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But what was the alternative?
“I still see Jo sometimes,” I told Hilde. “Her eyes, the way she looked at the battle, the way she enjoyed it. We don’t even know if she’s really gone, and—”
“All the more reason to be prepared.”
Hilde was relentless; like a river running over stone, wearing it down. She’d been after me for two weeks to bring in some of the retired acolytes, and I’d been refusing, because I hadn’t wanted to bring a potential viper into the nest. But a viper had saved my life today, had saved all our lives. I didn’t like the consul, but when push came to shove, she’d put her life on the line and bled alongside the rest of us. That’s what a leader did.
And if I’d been wrong about her, was I wrong again now?
“I don’t blame you for being cautious,” Hilde said. “But there’s such a thing as being too careful. We have a war to fight, and we need soldiers.” A veined and age-spotted hand covered mine. “And you’ve fought alone long enough. Time to accept some help.”
I thought about Jo again, that lovely, hateful face. And then I thought about the other acolytes I’d seen with Gertie, like a flock of delicate, white-clad birds. What would it be like to have my own team behind me, strong, capable, loyal? What would it have been like today, had there been others who could wield the Pythian power, besides just me?
The tarot card had screamed “strength” at me for a good five minutes—was this what it had meant? Because strength was usually found in numbers. . . . Goddamn it.
“They’d need to interview with you, of course,” Hilde said. “And any you didn’t like, well, that would be that.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. How had we gotten from the question of whether to consider the old acolytes at all to discussing interviews? And why couldn’t I do shit like that? Talk about magic.
“Have them come by,” I said sourly. “But not here. I’ll talk to them downstairs.”
“They voluntarily gave up the Pythian power when they left the court,” Hilde pointed out. “The only ones allowed to retain it were the fail-safes. Even if they had another Jo among their number, they’d be no threat to us.”
“Even so—”
“And there’s not a downstairs so much anymore. Are you going to interview them in a construction zone?”
“Fine! I’ll talk to them here!” I got up. “Now, if there’s nothing else?”
“Other than you having a chat with Rhea? No, I believe that covers it.”
I hung my head. Why did people want to be Pythia again? I honestly didn’t know.
I sighed. “Where is she?”
Chapter Nineteen
I found Rhea in the kitchen, helping Tami and a bunch of the guys and gals clean up. Of course, that was a relative term, considering that there was more than one sink, and they each came equipped with spray hoses. Neither of which was being used on the food.
“I’m breaking out the mops! You think I won’t?” Tami yelled before she saw me. “What are you doing here?”
“I—why shouldn’t I be here?”
She rolled her eyes. “Seriously?”
And then a spray of lukewarm water hit us both, prompting me to duck behind the counter and Tami to charge.
“Mops!” she yelled, while Rico came in the door, loaded down with dirty dishes, all of which got a presoak a second later.
“You will pay for that,” he told Saffy, who was on the other end of the hose. And then he saw me. “What are you doing here?”
“Why does everyone keep asking me that?”
“Mage Pritkin left half an hour ago,” he noted.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Rico just looked at me. And then he did that thing, that damned annoying, almost sociopathic thing that all Mircea’s vamps could do except for Fred. I swear it had been part of their training or something.
