Page 8 of The Tribes of Magic (Paragons #3)

“Is it that obvious?”

“Your tense shoulders are kind of a big giveaway.”

“No, I do not enjoy the spotlight. Not at all.” Kato sat down on the stairs.

I joined him. “Neither do I.”

I liked Kato like this. I liked when he let himself show that he was a teenager too. It was easy to forget that sometimes.

“The General thinks all my powers and victories intimidate the leaders of the other realms. He thinks I make Gaia appear strong by coming with him to this Summit and letting our entire delegation be ignored. But all that does is make us look desperate to prove ourselves. Some of these leaders have known each other for a very long time. They’ve been traveling the Many Realms for hundreds—or even thousands—of years.

Our short time on the magic stage means nothing to them.

They all expect we might just as well flicker out and be gone tomorrow. ”

“Try not to be so cheerful, Kato.”

“You think I’m pessimistic and paranoid.”

“No, I don’t think that you’re pessimistic and paranoid. I know you are.”

He expelled a heavy sigh, then rose from the stairs. “You haven’t seen what I’ve seen, Seven.”

I watched a very regal woman in a gold dress and a multi-tier crown tipped with rubies. She strode into the ballroom like she owned the place. It was a common attitude among the supernatural elite.

“And if I had seen what you’ve seen?”

“Then you would be equally realistic.”

“I think you mean pessimistic .”

“Is there a difference?”

“Of course. Knights like to do that, you know. You like to change around the words of things and pretend that it changes the truth.”

“And you like to talk.”

“Well, we can’t all be deep and brooding.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him.

“You sure like to joke.”

“One of us has to lighten the mood. And since you’ve apparently lost your sense of humor…” I let the words hang in the air, hoping he’d grab hold.

But he was too preoccupied with being miserable to let me cheer him up.

“I get it, Kato.” I dropped my voice, imitating him. “A leader must be taken seriously.”

A small smile escaped the shell of misery he’d built around himself. “That wasn’t a bad impression.”

“It’s a work in progress.”

“I can’t wait to see all the amazing things you’ll accomplish.”

A flush of embarrassment warmed my cheeks. “Amazing things? That’s certainly a lot of pressure.”

“I know you can handle it.” Kato set his hand on my arm for the briefest of moments before letting go. He took a single step toward the ballroom, then paused. “Well, I suppose I can’t put this off any longer.”

I moved to his side.

“Where do you think you’re going?” There was an amused tilt to his mouth, and I liked it. It meant I’d succeeded in cheering him up—at least a little.

“You told Ainsley you needed me for half an hour. And I still have another ten minutes left. So I’m coming with you. For moral support.”

I used my hands to smooth out the wrinkles in my shirt and pants.

“You’re volunteering to be in the same room as the General?” His brows arched. “Really?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”

“For one, because the General basically embodies everything you think is wrong with the world.”

“He’s a soldier. He’s kind of preprogrammed to think of the world in black and white, in enemies and allies.”

We entered the ballroom to zero fanfare, just as I liked it.

“Though I’d say people are more complicated than that. Even you, Kato. I had to remind myself of that a lot this morning.” I winked at him.

He looked out across the ballroom—and away from me. “I was hard on you this morning.”

“That is a major understatement.”

“I don’t regret it.”

“Oh, I know you don’t.”

We both knew why he was being so hard on me: I needed to master my magic so I could defend myself from all the crazies in the Many Realms. And there were a lot more of them than I’d ever imagined.

“Ok, so maybe I did tell myself once or twice this morning that you were pure evil,” I admitted. “But I swear those thoughts faded out once the frostbite had healed and the memory of electrocution was nothing more than a distant, muted buzz in my fingertips.”

Kato’s laughter died before it even had a chance to live. The General was marching across the ballroom toward us. And from the way he had me caught in his crosshairs, he was the total opposite of pleased to see me.

“Miss Winters, I do not recall assigning you to the ballroom.” He spoke in slicing tones, his words chiseling away at my already-precarious good mood.

