by May, W. J.
Pushed past her limit, Rae leapt to her feet with an infuriated cry. “I am NOT going to sit here with you and discuss my SEX life over BISCUITS! And FREAKIN’ HONEY!!”
The whole table went dead quiet.
Strangely enough their eyes weren’t fixed on her. They were fixed on something behind her. She was about to turn around when a low voice boomed out over the room.
“Well, that is a relief.”
Rae’s eyes snapped shut as absolute mortification threatened to swallow her whole. Really? Could this get any worse?
“Nice to see you again, Miss Kerrigan,” Carter continued with a wry smile in his voice. “I trust you’ve been keeping busy…”
* * *
The arrival of the President of the Privy Council prompted several things to happen at once. To start, both Gabriel and Kraigan suddenly made themselves quite scarce. Kraigan had been near the top of the PC’s most wanted list for some time, and Gabriel had just confessed to being a spy. Needless to say, they both suddenly ‘lost their appetites’ and vanished outside. But as both boys magically disappeared upon Carter’s arrival, Beth just as suddenly materialized. The second she heard Carter’s voice, she went tearing into the kitchen and threw herself into his arms.
“James!” she gasped, pulling back for a kiss. “I thought it was you!”
“You’re lucky it was,” he smiled, a relaxed, happy smile that seemed just as out of place on his face as Kraigan’s laughter was just moments before. “I’d certainly hope that you wouldn’t greet just any man who walked into your kitchen this way.”
“Awkward,” Rae murmured under her breath, sinking back into her chair at the table.
Carter raised his eyebrows. “You want to talk about awkward right now?”
Rae ignored her mother’s look of confusion and buried her face in her biscuit. “No.”
“So, why are you here, James?” Beth asked, glancing nervously outside. “You better have come alone. If I see even a single guard—”
“I came alone,” he said quickly, holding up his hands to calm her. “I’d have come even sooner, but your daughter caused a bit of an uproar when she left Guilder.”
Rae shrugged indifferently under their joint stares. “I would’ve thought I made everything much simpler for the Council by leaving.” There was a lot more she wanted to say but bit her lip instead.
“Simpler,” Carter laughed under his breath. “Well you certainly made a splash, I’ll give you that. You’ve inspired the Privy Council to do something it hasn’t done in over five hundred years.”
Beth folded her arms anxiously across her chest as Rae slowly set down her biscuit. “And what’s that?”
A feeling of dread stirred in the pit of Rae’s stomach.
Carter gave her a hard smile.
“They’ve elected a second president.”
Chapter 7
“Please say it’s me.”
Carter and Beth turned to Rae in a single movement. While her mother appeared confused, Carter had ice in his veins.
“I’m sorry, honey,” Beth shook her head, “but, pardon?”
“The second president,” Rae clarified innocently. “Please tell me that after I left they took a secret vote and it’s actually me.” Carter opened up his mouth to cut in, but before he could say a word Rae slammed her hand down on the table. “I vote to disband!”
“Rae Kerrigan!” Beth exclaimed, casting an apologetic look at Carter. “This isn’t something to be taken lightly, and it’s certainly not something to joke about!”
At that moment, Rae couldn’t bring herself to care less. It didn’t much matter to her what the Privy Council did or didn’t do. They had tried to arrest her. Twice. She and the PC were no longer associated. If Carter still wasn’t an integral part of the mix, she would have written them off completely. As it stood, she was content to make jokes from afar.
“Why not?” She tried to keep the sneer from her voice and remain respectful. “They tried to lock me up, Mom. They think I’m an abomination. Why on earth should I care what they do?”
“Because not all of them feel that way,” Carter interrupted smoothly. He hadn’t been amused by her sarcasm in the slightest, but he seemed to understand the basis for it. “In fact, after your little speech about Cromfield they’re about as divided as I’ve ever seen them.”
“Great,” Rae muttered, “because that’s exactly how we want the Privy Council. Erratic and unstable.”
