exactly true. The heads of each race may have a vote, but in the end my word was law.
“You’re out of line, Romulus. If you want your request to be taken seriously, you need to drop the bullshit.”
A muscle in his jaw tightened. “Screw this.” His chair hit the ground with a crash. He stormed away from the table and out the door. In his wake, the echo of the slammed door reverberated through the chamber.
Everyone was silent for two heartbeats. Until Queen Maeve decided to speak.
“Werewolves are so touchy.”
“Shut the hell up, Maeve,” Rhea said. As the leader of the mage Hekate Council, she didn’t have a stake in the outcome of the land rights debate, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have an opinion. “You have no good reason for refusing to allow that pack on your lands.”
The Queen’s mouth dropped open. “How dare you, mage!”
“No, Maeve, how dare you ?” I said, my voice threaded with steel. “You might treat your courtiers with this type of disrespect, but I’ll be damned if I let you cause hostility on my council because your mother never taught you to share.”
“I didn’t have a mother.” Her mouth puckered. “I sprung fully formed from a peat bog.”
I rolled my eyes. “Regardless, you’ve been alive, what, four thousand years?”
“Five thousand,” she said in a haughty tone.
“Might as well be five, period,” I shot back, “because you’re acting like a child.”
If it had been spring, Queen Maeve would have looked like a child and been even more prone to tantrums than usual. But as it happened, it was autumn, which meant the monarch was in her “mother” guise. As a demigoddess, she cycled through each season of womanhood—child, maiden, mother, and crone—each year. This evening, she looked like a human female in her prime. She wore the jewel tones of autumn and her long hair was bound in a wreath of acorns and ruby leaves.
While she sputtered her outrage, I held up a hand. “The Blue Ridge Mountains are large enough for your kingdom and one small pack of werewolves, isn’t it?”
“That’s not the point,” she said. “We claimed those mountains when the Dark Races began the great migration from Europe. Just as the mages stake their claim on New York and the bloodsuckers—”
Nyx, the leader of the American vamps, and therefore one of the most politically powerful vampires in existence, took exception to the derogatory term for her race and cleared her throat.
The Queen spared the vamp an annoyed glance. “Just as the Lilim did in Los Angeles. My point is, why is it okay for our territory to be invaded by the weres when you know damned well they’d need special permission to settle in mage or vamp territory?”
“Asking for permission is exactly what Mike’s doing. And P.S., Orpheus had no qualms about allowing the werewolves to settle in Manhattan decades ago.”
“Yes, well, look where Orpheus’s permissiveness got him.”
“That’s enough,” Rhea snapped. Her outburst wasn’t a surprise seeing how the deceased former leader of the mages had been her best friend and rumored lover.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s table this discussion for tonight. But I expect a resolution before Samhain.”
The queen pursed her lips and crossed her arms. “Tell that to him .”
“I intend to. Now, is there any new business?”
Several heads wisely shook to decline my invitation. I rapped my gavel on the table. “Then this meeting is adjourned.”
* * *
After the council meeting, I left the chambers and all but ran across the grounds toward the house to find Adam before anyone could distract me with more diplomatic drama. I found him in the library on the first floor of our Garden District mansion. Even though it wasn’t that cold out, a cheery fire crackled in the hearth. The warm glow illuminated Adam’s handsome profile, which was bent over a large, leather-bound tome in his lap.
I closed the double doors behind me. He
“You’re out of line, Romulus. If you want your request to be taken seriously, you need to drop the bullshit.”
A muscle in his jaw tightened. “Screw this.” His chair hit the ground with a crash. He stormed away from the table and out the door. In his wake, the echo of the slammed door reverberated through the chamber.
Everyone was silent for two heartbeats. Until Queen Maeve decided to speak.
“Werewolves are so touchy.”
“Shut the hell up, Maeve,” Rhea said. As the leader of the mage Hekate Council, she didn’t have a stake in the outcome of the land rights debate, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have an opinion. “You have no good reason for refusing to allow that pack on your lands.”
The Queen’s mouth dropped open. “How dare you, mage!”
“No, Maeve, how dare you ?” I said, my voice threaded with steel. “You might treat your courtiers with this type of disrespect, but I’ll be damned if I let you cause hostility on my council because your mother never taught you to share.”
“I didn’t have a mother.” Her mouth puckered. “I sprung fully formed from a peat bog.”
I rolled my eyes. “Regardless, you’ve been alive, what, four thousand years?”
“Five thousand,” she said in a haughty tone.
“Might as well be five, period,” I shot back, “because you’re acting like a child.”
If it had been spring, Queen Maeve would have looked like a child and been even more prone to tantrums than usual. But as it happened, it was autumn, which meant the monarch was in her “mother” guise. As a demigoddess, she cycled through each season of womanhood—child, maiden, mother, and crone—each year. This evening, she looked like a human female in her prime. She wore the jewel tones of autumn and her long hair was bound in a wreath of acorns and ruby leaves.
While she sputtered her outrage, I held up a hand. “The Blue Ridge Mountains are large enough for your kingdom and one small pack of werewolves, isn’t it?”
“That’s not the point,” she said. “We claimed those mountains when the Dark Races began the great migration from Europe. Just as the mages stake their claim on New York and the bloodsuckers—”
Nyx, the leader of the American vamps, and therefore one of the most politically powerful vampires in existence, took exception to the derogatory term for her race and cleared her throat.
The Queen spared the vamp an annoyed glance. “Just as the Lilim did in Los Angeles. My point is, why is it okay for our territory to be invaded by the weres when you know damned well they’d need special permission to settle in mage or vamp territory?”
“Asking for permission is exactly what Mike’s doing. And P.S., Orpheus had no qualms about allowing the werewolves to settle in Manhattan decades ago.”
“Yes, well, look where Orpheus’s permissiveness got him.”
“That’s enough,” Rhea snapped. Her outburst wasn’t a surprise seeing how the deceased former leader of the mages had been her best friend and rumored lover.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s table this discussion for tonight. But I expect a resolution before Samhain.”
The queen pursed her lips and crossed her arms. “Tell that to him .”
“I intend to. Now, is there any new business?”
Several heads wisely shook to decline my invitation. I rapped my gavel on the table. “Then this meeting is adjourned.”
* * *
After the council meeting, I left the chambers and all but ran across the grounds toward the house to find Adam before anyone could distract me with more diplomatic drama. I found him in the library on the first floor of our Garden District mansion. Even though it wasn’t that cold out, a cheery fire crackled in the hearth. The warm glow illuminated Adam’s handsome profile, which was bent over a large, leather-bound tome in his lap.
I closed the double doors behind me. He
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