Page 68 of Sinful Palace

He coughed to clear his throat. “Absolutely nothing. I have no idea who he is. As far as I know, I’ve never even been in the same room as him.”

Bullshit. “Are you fucking kidding?”

He let out an exasperated sigh. “No. No one knows who he is.”

“But you were in that grotto with him the other week.”

“What? When?”

“During the last Order meeting, when he wanted to address the members with the video link. While he was talking, we could see a few people standing around in the background in black cloaks and robes. Wasn’t that you and the other council members who went to help him?”

He shook his head. “No. We were asked to set up a room for him in the Order Hall to ensure the right things were there for him to use, and then we were instructed to leave as soon as that was done. We were gone before he showed up.”

“Who the hell were those people standing around him, then?”

“That was probably the shadow council.”

I almost burst out laughing at that. “Did you just say the shadow council?” I asked, eyes incredulously wide. “Because that sounds like something out of a fucking fantasy game.”

“I know. That’s what we call them, though.”

“Who are they?”

“Wouldn’t have a clue. Hence the nickname.”

“So there’s two councils in the Order?”

He hesitated for a few seconds. “Well… yes and no. The high council, where I am, is the official one. We organize everything for the society. Run the meetings and parties. Allocate necessary tasks to appropriate members. Carry out Q’s commands.”

“And the other one?”

“The shadow council is an unofficial group of Q’s most trusted allies. No one is really supposed to know about them except the high council, so I’m trusting you not to share this information with anyone.”

“Okay. What do these shadow people do?”

One of his cheeks jumped slightly. “Anything Q needs that he can’t get from the rest of us, or anything he doesn’t want us to be concerned with for whatever reason. This parade body-drop, for instance. The shadow council must’ve helped him organize that.”

“Why would he get them to do it?”

“Because he didn’t want the rest of us to be involved, obviously.”

“Again, why?”

His forehead creased. “Because he only wanted a few people to know about it, I presume. I don’t know, though. All I know is that he trusts the shadow council implicitly to do his dirty work for him. They’re the only ones allowed in the same room as him, and the only ones who can directly contact him.” His frown deepened, and he scratched his nose. “I know I said no one knows his true identity, but if anyone actually does, it’s them.”

An idea flashed in my mind, making my lips twitch with amusement. “Huh…” I said, slowly rubbing my jaw. “That must really piss you off.”

“What?”

“The fact that you and the rest of the high council are given so much responsibility and so much work, but you still aren’t valued or trusted enough to be in Q’s real inner circle. If I were you, that’d bother me for sure.”

Anger flared in his eyes for a split-second. He utterly despised the idea of anyone thinking he wasn’t the most important person on the planet, but as long as he wanted to keep up the act that Q was another man, he couldn’t say anything in his defense.

That made it very easy for me to goad him.

I knew it had to be driving him insane to have to sit here and pretend to be a regular council member, entrusted with nothing compared to the so-called shadow council. He was probably itching to tell me that he was very important after all, because he was actually the big supreme leader, but he couldn’t, because then he’d have to reveal his true identity.

“I’m happy to serve the Order as Q sees fit. Besides, being on the high council is one of the greatest honors a member can earn for his or herself,” he finally said, nostrils flaring. He obviously knew exactly what I was doing.

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