Page 19 of Until the End of Ever
The list had fewer than a hundred names—not many, when there were millions of inhabitants in the city. Most of those names belonged to the founding families, or the noble lines dating back to the beginning of Highvale. The rest of their families stood as their guardians, ensuring the council that they had the means and will to control them.
Those without patrons had to undergo severe checks, restrictions, psychological and physical testing. They were wards of the state, constantly observed.
We could blame Cassius Regis for the rules. He flipped and decided to murder all new bloods overnight—and managed to kill over seven hundred before he was stopped. The draconian restrictions made sense.
But I didn’t want to be on that list, constantly watched, judged, imprisoned for the slightest infraction.
Hiding the extent of my power helped. Given that I was considered dangerous because of the level the council believed I was at, if they knew the extent of my power, I would likely be locked up, or even killed. So, I drained myself almost daily, any way I could, using magic for the slightest reason. My access to Lucian’s draining pool the last few days had been a blessing.
Even though they only knew about a fraction of my abilities, the only other reason the council left me alone was because my mother, the esteemed White Witch, daughter of the Pendros line, signed off on my documents every month. She was my guardian, and she’d made no secret of what would happen if I couldn’t fall in line.
She didn’t have many rules. Live at home, attend those stupid dates, never blow up or show the extent of my powers in public. It would be stupid of me to rock that boat.
“If someone takes a picture of you tonight and it gets back to Zenya, she’ll give you tons of shit. Let me lend you a top, at least.”
Sadly, Silver and I weren’t built the same. The only thing we had in common was our bra cups.
The dress she’d lent me Saturday reached her knees, while it was a mini dress on me. Fabric spells weren’t my specialty, and I’d never risk ruining her fancy clothing with shoddy magic. Perfectly normal tops for her would be cropped up to my navel.
In the end, she found a sleeveless black denim summer dress, which became a nice tunic on me. Paired with my shawl, I looked perfectly fine.
“You’re still wearing that?” she said, spotting the glint of the stone around my throat.
My hand rested on the cool diamonds. “It’s spelled to see if I’ve been cursed. Everyone should have something like it, really.”
Except the magic coating its stone was unique, crafted by Lucian. I should try to talk him into make it available in his stores—but his pricing was so prohibitive it wasn’t going to help the general population.
Silver grinned. “Nothing to do with a certain hot dark sorcerer who gave it to you?”
“Hot?” I repeated. “Since when do you think he’s hot?”
“Since I’ve been blessed with working eyeballs.” Silver shrugged. “I figured he was, you know, evil. Never said he wasn’t hot.”
“And now?” I asked.
“You trust him, that much is clear. And, well, you’re the smartest person I know. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. And kill him if you’re wrong.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I bumped her shoulder. “If I’m wrong, I’ll kill him myself.”
7
LUCIAN
Icouldn’t say I was particularly familiar with this part of town. The temple of Apollo was nowhere near any place I might have needed to visit. I liked it though. It was quiet, mostly surrounded by residential areas. I watched building after building fly by at the back of the spacious taxi Ronan commissioned on our behalf.
“Where are we dropping you off?” Ronan asked my ex-colleague, not sparing him a glance.
“The Hall of Truce, if you please,” Gideon replied, overly formal for him.
These two didn’t know what to do with each other yet. I had no intention of being around when they worked it out.
“That’s where we’re off to as well,” I said.
We needed to take the enchanted elevator down to the underside.
“Perfect.” Gideon smiled at me. “I can’t believe you got a cab so fast at this time.”
Ronan and I exchanged a knowing look.