I countered with a smile. I knew that would annoy him more than if I cried. “Well, I guess your memory isn’t what it used to be.”

Seven! Kato’s voice objected in my mind.

Sorry, I couldn’t help it. He just walked right into that one.

The General’s smile was as tight as an overstuffed balloon. “I see you are as charming as ever, Miss Winters.”

Charming. Right. That’s the sort of magic I was supposed to be working on today. Well, this was as good a time as any.

“General, how about you give Kato the rest of the day off?” I spoke smoothly, trying to mimic the exact tone and voice Ainsley had used earlier to put the Apprentices under her spell.

The General’s eyes didn’t grow glassy or unfocused. Instead, they hardened into tiny hard balls. “You do not give me orders, Miss Winters.” His mouth was hardly moving.

Kato looked like he would have totally done a face-palm right then and there if only tons of people weren’t watching.

Hmm. I guess it didn’t work, I told him.

Even his telepathic sigh sounded exasperated. Well, I guess it was time to salvage the situation, if I could.

“It wasn’t an order, General. It was a suggestion.”

“Go.” He thrust out his arm. His outstretched finger was pointed at the door.

That was definitely an order.

Nice going, Seven. Kato’s sigh echoed in my mind as I made my way back across the ballroom, toward the door. Now the General is in a foul mood, and I’m stuck here all alone with him.

You wouldn’t be stuck there with him if my spell had worked. I wonder why it didn’t.

You tried a spell on the General? Kato sounded horrified. And maybe a tad impressed. I’m sure he would have been more impressed if it had actually worked.

Ok, yes, I might have tried to do a teensy-tiny little spell on the General. But only because I’m trying to be a good Apprentice. Ainsley said we have to practice enchanting people today.

People. Not the General. Kato’s words were sharply articulated, like he was standing right in front of me, lecturing me. Do you have any idea what he would do to you if he found out you tried to bewitch him?

I’m guessing it wouldn’t involve cookies and heaps of praise for a job well done?

Kato’s sigh was the longest so far. You could at least try to behave yourself around the General, Seven.

I will if he will, I replied stubbornly, then stormed out of the ballroom, my ears ringing.

The General had been doing everything he could to make my life miserable since the day he’d met me, and all because he didn’t like teenagers who didn’t bow down to him and lick his boots.

And Kato thought I was the immature one? The General was way more immature. He refused to acknowledge opinions that didn’t one-hundred-percent agree with his own. That was the definition of being immature.

I passed an elegant woman in a sparkling ruby dress. She was whispering to her companion as they cut across the hall toward the ballroom.

“Did you see the Gaians’ president? They actually have a president. How quaint.”

I knew who she was even before the man at the door announced her: Duchess Dellondré, Fenris’s horribly-spoiled girlfriend. She was even worse than the General.

The Duchess continued, her voice reaching clear into the hall. She wasn’t even trying to be discreet. She wanted to be heard.

“The Iron Wolf is parading his pet Polymage around again.” She tittered. “As though we care about human-born rabble.”

I spun around and power-walked back to the ballroom.

Rabble. The word echoed over and over again inside my mind, pounding louder with every repetition, like a hammer to my head. The world was stained red.

Anger pumped through my veins, powering me past the high-nosed supernaturals waiting at the door for their grand entrance.

They thought they could demean us.

Disparage us.

Ignore us.

I’d show them who was rabble .

I watched the leaders of the Many Realms debate policy and politics—all while completely ignoring the President and the General. They didn’t even acknowledge Kato, and he had way more magic than any of them.

“It’s just not right,” I said.

I cut across the dance floor.

“You won’t ignore us any longer.” My footsteps grew sharper, louder—and so did my voice.

But no one heard me. They just kept laughing and talking and ignoring.

“It’s too much!”

Their voices filled my ears, growing louder and louder and louder. I clutched my head. Music and voices, plates and glasses, satin and silk, leather and steel. The sounds collided together—and then everything exploded.