or punish you for crossing the line. I’m sorry to put you through that, but we have to follow procedure.” She sighed and looked very tired and very old. “This has been a horribly trying situation, I don’t need to tell you, and I’m afraid it’s not going to be the last.”
Quinn frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The mainstream media is digging at the story, at the rumor that goddess power is transferrable. Half of them are taking a skeptical approach, which won’t cast goddesses in a positive light but will help suppress the truth. If the half who are treating it seriously prevail, however, it’s possible others will try to take power.”
“But they can’t just take it,” Quinn protested. “It doesn’t work like that.”
Barbara laughed, the sound more cynical than Quinn thought her capable. “That doesn’t matter. They’ll still try. The Protectorate is already working to increase its staff and alter its methods, as now in-power goddesses will be vulnerable, as well. The board will need to provide a whole new range of services for our members, from the educational programs Marley will start to a much larger, more effective security team.”
“It sounds like a good plan.” But the sentiment was hollow. Quinn no longer felt part of the board, or even the Society as a whole. Right now, she wasn’t sure she cared.
“I want you to consider running for president next year.”
“No way.” She didn’t hesitate. Politics had become her enemy, and she desperately wanted home. “You have a successor, anyway.” The vice president wasn’t as old or as experienced as Barbara, but she wasn’t incompetent.
“We need someone who’s been in the trenches, Quinn, who has experienced what’s out there and knows how to survive it. This is a new age. It needs a new leader.”
“It doesn’t have to be me.”
“But it should be. You’re now the most powerful goddess on earth.”
Quinn couldn’t suppress her shock. She wanted to protest but couldn’t bring herself to lie. The power of five other goddesses swirled and danced inside her, and though she hadn’t tried to use it, her old limitations didn’t seem to exist anymore.
Which meant her old needs didn’t exist anymore.
Yanking her thoughts away from that familiar yet way too new and raw pain, Quinn waited for Barbara to ask her about that power. How much she had now, how it manifested, what Quinn was going to do about it. But none of those questions seemed to even occur to the older woman. Uneasy as she was about hiding it, Quinn was too afraid of what they’d do to her if they had any inkling how foreign and dangerous it felt.
So she turned to the mundane and asked about the goddesses who’d helped Anson. “He said something about people wanting to be normal. Is that why they worked with him?”
Barbara sighed and nodded. “I’m afraid so. We were able to track them last night, after the team took Anson into custody. He’d promised them that if they did what he needed, he’d give them the way to live normal lives. That’s another aspect we’ll need to address in the counseling program. No goddess should ever feel she has to turn to outsiders like that.”
“No.” Quinn couldn’t imagine wanting to not be a goddess anymore. What had their lives been like, that they’d resorted to attacking other goddesses?
Barbara checked her watch and stood. “Please think about running for president,” she urged. “I know you have a business in Ohio, but it’s not like you’d start immediately. Jeannine will still serve her term next year, but we plan to change the structure of the board with new bylaws next spring, and pending the acceptance of the membership, you would be the ideal leadership for the new Society.”
Quinn agreed to consider it, but only to end the conversation. She had too much to do, too many other changes to adjust to, and the presidency would require more time and attention than she wanted to give right now. Maybe at some point in the future she could think about it.
When she emerged from the elevator in the lobby a few minutes later, Marley waited for her. She crossed the marble floor tentatively, wiping her hands on her jeans.
“How did it go?”
“Fine. No problems.” She studied her sister, taking note of the circles under her eerie eyes, her sallow complexion. Quinn understood now the soul-deep scars the leeching had left on her sister. “You okay? Get any sleep?”
“Not really. But it’s okay, I will. Did