Huh. Right. I’d been so preoccupied with getting the summit up and running that I’d forgotten about what would happen once it actually started: figuring out our future and where my faction fit in the bigger picture. I’d invited the world’s largest delegation of supernatural creatures into my space and getting them all together was probably going to be the easiest part of this whole thing.
Step one, keep everyone safe. Step two, get them working together to figure out what our shared future would look like.
And for both of these things, sleep would probably go a long way.
Melanie: You may have a point.
Ethan: I know how you feel. There are times when the hardest thing in the world is sitting still. But you've done so much already, and the best thing you can do is take care of yourself. Get some sleep, as much as you can.
Melanie: Alright, you've talked me into it. Unless something goes south before I reach my bed, it's time to get some sleep.
Ethan: Sounds good, gorgeous. Call me later?
Melanie: It's a date.
Of course, there were a hundred more interesting ways I'd have loved to spend time with Ethan. A phone call at the end of the night would never feel like enough. But hopefully, soon, it wouldn't have to be.
I found Tilly exactly where I'd left her and told her where to find me if she needed anything. I got the same dismissive nod I'd gotten earlier.
That was all the confirmation I needed. If I was still in the way, then I might as well get some sleep.
Chapter 20
I slept for four hours. I woke up, ate, got up to speed, and promptly slept for another six, channeling myself as a teenager with aggressive intensity.
By the time my eyes popped open, I still felt a little rough around the edges, but nearly completely recharged.
A quick glance at my phone showed that nothing had imploded while I slept. Either that, or things had imploded so thoroughly that no one had seen any point in filling me in.
I'd made it to the day of the summit in one piece, which felt like a small victory on its own. It was still early morning, and our guests wouldn't be arriving until the sun began to set. Which left me tempted to just roll over and go back to sleep. It felt as though I'd never be fully rested again, and who knew when I'd next get a chance to sleep.
Alas, I could only convince myself to take so much time for self-care. The others had had things well under hand when I'd last seen them, but every extra pair of hands working toward our common goal would increase our chance of success. And I had a perfectly functional pair of hands and a pressing need to get stuff done.
And it turned out that there were plenty of tasks to keep my hands busy. Nothing that needed immediate attention, nothing dire, but all necessary.
I'd woken up with hours to spare before people were set to arrive, and somehow, we still only managed to cross the finish line as dusk began to settle in.
Strong arms wrapped around me from behind as I stood by a front window of the house, watching the sun set. While I'd been grabbed from behind before, this time around there was no part of me that felt anything but safe.
Ethan.
"You made it," I said, exhaling as my body settled backward into his, feeling his warmth surround me. I let myself enjoy the embrace for the span of a few heartbeats before turning around in Ethan's arms so I could see him, make sure he was okay.
"No problems getting in," Ethan assured me. "Everything's quiet in town. No sign of anyone who doesn't belong, at least that we could tell."
I had no idea if that was a good sign or not, since I heavily suspected that if Aoife hadn't made any other moves in town, it was because she was biding her time to act on something else entirely. Probably here. And probably soon.
But I didn't need to put those particular concerns onto Ethan, so I smiled and leaned in as he planted a kiss on my forehead.
When we finally pulled apart, I realized we hadn't actually been alone in the room. Taya stood near the doorway, her eyebrows raised in a playful accusation. Yeah, we'd have a lot to catch up on. Someday. If we ever found the time.
"Do you need something?" I asked, teasing right back.
"The rabbit hole is officially open for business. People will be coming through in waves for the next hour or so. Did you want to hang out somewhere more quiet until it's officially go time?"
I considered my options and then shook my head. "No. We're encouraging everyone else to mingle, so I should do the same." Back during the first version of the summit, there had been a slow, almost formal filling of the cathedral while everyone filed in. Some people had spoken, but the mood had been noticeably tense. We were hoping to do a little better than that this time around.
It was going to take everyone a bit of time to get here, so at Taya's suggestion, we'd worked something of a cocktail hour into the schedule. The food and drink selections weren't exactly first class, but our goal had been to get people moving and talking, hopefully even stepping outside of their usual comfort zones in order to speak with new people. If it worked, it would help set the right tone for the rest of the summit, one of building new bridges with honest and open conversations.
A few of the people who had come to Castle Elgan to get away from the factions had optioned to spend the next few nights elsewhere, either going home or hiding away in the most remote places they could think to ask Simon to bring them.
A surprisingly large amount of people had opted to stay, including a few who had only made it to us in the last twenty-four hours.
Our faction's representation at the summit was still smaller than I would have liked, but as I followed Taya out of the sitting room into the large foyer where we were encouraging people to mingle, I was met by a rainbow of magick.
