with the number of Dark witches in State, it should have been an easy vote. I spiral the strand of sapphires around my finger. “We don’t have ten years for me to work my way up the ladder. I need a ranking position if we’re going to have any say in what happens with the Splinter group or the Light witches. Now, not in ten years when it’s too late and I’m dead.”
I summon the eyepiece to me and press it over my eye. The council meeting appears and I listen intently for a few seconds. They’ve moved on to allowing diplomats from the Center the rights to use the private gym facilities of the West.
As if it matters.
“Have they forgotten I am, in effect, the leader of the Dark witches?”
Annalise puts both her hands behind her head and bends her neck forward. “The vote’s final.”
“How will this work then? I’ll lead the Dark witches, Patrick Channing has no control over the Light witches, Eamon controls the Splinter group, so who runs the State?”
“They’ve put forward a few names. Sun-Wei seems to be the front runner.”
“Sun-Wei?” I huff. “Didn’t he hide when the Splinter group attacked at Kyra’s binding?” I crack my knuckles in hope of discharging a little magic. “They can’t pick him.”
“He’s a Dark witch and it’s better than if the Light witches or Splinter group seized control of the State. We’d be on the defensive, and that’s never a good position to be in,” Oliver says. He said the same thing to me the other day—how I had to be offensive rather than defensive with Beck.
I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. “There has to be another way. We need them to give me control. It’s the only way to keep everything from falling apart. Why can’t they see that?”
Silence settles over the room. Is this really it? Am I supposed to go sit in a corner and play quietly until the “adults” decide I’m useful? I bite my lip and allow the stinging pain to grow.
“You can do what Caitlin did,” Oliver says. Excitement bubbles just beneath the surface of his words. “What she really did, not what the books say.”
“And what’s that?”
“Attack them.”
I press my finger against my top lip and lift my eyebrows. “Tell me more.”
Oliver turns on the wallscreen. A teenaged Caitlin stares back at us.
“How old is she here?” I ask.
“Eighteen. She’s announcing a treaty she formed with the Eastern Society.”
It’s mesmerizing the way she moves her hands and the tempo of her voice. “Did she secure the treaty or did Charles?”
“Does it matter? History says she did.”
“So she was in State at my age. How? Was it because there weren’t enough leaders?” That would make sense because she came to power at the end of the Long Winter.
Dawson taps the wallscreen. “Ah. For that, I think you want to see this.”
A newscaster dressed in old-fashioned clothes appears. He talks slowly, drawing out each word, and it takes me a moment to be able to understand what he’s saying. The pictures on the screen, however, are easier to interpret: tornadoes, fires, mysterious explosions.
“Did Caitlin do that?” I ask. Pride peppers my words.
Dawson nods. “I believe so.”
Annalise points at the screen. “How many did she eliminate?”
Oliver flips his hands over and shrugs. “My best guess is she started small. Maybe ten minor officials. No one seemed to suspect her at first. She was a just a girl with a strong aptitude for magic. But by the time she took control of the State, at age twenty-two, there wasn’t anyone left from five years earlier.”
I exhale loudly. “I don’t have five years. Not with the Splinter group pressing for control.” I scrunch up my forehead. “I have to go after all of them. Now.”
“Then you need a plan,” Oliver says.
I rub my neck. “We need to strike when the most officials are together. It would be the easiest way to do it. Like what the Splinter group did when they attacked Kyra’s binding.” Out of the corner of my eye, I glance at my friend. She stops picking at her nails and lifts her head just enough so that I can see the flicker of excitement in her eyes. I grin. This is the mischievous Kyra I know.
Dawson checks his wristlet. “They’re in session for another hour.”
I bounce a little on my toes. “Then we need to move fast. Before they have an idea of what’s coming for them.”
“What are