“Rather than united against you?” Carter raised his eyebrows. “Yes.”
Another sarcastic reply rose to the tip of Rae’s tongue, but her temper cooled as she studied the travelled and weary face of the man in front of her. “United against us,” she corrected softly. For the first time since Carter arrived she gave him the hint of a smile. “I didn’t know you were going to back me up about Cromfield. When I went in there that night…I was planning on doing it alone.”
Carter stared at her for a brief moment before glancing quickly at the stove. “Yes, well, I think it’s high time you no longer have to do things alone. You and your friends have been left to carry the weight of this by yourselves for quite long enough. It’s time the rest of us took a stand.”
“But, James,” Beth put a gentle hand on his arm, “grateful as I am for your support of Rae back at Guilder, and I am grateful…what does that mean for you? Two acting presidents? How’s that even possible? Who’s the second president?”
Carter’s shoulders sank and he looked abruptly tired. “Victor Mallins.”
“Victor Mallins?!” Beth cried, smacking her hand on the counter. “He’s insane!”
“Wait…” Rae said, trying to catch up. “Victor? He was that really old guy, right? The one who looks like the Ghost of Christmas Past?”
Beth leaned back against the wall with her arms folded tightly across her chest. “Victor Mallins is the oldest living member of the Council. He’s been with it for the last three iterations, and, as such, he has some pretty, well, outdated ideas of how things should be run.”
“Outdated,” Carter laughed sarcastically, “that’s putting it lightly.”
“Let me rephrase,” Beth’s eyes narrowed, “radically conservative, extremist, asininely idiotic ideas about the way things should be run.”
“He was the strongest voice of opposition to opening the doors of Guilder to women,” Carter continued, casting Rae a sideways glance.
“He’s basically the sole reason I was never allowed to go,” Beth fumed. From the look on her face, Rae gathered that the exclusion was a slight that would never fade, no matter how many years had passed. “As a result, every woman in my generation gifted with ink, not to mention the countless generations of woman before them, have no formal tatù education whatsoever. If some of us didn’t happen to be gifted with powers that could be used in the service of the Council, we would never have had any training… period.” She tossed back her hair, seemingly oblivious to the fact that both her hands had started smoking. “And as I recall, Mallins did everything in his power to stop that integration from happening as well.”
Carter lowered his voice as his face grew grave. “More importantly, he was the man who led the witch-hunt for your father, back in the day. He fiercely hated all hybrids and everything your father stood for. And as such…”
Rae sighed as his meaning suddenly clicked. “…and as such, he despises me.”
Carter’s eyes locked on her and he finally nodded. “Despises and fears. The latter he would never admit. It’s impossible to say which he feels more. But whatever the case, Victor Mallins is not a man you want working against you.”
Rae pushed back from the table, temper rising in spite of her efforts to keep calm. “Well, it looks like the cat’s out of the bag on that one. He already knows that I’m a hybrid, and he’s already the co-president of the Privy Council. So why on earth does it matter to me now?”
“It matters,” Carter interjected, “because he wants to offer you a job.”
<
br /> Rae’s eyebrows shot to the ceiling as her jaw fell to the table. “Wait… What did you just say? Did I miss a step somewhere?”
There was a quick knocking on the already-opened door, and Julian, Molly, and Devon made their way cautiously into the kitchen. They had made themselves scarce as well, following Gabriel and Kraigan out to the barn. Seeing that no Privy Council guards had showed up yet to arrest them all, they had all apparently decided it was safe to come inside.
“Good to see you, sir.” Devon crossed the kitchen quickly and shook Carter’s hand.
Carter smiled warmly and clapped him on the back, doing the same with Julian when he arrived.
Rae took in each detail with a thoughtful frown.
Shaking hands? Sir?
The boys remembered they had quit the Privy Council, didn’t they?
