“Thorburn,” Conquest said. “It would have to be Thorburn. She was getting on in years. It’s due time.”
“Connection,” Diana said, her voice barely above a whisper, carrying across the clearing.
“Female heirs only,” Isadora said.
“A thief? A very good disguise?” Diana said.
“Ah,” the sphinx said. “And I actually liked you, morsel. What a pity.”
“Wait a second,” I said. I tried to look each of them in the eye, but I couldn’t do it without looking frantic. I appealed to the Lord, even as he seemed the least inclined to back me up. “I haven’t made any…”
I stopped myself. I couldn’t actually say that I hadn’t dealt with demons in good conscience. If the lawyers were representatives of the demons and devils and darker things, then I had. I’d agreed to read the fucking book. I’d… fuck.
“I’m doing my damndest to avoid going down that road,” I said. “The universe is conspiring to push me that way, because I inherited bad karma and it’s probably the easiest route to fuck me over wholesale, but… I don’t want to, I’m fighting it, and I’ll gladly take any help that makes the fight easier…”
I saw the sphinx’s claws come out.
“…provided that help doesn’t involve killing or maiming me on any level.”
Conquest rose from his seat. Which made for one hell of an understatement.
The landscape changed, as if conquest were attached to each and every thing by drawstrings. The sun descended, in one smooth motion, as he rose, burning hotter, whiter, as it drew down, while the crimson bled out into the sky around it. The walls around the hill washed away, like waves that had crashed against a cliffside and were now returning to the sea below.
His flesh pulled back, straining into something macabre as he swelled in size, as if simply standing involved an exaggerated change in size. The sun, burning white now against a blood red sky, seemed more an extension of him, an accessory.
“If,” he said, and there was a tremor to his voice that resonated through all of the metaphysical strings that tied him to this world, “you would gladly take any help that will keep you from that road, you will have to unhappily take a push down that road. The beings that diabolists traffic with bring defeat and pain wherever they tread.”
Each other attendee of the meeting was tense. Even Jeremy, who had set this in motion.
“I could do with a calculated measure of defeat and pain,” the Lord of Toronto told me. “You can stay here, safe from your enemies, and I will use your knowledge. I can conquer you, subjugate you, own you, and you will find a peace in surrender. All do, given time.”
I felt a kind of despair, and I knew he could tell.
I’d walked right into a trap. Fuck no.
“I don’t know much at all,” I said, “I barely touched the books. I’m… I’m not a female heir. I didn’t inherit the respect or the power over Others that comes with the family name. I can’t get to the books.”
“Then look at me, practitioner, meet my eyes and swear you do not know one dark power’s name. That you do not know a single one you could summon.“
Had the lawyers set this up?
Had this been a factor, ever since Ms. Lewis told me how to summon Ornias?
I looked down at the ground.
“Then we will start with that one. Then we will find a way to access the rest of your family’s knowledge.”
“Lord,” the sphinx said, “You must realize this puts us at odds with you and your new pet.”
“I act in accordance with my nature,” Conquest said. “And I realize it makes you a very small problem, compared to how much I stand to gain.”
I saw the sphinx scowl. “We’ll oppose you.”
“No,” Jeremy said. “You’ll oppose him. Lord, promise me you won’t touch the city, me, mine, or the Duchamps of Jacob’s Bell, and I’ll sit on the sidelines for this one.”
“Grant me one token favor,” Conquest said. “To aid me along the way.”
“Granted,” Jeremy said.
“Traitor,” Diana muttered.
“We’ll be taking our leave,” Isadora said.
I watched her take flight. Diana held up her spindle, and light from the sky swept over her. She was gone a moment later.
“I’d like to take my leave,” I added, my voice sounding small, even as I tried to sound courageous.
“You stay,” Conquest said. He reached, and I saw him touch connections with his broad fingers and hands. “You-”
He pulled.
“And yours.”
Rose was hauled into plain view by the tug on the connection.
She dangled for a second from Conquest’s grasp. He dropped her into the powder beside me.
“Let us begin,” Conquest said.
4.03