“There’s no way you could know that,” Ainsworth bit out. “He—”
“Was not very careful with his telepathy blocking charm,” I mocked. “Did he not tell you I caught him without it several times?” I snickered when they exchanged glances. “Awww, did your dog not check in as he should? I outed him months ago that I knew he was a spy for you. I showed up cloaked when he wasn’t wearing the charm again and messed with him. Didn’t he tell you?”
“You’re lying,” a guard accused, others echoing him.
“I’m not, which honestly makes this all the more amusing.” I stared at each of the councilmen in turn. “You are not in control here. You will never have me. You can’t even keep your own house in order, and your people are a mess. I will not let this shit continue and ever allow my power come into your possession, especially after learning you’re all frauds, and not one of you should be councilmen.”
“Excuse me?” one snarled.
“None of you can make tier ten crystals on your own, and I found out that’s a requirement to being a councilman. Ainsworth can only make tier five. Some of you forced witches who could to mate you, and they’ve made them for you and your friends. You’re all frauds, and that’s why you want me so much because at twenty, I can make tier seven without batting an eyelash.
“Well, guess what that also means, boys? It means you’re no fucking match for me, and this is just the tip of the iceberg because I’m done playing your games. I’m done letting you do whatever you want and hopping around your traps and stupidity.” I smiled evilly when I realized they really couldn’t tell if I was lying or not. “One of you might join McGrath soon. Have fun figuring out who and trying to stop it.”
I changed the barrier to cloak myself and hopped down from the tree so they saw the movement, but not me.
“Find her!” one of them bellowed. “Find the portal someone opened for her. We need to know who’s helping her too. This ends. We have to capture her while we have her here.”
“How? She has that damned old barrier most can’t put up,” Ainsworth snapped. “And she’s got enough high tier charms and everything from Calloway that we can’t even get near her. That damned Calloway. We should have mated off all of them ages ago, like I said. That family needs to be taken down. They have too much power that threatens ours. She’s stirring up trouble again from her exile, as she calls it.”
“You’re the one who sent guards to destroy her residences in retaliation,” that first councilman bitched.
And that was all it took to set them all off. The match had been struck and tossed on them like on a pool of gas. They shouted at each other, throwing around accusations and grievances. Then, the shoving started, and a few threw the saddest punches I’d ever seen but honestly, I wish I’d brought popcorn again.
The guards looked ready to pull out their hair as they hurried to separate the esteemed council members.
I took the win and left while they were still trying to get at each other, but before it turned into a high school slapping fest.
Though that would have been fun too… And fun to record and show everyone.
9
The fallout from McGrath was way more fun than the fallout from Berman. People were furious that the warlock elders had pushed for a guy who was into kids to teach their precious children, a predator among the elites. So they had a serious mess on their hands, and way more than the FBI looking into any links to McGrath that would lead to their doors.
So we had a couple of weeks of calm.
It was fan-fucking-tastic.
I focused on school. Now that I was done with high school, totally and completely, all I had was college, and my life was so much easier. I liked my classes. Potions was so much better with McGrath gone, even if who taught it kept rotating as they were juggling to get someone full time.
I did an extra winter photoshoot for the co-op and some new designs, plus for the lingerie line. The difference from before was my boyfriend was there to make sure everyone behaved. He also had fun taking the lingerie off me in between shots.
We mostly behaved.
We didn’t after the shoot at all.
I had dates with Darby and Lucca.
Darby and I had our dinners with the wolf shifter councilmen and a few of the dragon royals. I was still making crystals for them and their castles, so there were some outings and events.
I was still rescuing hobgoblins and working hard to heal huge sections of Faerie.
A few more packs of fae dogs came in out of the cold. I still had five sworn to me, but now there were another twenty that checked in and I gave shelter to, fed when I could. They managed to hunt and eat on their own pretty damn well though. Plus, they kept close to the hobgoblins to protect them, and they loved feeding everyone, so the fae dogs were in good shape.
The dust collectors weren’t happy about that, but when they started shit with me on supe media, I responded back with an official comment that I’d bring my sword to any discussion they wanted. After everyone heard how I took down eight dragons with my sword… They wisely shut the fuck up. I wouldn’t have cared if it had been a passive business, but those assholes had done a lot to the fae dogs.
I wanted to do a lot to them in return.
When Darby and I had gotten back together,
