Page 63 of Made

She vowed that, if… no, when she got home, she would be the best friend the magistrate ever had.

I was dozing, being lulled to sleep by the movement of Keir’s chest under my cheek, when my door chime began blasting “Maneater”. I was on my feet beside the bed in two seconds. Honestly, I’d thought I’d left my ability to move that fast behind a couple of decades ago. That was my first reaction. My second reaction was to make a mental note to get the doorbell fixed. At some point along the way, the house had caught onto my musical game and started making selections for me. As can be imagined, that is a taste of what can go wrong when you equip a house with magicalintelligence. The house doesn’t know what songs will or won’t embarrass me, assuming the house cares about my feelings. I’d like to think it does. Since I live here and all.

“I’ll get it,” Keir said, already halfway to the front door.

He didn’t bother to add more clothes to the drawstring pants he wore because he expected the wee hours caller to be none other than Maxfield Pteron.

It was Max. But Keir wasn’t first to get to the door. First were Fen and Frey. Of course, that meant that Keir wasn’t really trying.

Next was Kagan, who had to travel from the guest cottage at the rear of the property to our front door. Perhaps he’d been wide awake and looking out our living room window. Waiting.

As I tied my robe at the waist, I heard voices, but couldn’t make out what was being said.

Max stopped talking when I arrived on the scene.

“Come to the kitchen. I’ll start a kettle,” I said as I turned in that direction. As the three men were being seated at the table, I said, “House. Please light the kitchen fire.“ A fire much cheerier than we all felt sprang to life with a tiny explosion. “Max, start over, please. And don’t leave anything out.”

“Very well. The short of it is this. She is okay. The Board of Directors agree that this is an overreach for the Cardinals; that they don’t have the authority to randomly snatch people. Normally, that would be a benefit in name only because nothing where they’re concerned is enforceable.”

“But?”

“I was going to say ‘however’,” Max supplied.

“Fine. Speaker’s choice.”

“The bad news is that there was nothing random about the kidnapping. Esmerelda’s mother was a Cardinal who left and hid the pregnancy. As soon as her existence was reported, they came for her.”

“What’s the good news?” I asked.

“Well, it seems it didn’t take long for her to establish herself as a troublemaker.”

There was a sharp intake of breath from across the table where Kagan sat. I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I was thinking, which was,That’s my girl.

Max looked at Kagan. “Among the reasons Esmerelda is giving for demanding her return is a romantic interest. Would that be you?” Kagan nodded. “They’re prepared to make an offer. If you accept and complete three trials to their satisfaction, they’ll let her go, even though they maintain that it’s a sacrifice. I gather their intention was for her to fill the vacuum left by her mother’s departure.”

“Max,” I said, “I feel skeptical about this. Just off the top of my head, I can think of a dozen ways they could devise to make that offer go sideways. There are probably many more if I work at it. And, based on what you’ve said, I can safely assume they’re smarter. Am I wrong to be skeptical?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Just because it’s unlikely that they’d play fair doesn’t mean they definitely won’t.”

“An eloquent dodge, Counselor. Slow clap.”

“Rita!” Keir’s tone told me I’d gone out of bounds with my belligerence.

“Sorry,” I said meekly.

Maxfield appeared entirely unperturbed. I suspected it would take a lot more than my sophomoric attempt at sarcasm to shake him up. “

“What’s your reservation?” he asked.

“The obvious.”

“Rita!!” Keir was even more insistent that I was being disrespectful to Max.

I blinked. Honestly, I hadn’t meant to be ungrateful to the very person who might be our saving grace. I blame my rudeness on the tension caused by seeing my good friend kidnapped right in front of me. If I’d known how much more the night had in store, I would’ve saved up.

“That the tests are rigged with failure as the only outcome. That the phrase ‘to their satisfaction’ is a loophole. Just for starters.”

He was shaking his head. “I can see why you’d be suspicious.”