gather together near the back of the room. “I think it's smart to bring in the human side. They might see something we don't, especially those that already work in the government."
Tyson looked uncharacteristically somber. "Fucks me off that we're here dealing with this while our mates are back home. I don’t like being separated from Grace."
My chest grew tight at the mention of mates. It had been a day since Justice left to return to Faerie. Just a fucking day. Twenty-four hours. I'd meditated in the trees for longer than that and it never bothered me. Right now, though, a day felt like a lifetime.
"She's fine," Maximus said from my other side. "You would know if she wasn't. You said you can feel her energy occasionally. The beginning of the bond is already there."
Yeah, at this stage I barely even had a doubt that we were true mates, and in a black and white, cut and dry, no shades of gray world, that would be perfect.
But we didn't live in that world and with everything slashed with gray, I couldn't do a thing to change it.
"I feel only an occasional flicker,” I said. “Almost like an errant thought that I know isn’t mine, and it’s barely happened since she left."
My brothers were stressed about being away from their mates, but at least they were all existing in the same world. Mine was in Faerie, and time was moving differently there.
They shot me sympathetic looks, but that was about the most they could do to help.
The meeting kicked off soon after and we shut up to pay attention. There was close to a hundred supes in the room here, the majority leaders from around the world as well as the few dozen Guilds and some powerful former leaders … like Louis, standing up front, ready to address us all.
"Thank you all for meeting so quickly," he said. "I know you're busy, and as always it's not ideal for every leader to be out of their countries and prison towns, so we'll move forward and turn it over to a vote in a few minutes."
He was joined by more mages; the ancient ones who were all previous leaders and highly respected. Louis was the youngest of them, but as the most powerful, he commanded the room in a way they never would.
"I'm Reginald Walters," a gruff German sorcerer started. "We have received intel that the US president will expose us to the world if we don't agree to give him fifty supernaturals as a super-secret government-controlled group."
He continued on, listing out the demands we had received from the president. A Guild member got up next, and quickly detailed what they’d learned from closed cabinet meetings.
“The president is not allowing this information out into his general cabinet,” he said. “It’s very much still top, top secret. He doesn’t seem to want anyone else ruining this with policy or politics.” He continued on with more information, most of which wasn’t too important.
What was interesting was the way the president had been handling this all on his own. That was unexpected, and it made me curious about how he was even going to explain that task force when it appeared. It wasn’t documented in his email, and we should have asked before now.
When the Guild member finished, Louis spoke again: "The president has damning evidence. I examined it myself, and while I could try and prevent it from entering the world, I don’t think that would stop this from happening." He’d told me privately that his entire reversal of time when he released the information hadn’t worked, so there was more at play here. “Keep that in mind when voting.”
"Also keep in mind," John Johansson from Switzerland added, "that if we fight him on this, it could mean a war. A world war between supernaturals and humans. We are powerful yes, but they have many more numbers than us, and some of their weapons are deadly."
He was right, and while I hated the idea of being controlled like this, pissing away innocent lives just because we didn't like anyone pulling our strings was also an asshole move. The president hadn’t asked for anything too unmanageable, and I wouldn’t let my pride get in the way of this decision.
As leaders, we had to think of the greater good … the best for everyone as a whole.
The mages continued for a few minutes, listing all the information so it was succinct and clear, and then they