Brave the Tempest (Cassandra Palmer #9) - Karen Chance Page 0,157

did something that caused me to have one. It was one of the bad ones; I ended up cowering behind the sofa, shivering in fear. I thought they’d hate me then, that they’d think me some kind of idiot. But they just thanked me and left, like nothing had happened! And then, a few days later, father called me to his study.”

“He told you that you’d been selected.”

She laughed a little then. “It was the happiest day of my life! Everyone had been so weird for those few days—jumpy, nervous, but excited, too. And always watching me, I didn’t know why. Until he called for me. You’ve seen that study, right?”

I nodded.

“I’d never been in there. None of us kids had, except for my eldest brother. My next eldest,” she corrected herself. “That’s where father did business, where important things happened. That’s where he told me I was going to be Pythia someday.”

“He couldn’t tell you that,” I said. “It wasn’t his to give.”

She brushed it away. “He thought he controlled everything. And in the family, he did. Even beyond it . . .” Her eyes had gone distant again, but now they snapped back to mine. “Do you know what he told me, when I left? That the only thing we’d never had was a Pythia. Every other major office, even Lord Protector, had been ours at one time or another, but not that. Not until me.

“He told me to come back as Pythia, or not at all.”

I swallowed. “Lizzie, you’re a powerful clairvoyant. You could be rich. Important people would want to see you, important jobs would be open to you—”

“And all I have to do is give back the power, right?” she sneered. “I tried to bring back gods. They’ll let me rot in here.”

“I could talk to Jonas. You could get out—”

“When I’m middle-aged! Or older. And what would I have then? Who would be waiting for me? My name stricken from the roster, debased, demoted, scorned. My family never had an acolyte, either, and they were so proud, you understand? My father was proud!”

“Lizzie—”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. This isn’t just about them, it’s about me. It was the only thing I ever had that made me special. And I was, you understand? I am! I’ve done things, seen things, that they never will! Not with all their money, and I—”

She cut off, and this time, when she met my eyes, there was no anger in them. Just utter resolve. “I won’t ever be Pythia,” she told me. “But I won’t go back in shame, either. I’ll die as I’ve lived. As an acolyte.”

I bowed my head. I could argue with her all night, but she’d had weeks to make up her mind, and anyway, what could I say? I would have done the same.

“So be it.”

One of the previously unseen guards moved forward, into the picture, and looked at me, uncertainty on his face. But she only laughed at him. “That’s not how it’s done,” she said, with a trace of her old haughtiness.

And no, it wasn’t. Despite what the Circle seemed to think, they didn’t run the Pythian Court. Her death wasn’t theirs to give.

A moment later, the guard was joined by another. Both of them senior war mages, both of them frantically looking around the tiny room. But their captive wasn’t there.

Blue eyes met mine, in person this time. My hand clenched around her throat—a spasm, not a threat. I’d threatened her with this fate once before, but it wasn’t like that now. Now, it was a choice on her part, and a duty on mine.

But it was still so fucking hard.

She saw, and her lips quirked. “You’re Pythia,” she told me. “It’s part of the job.”

I swallowed, and nodded.

“And you are an acolyte,” I whispered.

A young throat under my hand, a proud tilt of the chin, a glint in the eyes.

And a moment later, I discovered that I’d lied to the witches.

There weren’t even any bones.

Chapter Thirty-six

I flashed back into the foyer of my suite a couple of hours later. Emilio was on guard again, and he smiled in welcome. “Heard we’re keeping Marco.”

“Yeah.”

“Anybody else coming back?”

“No. But we’re not losing anyone else, either.”

He grinned wider and threw open the door. “Then you won.”

“No,” I told him quietly. “Nobody won.”

I went in.

It was dark and quiet, even though it was the middle of the night. That was usually high noon as far as vampires were concerned, but only