Page 10 of The Blood Witch

“What can be done in the meantime?” Kallista asked. “Harvesting and grinding wheat is time-consuming, I imagine, and that’s assuming anything in the fields can be salvaged for immediate use. The city needs flour now.”

“Not just the city,” Sana clarified. “The entire realm is experiencing this shortage. And, unfortunately, it is going to get much worse before it gets better. Each shipment from the fourth octant has been less than the last, and we are approaching winter in a few months. What we have, andwhat can still be harvested this season, will have to last until the next year.”

“Did the Queen have any emergency stores?” Cassiel asked, not bothering to look at any of them. He was like this every meeting, only half appearing to pay any attention. Yet, every time Alice thought he wasn’t listening, he’d jump in with some brilliant suggestion.

It annoyed the hell out of her.

Sana shuffled through her papers, searching through their records.

“Uh, yes, here it is,” she said, finally, eyes skimming the page. “Yes, she did! I have the inventory here. And there are…” Her eyes widened. “Goddess bless us, there are several tons of flour stored here in the palace storerooms.”

Alice nodded. Finally, something going right for a change. “Good. Have it all removed and dispersed to the stores in the city. Wait…” She stopped, drumming her fingers on the table and thinking. “No. No, have half of it dispersed to stores in the city. Then have the palace accountants divide and distribute the rest to the other octants. And make sure they distribute it based on population, not evenly to all eight,” Alice insisted. Sana’s pen skittered across the paper as she made notes. “There’s no need to give the same amount of wheat to the second octant as the fifth, when they have four times the population. All in favor?”

The vote was again unanimous, and they moved on to other business. And other business after that. And even more, after that.

The meeting lasted until well after midnight, and by the time they all agreed to call it a night, Alice was mentally and physically spent. Silas, to her surprise, had been a remarkably effective stand-in for Kellos. Despite his youth, he was smart, and his solutions had been clever without being too self-serving. Alice hoped that if Kellos’s absence continued, he at least kept sending Silas as their representative.

“You did well today,” came a soft, feminine voice at her side.

Alice glanced up to find Kallista leaning on the table at her shoulder, staring down at her. She tried to swallow the fear that leapt into her throat.

Even now, after all this time working with her, the Demon made her uncomfortable. There was something dangerous about her, somethingthat still set her on edge. One of the first things she learned during her training in the Queen’s army was how to assess a potential threat and recognize when she was outmatched.

Alice had no illusions that in every way possible, Kallista had her outmatched. She genuinely hoped that there would never come a day when they stood on opposing sides of a battle.

“Thanks,” Alice replied simply, straightening and hoping the Demon would take the hint and leave.

“You’re good at this, you know,” Kallista continued, those dangerous blue eyes boring into her.

Alice shrugged. “It’s not hard,” she demurred. “It’s just like solving a puzzle.” Sure, it had been difficult at first, but now Alice found it suited her.Leadingsuited her.

Who would have thought the big bad Queen’s Blade, a monster in so many folktales, could be a diplomat?

“I think you aren’t used to compliments,” Kallista said, raising an eyebrow at her. “You don’t need to undervalue yourself. You are good at this. I’m not trying to stroke your ego, Witch, I am simply stating a fact.”

Alice snorted, but she didn’t argue. Goddess help her, she liked Kallista, almost as much as she feared her. She didn’t want to, didn’t want to trust the Demon for a myriad of reasons. But she’d definitely grown on her over these last months.

“Will you stay on? After the princess comes of age?” Kallista asked, picking an invisible speck of dirt off her dress with long painted fingernails.

Alice paused.

That had been the agreement when the High Priestesses had appointed her. After her first, and only, council meeting, Amalia had shown no interest in continuing. They had decided a new representative should lead the Witches in her stead until she reached the age of majority.

“I’m not sure,” Alice answered, honestly. “The princess is…”A brat? Incapable of handling her own emotions, let alone assuming responsibility for an entire Faction? A representation of everything Alice had fought tooverthrow, of everything that had infected the city when the Witches ruled?

Alice cleared her throat and said, politely as she could, “The princess is complicated. If she decides to take her seat on the council after her eighteenth birthday, I will respect her choice and step aside.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

Alice shrugged. “Then my continued presence on the council will be decided by the High Priestesses. They are the closest thing our Faction has to a ruler, after all.”

Kallista smiled, admiring her nails. “For now,” she said, and Alice didn’t miss the ominous tone in her voice.

Alice gave her a long look, straightening to her full height.

Shit like that is what makes it so hard to trust you, Demon, she thought.

“And what do you mean by that?” Alice didn’t bother to hide the menace in her voice.

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