by Ella M. Lee
Mark took a deep, shaky breath and rubbed his skin where the shackles had dug in. We all watched as he blinked several times and furrowed his brow. He kept his magic docile and locked down, but he was poking and prodding and flexing it.
“Well? How do you feel?” Nicolas asked.
“Okay, I think,” Mark said. “How am I not dead?”
“Luck,” Nicolas said. He took Mark’s wrists and snapped the shackles back onto them, activating them with a flare of magic. “While I’m busy, I’m going to have you talk with Teng, Sylvio, and Irina. We need to get you back to Meteor, and we need to make sure neither they nor Water find out what took place here. We also have to make sure Smoke doesn’t come after you.”
“Smoke?” Mark echoed, alarmed.
“They were the ones pulling Derek’s strings. The others will fill you in.”
Mark’s eyes flicked to me for just a moment. “Evie and I can disappear. We won’t cause you any trouble. You’ll never hear from us again.”
“No,” Nicolas said, shaking his head, “that’s not what’s going to happen next. You and I will be in touch frequently, and I—”
“I’m not doing your dirty work in Meteor,” Mark said. “I don’t care if you healed me. I’m not anyone’s bitch.”
Nicolas held up a hand. “If you would simply allow me to explain, this would be faster and easier.” He took a deep breath and blinked slowly several times, searching for visions. “You and I will be in touch frequently because, one day, we will both be pinnacle members of clans, and it would behoove us to be allies. You will be a pinnacle member of Meteor, and I’m going to help you get there.”
Chapter 21
The room was silent, in shock. Mark’s mouth went slack, his expression alarmed.
“What?” I said dumbly, looking between them. My voice sounded too loud.
Mark? A pinnacle member of a clan? That was ridiculous. The last time I’d known him, he wouldn’t get out of bed before lunch, and he had been blowing off expensive therapy sessions. I had no idea how he managed a group, and the mere thought of him running a clan was absurd.
“Yeah, I’m with Fi,” Mark said. “What?”
“How?” I said.
Nicolas waved a hand. “Meteor turns over pinnacle members all the time. I can’t even name the current set. That part is easy.” He fixed Mark with a penetrating stare. “You aren’t ready yet, but if you want power, I will give it to you.”
Mark didn’t seem to know what to say. He just watched Nicolas, stunned.
I exchanged a serious look with Ryan, but it didn’t appear as though he’d been privy to this information either. It occurred to me that there were four potential pinnacle members standing in this room, if Nicolas was to be believed. Daniel, Nicolas, and Ryan would likely be the leaders of our new clan.
And now Mark was part of Nicolas’s planning.
Heat crept into my neck and cheeks. My jaw clenched. This was wholly unfair. Why wasn’t anyone as mad at Mark as I was? How dare he come in here and screw with everything? And somehow be rewarded for it?
“Ah, well, think on it,” Nicolas said to Mark. “You could be more than some errant mercenary on the fringes of your clan. Imagine what you could do for yourself.”
I bristled. That was almost the exact same thing Nicolas had said to me in my first hours here.
I spun, pressing my hands into Daniel and guiding him back out into the living room. He caught the look on my face. With stiff motions, he leaned into me, speaking in my ear. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m leaving. Can I help you home?”
Dan quirked his lips into an exasperated frown. “Fi…”
“Dan, can I help you home?” I repeated.
He swallowed whatever he’d been about to say. “Yeah, okay.”
I pulled him out the door. I was supposed to be supporting Daniel, but when we stepped into the elevator, he put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer. “Come on, Lieutenant, tell me what’s wrong.”
I jabbed the button for our floor. “I hate Mark, and I can’t believe no one else seems to.”
“You don’t know Mark,” Daniel said.
“That doesn’t matter. I hate him for coming here and barging in and fucking shit up and upending my group just when things were becoming stable.”
“Oh… so like how you did to us a few months ago?” Daniel asked.
