said the baobhan sith babe who I’d once thought the scariest thing in the world. Her chestnut hair was still boy-short, and she was wearing a latex catsuit à la Underworld. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. Not because she was admittedly gorgeous, but because she used to scare the piss out of me, and now I was all ‘whatever’. If I hadn’t known I’d changed since first learning about my mother, I certainly did now.
Her eyes met mine briefly as she continued talking, and I didn’t even flinch. I deserved a cookie.
‘Our forces are equal to theirs and we’re more integrated, better fighters. Morrigan’s splitting everyone up by faction is not only crazy, but suicidal. They can’t cover for each other’s weaknesses.’
Nyx was right, and we all nodded.
‘The problem is Morrigan herself,’ Ryu added. Over the course of our various planning sessions, I had seen why they worked well together, now that Nyx wasn’t determined to be an evil cunt. They both had the same cool, assessing style of thinking that could see both the big picture and the minute details.
‘We’ve got to get her out of the way as quickly as possible. Our communities won’t stand for much more from her.’ Trevor, our US government liaison, was blunt, but I knew he was right. One of our debriefings had been an overview of current human sentiment about what was happening, as depicted in the media and in the blogosphere. It wasn’t good. Obviously, everyone knew something was up and no amount of ‘it’s all fine’ would cover the fact a massive fuck-off dragon kept popping up, and then being battled with what looked like magic.
I knew the Alfar Powers That Be all over the world were confabbing about how to handle this dilemma. Hiral had taken some time off from spying on Morrigan to spy on one of Griffin’s conference calls with the other seconds in command (who almost inevitably had more political acumen then their powerful but dazed leaders). Their suggestions for how to handle the humans had ranged from complete eradication of the species, which was immediately dismissed, thank God, to trying to act like it was a War of the Worlds-type publicity stunt for a movie.
I wondered if I’d be made to star in said movie.
No final plans were made, but it was pretty clear something would have to give in the complete secrecy that ruled our world. The thought was both terrifying and exhilarating to halflings like me, who straddled both spheres anyway. On the one hand, it would be so nice not to hide. On the other hand, I knew full well how badly my fellow humans dealt with change, let alone with difference.
‘Leave her to me,’ I said, my voice quiet but steady. ‘Just get her where we want her and I’ll take care of her.’
My hand found the silver stone I kept in my hoodie’s zip-up pocket. I’d decided to start carrying it. On the one hand, it reminded me of what was coming. On the other, I also wanted to keep it safe in case Morrigan had her own Hirals in our court.
Nyx gave me an appraising look, but she didn’t openly sneer like I was expecting. She’d obviously changed, as well.
‘You sure you can end her?’ Nyx said, although her voice was only mildly skeptical. To be fair, claiming to an ability to end the Red was big.
‘We got the White, didn’t we?’ My words shut her up, not least at my reminder that there was no ‘I’ in this team.
‘All right. Let’s go over this one more time. Tonight is going to be tight; we don’t want anything going off the rails.’
I watched Griffin go through our plans once more by pushing little troops around on the map in front of us, but I couldn’t help letting my mind wander. My task was relatively straightforward, after all: Let everyone else do his or her job, then kill the Red.
But if I thought too much about what killing the Red really entailed, I’d go crazy.
So instead I watched the odd combination of humans, Alfar, rebel purebloods, and halflings that I’d come to depend upon. They were working well together now, something none of us commented on; but I knew we were all aware of that fact.
Watching Jack, Griffin, Trevor, my friends, and all the other soldiers in that room bent over those maps, I realized then that, no matter what, Morrigan had failed. Even if she killed all