Page 36 of The Tribes of Magic
When I entered the General’s office in the Black Obelisk, he was sitting behind his massive desk, his hands folded neatly on top.
He motioned me forward. “Take a seat, Miss Winters.”
The Watcher left the office and closed the door behind him, leaving me alone with the General.
“Sit,” he repeated in his usual sharp, cutting tone. “I will not ask again.”
I took the chair and sat down. For a few seconds, the General merely watched me across the expanse of soulless desk. I squeezed my hands together and tried not to look intimidated.
I totally failed.
“Look at the Scoreboard, Miss Winters.” The General’s words struck like a fist punching through a mirror, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence.
Uncomfortable on my end, anyway. The Iron Wolf looked completely at ease in his cold, concrete den.
“What do you see?”
I glanced at the large monitor hanging on the wall. “The names of this year’s Apprentices.”
“And where isyourname on the Scoreboard, Miss Winters?”
My name had always hovered near the bottom of the Scoreboard. The highest I’d ever made it was twenty-fifth place—out of thirty-one. I didn’t expect I would ever go higher. I checked anyway, just in case.
“It’s at the bottom,” I told him, totally unsurprised that I was back in last place.
“And do you knowwhyyour name is at the bottom of the Scoreboard?”
“Because you don’t like me.”
“No, Miss Winters.”
There was a big, industrial office lamp stuck to the ceiling over the General’s desk, and when he shook his head, its ugly artificial light rippled across his crisp, spiky lawn of hair. It was an even mixture of blond and grey—and so closely-cropped that he must have mowed it recently.
“You’re at the bottom of the Scoreboard because Kato intervened on your behalf.” The General scraped his hands down his jacket, smoothing out wrinkles no one but he could see. “Without Kato, you would have been off the Scoreboard.”
I didn’t doubt it. Like a pair of unmatched socks, the General considered me a clearcut example of everything that was wrong with the universe.
“Your offenses are many,” he continued. “Consorting with Rebels?—”
“Conner helped me and Kato save the Spirit Trees!” I protested.
The General shot me an icy glare. “Yes, thank you for reminding me that you roped my best Knight into your schemes.”
Wow, the General understood sarcasm? If I weren’t so nervous, I might have actually been impressed.
“I didn’tropeKato into anything,” I told him.
“Of course you did. You’ve obviously bewitched him.”
“I’d never do that to him! He’s my friend!”
“I’ve seen how you treat your friends, Miss Winters. Just a few days ago, you lied to them to lure everyone into the basement of the conference center.”
I scowled at him. “You’re taking thattotallyout of context. The Templars burst through the wall and took us all prisoner. I had to make up a lie to lure those fiends into the basement. And I couldn’t tell my friends because Iknewthe Templars were listening to every word that we said. Everything I did, General, I did to save the Apprentices.”
“You have always been an impossibly arrogant girl,” he scoffed. “You always think you know best. First, it was stealing magic. And now it’s bewitching my White Knight.”
Anger flushed my cheeks. “Ididn’tbewitch Kato. And I couldn’t. He iswaytoo powerful.”