“I’m sorry I didn’t see you coming,” Julian was saying when she tuned back in. “We’ve been dealing with other things. I would’ve told Beth so she could prepare—”
“Nonsense,” Carter answered quickly, “it was a spur of the moment decision. I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to take my leave. Things have been rather up in the air since you left.”
At the same time, both boys flushed with matching guilty expressions.
As quickly as they’d come, Carter instantly dismissed them. “I don’t blame you in the slightest for walking away,” he said seriously, looking at each one in turn. “Cromfield had just been exposed. The Council was in an uproar. To be honest, it was probably the best thing you could have done at that moment.”
At that moment.
Rae’s eyes narrowed. She sensed a sales pitch coming on…
“But for better or worse, the pieces on the board have begun to settle and it’s time to get a few things back in order.”
Devon looked at his old boss with a confused frown. “A few things back in order?”
Carter flashed him another fond smile. “Meaning you. All of you. I’ve been sent by the Council as a show of good faith. They want to offer all of you your old jobs back. You can be agents again. All you have to do is say yes, and return with me to London for a proper debrief.”
His remark was met by a profound silence.
Molly looked wary, Julian simply looked surprised, and Devon looked…excited?
“Well, that’s great!” he exclaimed, taking an automatic step closer to Carter. “I mean, as long as Rae’s name is completely cleared—”
“And it is,” Carter assured them all quickly. Both Devon and Beth sighed in relief. “I made her case personally, argued it in front of the Council when you left. They put it to an official vote. Not only will there be no further charges brought against Miss Kerrigan, but she and the rest of you are to be officially invited back and compensated for any time lost while under investigation.”
Devon was practically beaming at the news.
Rae was not as convinced. “How close was the vote?” she muttered, spinning her coffee mug nervously on the table.
Julian looked just as hesitant as Rae. “What’re they planning to do about Cromfield? Are they recognizing him as an official threat?”
“They’re opening up an official investigation,” Carter replied. “Once they finish raiding the catacombs beneath St. Stephen’s Church, I suspect it won’t be long before he’s formally listed as an enemy of the state. At that point, I suspect we’ll have to brief the royals, and teams will be launched in the hopes of finding him.”
“Well they’re not going to find him,” Rae blurted, feeling something akin to whiplash at this sudden turn of events. “He wrote me a letter right before we left London. Sent it back with what was left of Gabriel. He’s going underground, whatever that means.”
Rae hadn’t realized she’d done anything wrong. She didn’t think she’d said a single thing out of line until Molly elbowed her sharply between the shoulder blades. At the same time, Carter suddenly frowned.
“Cromfield gave a letter to Gabriel? To what was left of Gabriel? What on earth are you talking about? Is Gabriel alright?”
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
Rae’s heart froze in her chest. If only she had a tatù that allowed her to go back in time. On the other hand, Carter was sure to find out sooner or later. Maybe it was best he found out when Gabriel wasn’t actually here to feel his wrath.
“Well…um…” she stammered, trying to find the words to make the whole terrible thing as palatable as possible. “The thing about Gabriel is that he is—I mean, he was—and that part’s very important to understand, he was…”
“Gabriel was a spy for Cromfield,” Beth finished calmly, looking Carter straight in the eyes.
Carter turned a dangerous shade of white. “No. Gabriel is no spy. I vetted him myself—”
“And he confessed it and apologized to me personally,” Beth finished.
Rae looked at her in surprise. He did? When?
Carter was in a similar state of shock. “No, I just…I can’t believe that.” He started pacing without seeming to realize it. “I trusted him. With everything that was most important. He couldn’t just… And now it turns out he’s another…” The pacing stopped abruptly as his face hardened in cold fury. “Where is he? Still in London? When I get my hands on—”
“He’s actually in the barn,” Beth answered steadily. “He fled upon your arrival. And James, you’re not going to lay a single hand on him.”
