“So? They’re a bunch of vile little thugs.”
“And those halflings are a bunch of mutants who can’t defend themselves, which means they don’t deserve to survive and reproduce. It’s survival of the fittest, damn it.”
Olivia looked at him in disgust. “Not according to the law books.”
“Law books are for the weak,” her father sneered.
She shook her head. “Gee, it’s great to hear that coming from the Principe. No wonder relations between the two towns are in the toilet.” And she turned and walked away.
He hurried after her. “Hold on, I’m not done with you yet. What the hell were you trying to pull with Ichabod’s representative today?” he demanded.
“It worked,” she scoffed. “I’ll do it again if I have to.”
“You can’t run from this forever. You’ve got some nut-job trying to attack you in your own home, and if you get married, your husband and his clan can keep you safe.”
“I’d rather take my chances, thanks.”
“If you don’t get married, you’ll be poor for the rest of your life.”
“Only because you stole the family silver mine,” she snapped.
“It was mine by right! Your mother abandoned me.”
“No, she ran for her life.”
Olivia turned and stalked off, extending the middle-finger salute to her father as she left.
“Real mature!” her father yelled after her.
“I’ll show you mature,” she yelled back.
She let out a blast of frosty air at his patrol car, freezing his door in a sheet of ice so he wouldn’t be able to open it.
Chapter Eight
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Ermengarde kept an eye out for any more unwanted suitors, but none came.
Every time the phone rang in her office, Olivia found herself wondering if Calder was calling. But he wasn’t. There was no real reason for him to call, of course. So she wasn’t annoyed that he wasn’t calling. Nope, not at all.
She called the police station to ask if they’d made any progress in finding out who’d broken into her house, and was told that so far they were coming up empty. They’d taken a sample of the blood spilled on her floor and sent it out for testing, but it was considered a burglary rather than an attempted homicide, so that meant it was low priority. It could take weeks for results to come back.
She spent another night at her Aunt Nora’s mansion, and they invited her to move in there, but she politely declined. They had very different values from her, and she also felt that at twenty-eight, she was too old to be moving back home. She would probably go back to her own house and hope for the best, she decided.
As she drove to work the next morning, Ermengarde called her. “Just a teensy little heads-up. Maria apparently took a picture of you giving your father the finger, and she posted it online on her MyPage account with a petition to have you removed from office. It’s sort of a trending topic. Also it’s on the front page of today’s newspaper. And the reporter from the paper called wanting a comment.”
“Oh. I see. Okay. Well. I’m…I’m going to go get myself a cup of coffee. I might be a little late.” She quickly hung up the phone, then turned the ringer off.
Olivia felt a wave of panic roll over her. Why had she ever thought that she could be mayor? She had no political experience. She acted on instinct and did what she thought was right in the immediate moment, with no thought for future consequences.
I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I’ve made a fool of myself, and of our city. I’ve let everyone down.
Without thinking, she started driving blindly, and found herself heading down a dirt road that led to a fishing hole deep in the woods. Her mother used to take her there sometimes.
She needed to clear her head. When she got to the small, unpaved parking area at the end of the dirt road, she stripped down, shifted, and flapped her wings, lifting off and flying through the air over the forest.
With the air beneath her wings,
“And those halflings are a bunch of mutants who can’t defend themselves, which means they don’t deserve to survive and reproduce. It’s survival of the fittest, damn it.”
Olivia looked at him in disgust. “Not according to the law books.”
“Law books are for the weak,” her father sneered.
She shook her head. “Gee, it’s great to hear that coming from the Principe. No wonder relations between the two towns are in the toilet.” And she turned and walked away.
He hurried after her. “Hold on, I’m not done with you yet. What the hell were you trying to pull with Ichabod’s representative today?” he demanded.
“It worked,” she scoffed. “I’ll do it again if I have to.”
“You can’t run from this forever. You’ve got some nut-job trying to attack you in your own home, and if you get married, your husband and his clan can keep you safe.”
“I’d rather take my chances, thanks.”
“If you don’t get married, you’ll be poor for the rest of your life.”
“Only because you stole the family silver mine,” she snapped.
“It was mine by right! Your mother abandoned me.”
“No, she ran for her life.”
Olivia turned and stalked off, extending the middle-finger salute to her father as she left.
“Real mature!” her father yelled after her.
“I’ll show you mature,” she yelled back.
She let out a blast of frosty air at his patrol car, freezing his door in a sheet of ice so he wouldn’t be able to open it.
Chapter Eight
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Ermengarde kept an eye out for any more unwanted suitors, but none came.
Every time the phone rang in her office, Olivia found herself wondering if Calder was calling. But he wasn’t. There was no real reason for him to call, of course. So she wasn’t annoyed that he wasn’t calling. Nope, not at all.
She called the police station to ask if they’d made any progress in finding out who’d broken into her house, and was told that so far they were coming up empty. They’d taken a sample of the blood spilled on her floor and sent it out for testing, but it was considered a burglary rather than an attempted homicide, so that meant it was low priority. It could take weeks for results to come back.
She spent another night at her Aunt Nora’s mansion, and they invited her to move in there, but she politely declined. They had very different values from her, and she also felt that at twenty-eight, she was too old to be moving back home. She would probably go back to her own house and hope for the best, she decided.
As she drove to work the next morning, Ermengarde called her. “Just a teensy little heads-up. Maria apparently took a picture of you giving your father the finger, and she posted it online on her MyPage account with a petition to have you removed from office. It’s sort of a trending topic. Also it’s on the front page of today’s newspaper. And the reporter from the paper called wanting a comment.”
“Oh. I see. Okay. Well. I’m…I’m going to go get myself a cup of coffee. I might be a little late.” She quickly hung up the phone, then turned the ringer off.
Olivia felt a wave of panic roll over her. Why had she ever thought that she could be mayor? She had no political experience. She acted on instinct and did what she thought was right in the immediate moment, with no thought for future consequences.
I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I’ve made a fool of myself, and of our city. I’ve let everyone down.
Without thinking, she started driving blindly, and found herself heading down a dirt road that led to a fishing hole deep in the woods. Her mother used to take her there sometimes.
She needed to clear her head. When she got to the small, unpaved parking area at the end of the dirt road, she stripped down, shifted, and flapped her wings, lifting off and flying through the air over the forest.
With the air beneath her wings,
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