“Your betters say—”
“Our corrupt councilmen are not my betters, simply the ones who cheated to get those positions you were going to buy,” she sneered. “Unlike them, I can make tier ten crystals, as you can. Unlike them, I don’t cheat. I also remember that the original council was half witches, and our laws state that there should always be half the seats taken by witches to be a legal council.”
Oh, I hadn’t known that one. Dayummmnnn.
Craftsman ground his jaw and shot her a look of hate when people started whispering about that. “Know your place and get out of my way, White.”
“My place is where I say it is, and I say it’s right here. If you want me to move, try and make me. I know you can’t.”
Oh shit, she was just poking the bear.
And it worked.
He let out a wordless shout and wrote several things on his arm before launching magical attacks on her that made her aura waiver but stand strong. That seemed to incite him even more, and he did more, kept going.
But to what end? I didn’t understand what she was trying to accomplish. Wasn’t it smarter to get him to back down and go away? His council wasn’t going to punish him. I couldn’t see the play here and it was bugging me.
But then I saw her aura not just waiver, but crack.
And so did he.
We both reacted, I was simply faster, launching a barrier at him to keep him wrapped up. His attack bounced off of it and onto himself.
I winced when he started screaming, some sort of magical acid hitting him and burning away his skin and clothes before he could neutralize it. I hadn’t expected that, but he was an extra horrid person to pick that when he saw a crack in her protection. Yes, scarring a woman was what men immediately thought of to ruin them.
Fucker.
While I was distracted with that, more portals started opening and some of Mel’s family came pouring through, along with some of the Diaz’s knight clan. I glanced at White and saw she was trying to hide she was shaken. I also realized she was trying to speak to me, quickly turning on my telepathy.
“Thank you. I didn’t see the crack. I haven’t had much practice going full-out in battle like this and wasn’t shoring up my defenses fast enough. Of course, the rat bastard thought to scar a woman for disobeying him.”
Right?
I nodded I heard her and was glad it was done. She also filled in the piece I was missing. She needed him tired out magically before they had the juice to restrain him with all of his magic and hand him over to the dragons. There was no way people wouldn’t get hurt in the process otherwise.
Except I knew how to do that with a fairy rune… But people would question that, so it was good she at least had him do enough for show, and I could do the rest.
Which I did with the barrier.
“Are you okay?” I asked Julian as Mel filled in her family and the other dragons.
“I’m fine, love,” he whispered, but I could hear the pain in his voice.
I reached over and patted his arm, healing him as I did. “Thanks, Doc.”
“I knew you had your barrier up, but I couldn’t risk it. He was shocked you deflected him last time, and he has an arsenal of magical objects that he could draw from and bring to break anything. I couldn’t risk you.”
“I can’t risk you either, so don’t be stupid.”
“I know how to deflect him at least once. I learned it young,” he mumbled. “I hoped Edelman would step in to back me up but apparently, we should all hide behind White.” He did a double take. “You knew.”
I didn’t reply, but that alone said enough. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you.”
I nodded and headed towards White. “You just put a huge fucking target on yourself. You stay on campus or at the room you’ve used at home. No objections.”
She didn’t even hide her shock. “Oh?”
“Yes, because we both know you did it for me. I just blew up enough shit to give them lots to deal with, White. You didn’t have to do this and add yourself to their hit list with Calloway.”
“No, but more of us need to stand up.”
I wanted to strangle them all. I wasn’t trying to start a movement like this. It was dangerous when people were acting this insane. But they were adults and able to make their own choices.
As was I, and that was why I gave her the fairy rune to call the fae dogs as well. She also promised to stay at my house if she wasn’t on campus.
At least people weren’t fucking around with their safety.
Great, but what was going to blow up next?
13
The fallout over the next few weeks was bad. Like seriously bad.
The elite and wealthy warlocks were up in arms about the Vogels and Diazes getting involved with “their” affairs, and taking the head of the Craftsman bloodline into their custody over a trivial matter to handle one witch.
Except that silly little thing that I was undeclared. So apparently, they were just done with that and fine with declaring me a witch as long as it got me under someone’s control.
Except now there was a declared super witch, and everyone was losing their shit