I froze, all my rage turning to pinpricks of ice that spread over me sharply and painfully. He was right. I had done that to Nicolas’s group. I had disrupted it, killed his lieutenant, and hurt his members—the people I now called my family.
Daniel guided me out of the elevator. He stopped in front of his door and put his hands on both my shoulders, studying me with dark, hooded eyes.
“I didn’t say that to upset you,” he said. “I said it to show you Nicolas’s point of view. Life happens. Sometimes it throws shitty things at us. We handle it. We’ve survived a lot before you joined, we survived your arrival, and we’ll survive all of this.”
He must have seen my frustrated and disbelieving look, because he sighed. “You can be angry and upset. That’s okay. Ryan once told me that letting yourself feel emotions is a good thing, but then you have to process them. You have to move on. Working with Nico, sometimes that means processing and moving on faster than you want to.”
My eyes burned as I tried to hold back tears. “Yeah. Yeah, okay,” I muttered. Dan looked tired and strained. “Get some rest, Commander Darling.”
I waited until he had firmly shut his door before dragging myself down the hall to my own apartment. I didn’t shield the door behind me; Nicolas would likely come find me, given our upcoming meeting with Claudius.
I had slicked my hair back into a professional-looking bun and was just laying dress options on my bed when the door clicked open. Nicolas came to lean against the bedroom door frame. He had changed. He now wore a plain black suit with a black shirt, perfectly fitted to his lean frame. His cuff links were little jet-black orbs. His magic was dark and hidden. I glanced at his right middle finger—he was wearing his block-sync ring, the little device that could hide his immense power.
“Hello,” he said tentatively.
“Why the block-sync?” I asked, forgetting that I was annoyed at him.
“It’s a sign of respect,” he said. “My magic is flashy. Darkening it shows that I’m not trying to be distracting or disconcerting, that I’m not looking to engage in misdirection.”
I gave him a disbelieving look. “So you’re going to be completely honest with Claudius?”
He smirked. “Of course not. I don’t need my magic to help me deal with clan politics.”
“Hiding in plain sight?”
“Oui,” he said, amused.
I was losing myself in his handsome gaze when my brain reminded me that I was mad at him. I turned my eyes toward the bed, where I had laid out my outfit options. I didn’t have many dresses that worked well for a business meeting. Most of mine were for date nights. I put away anything red or blue, leaving me with a black dress and two gray ones.
I frowned. “You should have told me your plans for Mark.”
“I would have,” he said, “if I had known them at the time. My visions aren’t consistent. I don’t know what fell into place, but I only just picked up on this path for the future.”
“Why is that, anyhow?” I asked. “You’ve never figured out why your visions are erratic?”
Nicolas hadn’t spent a lot of time explaining the mechanics of his abilities to me. In fact, it seemed as though he didn’t like talking about them and usually expressed discomfort when I pressed him for details. Right now, though, I didn’t particularly care, not after how fucking uncomfortable he’d just made me.
He pursed his lips, likely trying to figure out if he wanted to indulge my annoyed tantrum. Finally, he sighed. “There was a time in my life when I exerted vast effort on tracking my visions, searching for patterns or tricks or even the vague n
otion of consistency. I didn’t find out much in the way of helpful guidance. That said, there is one major component to my abilities that I failed to mention before.”
I crossed my arms, waiting. He knew he had my attention, and that my interest in figuring out more about him was overriding my aggravation.
“My abilities seem to be at least partially will-based,” he said. “I believe—although I can’t know for certain—that the general mental willpower, mental discipline, and mental state of my subject can affect both my future sight and my mind-reading. I’ve yet to meet anyone who can keep me out entirely, but I do think my abilities behave slightly differently on different minds. A subject with a strong will seems to run at least some small amount of interference on me, more so with the visions. They have always been the most unstable of my gifts.”
“So… I could learn to keep you out of my mind, if I tried really hard?” I asked, intrigued.
