Mani had to pry us apart so he could give me a hug too. “You’ve lost weight,” he said disapprovingly as he held me at arm’s length to inspect me.
“It’s the stink,” I said. “It’s not really that appetizing.”
Nora clutched me to her chest for almost as long as Sophie. “How are you holding up?” she asked. I had to talk into her shoulder.
“I’m holding.”
She made a soft sound like she was trying to contain a sob. I sniffed. Nanna cleared her throat. “Why don’t we all sit down and have a cup of tea?”
I was grateful for the change of subject. It wasn’t until I was out of Nora’s hold that I saw we weren’t alone. Declan stepped up to the table.
My eyes went wide. I looked to Sophie for an explanation, but she and Basil were engaged in frantic conversation like they hadn’t just spoken over the mirror last night.
Mani pulled out a chair for me. He sat himself in between Declan and me. I couldn’t help smiling at the dad gesture. Tears threatened to come out again. I wrapped my hands around the teacup for something to do. It scalded but at least that meant I wasn’t on the verge of bawling.
Nanna sat to my left which put Nora directly in my eye line. I gave a small nod in Declan’s direction. She acknowledged it with a grimace but didn’t say anything. Unfortunately, I had lost the ability to be polite.
I turned towards Declan over Mani’s leaning figure. “So what are you doing here?” I asked. Sophie coughed.
Declan actually laughed. “I didn’t think you could get any more forthright,” Declan said.
Jabber. Jabber. Jabber. When I didn’t speak, he massaged the back of his neck. “The Unity Games are happening tomorrow.”
“Are they?” I sipped my tea. “I had completely forgotten.”
If there were a bullshit thermometer in the room, it would have cracked. I thought I spoke with enough calm to convey nonchalance even if I was lying through my teeth. It was impossible not to get caught up in all the games hysteria. Thanks to the jerks that lived around me, I knew that with Evan and me out of the running, Kai was back in the line-up for Obsidian House. There was much speculation about whether he would annul the blood vow if he won or if he had given that up on account of a broken heart. All of this was said very publicly several times a day within earshot of me.
It may or may not have been the reason why I was so emphatic as I decapitated the demons in training last week.
“I know you won’t be competing,” Declan continued, “but as a valued member of the human population, The Human League would really appreciate your presence as a spectator.”
“What the hell for?”
“We’re already outnumbered,” Declan said. “We can’t let them see that we’re so easily broken.”
“Then you go and be a stoic mountain,” I said. “Why are you trying to drag me into this?”
“Because for better or worse, when the supernaturals think of humans, they think of Alessia Hastings. Right now, they think that if they have a hissy fit, we’ll be content to exile ourselves while they pretend to live their lives like they always have. If we have any hope of asserting ourselves, we need to show them that we are stronger than this.”
I laced my hands together in front of me and took in a long and calming breath. Okay, it was a long breath. Calming didn’t seem to be sticking.
“Look,” I said. “Did you ever think that I don’t want to be in the limelight? I haven’t been walking around with a neon sign around my neck to get attention. I’m stuck here. As far as exile goes, it could be worse. I just want to stay here and not have the whole supernatural community inspect me under a magnifying glass. Frankly, I would have thought me being out of the picture would have made the lives of the other humans easier.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Sophie wince. “What?”
She didn’t say a word. I turned to Nora. She gripped her cup and closed her eyes for a second. “It’s not widely known yet, but the Nephilim Council are gearing up to call for all humans to be expelled from supernatural society. They want to cut us off entirely. Tiberius wants to call the Human League’s bluff. He says if humans don’t want supernatural protection, then they can deal with the forces of Hell on their own.”
I was stunned. “You’re joking.”
I leaned forward like being closer to her might reveal something to explain this lunacy. “Doesn’t their very nature suggest that they have to protect us?” I asked.
Mani’s shoulders dropped. “That was when they could do it with impunity. If they’re going to be outed, they say that humans can learn to fight their own battles.”
I snorted. “That’s really rich. So they roll in here and bring a war and we just have to clean it up?”
“They didn’t bring the war,” Nora reminded me. “The seraphim did.”
“And what do Michael and Raphael think about this?” I already knew the answer. “They can’t just get away with doing whatever they want because of free will!”
Nora smiled at me. That was exactly it. And there wasn’t a thing the seraphim could do.
Azrael! I screamed in my head. Do you know about this madness?
I heard an ethereal sigh of such weighted resignation it made my heart clench. We can’t stop them from making mistakes.
You can bloody well say something to make them stop.
They’re frightened, Azrael told me. This is new and uncharted territory. Some of them haven’t seen true hardship in a long time.
Boo bloody hoo. Just then something occurred to me.
