Chapter 17
I’ve never been driven by a sense of duty or heroism, but sometimes you just have to listen to your gut and ignore everything else.
That was the impulse that drove me to go in after Abby. Before I had the chance to reconsider my actions, I was in the room, the door firmly shut behind me.
Abby scowled, but the puffy man across from her merely smiled.
“Isobel. How lovely that you could join us. I’ve heard great things about you.”
I cocked my head. “Hm. Really? That’s odd because I'm kind of a witch.” I smiled.
He cleared his throat. “Yes, well... please, come in.”
I stared at him as I moved further into the room. “I’m not exactly from around here, so how do you know my name? Have we met?”
“No, not directly, but I am familiar with your work,” he said pleasantly. “You did quite a number on the music teacher. And Drearyton Cove's forests may never fully recover from your affects. Neither will its beloved diner, I'm told.”
My muscles solidified. “Yes, well, we're working on that.” I gave Abby a pointed look, a silent reminder of why I was here at all. Seeing the Lemon Balm rebuilt was the least I could do to atone.
My attention glided back to Peterson. He did look familiar—and his was a face worth remembering. Behind the smiling eyes and jovial laugh was the blackened heart of hatred and malice. It nearly seeped from his pores, and at the moment, it seemed fully aimed at me.
He shifted back to Abby while motioning for me to join them. The room they’d found my great aunt in had a very different interior. Gone was the lopsided bed and cheap, faded furnishings. I glanced at the wall. Not a trace of the hateful word they’d written with her blood.
They were seated around a boardroom table, in an office far more lavish than its shabby exterior hinted at. Broad wooden slats were propped up by thick straight legs and surrounded by six white leather chairs.
I pulled out a seat next to Abby, dropped into it, then propped my high-heeled feet up on the table.
Peterson’s jaw tensed, but he remained focused on Abby. “Abigail, I understand you requested this meeting because you have questions for me.”
“Many of them,” she began, as she fiddled with the little packet in her pocket.
Her little truth serum. Really. I blew out an exasperated sigh. “Look,” I interrupted. “You met with Lorelei and promised her some pretty impossible things. How? How do you—” I pointed my pinky at him, “—have the power to take magic from a person's soul?”
Peterson’s expression hardened as he turned to me.
“Let me stop you right there, Isobel. Or would you prefer Venus?”
“Speaker’s choice,” I replied.
“Your question comes from a flawed premise. There are no people with magic in their souls. Only monsters. We offered Lorelei an opportunity to extract the poison staining her soul and preventing her from being fully human. It seems a choice anyone of your kind would jump at, given the opportunity.”
“Really. You don’t know many witches, do you? Or Elfkind or Fey.” I nearly choked on laughter envisioning the string of expletives Zanthiel would have let loose in response to an offer like that.
“Lorelei’s beloved was interested in what we were offering,” he said, keeping his gaze on mine.
A trickle of irritation came over me. The thought that Adrius would give up who and what he was, for her— The thought that she would ever ask him to—
“Okay, I’ve got a Q that I’d like you to A.” I brought my feet to the floor with a heavy thud. “What or who gives you the right to decide this for, well... anyone, really? Even beings as pointless as humans must know how dangerous it is to play God.”
“The fact that I am a pointless human automatically gives me the right.” He sneered, letting his anger peek through, then he adjusted his glasses and just like that his face melted back to natural. The half-smile on his face was even more disturbing.
Abby cocked her head. “You seem so sure that people with magic don’t want it, when there are countless people without it who would do anything to get their hands on it.”
She had stopped fidgeting with her pouch, since obviously a truth potion wasn’t going to be required. This man seemed to be offering us all the information he offered Lorelei. In grotesque detail.
“Again, we have very different definitions of the term people. And that is a fundamental concern if you are going to fully comprehend what it is we are doing here. We are working for people. To save them. What we’re offering those with magic is a chance to become normal people.”
“But how?” I interrupted him. “How will you do this?”
“That information is classified, held in strict confidence among my partners and the organization. The MBD—”
“MBD?” I frowned.
“Magical Being Disarmament. We need to make certain no one with malicious intent is privy to what we know.”
