But I digress…
Back to Vanessa and her weird reaction to her father asking her to sit on the other side of the table. Without a word of protest, she shuffled over to the chair next to me and slid in. After a quick exchange of glances that basically admitted that neither of us knew why we were here, we both regarded Graves and waited.
He looked completely out of place at DB. Most of the patrons wore muted colors in some shape or form. Ratty black leather jackets. Dirty flannels that were probably a different color at one time but hadn’t seen the inside of a washing machine in years. Even the bartender, who was probably prom queen when she’d peaked in high school but now didn’t give a shit about her appearance, wore a dusty brown tank with a plethora of stains.
Not Virgil Graves. He had on a sharp blue suit that pulled out the piercing color in his eyes, a bright red tie, and a white pocket cloth. The entire ensemble was a stark contrast to everyone else, including me in my black puffy coat and jeans. This had to be his plan, to be the sharpest-dressed man in the joint, to stand out as the most important, the center of attention like a bride at her wedding.
The bartender appeared at the end of our table, her attention on Vanessa. “Can I take your order?” She had a thick New England accent that made her R’s disappear.
“I’ll have a white wine spritzer.”
Of course she would. I stopped short from rolling my eyes.
“We got mango White Claws.”
“Close enough.” Her shoulders seemed to droop even more as she stared at the table.
“And for you?”
I returned my attention to the bartender, then stopped. She wasn’t looking at me.
“Scotch, single malt. Neat.” Graves barely glanced up from his phone.
“I’ll see what I can do.” She turned to walk off.
“Wait. I didn’t get to order.”
She ignored me and continued to move away.
“Do you know who this is?” Graves said it loud enough to turn several heads, including the bartender’s.
She turned back around and placed her hands on her narrow hips, eyeing me with such disdain, it heated my face. “Yeah, I know who she is. She’s the reason we lost half our customers. My dad can barely keep the lights on now, thanks to her.”
Graves sat up ramrod straight, squaring his shoulders as he regarded her. “This is the prophecy. She’s destined to save our world, so I’d suggest you show her a little respect.”
Every set of eyes—even the ones hidden by Hoodie, I assumed—suddenly riveted to me. My palm began to ache, which was never a good sign. Something called to the darkness inside me, luring it to the surface. I hid my hand beneath the table before it started to glow as the light inside me battled the dark, keeping it at bay. Several different comments broke through the thick stench in the air and burned into my conscience.
“That’s Katy Reed? She’s younger than I thought.”
“She’s the one who beat Alec?”
“How’d she manage that?”
“That’s our girl.”
The last comment drew my attention to the back, where four distinctively beautiful men sat in a corner booth, watching me. I pulled in a deep breath, feeling their strength feed mine even from clear across the room.
“Katy?” Graves grabbed my attention. “What would you like?”
Right now? Or in general? I’d like world peace, for starters. This civil war was tearing our world apart. Right now, I’d settle for a beer. “Can I get a hefeweizen?”
The bartender shot poisoned daggers at me with her glare, so I smiled sweetly in response. She spun on her heel and stormed off. Great. She’d probably spit in my beer.
“I’m sorry about that, Katy.” Graves finally set his phone onto the table. “There are still some resistant to the positive change I’m trying to bring about.”
“What change would that be?” I purposely left out the positive part. If it had anything to do with Spencer Dalton not only being allowed back at the academy but now in charge of a bunch of brand-new elementals, it was anything but positive.
“Uniting the two sides of our world. There should be no elemental versus elemental. We have a hard enough time remaining hidden from the Nelems. If non-elementals found out about our world, we’d all have to go into hiding to avoid becoming science experiments. Or worse.”
Worse as in what Cressida Clearwater and the elementals of her time had gone through, driven from their homes during the Salem Witch Trials to avoid dying a horrible death. I hated the idea of fighting alongside my two biggest archnemeses. I’d rather be declared a witch and burned at the stake.
The bartender returned with our order, setting the drinks in front of us. I stared at my beer, watching the droplets trail down the outside of the bottle. At least it was cold. I still wouldn’t be drinking it, not after the way she’d reacted. God only knew what she did to it before serving it to me.
“Why did you want to meet with me?” I finally asked and glanced around the dive. The customers had all gone back to their own business. Well, most. Hoodie still stared at me, creeping me out. I rubbed my palm to alleviate the throbbing. “And why here?”
“You asked me to look into your mother’s claim that she had another child.”
I perked up, ignoring the way Vanessa rounded her eyes. I would have preferred to have this conversation in private, but wasn’t about to ask