So far, one group of witches and one group of fae had joined our existing party, along with the wolves Ethan had come with. I could make each group out in separate corners of the room, their magickal auras staying close together. But between them was a spectrum of undefined magick, representing a world of possibility. Greens, grays, a splash of orange, a cluster of violet. It was beautiful, and the sight left me feeling cautiously optimistic.
"Join me for a drink?" I asked Taya and Ethan. I had no intention of drinking alcohol before such an important occasion, but the idea of having a glass of punch with the people who had helped us felt like it would work wonders to calm my nerves.
They both quickly agreed. And while I was tempted to head straight for Nina and Leda, I turned in the other direction instead, making my way toward one of the tables we'd put out for the event, and the fae who surrounded it. I didn't see a single familiar face in the group, which is exactly why they were the people I most needed to say hi to.
It took a little longer than planned to get everyone to the castle, something we’d probably have to address if the summit went on for more than a night or two. Every minute spent getting people through the door was a minute where hundreds of people who could have been working were instead twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the go ahead. It was too far to make people drive back and forth, but we could probably find some rooms nearby if anyone preferred to stay close to the castle.
Worst case, we had extra room for people to stay in whatever bedrooms were leftover bedrooms, but I preferred to leave somewhere for those of us playing host to wind down and get some rest without worrying about who else might still be creeping through the halls.
Once we were good to go, we started out by separating groups out at random, drawing from the name list for each faction to make sure we were dealing with diverse groups whenever possible. Then each group was assigned their own room, which we’d made into not-quite-fully-functional conference rooms, using whatever eclectic mix of furniture we’d been able to get our hands on.
The moderators would be acting as go-betweens, moving between groups as conversations ebbed and flowed. In making our plans, Tilly had included me as part of their group. I’d been expecting a few comments or even some resistance, bu
t all I got were a handful of variations of pissed off expressions, usually aimed at me from well across the room.
Power and influence were turning out to be far different beasts than I’d imagined. Most of what I’d had come as a result of my birth and my abilities, not anything I’d done. But I was growing to know the supernatural community well enough to understand that if my actions hadn’t been of the same caliber as my gifts, I’d have been happily ignored. Or quickly killed.
The strangest moment for me came almost right away, shortly after I’d finally managed to nudge the conversation into a useful area in the first room I’d visited. Slipping out of the first room without explanation, I started down the second floor hallway, on the lookout for another conversation where I might be able to add some value.
I entered the first one I found where it still didn’t sound like much of anything at all was being discussed. Which is how I missed that over half the people in the room had American accents.
“How’s it going in here?” I asked, sitting down in the last remaining empty seat. The room was a bedroom, but the bed had been disassembled. Most of the frame had been chucked into the cellar with a dozen others, but the mattress still leaned up against the far wall.
“I’m not sure I see the point of this,” came a reply from a woman seated in the corner. I recognized the magick around her as witch magick, and her accent as Southern.
In the chair closest to me, a werewolf stood and stalked toward the window. “It’s not as though we’ll get a say in any final decisions.” He wore a nicely pressed suit and looked as polished as any British gentleman. But his accent screamed Boston.
There were six others in the room—two nodded in agreement while the rest mostly looked uncomfortable. There was no one I recognized, let alone anyone who belonged to our new faction.
I knew from Tilly’s lists that a total of twelve people across four factions had been invited over from North America, eight more from Africa, and ten from Asia. It was very possible that more than a few had been assigned to the same first room, but none of that mattered.
My heart pounded against my ribs as I put all of my energy into looking as confident as I was supposed to feel. The door to the hallway was still wide open, but every nerve in my body was screaming at me, feeling trapped and cornered. I focused some of my own magick on trying to maintain my natural scent, knowing how many people would be able to easily sense my fear otherwise.
This was the closest I had ever been to magickal Americans. Not one of them had moved against me or even made a comment about our history—one that none of them had anything to do with. And still, all I felt was fear.
Fear over what had happened to my birth mother and her family.
Fear about the wars that the American factions had been happy to wage only a little more than two decades ago.
Fear that reverberated deep into my bones.
The rest of the room was still looking at me, confusion starting to merge with the frustration already on their faces. “How do you mean?” I asked, mostly to buy myself a little more time.
“We were invited as a show of strength,” the witch said, biting her lip. She looked even younger than I was, leaving me to wonder what she had done to make the short list of all the witches on her entire continent. “The factions here wanted us to know that they’d be making the final decision, that our fates were out of our hands. I’m just not sure what we’re supposed to be doing here.”
“That’s not just you, love,” a Spanish-sounding vampire with long blonde hair added. “I am not certain what it is we’re expected to accomplish here.”
Danger signs flashed behind my eyes as I was forced to imagine all the ways the summit we’d organized could have failed before we’d even really begun. Had we really done that poor of a job of explaining what we were trying to make happen? Or had one less-than-enthusiastic group just run themselves into the ground without giving things a fair shake?
