Page 37 of The Tribes of Magic
The General considered me coolly over the tops of his braided fingers. “Don’t sell yourself short, Miss Winters. You bewitched an entire room of supernaturals today. That took an enormous amount of power.”
“I’m curious, General. Are you trying to punish me?” I raised one eyebrow. “Or recruit me?”
His laugh was sardonic—and short-lived. “You are a loose cannon. Out of control. You don’t care about the rules, and youare not a team player. In short, Miss Winters, you are a danger to Gaia’s bid to join the Many Realms Court.”
The General’s stone-cold glare made me nervous, and when I got nervous, I fidgeted. Right now, I was fidgeting with a paper clip that had spilled out of its tray, onto the General’s desk.
I cleared my throat. “As I see it, General, the Court was ignoring you, the President, and everyone else from Gaia. It was I who got them all to stop and listen to what you had to say. So instead of branding me a danger to Gaia’s bid to join the Many Realms Court, maybe you should be thanking me for helping you get noticed.”
The General’s gaze snapped to my hands, and I hastily deposited the wayward paper clip into its tray.
“You might think you helped, Miss Winters, but that’s only because you don’t understand how things work,” he told me. “Gaia does not needthiskind of attention. You outed yourself as a Polymage in front of the entire Court. Think about what that means. Noweveryoneknows Gaia has another Polymage—and not justanyPolymage. A Polymage who has the power to bewitch each and every one of them, all at once. Now how do you think the all-powerful members of the Court feel about a little girl usurping their freewill?”
“Well, they probably don’t like it, but I’m sure if they considered?—”
“They are furious,” the General cut me off. “And playing Little Miss Detective did nothing to quell their anger. You made the most influential people in all the Many Realms look weak, and then you revealed there’s a traitor in their midst.”
I jumped out of my seat. “What was I supposed to do!” I demanded. “Justletthe vampires take me away and lock me up for a crime I did not commit?”
The General pointed at my chair. “Sit down.” He waited until I’d done it. “What you weresupposedto do was show somerestraint, Miss Winters. Instead, you decided you’d rather show off howcoolyou are, and now look where that’s got us.”
“I wasn’t showing off,” I muttered.
The General ignored my objection. “Of course this will all come back tome. As far as the Court is concerned, either I have you under control, and it was I who ordered you to bewitch them…or you acted alone, meaning I’ve lost control of yet another Polymage, thereby demonstrating Gaia can’t handle the magic we have, no matter how great and powerful we are. Either way, this entire situation is bad for Gaia.”
“Hey, it’s not like it’smyfault that Zeryck enchanted those knives to kill Seriana and Fenris.”
The General continued to ignore my objections like they didn’t matter. “It appears I have no choice but to take responsibility for your actions. I will tell the Court I commanded you to bewitch them, butonlyto prove Gaia is powerful. It’s the lesser of two evils.” His annoyance cut deep, sharp furrows into his forehead. His gaze shot back to me. “But you are to cast no further spells on any member of the Court, Miss Winters. Is that understood?”
“Uh…”
“Is that understood?” he snapped.
“Well, the thing is…” I looked at my feet. “Ok, so, I didn’t actuallymeanto cast that spell on the Court. It just sort of came out.” My gaze lifted, and I met his eyes with a tentative smile.
The General did not return the gesture. “What do you mean by ‘just sort of came out’? Are you saying you have absolutely no control over your magic?”
“I wouldn’t say I havenocontrol over my magic. But it is a work in progress.”
“That is unacceptable,” he barked.
“Yeah, well, I’m an Apprentice, so isn’t it also kind of normal? There is a learning curve to magic, you know.”
I fully realized that I was trying to appeal to a man who’d probably popped into existence as the fully-grown, decidedly ill-tempered soldier who sat opposite me now, but I had to try anyway.
“Isn’t it normal to fail and learn from one’s mistakes?”
“Normal for normal Apprentices, perhaps, but no less inconvenient. And you are notnormal, Miss Winters. You don’t have the luxury to make mistakes.”
“But—”
“Because with your powers, your mistakes could have catastrophic consequences. So get a handle on your magic and get it quick, Miss Winters. Because if you don’t, you will have far greater problems than where your name sits on the Scoreboard.”
And with that stellar pep talk delivered, the General dismissed me from his office.
CHAPTER 5
TRACKING MAGIC