“I’ve tried that experiment with several people. I was never able to quantify the effect, but there were a few indications that will could make a minimal impact on my effectiveness. It’s never proved itself to be a true problem, though,” Nicolas said. “I’m not sure you could withstand me, lamb.”
I wanted to be annoyed by his nonchalant suggestion that I wasn’t mentally strong against him, but it was probably true. We both knew I would give him anything. I sighed.
“So now we’re stuck with Mark?” I asked.
“You could view it that way, I suppose, or you could say we’re adding to our base of allies. Mark is surprised, but I think he will come around to this idea.” Nicolas pointed to the dress on the far left—dark gray, sleeveless, with a flared skirt. “Wear the Dolce and Gabbana.”
“Not the black one?” I asked, eyeing his own outfit.
His nose wrinkled the slightest bit. “You don’t look terribly good in black.”
I bit back the insult I wanted to hurl at him and put the other two dresses away. I might be annoyed at Nicolas, but no one gave better fashion advice than him.
“I don’t want to work with Mark,” I said, bringing our conversation around to the points that mattered.
“I didn’t ask you to,” Nicolas said. “You have your own specialties and tasks within our group, and I want you to focus on those. It is not your responsibility to maintain these sorts of connections.”
I tugged off my shirt and leggings and pulled on the dress. Nicolas went to my closet and picked through my shoe rack, coming back with a pair of black suede booties that had cost more than my entire shoe collection back in Flame.
Nicolas steadied me while I put them on, and his warm hands distracted me from my ire. I couldn’t be mad at him when he was near; I loved him too much.
I removed my rose-gold necklace, the one from Cartier that Nicolas had given to me, and laid it on my nightstand. I held up a teardrop onyx, set in platinum, that he bought for me rather randomly on a date a few weeks before.
Nicolas shook his head. “Too severe. Choose something with subtle color. Perhaps the sapphires?”
I pulled out the sapphire necklace he’d given me on our first date and clasped it around my neck.
“Parfaite,” he said, examining me.
I gave him my best withering look. With a heavy sigh, he sat at the end of my bed and patted the space next to him. I sat reluctantly, locking my hands together in my lap.
“Will you tell me what is wrong, please?” he asked.
I hesitated. “Why is everyone taking Mark’s side all of a sudden?”
Nicolas pursed his lips. “This isn’t a competition. I’m not picking Mark over you.”
“It feels like it,” I said.
“Mon Dieu, why?”
I sighed. Nicolas deserved an explanation for my petulance, but I had a hard time groping for the right words.
“Mark has gotten attention over me our whole lives. When we were kids, my parents always needed to deal with his bullshit. When Mom died, everyone thought I was okay because I was older, so Mark got all the sympathy. Then he had to go and fake his own death, ensuring everyone would always remember him. Now he’s in Meteor, commanding a group, far more successful than I ever was. You say he’s going to be a pinnacle member of Meteor, and I’m just… just… a librarian. Magic was supposed to be my thing, and he beat me to that, too, and he did it better. How is any of this fair?”
Nicolas was watching me with something like understanding written across his face, but his next words confirmed that he didn’t get it at all.
“Is this what it is like having a sibling?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, all siblings grow up, join rival magical clans, and eventually attempt to assassinate each other or each other’s loved ones.”
Nicolas smiled. “I love you, lamb, and I hate to see you think so poorly of yourself. You are not less successful than Mark, not at all. Do not compare your paths. You have all the power within you to make a competent commander, and you could be a pinnacle member if you wanted.”
“I’m not angling for a promotion,” I said. “That’s not what this is about.”
He took my hands. “I know. It’s about pride. Listen, Mark may become a pinnacle member of Meteor, but we will all be responsible for creating new magic. That will be an amazing feat, and you are a necessary part of it. How many times have I told you I need you? And more than that… I want you. You have no idea how happy you make me. I would never forsake that for Mark.”
