“She set fire to Dunwich and escaped!” Damon Delacorte leaped to his feet. Beside me, Quinn stiffened as his father’s angry voice filled the room. “You call that dealing with her?”
“Calm down, Damon. Don’t give the girl more credit than she’s due – the fire was a freak accident caused by the Dunwich facility’s ancient wiring. She simply took advantage of the opportunity. I’m confident we’ll soon recapture her, and in the meantime, she’s no longer at the school affecting the god and disrupting our plans.”
That’s what you think, Vinnie boy.
Quinn squeezed my arm.
“I’m telling you Hazel Waite has been neutralized,” Vincent was saying. “She’s gone to ground somewhere, which means she won’t bother us. And if you can make it through tonight without fucking things up for us further, I have some news that will cheer you all greatly. Smiles on, and let’s pretend we give a shit.”
“How can I smile and pretend everything’s okay when I look likethis?” Gloria wailed. She whipped off her black veil to reveal a face ravaged by aging. The skin around her eyes sagged and her lips pulled back, so when she smiled she looked like a rabid animal baring its teeth. “What’s happening to us, Vincent?”
Murmurs of assent echoed around the room. I noticed there was a significantly higher proportion of silver hair and sagging jowls than any previous alumni visit. The god was as good as his word. He’d completely stopped feeding the Eldritch Club his power, and their youthful good looks were reverting to their true form.
“It’s become obvious that the power of the god has waned,” Vincent said. He paused to take a sip from his glass. “We’ve waited patiently for years for Hermia to figure out how to make this arrangement permanent, but I see now she was the wrong choice for headmistress. She’s made preposterous demands for the faculty when she has not delivered what she promised. And now, our chance is slipping away. We’re losing our grip on the world. You’ve all seen it – women demanding entry to our boardrooms, transexuals wanting the right to raise children, children who don’t know what fucking gender they are. These are all attacks on our leadership. If you think the golliwogs and the freaks and the snowflakes aren’t coming for us and everything we have earned by our birthright, then you are mistaken.”
You’re a disgusting human.
I appeared to be the only one who thought so, because everyone in the room sat forward, staring at Vincent with admiring eyes. A few even applauded, like Vincent had said something profound and not the most terrifying thing I’d ever heard.
He wanted to keep the world white, and straight, and male – at any cost.This is why he sacrificed his own son? Because he’s so utterly terrified of what women like me could do to him if we had an ounce of his power? Of how people like Andre and Greg and Loretta might change the world?
Rage boiled inside me, the hot flickers of it burning against my flesh.You think you’re invincible, but I see how small and afraid you are. And I’ve got news for you, Vinnie boy. You were right to be afraid. You’re about to find out just what it feels like to have your power stripped away.
“We need to maintain the righteous order of things,” Vincent said. “And it’s time to take matters into our own hands. The only way to do that is to release the god from its prison.”
That caused a stir. People gasped or yelled out. A glass dropped, shattering glittering shards across the floor.
“You sure about that, Bloomberg?” Senator Hyde-Jones demanded.
“I’m deadly certain,” Vincent said.
“The whole reason Parris imprisoned it in the first place is that it could… and correct me if I’m wrong here… destroy the world?” Donald kept his eyes fixed on Vincent, phrasing what was a reasonable statement as a question.
“Parris didn’t have the power we have. He was a second-rate magician haunted by the ghosts of his father’s deeds. Look around this room – we are congressmen, lawyers, senators. We are the most powerful business owners in the world. We have the political elite, the Wall Street investors, and the entertainment industry wrapped around our collective little finger. We have already built the perfect system – all it needs is the god to complete it.”
“But how do we know the god will listen to us?” asked a woman I didn’t recognize.
“Of course it will listen to us. It wants the same thing we want. Otherwise, why would it have been feeding us power for twenty years? Why would it have kept us young and given us the influence to put all this in place?” Vincent turned to Gloria Haynes. “Do you want to continue to look likethat?”
Gloria shuddered as she regarded her reflection. She swiped a strand of lank silver hair from her face. “I can’t go out in public like this. I didn’t attend London Fashion Week, and it’s been months since I even snapped a selfie. People in the industry are starting to talk.”
“Exactly. The god is fading because after twenty years of fighting against its prison, it’s tired. It’s sick of being tugged in two directions and being starved of souls thanks to the meddling faculty. If we give it what it’s craved all along – freedom – then all of the world will be forced to bow to it, to us. All the detractors, the critics, the snowflakes will be cowed and crushed underfoot. And the god will feast upon all the broken souls he could ever desire.”
Vincent’s entire speech was so completely ridiculous, so utterly maniacal, that I expected the room to burst into laughter and congratulate him on a great practical joke. And yet, not a single Eldritch Club member opposed him. I could even see Gloria Haynes nodding her head.
World domination, for fuck’s sake. What a fucking cartoon supervillain cliche.
“Are we agreed this is the right course of action?” Senator Hyde-Jones poured himself another drink and raised it to his lips. “I call a vote.”
He thrust his free hand in the air, not stopping to take a breath as he finished his glass in one swig. All around the room, hands shot in the air. I couldn’t see if anyone’s remained down, but it didn’t matter.
The Eldritch Club agreed. Of course they did. World domination was in their blood.
“Very well.” Senator Hyde-Jones started on his next drink. “Vincent, we agree with this plan. How can we free the god without losing control of it? Parris tried for years and never succeeded, and he was a skilled magician.”
“Skilled, yes, but not powerful. For twenty years the god has been giving over power to us. Our power may be waning now, but the god has waned more. Even without occult knowledge, we’re still more powerful than Parris’ coven. And we have a secret weapon. Allow me to introduce my son.”
Trey?My heart lurched. Beside me, Quinn squirmed.
