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“Noted,” she said dryly, and swept her arm for me to come.
“We’ll be right here if you need us,” Gabriel said, both a promise and the closest he could get to a warning for Lady Northcott.
The magicking room for the head of the Assembly looked pretty similar to mine back home: pale hardwood floor, blank white walls without a single window, a single clear light fixture on the ceiling. A hint of cedar incense lingered in the air. Instead of a cabinet, hers had a built-in cupboard. Northcott didn’t make any move toward it, though. We weren’t in here to cast a spell. The soundproofed walls to prevent distraction would also keep my consorts and her secretary from overhearing our conversation.
“What were you thinking?” she snapped, spinning to face me the moment the door had closed with a thud. “The soul-bound ceremony, with not one butfiveunsparked men?”
I’d already been tense, but at her words I bristled even more. “We werethinkingthat the only thing that stopped us from caging the demon was my power faltering. It won’t falter as soon now. We’re committed to each other. We all knew what we were getting into.”
Lady Northcott made a jerky motion with her hand. “There’s a proper process for any consorting. A department to consult with, approval you’re supposed to gain first. Especially in the case of a higher form.”
I hadn’t even thought of that. I shouldn’t have laughed, but the sound spilled out of me before I could catch it. Was that all she was worried about? Whether we’d filled out the proper forms?
“I didn’t have approval to consort with them in the first place,” I said. “Circumstances made that impossible, in case you’ve forgotten. Strangely enough, we thought finding the strength to push back the demon was more important than getting some paperwork filed.”
“They’re bound to the entire witching community now,” Northcott went on, ignoring the point I’d made. “There’s never been a soul-bound consorting with an unsparked man before.”
“How do you know? We have no idea how many records have been destroyed, evidence covered up. Have you even looked into who else in the Assembly might have been supportingthoseefforts, even if they didn’t know about the demons?” It wasn’t hard to imagine all sorts of witches and witching men might have wanted to encourage a more restricted view of consorting—out of ideas of purity, or control, or who knew what else.
“No,” Lady Northcott said tightly. “We’ve been rather occupied with the demon problem.”
“Exactly!” I gestured toward the doorway, to the guys waiting on the other side. “So let us help fix that problem. I’ll do whatever I can. My consorts, unsparked or not, care just as much as anyone here. You’ve got no reason to distrust them.”
Northcott’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think I’m most concerned with trusting them? This consorting was based on your judgment. You have the demon’s taint in you, and you’ve brought yourself even more power.”
A chill ran down my back. So this wasn’t just about unsparked prejudice then. She was still wary ofme.
“I can’t help that,” I said, my voice dropping. “It happened before I was even born, Lady Northcott. But I’ve never done one thing to hurt anyone who wasn’t already attacking me. Your own enforcers can tell you how close we were to capturing the demon yesterday, how much I put into that effort. Maybe that power is a weapon, but I decide how I use it, and there’s no taint in my mind.”
She gazed back at me, frowning, as if she weren’t entirely sure she believed that. Then she sighed and folded her arms over her chest. “I suppose it is what it is now. You can’t take back the binding.”
“No, I can’t,” I said. “So are you going to let us help or not?”
Her lips pursed. She inclined her head. “Move back into the office we set up for the six of you here. We may need to call on you without much notice. Your consorts can continue contributing however they were before. You… For now, why don’t you look in on the witches who were caught up in this faction. It seems you’ve made some progress with them. They have the experience—they may be the ones to shift the balance.”
“They’re traumatized,” I said. “If we ask too much of them too quickly, we’ll just open those wounds more before they’ve had a chance to heal.”
“They won’t heal at all if the demon gets its claws into them,” Lady Northcott retorted. “You wanted to help. That’s how I’ll accept your help right now.”
She grasped the doorknob without waiting for my answer. I let her usher me back into the main office space. My consorts were standing where I’d left them, Damon scowling, Kyler’s gaze searching as if he were trying to read the outcome of that talk from my face.
I caught both their hands, and all five of us slipped into the hall. “Rose?” Seth said, sounding concerned. I guessed my face wasn’t completely unreadable.
“She’s not happy,” I said. “But she’s at least letting us return to the things we were doing to help before. Not that they’re sure any of it will do much good.” I raked my fingers through my hair. “I don’t think anyone in this building has a clue how we’re going to stop that fiend.”
Chapter Seventeen
Jin
Rose had said she needed to go, but she wavered by the door to our Assembly office after that announcement, her mouth twisted with uncertainty. I moved to her side automatically, reaching for her hand and twining my fingers through hers.
“You don’t have to do what Lady Northcott said,” I reminded her. “It’s not as if these heads of witching society have had the answers before now.”
“I know,” she said. “But Ishouldsee what I can do for the witches in recovery. And honestly, I agree with her. It might be so much easier if they could stand beside us against that thing. I just hate to ask it of them.”
“So you won’t,” I said. “You’ll help them find their strength, and when they’re strong enough that they can handle it, of course they’ll want to pitch in. They’ve already said that, haven’t they?”
The corners of her lips curled upward until I had a real smile. “How do you always know how to find the bright side of a situation, Jin?”