Carter looked like she’d punched him in the face. “But Beth—”
“But nothing. To begin with, Cromfield beat you to the punch. Literally. The poor boy was half dead when he showed up here. He saved Rae’s life. He didn’t have to. He had the opportunity to turn her over to Cromfield, as well as the pieces of Simon’s device, and he chose to remain with us instead. To help us work against him. That’s worth something. We’re in no position to be turning away allies, especially now.”
Carter opened his mouth to argue, but Rae’s mother’s eyes narrowed in warning.
“Especially a child who was brainwashed and raised not to know any better,” she continued. “We’re not spilling any more blood because of Jonathon Cromfield. Not after…”
Her face suddenly fell and Carter looked up in concern.
“Not after what, Beth?”
Beth tried to answer, but for the first time in all Rae’s memory she was at a loss. Rae got up instead and crossed the kitchen to take her mother’s hand. If she couldn’t say it, Rae would say it for her. There was no need for her to relive it yet again.
She looked straight into Carter’s eyes and took a deep breath.
“Jennifer Jones is dead.”
* * *
Those four words stopped the impromptu meeting right in its tracks. For the rest of the day, Carter and Beth went off together, walking along the fields. Rae suspected that her mother was finally having a good cry, a good scream, and whatever else she needed to do to reconcile the betrayal and subsequent death of her best friend.
But back at the house things were just getting started.
“Okay, okay, what is it?” Devon asked with a grin as Rae shoved him into their bedroom upstairs. “What is so important that you had to—”
“‘Well that’s great’?” Rae quoted in an accusing hiss. “Well that’s great that we can go back to our jobs at the Privy Council like nothing ever happened?”
Devon froze in his tracks, the smile slipping off his face as he stared back at her. “That’s what this is about? You’re angry that—”
“Why the hell wouldn’t I be angry, Devon? We left for a reason, you know.”
He raised his hands peacefully, trying to stop the momentum of the conversation. “Yeah, we left because there was a chance they could still arrest you, and we left because they weren’t going to do anything about Cromfield. Now both things are changed. They’ve formally apologized for how they’ve treated you—and you heard Carter—Cromfield’s going to be Public Enemy Number One.”
She didn’t relax her po
sture, and he leaned in coaxingly.
“So…what’s the problem?”
Her blue eyes narrowed. “The problem is they did arrest me, Devon. The problem is that no matter how hard Carter tries to smooth things over, most of the men on that Council still absolutely hate me and everything I represent. And that’s never going to change! How could I work for them?”
“Come on,” he tried to take her hand, “you don’t know that. You could be the one who opens their eyes. Just like you were the one who got them to open the doors to Guilder—”
“I didn’t ask Guilder to open its doors to me, or any other female!” She pulled away. “You can be so naïve! Of course they’re never going to come around. The new guy who’s in charge with Carter—this Victor—he’s as old-school as they come! Probably older than Guilder!”
“I’m not being naïve, I’m being practical. All those things you were fighting against, they’re all starting to change—one by one. You’re the one who said you wanted to get rid of Cromfield so that you and I could have any chance at a normal life. How do you think we’re going to do that on our own? It would be next to impossible. But with the resources of the Council behind us—”
“Oh, your precious freakin’ Council!” Rae threw up her hands in exasperation. “You’ve always had such a one-track mind when it comes to them. It’s like you’re wearing blinders!”
“Now hold on a second.” It was his turn to get angry, “I’m the one who turned my life upside down by turning my back on the Council to side with you. I’m the one who got kicked out of my home, my job—and for most of the summer even my country, because I was following you. Not them. You. So don’t tell me that I’m blind when it comes to the Council. If anything, I’m blind when it comes to you.”
Rae’s heart was pounding and she was breathing in quick, shallow gasps. Nothing he was saying was untrue. She knew that. Every point he’d just made was dead right. Except…things couldn’t just go back to the way they used to be. Too much had happened. Too much had changed. They were forgetting one very important thing.
