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My lips parted, and I started to answer glibly, but Sage’s steadfast stare stopped me.
“I don’t know,” I admitted sheepishly. She was really the only being who I could speak so frankly with. “Surely you can find a proper path for her here.”
“There are several positions which she might fill,” Sage agreed slowly. “However, I’m not sure how much trust you’ll want to enlist in such a female, given her track record.”
I bristled, a bloom of protectiveness flowering over me at the mention of Bianca’s indiscretions.
“You know as well as I do that Covale City is rife with those in need, Sage,” I growled. “We have no right to judge what others do to survive.”
“You’ve killed for less,” she remarked dryly.
I shifted my gaze away, knowing she was right.
“You heard her story,” I muttered. “She hasn’t had it easy.”
“I’m not judging her,” Sage insisted. “I’m watching out for your interests—as I’m employed to do. Having a thief in the casino is not the best course of action.
“You think she’s going to try to steal from me again?” I couldn’t bring myself to believe that, and even so, she could hire ten people to carry as much cash as possible out of this casino, and it wouldn’t make a dent in my finances.
“You said yourself that she’s desperate. Desperate beings do desperate things. The temptation may be too great for her to resist. I’ll go so far as to say it’s cruel to put her in a position where she’s surrounded by the risk in the first place.”
A fusion of irritation and respect swept through me. Everything she said was valid. Bianca did need money. That was why she was coming. Perhaps I hadn’t thought it through after all.
I swiveled around in the chair and stared out of the window. Twilight fell over Covale City, the traffic swelling in rush hour. Shifters walked along the sidewalks, some in animal form, some in their human bodies, going about their day-to-day activities without any inkling of my eyes taking them in. Humans remained oblivious as always, seeing but not seeing the odd forms in front of them. They had no concept of the magic until they were forced to see it by the hand of an enchanted.
“You have other businesses,” Sage offered.
I snorted. “Thank you. I’m aware.”
“There are several other positions in which she might be useful.”
None of which would keep her as close to me as the casino.
Except…
I spun back around in the chair, a slow smile forming on my lips.
“I know just the place to start her.”
Sage visibly swallowed.
“Oh?”
“Shifter Affairs.”
She gasped aloud, her eyes bugging.
“You can’t be serious, Atlas. That position requires training—”
“Says who?” I insisted, the idea growing like a weed. “It’s a position I created.”
“Exactly!” Sage sputtered. “You’re the one who insisted that it requires training!”
I shook my head. “But does it really?” I pushed. “It’s common sense, empathy. It’s based on good intuition, not book smarts, isn’t it?”
“Atlas—”
“Isn’t it?”
