Page 21 of Tyson (Ariel Kimber 4.50)

"No," I grunted, regretting the fact I hadn't at least picked the deck up and looked through them. I hadn't really looked at anything in here, only seeing it as a bunch of crap nobody needed.

"These are handmade, crafted with care and they are absolutely priceless," Quinton said in a hushed voice. "Ty... these... the Council would want these for themselves. Like our ink drawings, they would want them if they knew about them. I know you put yours up in your room and that Ariel has hers up in her room because you put them up, but if the Council were ever to see them they would try and confiscate them from us. There aren't many families left out there with these types of things left over from our history, and the ones who have come out with theirs, they have been taken away from them. I've allowed you to put yours up and to put up ours in Ariel's room because there is no way, nofuckingway, Ty, where I would ever allow anyone to take these things from our family. I know you're thinking right now that I allowed it because I would never be able to imagine a time in your lives where the Council would frequent your bedrooms but that is not it. I swear to you, it is not. After what they allowed Annabell to do to so many covens, including ours, they hold no real stock with me because they are broken, corrupt and I will not follow laws and rules that the corrupt try to enforce. I no longer consider them to be our governing force and will not abide by anything they try to force on me or our coven."

My breath caught in my throat as my body locked into place.

Was he...

He couldn't be...

Was he trying to rebel against the Council, to denounce them? Dethrone them, even?

I shook my head. This couldn't be happening, this was too dangerous to be happening, especially since we had Ariel to protect and keep safe from them now.

Why in the hell would he openly start dissing the Council now? What was going on with him and why didn't I already know about it? I mean, yeah, we knew he was pissed about how this whole thing with Ariel was being handled but this... this was an outright verbal declaration of war. That's how serious the Council would take his words.

He could not mean what I thought he meant, he absolutely could not.

We had Ariel to think about now. Now was not the time to start a rebellion against the Council, the rebellion his words were stating him to be pronouncing.

I wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him.

It was safe to speak such treasonous things with me, we were family and I would never fuck him over or sell him out. No torture would ever surpass my love for my family.

But...

This was serious and he shouldn't be speaking of it so openly. What if the Council had been here, or knew this was her place? What if they had known where she'd been the entire time she'd been here and had the place bugged?

I needed to hire a security team to sweep through for bugs or anything else that shouldn't be here.

"Uncle Quint," I whispered as I waived my hand around the space and pushed my pointer finger to my lips, hoping he would get the message.

If the Council had known about this place and the old blind lady who'd run it then I wasn't so sure I wanted to own it. I'd rather have it mowed down and turned into a parking lot than run a space they monitored.

Uncle Quint needed to shut the fuck up until we knew for certain there weren't any outsiders in our domain.

Eyes just slightly darker than mine narrowed on me before he nodded his head once in understanding.

“Hmm…” He muttered noncommittedly and I knew he understood my silent command.

He pulled out his phone and immediately began tapping at the screen. My phone beeped moments later with a text message.

Uncle Quint: I will contact the security company who installed the system at our house and get them out here to check the place over. You’re paying for it, though.

I smirked at him. No way was he going to make me pay for it, he was just giving me a hard time because that’s what he liked to do.

I didn’t mind him taking over and deciding what to do with the place. It was a big help on his behalf when he didn’t need to help me at all.

“Show me the rest of the building,” he demanded.

“I haven’t actually seen the rest of the building,” I admitted sheepishly.

Quinton sighed heavily and rubbed his hand over his eyes. “Don’t you think you should have seen all of it before you bought the whole damn thing, Ty? Not smart at all. What if the rest of it is dumpier than the outside? Then you’re fucked. What were you thinking?”

I rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment.

“I was thinking about Ariel,” I told him honestly. “And how I think she’d love it here and she’s always wanted to get her cards read and hasn’t ever had it done. She will get a real kick out of this place. And she really needs something to do with her time, I thought this was perfect for her. I know she’s going to start training with… us soon but she’s still got a lot of time on her hands and I worry she’s going to get more depressed unless we find something to occupy her time with. We are never going to be comfortable with her getting a new job and working it so that she’s away from us and on her own for long periods of time throughout the day. She could work here, we all could, and she can train with Ra… with her magic, and learn how to read the cards so that she could even do readings for others eventually. It’s perfect.”

Shit.

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