Page 16

I sat down at breakfast with Rebecca a few days later. I was itching for new information. For something, anything that would get us moving along.

“What have you learned?” I asked.

Rebecca poured me a cup of tea, already knowing how I liked it. While the men had gotten me turned on to coffee at their house, I was still partial to a good cup of tea. The blending of my old and new tastes made things interesting to say the least.

A black screen came to life as Rebecca tapped the screen. “I found out quite a few things. But I figured we could start with the basics.” She cleared her throat and scrolled the screen until she came to an image of one of the council members.

“I remember her.” I pointed at the older white hair woman. She’d sneered and snapped at me the whole time. She’d been worried whoever put me in the tower would come back. “She didn’t like me.”

“This is Healer Beatriz. She has been on the council the longest and has her fingers in all sorts of pots. Climate control, health care, international trade, the like.”

“And what does she think of humans?” I sipped from my tea cup, peering down at the disgruntled looking woman.

“She’s pretty neutral from what we’ve been able to tell. She doesn’t advocate for humans but also doesn’t always vote in favor against humans either.”

“So she’s unpredictable.” I pondered the woman on the screen. How could I get her on my side? What was her weakness? “Do we know anything of value about her? Some dirty little secret she wants to keep buried?”

Rebecca’s lips curled up into a wicked grin. “Healer Beatriz has been seen frequenting a clinic an hour outside of the city. She does it under the cover of going to check out the new recruits. But in reality,” she flicked the screen over, showing the mage with bandages wrapped around her face, “she’s getting cell rejuvenation.”

“What’s that?” I tilted my head to the side and reached for a plate of fruit I couldn’t quite reach. Rebecca slid it toward me.

“It’s a procedure that reverses the aging process using human stem cells,” she said as she flicked her hair over her shoulder. As if what she just said was completely normal. “It’s an experimental procedure and completely illegal.”

My lips curved into a smile as I bit into the strawberry in my hand. I hummed. “That seems like something she wouldn’t want to get out to the public, now doesn’t it?”

“Most definitely.” Rebecca nodded before swiping across the screen once more. “Now, Sentinel Nickolai, he’s perfect for us. He’s pro-human and even sponsors a human outreach program that helps disabled and elderly humans who have found themselves without a placement.”

I was surprised to hear there was someone else that didn’t think humans were lesser and even went out of their way to help them. “And do you think he would help us?”

“I think we have a very good chance of getting him to look the other way when we finally make our move by simply telling him our plans for the humans.”

Bobbing my head, I sit my tea cup back on the table in front of me. I crossed my legs, my gown today more of a pale pink than purple, the shimmery fabric more fitting for a ballroom than at breakfast. Yet, I couldn’t find it in myself to put on something so boring and drab as the dresses I’d been offered when I first arrived.

“So we can skip him as far as intimidation or blackmail. What about that red-haired snake woman?”

Her nose scrunched up in disgust. “Oh, Conjurer Marisa. She’s more animal than mage at this point and doesn’t give two shits about human rights. I don’t know much about her outside of her weird creature fetish. Most mages only have one familiar, maybe two if they’re lucky, but Marisa has made conjuring and binding creatures to her a creepy crawly art.”

Rebecca let out a shudder, her eyes closing briefly. I didn’t want to think about what kind of creatures Marisa was into, and Rebecca’s reaction told me I didn’t want to.

“So we have nothing we can use against her?” I traced the rim of my tea cup with my finger, thinking on how to handle the conjurer.

“Unfortunately, no. My contacts couldn’t find anything that wasn’t already common knowledge. And, out of the four, she’s going to be the hardest to convince... besides Cleric Jetta”

“Cleric Jetta?”

“He was big on human experimentation, though it's been outlawed for years now. I’m still looking into more information about his side dealings, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was still experimenting on humans in secret. It’s just a matter of proving it.”

I breathed heavily out through my nose and sank back in my chair. Two out of the three were going to be easy. Convincing someone to come to my side either by choice or force wasn’t something I hadn’t had to do before. But, to get what I wanted, I didn’t have a problem showing a little muscle.

However, the other two, Jetta and Marisa, were going to be a problem. I needed more intel on one and proof on the other. If Rebecca couldn’t find the information, I would have to rely on the demon I had on the inside to get it for me. If he couldn’t, I would have to move to extreme measures.

