Willa threw him a glare, lips pursed.
Sera’s head turned back to Willa in slow motion. “Willa… Shen?TheWilla Shen?”
Willa smiled, pulling her scathing glare from Kieran as she held out a hand to Sera. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“Sera Blair.”
“Sera Blair,” Willa repeated. “That’s a pretty name.”
Gods above. Willa was also an incorrigible flirt responsible for more broken hearts than productive initiatives. Her associations knew no limitations and she might have single-handedly obliterated the divides between the races on conquest alone if the world cared for causal flings. However, to those in power, marriage was the standard and there had not been any officially declared mix-unions since Unity had been renamed.
“Have they agreed on a date to reconvene about the Divinity Crisis?” he asked, sticking to business so Willa would leave.
Her demeanor shifted, as it tended to whenever work was mentioned. “No. Asche had some scheduling conflicts.”
“The longer we delay, the more likely this becomes an epidemic.”
Willa rolled her luminous green eyes. “My gods, you’re so dramatic. There’s always going to be some dangerous drug or other on the streets. It’s not like we can stop people from ingesting what they want. There are way more important things to worry about.”
“Such as?”
Willa’s gaze narrowed. She wasn’t about to answer him in front of a civilian. Not the way she wanted.
“This is our job. We are elected to figure out the solutions to problems in Unity. A very unstable drug that can give the user untested power or violently melt you from the inside out, is exactly our problem.” He was growing impatient. Angry. None of the aldermen took this job seriously, Willa least of all.
Yarrow Graves had appeared serious. At least, while he was playing at beloved alderman of the Night Fae. Unfortunately, he was revealed to be a traitor, murderer, anarchist, and a long list of other crimes before his sudden death a couple weeks ago. Graves had all of high society and most of parliament fooledinto thinking he was there to help the city. Kieran included, though he liked to think it was due to preoccupation rather than actual ignorance. He had no reason to distrust Graves and their paths rarely crossed outside of meetings and the odd social function. He had never liked Graves, but that wasn’t the same as suspecting him. If Kieranhadsuspected his treachery, things might have ended differently. Perhaps without a new lethal drug circulating the population.
“You are not responsible for everyone and everything in Unity.” Willa shook her head. “You even blame yourself for Graves, admit it.”
Kieran did not respond, but he allowed traces of annoyance to slip through his stoic façade.
“North, he had us all fooled, okay? You can’t expect to stop a complex political plot when you spend all your time in your office trying to decrease the amount of iron in the city.”
Sera seemed intently focused on the conversation, chin innocently resting on her clasped fingers. Kieran met her eyes, his mood sour and she gestured for them to continue. “No, please, I’ve been starved of news while holed up in North’s house—”
Willa guffawed and it was most unbecoming. “She islivingwith you?”
Kieran hated this. Hated everything that was happening. Of all the people to find Sera.
He replied, “For the moment.”
“I have so many questions,” Willa looked like a child at yuletide awaiting presents. “I don’t know where to begin.”
“No. We are done with this conversation.” He was about to return to his original reason for leaving his office, food, when Sera barreled onward with her own questions.
“What’s Divinity? I come from the sort of places where drugs are the trade, so to speak, and I’ve never heard of it.”
Willa, obviously eager to keep the conversation flowing, answered, “Graves’s little side project. We’re calling it Divinity, because it’s a potion using the Divine’s blood. Apparently, it can make users incredibly strong. Same way the Divine’s blood makes guardians stronger than humans. Only, this stuff kills more often than it works. And no one’s using it to save kittens from trees.”
“A terrible mess would aptly describe the situation,” Kieran added. There were no laws in place for Divinity. Guardians would be targeted for their blood. The potential crimes and violence against them were best not dwelled on at the present.
“Always so succinct,” Willa said.
“So it’s not just me?” Sera commented with a grin. Kieran looked between the two women and abhorrence was not adequate to describe his regard for this situation.
“Until you have proper authorization, you need me to get into the mess hall,” Kieran said to Sera, ignoring their conspiratorial glances. Willa was obnoxious in the best of times. She sought to ruffle his feathers at every turn, though why he could not figure out. Perhaps she thrived on chaos or she was just vexatious. Not that he ever rose to her teasing. Willa had all the effect of a persistent fly, easily swatted away. Well, she was easily swatted away when she didn’t have an ally.
“Or you can stay here and skip lunch,” he said, refusing to rise to their combined obnoxiousness.
