'd watched me with naked hunger in his eyes. When he wasn't trying to eat me with his eyes, he was scowling at everyone else and, as far as I had noticed, he hadn't come here with a group like the rest of them. He'd been the only one outside of myself earlier who'd looked unhappy to be here.
"I meant not disrespect to you being a female and all," he told me in a soft, kind voice that didn't match the look in his eyes. "You should be treasured, protected, and taken care of the way we always do with our females. There's a reason we do that too and we all know it. Because of our ancestors we're a cursed lot. We need to make up for it by doing right by our females this time around. If you start to allow them positions on the Council, places of power, then you are potentially exposing them to dangerous situations."
He turned his stare onto Adrian and I swear the temperature dropped fifteen degrees when it did. I was learning I was powerful, but I certainly wasn't the only one.
"Especially now with there being hunters around here. Hunters you've allowed to get close enough to her that they tried to burn down where she lived and attempted to kidnap her roommate. Then they went to where sheworks." He said work like it was a dirty word and shook his head ruefully. "Now you want to make her a Council member? I don't think so. Something stinks here and I'm thinking it's you."
"None of this matters," Quinton said. "If Ariel says right here, right now, that she's sticking with my coven, then that's all there is to it and the rest of you can get fucked."
"Young Alexander—" Adrian started in a bored voice.
I cut him off as I pushed my chair back and stood. "His name is Quinton, not young Alexander, and you know that. You only call him that to get under his skin. Frankly, Adrian, it's childish and I would have thought beneath you. That doesn't matter right now though. What matters is he's right. I will not be joining you or anyone else. Not today, not tomorrow, not six years from now."
His face pinched in an angry frown as his eyes grew mean and I knew our welcome here was about to wear out.
"As I'm sure you're aware," I waved my arm out across the table, including the whole lot of them, "allof you are aware by now that my mother," I choked over the word, "wasn't a very good person when she was alive and didn't treat me very well. I've never had a real family or even a home before we moved in with Marcus and he made one for me. Then I met the Alexanders and their family, and by some miracle my family grew even larger. If you think I'd ever simply walk away from that because you want me to, then you haven't been paying enough attention to me in the time you've been given to get to know me. I'm loyal and, now that I have a family to call my own, I'll not turn my back on them. Not for anything."
Before I could sit back down again, Adrian, coughed and fell forward, face first. His face landed in his plate of food and he didn't get back up again.
"Oh my god," I cried out. "Somebody help him."