Well, as much as I wanted to head out to any other room, or any other country, this was exactly the kind of situation I was here to help deal with.
“This isn’t so different from how things were supposed to work at the first attempt at the summit,” I pointed out. “Except now, rather than everyone in one room, one person speaking while hundreds watched, we’ve tried to carve out some space for actual conversations. And in terms of having your voices heard, if things go well, you have more space than ever to have your voice heard. If you have any idea you think could be viable, bring it up to the group.” I was focusing on the Spanish gentleman, still avoiding looking at any of the Americans for too long. “Convince people to see things your way.”
“You make that sound so simple,” a new voice added to the conversation, this one potentially Canadian. “Like all we have to do is speak up, and everything else will sort itself out.”
“Of course it’s not simple. Few things worth having are. But any person here in this house right now holds the power to change the course of our future. We’re looking for ways to broach the transition to public knowledge of magick, which is something that affects every single one of us equally. So if you’ve got something to say or you don’t like how things are being handled, sitting in silence isn’t going to get you very far.”
Leaning on the doorframe now, I waited to see if my message had made any kind of impact.
Nobody spoke.
And then everyone started talking at once, voice stacking on top of one another in a symphony of chaos.
I stayed long enough to try to get a sense of the what people seemed to be most passionate about, or any triggers that tended to set off tempers, making a mental note to take back to the other moderators later.
In twenty minutes or so, we would break for an hour, letting everyone stretch their legs before being assigned to a whole new group.
From there, our way forward basically consisted of lather, rinse, repeat. We wanted to get people talking, sharing ideas, and then evolving those same ideas into newer, stronger ideas.
The hope was that after a few days, some ideas would rise to the top, while the less popular or logistically unsound would fade away.
There was always the fear that the most popular ideas would be the ones we’d been hoping to avoid. But that had always been a risk. At least now, we could see what was happening in real time, even affect the narrative and help make the big decisions.
The next room I passed was already completely full, the vampire’s moderator standing near the window as conversation flowed around him.
We were almost at the point where it would probably have been easier to just head downstairs and wait things out. Except the next voice I heard was one that I could no longer imagine doing without.
“We have to consider every possibility,” Ethan said, speaking slowly. “Including that maybe we’re headed in the wrong direction with the very idea of the summit. Why is it that we even feel like we need to make these big, sweeping changes that can never be undone?”
Excuse me?
My eyes had narrowed nearly to slits by the time I made it to the door. Nobody looked up at me as I stepped inside and took the nearest chair. Every person in the room was fixated on the very same person I was. Except they were all nodding along with what he was saying.
I took a steadying breath and readied myself for a whole different kind of battle.
Chapter 21
By the time I’d sat down, someone else had started responding to Ethan, their voice clipped and angry. It was a brown-skinned woman who looked to be in her late twenties, but based on the wolf magick around her, she could have been on this Earth for five times that long already. “Precisely. Our pack has kept our secrets, taken care of anyone who would do us harm, kept any evidence of the supernatural away from the authorities. I don’t see the problem.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Ethan caught my eye at exactly the right moment. He offered a subtle shake, warning me away. My mouth snapped shut, but I wasn’t convinced I could
keep it that way for long. This was one of the many possibilities I’d been worried about, people having already made up their minds, or having come to the summit in hopes of advocating for not changing a damn thing.
“That’s nice for you,” an older, Asian witch responded from across the room, not trying to hide the sarcasm dripping from her voice. “But we spend at least a few days a month covering the tracks of the vampires and fae in Glasgow who couldn’t care less about hiding themselves from the humans. It’s been this way for generations, so I doubt they even notice what they’re doing anymore. Not only are we no longer interested in cleaning up their messes, but it’s only a matter of time before we miss something. Which honestly, wouldn’t be the first time. It’s only a matter of time for us.”
“It’s only a matter of time for all of us,” another witch spoke out. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are already a few government agencies who know a lot more than we want to acknowledge. And there are conspiracy theorists gathering new evidence all the time. It’s only ever going to take one straw to break this camel’s back. And it won’t matter who’s been good and who’s been sloppy. Once scientists know what to look for, it won't take them long to figure out how to find us.”
A few other people agreed or added worse case scenarios to the mix, but my eyes were still on Ethan. He nodded along, looking interested but not convinced.
I was replaying every conversation Ethan and I had ever had, wondering if I'd missed something. He looked back toward the first woman like it was the two of them against the world, sending every possible alarm bell off in my head.
“Can you see any benefit to all this?” he asked, like this whole situation was nothing more than an inconvenience.
By that point, I probably couldn’t have spoken if I’d wanted to, my jaw was clamped so firmly shut. But I waited, reminding myself that trusting people was a good thing. I had absolutely no reason to think Ethan and I weren’t firmly on the same page when it came to our vision for the future. No evidence other than what I was seeing in front of my own eyes.
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