“Really, do you have to lay it on so thick?” I said, poking his shoulder gently.
He caught my hand, stroking my fingers, sending shivers down my spine. “I am only being honest. You will guide your own future, which will be very bright and very impressive, and I will support you. Have I ever given you a reason to believe I would choose anyone over you? I am always thinking about your life and safety.”
“Did you keep me out of the fight with Derek because you didn’t want to risk me getting near Meteor magic and dying from it?” I asked.
“Yes, and because I didn’t need your help,” he said. “You and I don’t have a lot of experience fighting together, and I didn’t want to risk you unnecessarily if I could handle it alone. In this case, I didn’t need anyone’s help, nor did I want anyone’s help. Derek was my problem, and I prefer to handle my issues myself.”
“Does Claudius know what happened today?”
“Not yet,” Nicolas said. “I’m going to tell him in person.”
I took a deep breath. “Is there anything I should know going into this meeting?”
“Not particularly,” Nicolas said. “Let me do the talking. Claudius is an ally, and our professional relationship is reasonably good, but our group still operates on the principle of least privilege with him—we tell him as little information as possible, and only what he needs to know.”
I was still nervous. Aside from a brief conversation with Claudius, one that Nicolas had also been present for, he and I had never spoken.
“I trust your instincts, lamb,” Nicolas said. “You don’t need my advice. You know how to handle yourself, and you know me well enough to play my games with ease.”
“You know what, Nicolas? I think that when we create Lightning Clan, you should drop your reputation.”
“Oh?” he asked, tilting his head at me.
“You don’t need it. People would respect you without it. Time to turn over a new leaf, don’t you think?”
“Perhaps,” he said, although he didn’t look convinced. “I will consider your words.” He stroked my cheek, and my heart fluttered despite my residual annoyance. He stood and offered me a hand. “Show time, lamb.”
Claudius’s office was on the thirtieth floor. It was more old school than Nicolas’s modern, sterile apartment. Claudius had a massive desk made of dark wood with a banker’s lamp in one corner, a large wingback leather chair, and a towering set of bookshelves to one side. On the wall opposite the desk was a large renaissance painting, vivid and bright, something perhaps by Titian or
Raphael.
Claudius himself was behind the desk and stood when we entered. “Nicolas, Fiona,” he said cordially, spreading his hands in welcome. “I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting Daniel’s lieutenant.”
Nicolas ushered me through the door and seated me in one of the two chairs in front of the desk.
I crossed my ankles, folding my hands elegantly in my lap, trying to look as polished and at ease as possible. “Daniel is otherwise engaged. He couldn’t free his schedule on such short notice, but I assure you that I can speak for him.”
Claudius studied me for a long moment. His salt-and-pepper hair and the slight lines at the corner of his eyes made him look like a disarming older gentleman, but his piercing blue gaze held a great deal of power and intelligence. There was a reason he was one of Water’s leaders, and I couldn’t let my guard down around him.
“Yes,” he said slowly. “I have no doubt that the two of you are quite close. I am glad to see you so… settled here.”
His tone was an odd combination of concern and warning. I desperately wanted to look away, but that would be a showing of weakness. Nicolas was relaxed and impassive next to me, and I tried to channel some of the cold that made up his depths.
I offered Claudius a pleasant, mysterious smile and prayed we would move on to business.
Nicolas leaned forward and steepled his fingers. “I realize you called this meeting,” he said, “but I have some pressing news that I would like to share with you first.”
Claudius waved a hand in permission.
“Derek Douglass is dead,” Nicolas said.
There was a long pause as Claudius searched Nicolas’s face for details.
“I see,” Claudius said. If he was surprised, there was no hint of it in his tone or expression. “How do you know this?”
“I know this because I am the one who killed him,” Nicolas said.
“Are you going to share the details of what happened?” Claudius asked, and I could tell by his short, precise questions that he was used to dealing with Nicolas.
