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“Send a note next time?”
Kerrigan nodded. She scanned her friend. Her severe black bob had recently been cut even shorter with bangs nearly obscuring her blue eyes. Her cinnamon skin glowed against her white tunic and black pants.
Kerrigan realized why she looked different. “You’re not wearing Dozan’s colors.”
Normally, Dozan Rook had his card dealer in a black button-up with a red vest. It made his employees noticeable. Clover usually wore them, even out of the Wastes.
“Yeah, I’m going to a meeting after this. I came to check on you and… try to drag you along.”
Kerrigan closed her eyes and buried her face in her pillow. “Clove …”
“Look, I know that you’re tired. Training looks like it’s not going well, but hear me out.”
She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. The front of her shirt opened, revealing the gold chain she always had dangling from her neck. The piece of metal was nearly the size of Kerrigan’s palm and flat as a disc. Kerrigan had rarely seen her without it.
“I’m listening.”
“Remember the protest I went to?”
“The one where you got arrested and I had to get you out of chains?”
“The one,” she said smoothly. “The group that put that together is trying to get more organized. They have real plans. They’re having an activist meeting to try to see how much interest there is.”
“How much interest there is in what?” Kerrigan asked, afraid she already knew.
“Human and half-Fae rights.”
Kerrigan nodded minutely. “I see.”
“It’s not fair that we have no say in our own government. The Society gets to make all the rules. They get to enforce those rules, and we suffer. We should have people in those meetings, vocalizing our opinions.”
“You know I agree with you,” Kerrigan said.
“But …”
“But I have a year of dragon training. I can’t protest against the very government that I’m part of.”
Clover’s eyes shuttered. “Why not? Isn’t that the point of being in the government? To enact change?”
“Yes, and you know that I plan to, but right now, I’m not even in the Society. I can still be kicked out in the next year.”
“So, you’re going to let them censure you?” she asked, getting heated. “Let them keep you quiet for the next year when we have the momentum of your win now?”
“No, that’s—”
“Don’t be a coward.”
Kerrigan dropped an arm over her face. “I don’t even have the energy to argue with you. If surviving the next year is cowardice, then fine. I can’t change anything if I’m kicked out.”
Clover vaulted out of her seat. “I never thought I’d see the day when you backed down over the fear of getting caught. Someone in the Society killed Basem Nix for what he knew about the Red Masks. The very people who beat you in a dark alleyway for being half-Fae. Do you think they’re actually going to find the killer if we remain silent?”
Kerrigan moved her arm and looked at her friend. Was she staying here out of fear? Was she letting the Society rules dictate her? Was it worth her principles?
Part of her said yes. It was worth everything to get what she wanted. But at what cost?
“Okay,” Kerrigan said with a sigh. “I’ll go.”
18
The Meeting
Kerrigan tugged the hood of her cloak tighter around her face as they moved through the streets of Kinkadia. The city was bustling with the summer energy and late daylight hours. It wouldn’t be dark for hours yet, and street festivals would be set up throughout the city. It had long been Kerrigan’s favorite time of year. The city truly came alive despite the suffocating humidity, coupled with an oppressive heat and the stink. The city couldn’t help but stink in this weather.
They skirted the Square and came up on an inn a few blocks away. Kerrigan was surprised. She’d been expecting something in the Dregs, surrounded by pubs. Something disreputable.
Clover must have seen that on her face because she scoffed. “People in all neighborhoods want this. Not just the people at the bottom. We have to be able to fund it after all.”
“Of course,” Kerrigan said. “I thought it would be somewhere more private.”
“The dining space will be open as normal. There’s a garden out back that opens onto a private courtyard. The meeting will be held there. No one else has access, except the innkeeper.”
Kerrigan nodded. That made more sense to her.
“This way,” Clover said.
She navigated to the back of the property with ease, as if she’d been doing this for a while. They stepped under an archway and into a garden paradise. Vines covered the walls that enclosed the garden and courtyard. Plants of every type filled the area, large enough to hold a couple hundred people. Not that Kerrigan suspected that many people would attend this meeting on a Friday night. This almost reminded her of the greenhouses on the east side of the mountain. Just the sheer expanse of plants. No matter how long Kerrigan had lived in the city, it always managed to surprise her.
