Chapter 20 THE PARLEY
GALLAHAN’S POV
“Can you stop pacing around?” Maliya asked with exasperation loud in her voice.
I didn’t bother stopping as I replied, “Either you let me walk around in circles or you are going to allow me a bottle of whiskey. Go ahead. Take your pick.”
“Seriously, Gallahan. Relax,” Zuleika chimed in, mindlessly playing with a thin cluster of her curly brown hair.
She wasn’t even looking at me. Her gaze was focused on one of the chairs on the other side of the mahogany table, making it twirl around ceaselessly on one leg.
She was clearly jittery from nerves too. Hypocrite.
“Pot calling the kettle black,” I grumbled. “Besides, how can I relax when they haven’t arrived yet? Only fifteen minutes left before the agreed time.”
“And you have less than fourteen minutes to sit your ass down on this chair beside me,” Maliya shot back, almost growling out the words in irritation. “For fuck’s sake, calm down. They will arrive, alright? They wouldn’t waste the golden bait we’ve dangled right in front of their faces.”
“You don’t get it,” I muttered, still pacing about the room, my soles of my shoes softly clicking and clunking against the flagstone flooring of the largest study in Zuleika’s family manor.
Spells were made to conjure it into a formal room conducive for a negotiation. Personal items of the Banfey family, as well as some pieces of furniture, were temporarily vanished from the room and replaced by a large discussion table, with five chairs on one side and three chairs on the other. A plum taffeta table runner laid at the center to accent the empty furniture, and it matched the large silk rug that sat beneath the tables and chairs.
Then hanging above on the ceiling was an outrageously huge glass chandelier that was more decorative than functional. The book-filled shelves that lined a considerable portion of the walls were kept to add an air of both formality and cosiness.
I just hope that all the trouble that we did for this parley to happen would be all worth it in the end.
“Gods, Gallahan. You are so wearisome today,” Maliya complained.
“Listen, I am not only meeting Greggory Alfiero as the leader of the League. I will also be meeting him as Willa’s grandfather.”
“Hold your horses, Gallahan,” Zuleika said, finally tearing her gaze from the chair she was toying with her magic. Then with a stare that made me feel like I was suddenly a kid again, she added, “We don’t even know if Willa had told her family about you. We have to keep our cards close to our chest and play this game wisely.”
“And besides,” Maliya inserted. “It won’t be a good look if you act so pathetically anxious over this negotiation. Don’t make it so obvious that your heart is on the line here.”
“My heart is not on the line,” I argued, halting my steps to look at my best friends.
“Oh, yeah?” Maliy challenged with a smirk. “You’ve been acting like a desperate fool in love, Gallahan. Heck, you even wooed our people to agree on a ceasefire with certain conditions promised to them. I just hope you will be able to make the League agree to those conditions.”
“I do not love Willa,” I denied. “How can I love somebody I barely know? All of these…these feelings of yearning and need to have her are born from instinct and instinct alone. There is no love here, Maliya.”
Maliya and Zuleika looked at each other, wordlessly communicating with just their eyes, and it almost made me feel self-conscious. It was as if they knew something that I didn’t.
My lips curled in a sneer, ready to snap at them and break the silence that had stretched far longer than I appreciated. But Maliya managed to speak first.
“Whatever you say, lover boy. Now sit your ass down before I wrangle you with magic and glue you to this chair beside mine.”
I obliged, knowing Maliya wasn’t just all bark. She would be true to her words and wrestle me into the chair if she must.
Once seated between the two ladies, my hand flew to the stuffy cravat around my neck, adjusting it needlessly.
“To take some things off of your mind, why don’t we run through the non-negotiable and negotiable provisos we would be asking the other party?” Zuleika suggested.
Then with a wave of her hand, three thin stacks of paper appeared on the table, right in front of them. They contained the specific conditions and caveats that our camp had discussed and agreed together, as well as everything the League and the humans could get out of the proposed agreement of ceasefire.
“Fine, fine,” I muttered, skimming through the inked words on the paper.
A lot of the items listed were flexible and open for compromise, and in my opinion, only three important things were not up for any negotiation and debates.
First was the proviso demanding that humans must be kept out of any werewolf territory, and that there would absolutely be no form of contact between our kinds. Failure to honor this agreement would result in drastic sanctions.
Second was the demand that the human kingdoms that had already fallen under our thumb would stay as our conquered land. Their liberation was out of the question.
Then finally, the third and last condition… It was the one thing that my people, especially those who belong to the Culling Army, were very adamant about.
But I had the feeling that the League would fight tooth and nail to have it amended, and I couldn’t help but share the sentiment to Zuleika and Maliya, even though I already said the same thing two weeks ago.
“They wouldn’t agree to this.”
“They would have to,” Maliya, whose annoyance had already simmered down, said with nonchalance. “We are not bending our backs about this for them.”
The condition demanded that the Culling Army would remain free to capture creature hunters that would dare to harm anyone who wasn’t their own kind—may it be werewolves, magic folks, faes, dwarves, munchkins, or magical animals. The Culling Army would also have the freedom to retaliate to these creature hunters as they see fit. Anyone who would patronize the purchasing of items forcibly taken from hunted creatures would also receive retribution from my army with no questions and objections from the League.
“I know, Mal. But they will surely tell us we’re being barbaric and cruel.”
Zuleika snorted softly. “Since when did you care about what they would think or say about us?”
“Since Gallahan met his Willa,” Maliya answered with a light snicker.
My jaw tensed as I gritted my teeth in annoyance. “Can you drop it? She is not-”
“Is she really not?” Maliya lifted a neat and perfectly shaped brow. Then an irritatingly bright grin lit up on her face as she said, “You’re right! She’s not. She didn’t complete your bond and left you after round two.”
A light wave of anger unfurled in my chest. The fact she said still stung the same even after the weeks that had passed since she left me. My face flushed in equal measure of shame and outrage.
I was about to snipe at Maliya to zip her mouth shut or I would tear her to pieces, but Zuleika suddenly perked up on her seat. Her back went stiff, and her alert eyes remained glued on the double doors in front of us.
“They’re here.”