Page 25 of Eminently Elf
“Why didn’t you explain that before?”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Look, I’m in deep shit here. The office is crawling with fallen knights and sentinels.”
“Something you should’ve anticipated.” Oklin held no sympathy for the dragon and was growing weary of the conversation. It would be impossible for any of this to fall on his shoulders as the Order of the Fallen Knights and the Sentinel Brotherhood weren’t in charge of crime and punishment in the Consilium Veneficus. The governments of the Consilium and the Council could not be more different—not that Oklin agreed with everything, but he wasn’t in the mood to get caught up in a political rage. Too often he got himself stirred up as he thought of the Arch Wizard and his band of powerful advisors. It was bad enough he had to deal with Jael Giles in his face; that man was as much trouble as his father had been. When the former Arch Wizard Egidius Giles had died, Oklin had hoped things in the Consilium would improve.
Secretly he’d even held out hope that they would find a way to reconcile with the Council. It was not to be—Arch Wizard Severin Dewitt hadn’t made a single change, and he was almost never seen in public. Oklin didn’t understand why Fate wouldn’t pick men better suited to lead the wizards, but he would not deny her and stray from the Consilium.
“No, because I trusted you to make him disappear,” Wesley griped into his ear, drawing him back into the present. “There wouldn’t need to be any investigation for a person who simply walked away from his life.”
Oklin snorted in disbelief. “Walked away from hismate?”
“Don’t you start on me with mates. Your Consilium doesn’t even believe in them anymore.”
“While there may be voices within the Consilium who consider matebonds and other Fate decisions immaterial, I am not one of them. A man is not going to walk away from his other half.”
“Youtrickedme.”
“Well now, whose fault is that?”
“Yours!”
“I find the idea of harming your emperor repugnant.”
“You’re unbelievable! You didn’t seem to have any problem with it when we first spoke,” Wesley hissed.
“Of course not. I needed dragon blood and money. I did mention I was starving,” Oklin reminded him, though it was an exaggeration. He’d lived a long time and made plenty along the way, but he could always use more.
“You’ve put my ass on the line for nothing.”
“They’ll never discover the one drop of the potion you put in his cup and trace it back to you. Calling me to complain is a waste of time.”
“You’re sure it all evaporated?”
“Of course. I am not an amateur,” Oklin replied indignantly. This dragon was pissing him off with each new statement he shouted into the phone.
“Oh, really? Then why didn’t he disappear the way I wanted him to?”
“I really don’t wish to cover the same ground over and over. Is there something else you wished to discuss? I have things to do.”
“You could tell me the truth, for starters. How long is he going to be in dragon form?”
Oklin considered his options. He didn’t have to be truthful but at this point, the damage was already done. Wesley wasn’t going to consent to give him more blood with this attitude, so he had no issue burning this bridge. “A single drop would force him into dragon form for a few weeks, perhaps.”
There was silence for several minutes, and Oklin pulled the phone from his ear to be sure Wesley hadn’t hung up. “Hello? Are you still there?” he snarled into the device.
“What if I used more than a single drop?”
“I gave you specific instructions to only use one, so let’s not delve into hypotheticals.”
“Your stupid potion wasn’t doing anything, so I got frustrated. I used several drops.”
Oklin’s eyes widened almost painfully. “You didwhat?”
“I just explained to you that he got more than a single drop.”
“Damn you, I said a single one. No more than that. What in the hell were you thinking?”
