Compounding Traumas (Artemis University Book 6), стр. 59
He suggested a smarter move if the council wanted to waste their time on me. Personally, he thought my new car smell would wear off as fast as my inheritance would run out, but he thought if we could focus my ire on other councils, it would make those groups look bad and keep focus on their corruption, where it should be.
So he was a masterful deflector and really, really lucky there wasn’t a falcon shifter in the room, as he was full of shit.
But it had fucked Professor Richardson. The man sighed heavily.
“I told them as little as I could while seeming to tell them much, but only what I was certain on, and willing to stake my reputation on. I did make that clear, and that I wouldn’t speak on speculations or rumors, only to be held to them later and punished when brought in for such an unorthodox and disconcerting off-the-record meeting.”
“That was smart,” Collins praised. “They flinched and realized how we were old enough to know it was severely over the line instead of being young pups they could brush off as something causal.”
Richardson nodded as if saying that had been the goal. “I told them I had not a doubt Vale wasn’t a vampire. I outlined how leery she was of them and used Blake Ward, as Collins had, but to throw her under the bus, as her grandfather wasn’t part of this meeting. He would never be party to something so corrupt.”
I swallowed a snort. I had once thought so as well, but now I wouldn’t put anything past any of the council members.
“I blamed my lack of knowledge on how the elite vampires have harassed and bullied Vale. I also confirm that I didn’t think you knew your full heritage, but I had heard whispers from Edelman that you did have at least one fairy grandparent for sure, possibly more. They asked my professional assessment, and so it wasn’t a lie when I said I thought you had fairy blood recently on both sides, but were a witch.”
“Yes, you were more careful than I,” Collins grumbled. “You never outright lied, whereas I might have.”
“I don’t think they had anything checking us,” Richardson admitted after a few moments. “I think they were too confident we wouldn’t dare or—”
“Or would have reason to,” I muttered. “Why would they ever suspect either of you would ever side with me over them? In their eyes, that would be insanity.”
“It is in my eyes most days,” Collins said at a level he probably thought I wouldn’t hear.
I let it go. I knew how big of trouble they both could be in if they got caught hiding this from their councils. Collins didn’t have any faith I would help him after what he’d done, but I would. I wouldn’t let anyone go down for keeping my secrets, even if they’d been required to keep them.
I was a better person than that.
“I said your magic was powerful, and because of the erratic nature of it since you were an unknown, you could skip steps. I’d only seen that from witches that I could think of, and that’s true, because I can’t think of the fairies who had done that. I also alluded to White’s interest in you being an indicator you’re a witch.”
“Why push that?” White asked, giving him a hard glance.
“Because the only councils who can truly go against the vampire council are yours, or the wolves,” Richardson answered. “The dragon royals can, which I also said I thought that was why they protected Vale, as they wanted her help and worried what your council would do if they could confirm she was a witch. Basically, I laid the groundwork for the next rumor that the dragons were going to fight your council.”
“As the vampire council would have to be stupid to try and step in between that,” White muttered, sitting back in her chair and staring at him. “However, that makes it smart to push the rumor the vampire council is doing the same, so maybe my council takes pause for the moment.”
“Right, so then the wolves might abscond off with me,” I drawled.
“Actually, the wolves are currently big fans of yours,” she corrected, smiling when I couldn’t hide my shock. “You saved not only Alpha Geoff’s two nephews, but a councilman’s cousin, and those artifacts they kept out of the Underground’s hands were a big deal.”
“I’m going to fucking peel the skin off the fuckers who did that to those wolves after they lost their prize, just to be vindictive and evil,” I seethed. “I could almost see fighting to keep powerful stuff out of the corrupt councils hands, and shit happens, and people died, but killing after is just—that’s just murder and pain they knew they would die from.”
“Be that as it may, you are still in the good graces of the wolves right now, and that could help, as the shifters all know you’re not theirs, but they’re leery to confirm it to each other. Basically, everyone is saying you’re not theirs, but no one is believing each other.”
“I know. I’m enjoying it,” I chuckled. We all were. It was like sitting back and watching the idiots stumble around drunk and blindfolded, falling into shit of their own making as all the corruption and distrust sowed over the years made none of them believe anyone else.
It really helped me.
“How do you want to handle this then?” White asked after a few minutes of all of us lost in our thoughts.
“I assume my vote of sending the fae dogs to burn the council estate to the ground and handle all the bad ones will still be vetoed?”
“Yes, very