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Just a token to celebrate our partnership. Here's wishing for a long and happy connection. Your first blood tithe is due the night after next--please meet Lannan Altos in his office at the New Forest Conservatory on Sunday evening. He will have your first month's salary in advance at that time.
Best, Regina Altos
Emissary to the Crimson Court.
Fuck. I looked up from the note. I'd hoped for a month or so to adapt to the idea but their message was clear. They owned me, blood, stock, and barrel.
And it was time to pay the piper.
Chapter 18
I tried to underplay the note. No use getting Rhiannon upset. Meanwhile, we needed to go talk to Anadey and tell her what we'd found out about Peyton and ask if she could help Rhiannon. We called and she agreed to meet us the next morning at her house. We spent the rest of the evening strengthening the wards around the house and playing Scrabble.
The next morning, while Leo and Kaylin volunteered to stay home and try to pull together some sort of protection for the land itself, Rhiannon and I jumped into Favonis and headed for Anadey's apartment.
She was hunched over the table when we quietly entered at her Come in, teacup in hand, looking ten years older than when I'd met her the first day. She gazed up at us, her eyes still red from crying. "Any news?"
It was clear she was afraid to ask, but had to.
"Some. We found their hideout, thanks to Grieve. But we had to get out of there before we were caught. Heather and Peyton were both there, alive." And I prayed they still were, after our bumbling efforts. What if Myst had killed them to punish us for our intrusion? It seemed like something she might do.
We told Anadey about our trip, swearing her to silence when we described Kaylin's abilities.
She pushed back her teacup and let out a long sigh. "Okay, so I need to quit moping and do something to help save my daughter. If you have the courage to take on the Indigo Court, I have to find my own will. I'm not sure what use I can be, though. My magic's a lot more subtle than my mother's was. I work with all the elements, but I tend to do so on a more . . . molecular level. It's hard to describe. I don't cast spells so much as rearrange events."
"I wish you could time hop and rearrange Heather and Peyton being captured." I sighed. Time jumping was rare and usually only allowed one to view events, not to interfere in them.
"If I could, do you think I wouldn't have already tried?" Anadey shook her head. "There are more powers in the universe than we can hope to ever understand. And some I hope we never fully know about."
"Anadey, I have a favor to ask." Rhiannon leaned across the table. "I need help. I need your help. The fire's been unleashed from where I hid it all these years. I'm having troubles controlling it now."
Anadey blinked. "Marta told me about you--about the car incident. I wondered how long it would be before you'd open up to the energies again. You can't ever suppress something like this for good. Mother thought you had managed to eradicate it, but I knew better. That's one place we differed."
She stood up and motioned for us to follow her into the kitchen, where she rinsed out her cup and offered us peppermint cookies. "These are Peyton's favorites. I guess I thought . . . maybe if I made a batch they would act like some charm to call her home."
Accepting one of the cookies, I debated whether to ask a question that had been running through my mind. Finally, I decided that it couldn't hurt. "You didn't get along too well with Marta, did you?" I asked.
Anadey let out a stiff laugh. "My mother and I never saw eye to eye, which is one reason she never gave me entrance to her precious Society. The Thirteen Moons Society--at least this branch--was dead before it began, and what remains is a shadow of what they could have had if they'd quit being such asses. Your mother never fully belonged," she added to Rhiannon.
"What do you mean?"
"Heather tried Marta's patience, she was willing to step outside the box. Marta kept a tight rein on the leadership in fear that Heather would take over at some point, before she was ready. I know she was hoping Cicely would come home and take over, but she had no clue just what you had become, my dear."
It hurt to hear her point out my weaknesses. "I never had anybody to teach me how to practice my magic the right way," I said, my words clipped to keep the pain from my voice.
Anadey shook her head. "Oh heavens, do you think I'm criticizing you? Not at all. You have no concept how far you've come by working solitary, teaching yourself through experience. You're far stronger than you believe. For one thing, you didn't have anybody to teach you the right way to do things, so you never believed you were doing them wrong."
While I thought over what she had said, Rhiannon quietly took over, rinsing our cookie saucers. After a moment, she dried her hands on a tea towel and turned back to Anadey.
"So, can you help me? Will you help me?"
Anadey let out a long sigh and nodded. "Yes, but you have to agree to several conditions. You must put yourself in my hands. You must listen to me. I won't teach you the standard practices toward harnessing your powers, but I will help you find the best way for you. Every witch is different, every spell caster and sorcerer needs to learn their own path if they are to truly coexist with the energies they have locked inside them. Whatever you might call yourself, you're of the magic-born, and you're a daughter of the fire. Will you take direction from me, even when you're afraid?"
Rhiannon gazed into Anadey's face, the fearful look that was in her eyes beginning to slide away. "I will."
"Then we begin work tomorrow--Sunday, so be here at sunrise and prepare to stay all day. We'll fast-track you. And, both of you, if there's anything I can do to help bring my daughter home, you will let me know? Because somehow, for some reason, Cicely, I think you are at the heart of this and both Heather's and Peyton's safety rests on your shoulders."
Wearing such a heavy cloak of responsibility weighed me down. As I left the apartment, I glanced back to see Anadey waving through the window. At least Rhiannon would get the help she needed to rope in her powers, to use them instead of letting them use her.
