She was quiet several moments when I was done, but then sighed. “As my mother told me, she was in the wrong. She listened to the wrong person and believed some faulty intel, and on top of that, mishandled the situation. She said she tried to explain later, but Mrs. Brooks’s mother wouldn’t even give her the time of day. She didn’t blame the woman and took full responsibility.”
“How do you want me to handle this? Do you want to get involved with her?”
“Oh absolutely, and you’re doing a lovely job, as your kind always does, of making friends where there has been hurt or issues. I would ask you even call her right now and tell her what I shared with you. I think it best we even meet this weekend at the bakery if she could manage it. It would deter the warlocks from doing something too rash.”
I agreed, which was why I made the call. Mrs. Brooks agreed as well, hurrying to swing a quick face-to-face for tea after lunch. Mrs. Vogel could do the same, and both were pleased to put the past of their mothers behind them.
The meeting was even better. They were both genuinely nice women and the hobgoblins shined, showing what they were plotting for the winter holidays and supe traditions. That would go over well with the wolves and mean a lot of sales for the bakery that now employed a ton of hobgoblins.
They decided to set up another meeting with a few of the other council mates and another queen for the weekend after to enjoy the time, instead of a rushed one for appearances. I also put a dinner with the Brooks on the calendar for Darby and I to attend, which meant I would have to have another one with the group of wolf shifter elders, or more individually.
I actually didn’t mind. If it helped our cause, I would do it, and they were pretty chill, not pompous and pushy like the others I’d met. I’d definitely suffered worse.
Now, we just had to sit and wait to see what the warlock councilmen did in response. I had a feeling it would fall short of our expectations given how much everyone was building up the crazy. Granted, there had been a lot of crazy coming from them, but there had to be a limit as to how far they would really go.
Right?
7
“Tamsin Vale, you need to come with us. It’s a matter of supe security,” a man declared Monday morning as I headed to class.
Well, we were wrong about the warlock council making a move. No way these guys are with them. For one, they were too big. Warlocks were like normal humans. Not that other groups stood out, but there were humans we all looked at and had thoughts that maybe they were too big to be human.
They were normally right and simply didn’t know supes existed.
“Come on, you stupid bleeding heart. Be stupid enough to fall for this and make our job this easy.”
“No.” I smirked at the guy when he did a double take. “For one, ‘supe security’ isn’t a real thing, so nice try. Two, you—”
“We have an official order and—” he tried, but I kept going.
“Need to contact my attorney for any matters you want to discuss with me.”
“He’s been contacted and he will meet you there,” he promised.
“He’s not lying,” Ray hedged.
Except he was. The guy’s thoughts told me so.
I shook my head. “He’s wearing a telepathy blocking charm and several of the charms I wear.” I chuckled when several men of the group flinched. “One of the magical objects I have lets me know that. It flares up in warning, so my guard might not be able to tell me you’re lying, but it tells me you came here with protection against that. So, you’re here for nothing good. My answer is no.”
“You don’t get to say no,” the first guy sneered. “You are not the boss here.”
“Neither are you,” I purred. “This isn’t your house, and you haven’t even identified yourself. You’re not just coming in here and declaring I have to come with you and I’m gonna do it.”
“They’re dragons,” Ray filled in for me.
I nodded and then gestured to a shifter not far from me. “Fine, go order that guy to just go with you. See how well that works. It won’t, right? You can’t. So my answer stands. You don’t have the authority to order me to do shit, and I won’t.”
“You will come with us, and we have the authority to make you,” he declared, smirking at me before looking to Ray. “And I suggest you not interfere unless you want to be called in front of your council for going against an official decree.”
Shit. Something was really going down as he pulled out paperwork, but his thoughts were jumbled. All of them were, and too many. That was the problem with being able to hear them over the charms… I couldn’t control that yet and it was chaotic, erratic.
Kinda like my powers overall. Damn.
I shut it off because it was distracting and focused on the now, pulling a different trick in case I needed it. “I don’t need his help except to call Edelman.”
“Headmaster Edelman is off campus; so are all the deans,” the guy informed me.
Ray let out a deep growl. “These guys work for Alpha Berman. This is an emergency summons of aid that requires your presence to help them.”
I snorted. “Well, I called that one. Geez, you guys are so damn easy to predict. Someone can do what you want, and you just try to call them, like shotgun. You can’t ‘eminent domain’ me.”
“You will come with us and follow the order,” he
