"Yes, let's get started." Franklin tapped on his tablet and then a picture of the first of Eldora’s clients popped up, a young woman with a bad habit of dating bad boys and then getting into fights with other women over him.
Ugh. This was going to a micromanaging meeting. Wonderful. I was more than capable of dealing with this on my own, but instead I was required to sit here and listen to them while Franklin pretended he knew more about it than I did.
"As you can see, this client has used up ten billable hours on management in the past two weeks …" And they were off arguing. I was part of the setting, like the potted plant and the mahogany table. This meeting was nonsensical. This happened once a quarter, and I had no idea why my precious time was required. All they were going to do was bicker back and forth, which did not require my presence. But if I said anything of the kind, they would both turn on me, and I didn’t feel like trying to fend off the vipers right after coming into the office. Then again, it was difficult to hold onto my good mood. I was still managing by the tips of my fingers, but it was getting harder and harder.
Eldora rose and paced, waving her hands to illustrate her frustration with my subpar skills in dealing with the messes her clients got into. Thus began hour two, followed by dickering, and the end was that we continued as before.
Uneasiness coiled in my gut, though I had no idea why. This wasn’t my fault, and I could have told them that, not that either of them would’ve listened.
Moving into the third hour, Eldora’s pacing had turned into circling the room and I was earnestly wishing both of them to hell. Or me, literally anywhere else.
"Is there anything else I can do to address the problems, Eldora? Other than suggest you let some of your clients go?" I asked. "I recall suggesting this before, but if you dropped three of them your bill would drop too. And then you could take on new clients."
My tone was calm and pleasant, but I’d started sweating and I didn’t know why. I wanted out of there.
Eldora did another round of the table. I suppressed the urge to swivel in my chair and watch as she passed behind me. She was circling like a shark, and she had to know that it was getting on my nerves. That was probably why she was doing it, because she couldn’t tear into me until I gave her a reason to.
"What the hell?" The words burst out as a thin strong hand clamped on my shoulder. Not very professional, but I didn’t care at the moment.
Franklin dabbed his forehead with a tissue, staring at me across the conference table. The wood gleamed in the light. "I'm really very sorry, Andromeda. But we have to do this. You won’t remember this afterward, if it’s any comfort.”
I tried to stand, to shout. My legs didn’t move, and no words came out. Terrifying weakness flooded through me, as if something had been slipped in my drink, but I hadn’t had anything to drink in the office this morning.
I wobbled in the chair, held in place by the hand. My shoulder burned, and all the noise I could make was a thin groan through my clenched teeth.
My head hurt, the light blurring into painful rainbows. Franklin, an unsettlingly smug smile on his face, met my gaze. Little weasel. I had always hated something about him, but I had never imagined that he would do anything to hurt me. I should have known better.
I tried to move, gritting my teeth, throwing all my willpower into it. My hands shifted, slowly, but dropped back to my side as my mind fuzzed. Screaming silently, now unable to even think, I wavered at the edge of consciousness.
What was happening to me?
The pain in my shoulder stopped and my eyes cleared, though I still couldn’t move.
Eldora came into view and tapped her fingertips on my forehead. "You'll forget this. You’ll also do your very best to screw up the assignment you just signed for, the one that Franklin will drop on your desk as soon as you get over this migraine.”
"Hey!" Franklin spoke fast and annoyed. “That’s a lot of money.”
"Yes," she said impatiently. "Take them for all they’ve got first, but don’t let them get any traction by changing how they’re perceived. We need them to have an even worse reputation than they started with. And since Andromeda’sverygood at what she does, she should be able to shred their hopes thoroughly."
Eldora’s eyes met mine. They were a funny shade of brown, very close to gold. "Now forget, Andromeda Quinn. Forget."
The world shuddered. My head throbbed, light stabbing through my eyes. I massaged my temples, then raised my gaze again to see both of them staring at me with concern. Well, that was one way to get out of this stupid meeting. Why hadn’t I faked being sick earlier? If I had, I might have avoided this headache. "I'm sorry, this migraine came out of nowhere. I have to go home. Can we reschedule the rest of the meeting?"
"It’s fine, Andromeda. We were almost done. I’ll drop the notes off on your desk. Go home, you look like you feel terrible." Franklin spoke with concern.
Thank the gods, once in a great while he was a good boss. I stumbled out and Yolande called a ride share for me to get home as the headache increased.
5
BRAN
I used a travelingmagic to walk back to my home, rather than call for a taxi. I wanted to think, and I would not do that easily with a raging or stuporous elemental next to me. Each step took me seven leagues, so it only took two steps to arrive home.
Reynard said humans still had legends of boots crossing that distance. The catch was that the user had to know where they were going, or they could overstep and become very lost, very fast.
I paused in the cool shadows of the trees that surrounded the ranch. Set high in the hills, its roof was made of pink tiles, a style strange to me but not unattractive. The quiet pulse of power, signatures as known to me as my breath, waited in the house.
Advisor and first among my guard. They had disobeyed me, but I was not usually one to punish where I did not know the reasons why. Knowing that pair, there was a good reason why they had decided to ignore the order and do precisely as they wanted before I left.
