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Yeah, that wasn’t fucking scary when I had nobles who had promised me the same. The heart was fickle and I understood that but… They were my protection. Honestly, princesses got screwed over too much, and that was how the non-evil ones went crazy and shut down.
I was feeling that already too.
I let out a slow breath. “Okay, let’s go kill another crazy and take over a coven.”
“Just like that?” Sundar of all people checked.
“Yes, because she’s one of the princesses I saw in my vision from Aether,” I grumbled. “And if she’s now killed her own coven over food, Aether is going to want it more. I’m not dealing with more visions for that cunt.” I frowned when people seemed upset. “Kaitlin. I was saying Kaitlin was the cunt, not our Goddess.”
Too many seemed relieved and I rolled my eyes. Even before I believed in Aether and that I was Her champion, I’d never been so disrespectful to Her. Idiots.
Then again, it was a high stress situation, and it was easy for those to blow everything up. That was most of my life after all.
“There is some good news that will help before you take over another coven,” Kristof informed me, seeming completely on board and ignoring all of the shock in the room. He waited until I nodded. “You asked the clans and especially the heads of clans to be your eyes and ears watching the vampires from the covens you’ve taken over.”
“Yeah, I need to follow up with that,” I sighed. “People are getting itchy that they’re still guests and I get that but—there’s just not enough hours in the day.”
He nodded but gave me a slight wink. “I have two very extensive lists. You are too busy, but Lara, Maggie, and Cerdic made it a point to follow up with them. He personally spoke with each clan leader to hear their thoughts on the people.”
I glanced over at Cerdic and smiled. “Thank you. That’s a huge help.”
He nodded. “A lot of people heard it was the idea and specifically spent time with the clans so they could get a feel for them. The list of who to accept is long. There are only about a dozen they want shown the door.”
Sundar cleared his throat, giving me a worried look when I focused on him. “I would hope those of us you trust will be consulted before you deny them a place in your coven.” He waited until I nodded. “There are some I would agree with, but it’s not fair for my past with them to influence you as we all had to behave certain ways around Bahati.”
I understood what he meant, but he also wanted to defend any that maybe we got the wrong impression of.
Funny how he didn’t care about butting in if it was to save people though. It actually made me like him better.
“Let them all have a say in the list,” I told Kristoff after a moment. “There might be more they saw that the shifters couldn’t yet.”
What was the harm?
For one, it was a long list. So it wouldn’t be all done today, but Kristoff read off a hundred from Safie’s coven to start. There were no objections and a lot of nods that they were good people.
“Do it. Tell them they are official coven members and we will be adding more once we go over the recommendations,” I said firmly. “Also, let them know that the clans vouched for them to be added. That will help the lines drawn between vamps and shifters.”
“Smart,” Kristoff praised.
“Some days,” I chuckled darkly.
No matter how pompous the vamp, if a shifter helped them be accepted into a coven that could give them a real future… They wouldn’t forget that. It would always be something they took into account.
Good.
I gave orders to prep the killing of Kaitlin and then they confirmed another hundred names before it was time to go. I was glad those people would get some good news before we started more chaos.
Kristof blurred me to Alaska, and we used the chopper to jump over to Russia. There was one thing I needed to know that I realized when we landed. Doing that reminded me how stupid I’d been handling the travel to Bahati, but it made me think of something that I should have before.
I found Sundar in the group and went over to him. “When we’re done here, go kill two hundred corrupted in Bahati’s territory.”
His eyes flashed with shock. “You want to know if Aether or Erebus will count the area of the princesses you take over.”
“I think it smart before someone else realizes it’s a weapon to be used against me. If I don’t have ghosts tomorrow from this, I think we need to fucking clear out those areas before Erebus thinks to do it.”
“Yes, I agree.” He studied me a moment. “I ask to kill a thousand. That will tell us and not simply some killing happened in your area or by your people.”
I thought of that a moment. “Kill five or six thousand. I can more than handle those ghosts, but that will give us the answer for sure. Thank you.”
