idea what trick they’d used or if she had the ability to duplicate it.
Walter folded his hands on the table. “With your magic unsealed, you would have the respect of daemons, not grudging tolerance for the baseless authority they allow Consuls.”
She pressed a hand to her face. “I need to think about this.”
“Yes, of course,” Walter said. “There is a meeting the day after tomorrow. We would like your answer before then.”
Her mouth went dry. She swallowed. “I need to think about it,” she repeated.
Mona rose to her feet. “Come, Piper. Let’s go back to your room. I’m sure you need some time alone with your thoughts.”
Piper rose to her feet, her mind numb. So much to think about, so many long-held convictions cracking under the weight of new information. She had two days to decide the course of her future, assuming she could trust a word Walter had said.
CHAPTER 5
S PRAWLED on a sofa in the communal living area, Piper tried hard to tune out the chatter of a dozen voices. Haemons ranging in age from twelve to thirty sat nearby, talking about this and that. A lot of speculation about the big meeting the following day. They all seemed determined to make her feel welcome and kept asking her questions. She didn’t want to be rude, but she really wasn’t interested in conversation. She had too much on her mind.
Kylee sat beside her, reading a battered paperback. The girl had been a little awkward with Piper after her fight with Travis, but Piper had managed to brush it off as nothing more than bad history between them. Her worries appeased, Kylee was quietly delighted to just sit beside the cool new girl.
Piper rubbed two fingers across her forehead. She’d tossed and turned all night, reliving her conversation with the Council over and over until the words kept spinning in her head. She definitely wasn’t onboard with the Gaians’ methods, but she wasn’t entirely opposed to their goals.
She wanted to be part of something bigger and the Council offered that. She couldn’t believe she was giving their proposition serious thought, but their plans weren’t totally crazy. In fact, they had some serious logic on their side. If Piper was willing to admit the Consulate system was seriously flawed, then she couldn’t deny that a new system had the potential to do so much better. And to have the opportunity to help build it ...
Her eyes travelled across the smiling and laughing faces around her. When had there ever been this much carefree laughter in a Consulate? The reason her mother had left was starting to make sense to Piper.
The Consulate wasn’t a carefree place to live in. It wasn’t a happy place. It was challenging, demanding constant vigilance and frequent exposure to danger. Piper had thrived in its atmosphere but it was the only way of life she’d ever known. It had probably been very different for Mona. With her husband absorbed in his work and her home filled with dangerous strangers, maybe she had just burnt out. When she’d found the Gaians and they’d welcomed her into a group that stood against everything she hated—the constant presence of daemons and the threat they represented—she hadn’t been able to say no.
The Gaians didn’t have the same strict, disciplinarian atmosphere of the Consulates. Aside from a contained number of individuals possessing a cruel disregard for others’ lives, Piper’s overall impression was one of almost laughable incompetence. They had bungled everything they’d attempted. The ones who’d attacked the Consulate had failed to get the Sahar Stone, and then they had kidnapped the wrong man in a desperate attempt not to leave empty-handed. The group that had tried to capture Piper when she’d gone back to the Consulate a few days later had barely slowed her down. And when Miysis’s guards, prefects, and then a choronzon had attacked their hideout at the abandoned Consulate, they’d been woefully outclassed.
Either way, the average
Walter folded his hands on the table. “With your magic unsealed, you would have the respect of daemons, not grudging tolerance for the baseless authority they allow Consuls.”
She pressed a hand to her face. “I need to think about this.”
“Yes, of course,” Walter said. “There is a meeting the day after tomorrow. We would like your answer before then.”
Her mouth went dry. She swallowed. “I need to think about it,” she repeated.
Mona rose to her feet. “Come, Piper. Let’s go back to your room. I’m sure you need some time alone with your thoughts.”
Piper rose to her feet, her mind numb. So much to think about, so many long-held convictions cracking under the weight of new information. She had two days to decide the course of her future, assuming she could trust a word Walter had said.
CHAPTER 5
S PRAWLED on a sofa in the communal living area, Piper tried hard to tune out the chatter of a dozen voices. Haemons ranging in age from twelve to thirty sat nearby, talking about this and that. A lot of speculation about the big meeting the following day. They all seemed determined to make her feel welcome and kept asking her questions. She didn’t want to be rude, but she really wasn’t interested in conversation. She had too much on her mind.
Kylee sat beside her, reading a battered paperback. The girl had been a little awkward with Piper after her fight with Travis, but Piper had managed to brush it off as nothing more than bad history between them. Her worries appeased, Kylee was quietly delighted to just sit beside the cool new girl.
Piper rubbed two fingers across her forehead. She’d tossed and turned all night, reliving her conversation with the Council over and over until the words kept spinning in her head. She definitely wasn’t onboard with the Gaians’ methods, but she wasn’t entirely opposed to their goals.
She wanted to be part of something bigger and the Council offered that. She couldn’t believe she was giving their proposition serious thought, but their plans weren’t totally crazy. In fact, they had some serious logic on their side. If Piper was willing to admit the Consulate system was seriously flawed, then she couldn’t deny that a new system had the potential to do so much better. And to have the opportunity to help build it ...
Her eyes travelled across the smiling and laughing faces around her. When had there ever been this much carefree laughter in a Consulate? The reason her mother had left was starting to make sense to Piper.
The Consulate wasn’t a carefree place to live in. It wasn’t a happy place. It was challenging, demanding constant vigilance and frequent exposure to danger. Piper had thrived in its atmosphere but it was the only way of life she’d ever known. It had probably been very different for Mona. With her husband absorbed in his work and her home filled with dangerous strangers, maybe she had just burnt out. When she’d found the Gaians and they’d welcomed her into a group that stood against everything she hated—the constant presence of daemons and the threat they represented—she hadn’t been able to say no.
The Gaians didn’t have the same strict, disciplinarian atmosphere of the Consulates. Aside from a contained number of individuals possessing a cruel disregard for others’ lives, Piper’s overall impression was one of almost laughable incompetence. They had bungled everything they’d attempted. The ones who’d attacked the Consulate had failed to get the Sahar Stone, and then they had kidnapped the wrong man in a desperate attempt not to leave empty-handed. The group that had tried to capture Piper when she’d gone back to the Consulate a few days later had barely slowed her down. And when Miysis’s guards, prefects, and then a choronzon had attacked their hideout at the abandoned Consulate, they’d been woefully outclassed.
Either way, the average
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