I moved one of my dining room chairs to the living room. The Shepherd sat with his arms folded across his stomach, back straight, hair tousled by the weather. He looked intense, and somehow a little mad, in the less-than-sane sense.
“With that TV cracking all of a sudden like that, I’m thinking I should go,” Joel said.
“Okay,” I said. “Thank you for the pizza.”
Joel smiled, but the expression was tight.
Goosh followed him out, wordless.
Diana the Astrologer was the next to enter, pausing momentarily as she saw me standing at the end of the entryway. Silent, she removed her shoes and entered.
“Hungry?” I asked, “Thirsty?”
“Something hot,” she said.
“Coffee? Tea?”
“Tea, please.”
I prepped the coffee at the same time I put my oatmeal together. By the time I’d scraped the bowl clean, the tea was steeped.
She lingered in the doorway of the kitchen even after I handed it to her.
“I’m sorry I shot at your side,” she said.
“I believe you,” I said.
“My arm was twisted, so to speak. But… I told my Perseus to avoid killing if he could help it.”
“Okay,” I said. “Thanks, I guess, for trying. I’m trying not to hold onto grudges, so I consider you absolved, as far as I can do that. There’s a girl in the other room, on the couch. It would be more appropriate to apologize to her.”
“I’ll find her.”
“There’s also Fell…”
“He told me to kill someone, or else, and I did. I made a call, and Fell was the one I knew best. The most disposable.”
I nodded.
She didn’t seem to have anything else to say. Silent, awkward, she backed out of the kitchen and made her way around to the living room.
I wondered if she’d just needed to justify what she’d done to someone. If I remembered right, she didn’t have a coven or a circle. She had only her master, and he’d died for her sake.
Lonely.
Three of the Sisters arrived at the same time the Astrologer disappeared from view, their Elder Sister first among them. All dressed up, looking like they were ready for a day at the office. They refused both food and drink.
They were followed by the Drunk, and I felt a measure of trepidation.
All enemies, so far.
He’d brought four people with him, with very much the same vibe as I’d seen in my run-in at the University.
Food, drink, a warning about the innocents.
The sidelong glance he offered me gave me chills. The creatures he had with him doubly so, now that I had an idea of what they were.
The drunk’s underlings, I noticed, went straight for the shittier beer in the fridge. Maybe they had good manners as party guests, maybe they didn’t care.
Almost immediately behind them were the Knights. Nick reached out to clap one hand on my shoulder, but I ducked out of the way.
“Um, sorry. Just a little gunshy, after the last twenty four hours. Beer in the fridge,” I said. “Beer from a party at the front, good beer for friends, and people I don’t want to offend at the back. Don’t have much else to drink except questionable milk and tap water. Pizza is on the counter.”
“First thing you say is about beer and pizza?” Nick asked, giving me a hard look. “You don’t think we have other, more serious concerns?”
“My gut told me beer and pizza first,” I said.
“No kidding?” He asked. He gave me a funny look. “Fuck, if only you were born a woman, I’d trade in my wife for you. I’m still trying to get her to think like that.”
His wife elbowed him, but she didn’t look too annoyed.
I neglected to mention my real female alter ego, and focused on staying out of their way as they moved through the kitchen.
The Behaims were among the last to arrive.
Duncan led the pack, looking grim, fresh bandages visible underneath his sleeves as the older teenager helped him take his coat off.
“Hospitality has to be observed,” I said. “Food and drink in the kitchen, help yourselves. Make yourselves comfortable. I have no grudge against the kids, and no reason to act against you, Duncan. Everyone’s meeting in the living room, past the kitchen.”
There were no answers as they walked past me.
I was ready to shut the door and return to the others when I saw a woman walking down the hall. Older, with a kid in tow, like a grandmother and child. I assumed they were neighbors.
But she met my eyes, and something convinced me they weren’t.
“Can I ask who you are?”
“This is Emily, and she’ll be standing in for Malcolm Fell,” the old woman said. “I’m her bodyguard, and that’s all you need to know right now.”
I looked at the little girl. “I’m sorry about Fell.”
Her expression was stark, without warmth or softness, as she stared up at me.
“Maybe you should be,” the old woman said. “We’ll see how this situation is handled before I hand down any verdict.”
I glanced in the kitchen to verify that I wouldn’t be lying. “There’s pizza and tap water. I’m afraid I don’t have much else.”
“We’ve eaten,” the old woman said.
She stalked off to the living room.
By the time I rejoined everyone, the tension in the air was palpable. Sisters and Diana, and the Corvidae-inspired issues there. The Shepherd and the old woman stared me down.
In fact, it was easier to point out those who weren’t on edge.
Alexis and Tiff still occupied the couch, most likely because Alexis couldn’t move so easily. Had they been able, I could imagine we would have set up at my dining room table, which wasn’t big enough for everyone. As it was, we were lined up against the wall, Maggie by the toolbox at the dining room table, with one eye on the kitchen, Alexis and Tiff at the couch, and me between them. Ty had taken a seat at the end of the table, perched there like he was ready to spring off and leap to my defense, or the defense of Alexis. That was sort of how he always was. Restless, eager.
“For those who don’t know,” I said, “The Lord of the City is bound and securely in my possession, but not beaten or broken.”
There was virtually no reaction. Most already knew, it seemed. For others, it was only clarification.
The Knights, though, seemed a little surprised at the declaration. Paige’s attention was on the rest of the room, trying to decipher what was going on with the locals, their attitudes.
My friends weren’t so different.
“What we have now is a stalemate,” I said. “One I aimed for, almost from the beginning of this contest. I didn’t want to win, not explicitly, I didn’t want to lose either, obviously. Both involve ugly consequences.”
“This won’t?” the Elder Sister said.
“It might,” I said, “But it seemed safest.”
Isadora spoke, “Do you know why he holds the position he does?”
Is this a softball question? Is this Isadora ‘helping’ me again?
“He’s a figurehead,” I said. “He’s disposable, but tough enough he doesn’t get disposed of. He’s easy to manipulate, and that means you can generally get what you want without having to stick your neck out and draw attention.”
“Let me take your question from earlier and turn it around on you. Are you extorting something from us, Mr. Thorburn?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t think I’d get out of that alive.”