Speaking of screens… I sighed at the small circle spinning on my phone. A pop-up informed me that the host was waiting to start the meeting. I could have flown to join them in person, but I wanted distance for a reason.
I straightened my shoulders, and Hudson squeezed my knee in reassurance. The circle disappeared, and Rachel, the elemental who had visited me, appeared. She looked tired. I could relate. “Everyone, this is Cora Roberts, Eloise’s granddaughter.”
I hoped I could lose that connection with time, that it would fade into the history books.
Cora Roberts—Queen of wishful thinking.
Rachel shifted to the side, revealing a long table lined with powerful leaders from all around the world. No one smiled. Many scowled. Understandable.
Mike Rowan, the man in charge of the American military, leaned forward, holding my eyes. That took balls. I wasn’t the same woman I’d been days ago. I had changed. Into what, was still up for debate.
“You guarantee Eloise is dead?” he demanded.
“Absolutely.”
A woman with a harsh, angled bob of dark hair narrowed her eyes. “For the record, are you still an elemental?”
I never was. “On my best days.”
“She means yes,” Hudson said.
“What about the power Eloise held?”
That was a trickier question. “It’s safe.”
“Where?”
I allowed a hint of my angelic nature to bleed through. The feed flickered. Even on camera, it was terrifying. “Safe,” I said, infusing the words with warning. “I am not your enemy, Marie, but do not think for one moment that I answer to you or owe you any explanation of my actions. I took down the threat you struggled to even get close to.”
She swallowed. “Understood.”
Another man drummed his fingers on the expensive wooden table. “What is stopping you from going the same way as your grandmother?”
It was a fair question, but I wouldn’t be bullied. “Nothing.” The silence stretched between us.
Rachel clasped her hands together. “We need to fill the power vacuum in The Order with someone who had brushed against power but wasn’t seduced by it,” she said.
Nope. Not happening. I raised a brow and folded my arms. Hudson’s warmth penetrated the ice I had encased myself in, the shell I held while I put myself back together. Only with him did I allow myself to fall apart.
“Cora, we have discussed this at great length. We want to offer you the leadership position, at least in the interim.”
“Not interested.”
“Which makes you perfect. You have shown time and time again that you want peace, not power.”
But I had power nonetheless, and it would be better not to have the scrutiny of an entire faction that was fractured from a failed leadership I shared DNA with. I had known this was coming, though. They were scrambling.
“It makes me the last person you want at the helm,” I answered. “You need someone fresh, someone who doesn’t have a relationship with anyone with the Roberts’ name. Someone who, even when they faced probable destruction, still fought forwhat they believed in. Who risked themselves for the greater good.”
“That’s you,” she pointed out.
I shook my head. “My involvement wasn’t a choice, Rachel. It was destiny. I couldn’t avoid it, but I wouldn’t have chosen it. Putting me in charge looks like inherited tyranny. To have a fresh start, it has to be fresh blood.”
I waited for her to get what I was saying.
She blinked. “No.”
I smiled. She just passed the test that we set for her well before this meeting. “Yes, at least for now. You have the full support and backing of the Roberts family, but none of us shall ever hold a place in The Order. Restore it back to what it was meant to be—an organization that oversees its people and leads them in step with the other factions and humanity, not apart from them. Don’t rebuild bridges—forge new ones clean and free from hate and corruption. Be everything I know you can be.”
