“I don’t know, but I’m going to try. I don’t want to be his queen, coddled on a throne. If we end up dating, it’ll be as partners. I won’t be a trophy.” Not that I looked like anyone’s trophy. Trophies didn’t have wide hips and belly rolls.
“Why didn’t you cook last night, were you not feeling well?” She cooked constantly. She said besides reading, cooking was her therapy. It made her happy, for some reason. I enjoyed watching people eat something yummy I’d concocted, but the actual prep part of it was no fun to me.
“I had a date with an old friend, and it ran long.” She didn’t expand on that, and I didn’t pry. She was very, very old and was bound to have her secrets. I truly was dying to know who she met though. I squashed down those nosy thoughts.
Lunch was pleasant and left me feeling better, as always. Mom would adapt, and we’d be able to tell Dad soon. Life would go on.
When I returned to the castle, Alexander was home for the day. “You’re early,” I said, sitting beside him in his man cave.
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“Excellent because I wanted to talk to you first.”
“You first.” He settled back on the leather sofa, ready to listen.
“I want to go to the council with you and see what it’s like. I want to learn about the Junta, the Unseen government, and learn more about the world I live in now.”
“Absolutely not,” he said firmly, as if that closed the matter.
Um, what?“Come again?”
“Having you in the clutches of the council is not an option.” He crossed his arms in front of his body.
“How exactly are you going to stop me?”
He flapped his jaw a few times, totally aghast.
He’s so used to people bowing and scraping around him. I ain’t that girl.
“By asking you. Jen, please don’t ask me to expose you to the council. You’re off their radar. I don’t want to get you on it.”
“Why in the world not?” They couldn’t be that bad.
“I’m forward thinking. I’m looking for new ways to solve old problems—like the spell to be able to tell humans. But there are those who are absolutely against any change or progress. A couple of the older council members voted to round up any Sárkány or Leyak we could find and send them through the portals to whatever land they made it to, no questions asked, no aid, nothing. Actually one of them voted to kill any Sárkány or Leyak on sight.”
“Why? That’s horrible!”
“I agree. But they’re so against changing the status quo that they’ll go to any length. And they’re so old that life means absolutely nothing to them anymore.”
I stood and paced, agitated by the news. “So change their minds, or replace them.” Surely the majority of the Unseen couldn’t think that way.
“There’s still enough of a faction that thinks the way they do that we have to keep them around. Times are changing, but for the Unseen they change slowly.”
“Aren’t you putting a member of the Sárkány on the council?”
Nodding, he rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, it was supposed to be Axoular, but he doesn’t want to leave Riley or the babies to work. I can’t blame him, really. We’ve asked Doryu to represent the Sárkány on the council.”
“What about the Leyak?”
“Unless they show the majority of their population is willing to abide by the rules of the Junta, they’ll be considered an enemy of the Unseen.”
“Seems harsh.”
“It’s necessary. With the level of secrecy we are forced to live under, you’re either with us or against us. There’s no neutral territory.”
There wasn’t much else to say. He wanted to protect me, and I didn’t want him to. He was a king and president—of sorts—and unlikely to change his mind. I’d have to go around him.
I found my way to the room Roan had been using when he stayed at the castle. Tapping on the door, I grinned when I heard a cheerful greeting. I threw open the door and bounced into his room. “Hey Roan!”