I wanted to let Adam handle it, but that would make me an optimistic fool. I was neither optimistic nor a fool. And, after hearing how Adam didn’t trust me, I wasn’t about to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Rebecca?” I began, not sure how to ask this without being awkward. Rebecca has proven her loyalty to me many times now. It was leading me to believe I could trust her over those who I thought were on my side before. Now I was going to rely on that hunch to answer some questions.

“Yes, my queen?” I still couldn’t get over the fact that this woman used to sneer at me and now gave me looks of awe and adoration every time she looked my way.

“You were Adam’s lover before, right?”

Her face had a cautious yet intrigued look to it as she answered, “Yes, for a time. But not anymore, not for a long time,” she quickly added.

I held a hand up to silence her. “I understand. You’re not in trouble. I’m just trying to figure something out.” I pulled my lower lip between my teeth and worried it, insecurity coming over me. It wasn’t a feeling I was used to not since I was a child. “Why do you think Adam chose to pretend to be engaged to you, if he didn’t plan on going through with it? I mean... it could have been anyone. Why you?”

Her mouth opened to answer.

“I mean,” I interjected, “no offense meant but, before I even knew you, I already didn’t like you. They don’t like you. So... why you?”

Rebecca’s lips ticked at the edges. “I’m not offended. I know how those guys feel about me.”

“Guys?”

“Men. Adam and the others.” Rebecca leaned against the arm of her chair and tapped her fingers on her lap. “If they hated me, it meant that my ruse worked. When Mara died, I ingratiated myself to Master Tuck and, to do that, I had to pretend to hate humans. To that end, I took on this persona.”

She laughed. “It was quite easy. I just watched the human haters that kept getting interviewed and copied them. They’re simple creatures, really. They see humans as lesser and act superior to everyone around them. When I copied them, you’d be surprised how easy people believed it.”

I hummed. I could understand that. I had to take on my own persona when I worked my way up to the king. Except I didn’t have to pretend to hate humans.

Back then, the mages were still in hiding. They already knew what I was, so hating my own kind wasn’t something I could just throw out there and be believed.

“You like Adam,” she said simply.

My head jerked to her, my lashes blinking rapidly. “Huh?”

Rebecca smiled a genuine smile at me. “It’s alright. I understand. I know what you see in him. He’s funny and kind. Yet he has a kind of domineering personality that you end up getting caught up in. It’s the same thing I saw in him. Though, my reasons for dating him were not as pure as wanting to be with him.”

The way she described him made it seem as if she actually knew him the way I did. My heart ached at the thought.

I knew it was unfair of me to blame him for being with someone before he met me, and yet, since he was engaged to her now, it only made me think maybe he still wanted to be with her. That the ruse wasn’t as fake as he claimed it to be.

“Oh, but,” she placed her hand on top of mine, “he doesn’t feel anything for me now. Maybe this will help. When Adam approached me about the engagement, he made it very clear that it wasn’t real. In fact, he was doing it all for you.”

I glanced up at her, my heart pounding in my chest. “For me?”

Red hair bobbed up and down. She squeezed my hand with reassurance. “I had to promise to keep Master Tuck away from you in exchange for giving me my fifteen minutes of fame.” She rolled her eyes and giggled. “That Rebecca wanted nothing more than all eyes on her and being engaged to the next Arch Mage? It was her ultimate goal.”

“Oh.” I cleared my throat, licking my lips. Part of me was thrilled that Adam had been thinking of me and yet, the other part was mad he didn’t let me know what he was planning.

“Did something happen between you two?” Rebecca leaned forward. The eagerness in her eyes made me wonder if this was what it was like to have female friends. Something I had in short supply back in my time.

I drew my hand out from hers and wrapped it around my waist. “No. Not really. I mean, we kissed.”

“You kissed! That’s fantastic.”

My head shook fiercely. “No. Not really. He almost immediately rejected it. Said I couldn’t get in the way of what he wanted.”

Her mouth pushed out into a pout. “Well, that was jerky of him.”

I tapped my fingernails on the arm of my chair. “Yeah. It was.”

“Well, don’t worry about Adam. He’ll come around. I can see the way he looks at you. Who else would become fake engaged to someone he hated just to keep you safe?”

I nodded, not knowing what to say. Adam had things he wanted to accomplish, and those things didn’t include me. No matter how much he wanted to protect me, I couldn’t forget about that fact.

Besides, I had goals of my own, and those trumped any feelings I had for him or the others.

Nothing mattered but freeing the humans. Nothing.