Page 157 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

I glanced back as Winona, Barrow, and Opal approached.

“Before you turn in, Tempest,” Winona said. “We wondered if you would send out a message to the other covens.”

“What kind of message?” I asked. “The type of message a high esteemed would send?”

“Yes,” she said simply. “Many of the other covens won’t have heard from the original coven yet. If they have, a message delivered by yourself could confuse them enough to doubt what they’ve been told.”

“The message?” I asked.

“A call for aid,” she said as though discussing the weather. “There are those who could respond with support on a whim. We believe it’s worth exhausting all avenues. Two more magus on our side could save a life.”

I blinked as threads severed and reattached. “It is worth it,” I admitted. “I don’t see the issue with Barrow or Opal doing it, seeing as they negotiated with the other covens the entire time.”

“Then don’t do it as the high esteemed,” Barrow said. “Do it as the first mated woman of our kind.”

That was even worse.

“Do it as the wearer of Ryzika’s relics,” he tried next.

I snorted. “There’s a reason you were appointed as negotiator, Barrow.”

“I know.” The guy was smug.

“Fine. What do you want me to say?”

Winona passed over a scroll. “Just cast your magic over all the symbols in the advisory chamber to contact all the covens at once.”

I nodded and rose. Wild had entered the debate on battle tactics with his friends. This kind of discussion was how I’d first known the quad—as four sharp-minded men with unbreakable bonds. It was right that he spend time with them now. Tonight was a night to say the words we needed to say. This debate was the quad’s way of saying I love you and goodbye, brother.

“Can I come?” Rooke said to me.

I held out a hand to her. “Please do.”

Winona touched her fingertips to my elbow as I made to pass. “Tempest, I wanted you to know that it’s been my honor to know you and to wonder at all you are and will be. For what it’s worth, you are my high esteemed.”

I was left blinking back the sudden urge to cry. “The honor has been mine. Do you want to know something?” I leaned closer. “You were my pick for the job.”

Winona may not have four affinities or a mate or dancing threads in her mind, but in essence, I believed her to possess far more of the necessary leader qualities than I did. If the worst happened to me tomorrow, then I hoped against hope that the coven would recognize the value in the woman before me.

The older woman regarded me. “Thank you. But I would never accept the position. I decided against it long ago.”

“Why?”

“Because when I became a council member many years ago, I learned how much harder it was to achieve anything of value from a position of power. I got far more done as a simple coven member, when accountability and transparency and fulfilling expectations weren’t factors delaying me at every turn.”

There were more chains in leadership positions. There were good reasons for those chains being there too. “Why didn’t you bow out of the council job then?”

Her eyes twinkled. “I liked the bigger room.”

I snorted in response, then Rooke and I moved on alone down the empty halls. Some doors were open, revealing small groups inside who were hugging or crying or just spending what could be their last moments in each other’s company.

I couldn’t wait to cut the demon king’s head off tomorrow.

“What are you thinking about?” Rooke asked.

“Cutting off the demon king’s head. You?”

“Anticipating the mass effects of poison on demons.”

---