I arched a brow. “Protecting the innocent? How noble.”
“Everything we do is to protect the innocent, Isobel. One small leak in the general populous would cause mass panic and hysteria, would you not agree? Little Johnny knowing that the monsters he fears under his bed are real?” He leaned back in his chair and the wheels groaned. “The average person fully aware that supernatural creatures bent on death and destruction walk among us, hidden in plain sight... those would be troubling times indeed.” He straightened his glasses, pushing them further up the bridge of his nose. “Last thing we want is a repeat of the Salem witch trials. Public hangings. Bodies torched. Such barbaric acts. Our methods, I assure you, are far more... humane.
I nodded, narrowing my eyes. “Got it. So, to recap, you want us to willingly submit to you and your organization for an experimental process that will strip us of who we truly are. And you think the fact that you're asking nicely will protect you from the wrath of those who’d be more than willing to strip your flesh from your bones before ever giving up their powers.” I paused. “And someone from corporate thought this was a sound plan? Did you fire them on the spot? I really hope you fired them on the spot.”
Abby had been atypically quiet, but the look on her face was one of pure terror. A natural reaction, to be sure, but their plan, unless it involved some sort of science-fiction-like death ray, had zero chances of succeeding. It was dead in the water. And so were they.
To ease some of her angst, I rested my elbows on the table, adjusted my expression so that it was more amused than disgusted, and leaned forward. “You’re all fools, and you have no chance of pulling this off. No one will consent to a request like that.”
His demeanor shifted slightly. “We do not require your permission, Isobel. We are merely offering it as a courtesy. It is going to happen whether you and your kind are open to the idea or not. We have a duty and a responsibility to the humans on this planet, and we cannot allow your kind to take over.”
“World domination, you think that’s what every magical being wants? Has it occurred to any of you that we are all far more concerned with our own lives to worry about yours?”
His eyes glinted sharply in the fluorescent light. “Ah, but if that were only true. We have it on good authority that a faction of your kind is plotting exactly the sort of takeover we have feared. I will not speak more of this, but the very beings responsible for getting you here are not at all satisfied with worrying about their own lives. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
I leaned back, a little jarred by how much he knew of my world. “The Shades? Of course they’re not. They’re demons and they...” My voice trailed off as a memory rose to mind. The Shades. They were planning something while I was there, and they were the only ones with a work-around to the sealed veil. Perhaps they were responsible for sealing it. If they controlled passage into the human world, maybe they wanted it solely for their use. But it made no sense. Why? To take over the human world, just for fun? They couldn’t withstand the daylight or the air for long. It seemed insane, yet, what other reason could they have to restrict access? No other explanation fit.
My lips pressed closed. Better to not say too much. Abby was already staring hard at me, her dark eyes full of questions and accusations. As usual.
“Oh, well. Look at the time. I have... to go. We have to go,” I blurted. “You’ve been very transparent, Peterson, but it would be rude to take up any more of your time.”
He rose from his seat, and for a moment I wondered if he intended to try to stop us. But instead, he smiled. “I’m sure our paths will cross again.”
I grabbed Abby’s arm, amidst her silent protest and dragged her from the room, not slowing down until we’d reached the car.
“Hey,” she snapped. “Will you tell me what is happening here?”
“Get in. Get in the car. And drive,” I snapped back.
She stared a second longer.
“Now, Abby. Right now.”
Finally, she unlocked the door, we jumped in, and she drove off, her wheels peeling on the gravel road like the devil was on our tail. Once we’d put enough distance between us and that lunatic, she turned to look at me.
“Any sort of explanation would suffice. Something? Anything? A word or two perhaps would be great.”
I blew out a breath. “Fine, Abigail, but you will not like the word.”
She kept her eyes fixed on the road, but said, “Try me.”
“War.”
“War,” she repeated. Her brows tightened in a frown.
“A war is coming, and it’s not the sort of war anyone wins.” That was all I could say. All I had the stomach to say. She had no idea what the ramifications would be if this should come to pass. Because a battle between the Shades and the MBD—a war across two realms—had the power to end all mortal, and immortal, life.