Brave the Tempest (Cassandra Palmer #9) - Karen Chance Page 0,20

was in here?”

“You wanted the truth,” I told Zara. “That’s the truth.”

“It’s also dangerous,” she said, glancing around.

Saffy jumped to her feet at that, although nobody had made a move—yet. But I didn’t need her. “It’s all right,” I said.

“You sure about that?”

“Yes,” I answered, but I wasn’t talking to her. “I can shift us all out of here at a moment’s notice, although I don’t need to. I can turn back time to before we even arrived and erase all this from everyone’s memories. I can make this as though it never happened, because for all of you, it won’t have. Even more, I can freeze you where you stand and do whatever I like, up to and including slaughtering everyone in the room, because that is the power of the Pythian office! That is the power you forfeited for your pride!”

No one was talking now. They were all staring at me, some calculating, some angry, most shocked. But they were looking, and for once, they were listening.

“You talk about war with the Circle?” I said. “War leaves many dead on both sides, and as you discovered, to your cost, it often achieves little. There are other ways to wield power, safer ways, better ways, and more of it than you could ever dream! But it requires taking a risk and reentering the world in order to claim it.”

“And if we take this risk,” the impressive-looking woman said, her white mane of hair floating about her as if electrified, “what guarantee do we have that you’re not another Agnes? Lady Phemonoe had relatives in one of our covens, and distant though they were, they took in her child, raised her up, gave her a new name to hide her identity until she could safely return to court as just another initiate. And what did that win us? Nothing!”

“Because she was dating Marsden, damn his eyes!” another woman said, and there was loud agreement everywhere.

“Yes, she was dating Jonas Marsden,” I cut in. “And she let that influence her when she shouldn’t have. But I’m not Agnes, and the Circle doesn’t rule me. No one does.”

“So you say,” the impressive woman spat.

“Read my mind, if you doubt me. Isn’t that your gift?” I challenged her. “It isn’t mine, so I don’t know how much you can see. But if you have the skill, do it, and tell them what you find.”

The room went quiet.

“I haven’t forgotten that it was the covens who went with me, to save my court,” I said, my voice trembling a little in memory. “I wouldn’t have it now without Zara and Evelyn and Beatrice. And if your witches hadn’t arrived in the middle of that terrible Battle on the Drag, I might not be here, either. I owe you a debt, and I will not forget that. But I will not be ruled by you. I will not be ruled by anyone. I am Pythia, and I am asking if you want to work with me.”

I stood up.

“Let me know what you decide.”

Chapter Five

Three hours later, I shifted into the foyer of my penthouse, along with Saffy, Hildegarde, and about a hundred packages. Only to have one of my own bodyguards pull a gun on me. “Hey!” I said, startled. “Put that down!”

He did not put it down.

“Show yourself!” he demanded, the gun trembling a little, because he was new. And thus wasn’t used to three overburdened women appearing out of nowhere almost in his face. Of course, I wouldn’t have been in his face if he’d been over by the door where he should have been, instead of prowling around the large interior space.

“You’re supposed to be by the door,” I told him helpfully. “This is the landing strip.”

“Wh-what?” He stared at me. Or, rather, he stared at my right eye, which is all he could see through the tower of packages I was carrying.

“By the door,” I repeated, and started for the item in question.

Only to have the gun shoved back at me again.

“Hold up, or I’ll shoot!” he shrieked—right before he disappeared.

I blinked for a moment at the space where he’d been, and then my packages and I turned so I could see Hilde. Or at least the mountain of stuff in front of her. “Where’d you send him?”

“To the lobby.”

“He’s not going to like that.”

“As if I give a damn,” she said, trying to maneuver over to the door, but not being able to see made it difficult. She ended